Balto's pretty popular with furries.

I love the Balto movies~!

Whatever, fox and the hound was where it was at. My obsession with that movie was probably the first hint of furriness in me.

I love you.

That movie was so good! I liked 'em both. Sonic the Hedgehog and Star Fox were more my furry inspiration. I was a big video game fan.

Disney's Robin Hood was one of my favorite movies when I was little. I never really notice they were anthros till some folks brought it up a while back.

Flint's right. I think there are a lot more furries out there than identify as such. The image just turns them off.

I don't think anyone's putting them down.

He means the negative stereotype, Diss.

I think this is the first time I have ever seen Diss get flustered.

On a note, I like Balto, but like Seth said, The Fox and the Hound is where its at. Its such a sad move ;_;

Yeah, I know a lot of people who disliked The Fox and the Hound because it broke Disney's usual mold of "Happy Ever After" endings, but that's actually one of the best things about it, in my opinion.

There's just something about those bittersweet endings that always gets me. I actually wanna go watch it now. XD

The Fox and the Hound was fairly accurate about how animals, pets and nature tend to work. That gave it a really organic feel.

I think furries would've existed. There's plenty of other good anthropomorphic works out there. But that doesn't mean there wouldn't be a lot fewer furries without them.

Agreed. While Disney was certainly a pioneer in anthropomorphic animation work, I daresay someone would've come along and done it eventually. Whether or not Disney was the catalyst for the popularity of anthropomorphism of animals in our current society is debatable, but they've certainly played their part in making the subject more widespread than it would have been otherwise.

And now they passed the torch to Pixar (albeit involuntarily).

sure it was involuntarily? Disney does own Pixar, you know. Technically, they recruited the people who took the torch from them to run for their team.

Disney owns Pixar's shares in the stock market, but before that happened, the higher-ups in Pixar made absolutely sure that the company itself was to remain an entirely separate entity from Disney. They're still based in the same spot in California where they've always been with a big 'PIXAR' sign out front.

The two companies have been at odds for quite a few years now.

Ifrom what I see on wikipedia, it sems like they more bought the people working at Pixar, leaving the company in their control. the Pixar president became president of Disney Animation Studios, while John Lasseter became Chief Creative Officer.

basically, I guess they said "could you guys run some of our stuff too?" and Pixar obliged.

so they didn't so much recruit the new torch bearers as they said "hey, you can hold the torch for us too."
my metaphor's fallen apart.

Also from the Pixar Wikipedia:



Some of the guys from Pixar have taken spots in the Disney corporation, but they are still very much separated companies.

that's what I meant. The people who run Pixar now work for Disney, but Pixar is still their company that runs independently.

Oh... mah bad. ^^;

As do I.
I liked Balto but The Fox and the Hound was always my more favourite movie as a kid. Still makes me cry when Tod has to leave...

About the current discussion topic, I agree Disney has an influence on kids becoming furries but yeah, they'd probably become furries without Disney. What I find annoying is that Disney is the only real outlet for mainstream anthro media, and it's intended more for children. I wouldn't mind if there were some more anthro TV shows intended more for older teens and adults (although I don't mean like that, leading to...).

As to my furryism: ehhhhhh...
I consider myself an anthropomorphic enthusiast, I like anthro comics because they usually look generally better than non-anthro ones, if they were in book form it probably wouldn't matter if they were human or anthro. Also anthro comics with "adult content" aren't really my cup of tea, I prefer things like Housepets! or Slightly Damned where there are teen/adult issues without resorting directly to sex. Also I don't wish to become an anthro animal...yet. Seriously, with how much anthro I read I'm starting to wonder if I should be choosing my species soon. Ideas?

*In best Darth Vader voice* Join the vulpine side, it is your destiny, we have much to offer you, such as a fluffy tail, cute pointy ears the ability to play pranks as you wish...and also cookies!

Anyway back to being at least a little serious.

Fox and the Hound is counted among my favorite movies as well but, for multiple reasons, I simply can't list it as my all-time. Loin King holds that spot, even though I associate much more with the vulpine creed. On the current topic at hand, while I'll admit Disney has had an impact in regards to the furry fandom it is also true that there are many, many more sources helping to drive it as well. From Warner Bros. to some Japanese anime to a large number of video games starring characters of the creed, there are simply so many possible exposure points that I just can't see the fandom being too much if any smaller without Disney.

HEY!..

Where are my cookies?!



Well, I for one have always loved animals, so the thought of talking animals has always been a good one to me, but my love of animals isn't just because of my family having pets. Disney was the only thing I'd seen with animals that seemed even remotely human till I was about twelve, and by then, I'd already had the thought of animals that could talk crammed in my head from movies like 101 Dalmatians, The Lion King, and my personal favorite movie of all time, of any genre, by any company, The Fox and the Hound.

Based on my own experience with it, I'd say we'd probably lack a few hundred, maybe a couple thousand, furries, if not for Disney.

*Hands plate of cookies* Just be careful you don't eat any of the explosive ones.



I can't really say you're wrong in that view, but I can't really say you're right either. Maybe it's a bit different for me because of the generation gap, but my first primary exposures to anthropomorphic characters came from Saturday morning cartoons and video games when I was kid. In way of the cartoons it was Thundercats and SatAM Sonic among others and in video games Sonic played another big role, there were others there as well, but I don't feel like bringing them up.

As I've said previously, Disney probably did play a role in for me as well, but I think I would have still reached the same point either way and perhaps this fact has served to slant my view on the matter in some way. At the same time as that, I am also one who finds that with the prevalence of Disney the way it currently is, that it's odd that there are not more out there that count themselves as furries.

Really, with a debate like this one we could easily end up sitting in one place chasing our proverbial tails until the end of time without reaching a solid conclusion beyond this - Regardless of the specifics of the changes, if Disney had not been around or had they chosen a different path then the one they have, the furry fandom would be greatly different for it.

Disney did something that's always been done, but did it extremely well. I think without Disney the size of the fandom would only be about halved.

Ferret, we can be total mustelidae bros man.

And (critically), Disney did the whole anthropomorphic thing in the socially-acceptable context of children's films-- a WAY bigger market segment than the outright furries. It was non-threatening, so exposure was comparatively huge. Watching lots of movies like this probably led a lot of people, yours truly included, to be interested in antopomorphic characters... we just never grew out of it like we were "supposed to."

So then, why is it socially acceptable for kids to watch furry cartoons and movies-- and for parents/older siblings to watch them with the younger kids-- but in any other circumstances it's seen as odd? I mean, if this stuff was societally verboten across the board, that would at least be consistent. As things stand there's this odd relationship: furry movies, etc. are normal/fine/okay for anyone up to say age thirteen. After that there's a "drop it and move on to other things; if you don't you're weird" attitude.

I guess the million-dollar question is, "Why the disparity?" It may not even be possible to answer.

...but it's darned fun to try. :P

Anybody?

Stay frosty.
GR