Books/Shows/Movies about Talking Animals

[surskitty]

What ones do you like or would you recommend?


I've read a bit of Warriors but the first book did not work as a standalone and apparently the authors have no clue about cat genetics, which is not a particularly good sign.

As far as standalone things go, I'm fond of Tailchaser's Song (which is much like Warriors except there's no rule of "this group of cats is evil and these aren't and look, destiny!!" and more "everyone is going to die horribly but it works out in the end anyway. Also, the villains are scary.") and liked Watership Down but haven't gotten around to rereading it.

 

[departuresong]

Obligatory Animal Farm mention.

 

[surskitty]

I don't really count Animal Farm.

 

[departuresong]

Of course you don't.

 

[Blastoise Fortooate]

AHOY WEBCOMICS AHEAD i wasn't sure if you wanted those too but hey it couldn't hurt to put these up here so

Digger is a serious webcomic with a talking wombat as the main character. And there are hyenas and a talking elephant statue as well, so...

Daisy Owl is more lighthearted though. Owl raises human kids with the help of his best friend, Steve the bear.

 

[Autumn]

and apparently the authors have no clue about cat genetics, which is not a particularly good sign.

while this is true (and I still have my problems with the authors for a number of other problems with the series) I feel obligated to mention it anyway, because for a bunch of childrens' books about talking cats they still manage to be a fun and enjoyable read, and especially in the later books they move out of childrens' book territory and get Darker And Edgier with various amounts of Nightmare Fuel (none of which particularly impacted me, but then again it's pretty easy for me to stand the stuff others think is Nightmare Fuel). The plotlines are great (some people say they jumped the shark after the first miniseries - of which there are four - but that's mostly Nostalgia Filter and the third and fourth happen to be my favorites), the characters are really well-developed and it's overall a great series. I'm not trying to force anyone to agree, but just stating my opinion. x3

(although, if you have your problems with the series being not rooted in fact, Seekers is a decent alternative; the fact that it's about bears could be a turn-off at first but it's a really fascinating book series that is terrific in its own right (and actually did all the research, considering the authors live in England where there are no bears from which they could draw ideas, like they did with the cats), despite being overshadowed by Warriors' overwhelming popularity.)

... I have nothing else to contribute.

 

[surskitty]

Digger is AWESOME. :D Though it's not quite what I was thinking of; I was thinking more ALL TALKING ANIMALS (usually cats) instead of things with talking animals in them.

 

[see ya]

Speaking of works with talking cats, Felidae. I've never read the book, but I've seen the movie. It's basically a murder mystery with cats, and it actually gets fairly complex, exploring things like animal testing and eugenics. It's quite awesome.

I will warn you: This is NOT a kid's movie by anyone's definition. It's EXTREMELY violent and gory, and can get very disturbing at times. It also contains tons of cursing and sexual references, as well as biologically accurate cat-sex, so if you're squicked out by any of that, be cautious. And since it was originally a German movie, the English dub isn't the best (it's passable, but definitely not great.)

Luckily, the whole thing can be found on Youtube. Here's a link.

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

Fire Bringer and The Sight are both excellent books by David Clement-Davies about talking animals. The first is about deer and the latter is about wolves; in both, the societies of these creatures are portrayed in an incredibly believable way for fantasy. The main characters have a lot of depth to them also; it is very easy to grow attached to them. I highly recommend both of them to anyone who likes animal fantasy. (And in case you were curious, The Sight has a sequel, Fell, but I haven't read it yet. I'm fairly confident it'll be good though.)

 

[Lili]

The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. It's about a group of owls that live in a tree in the center of an island called Ga'Hoole. It's a very gory book, and it's about to be adapted into a movie being released this September. The same author (Kathryn Lasky) created a series called Wolves Of The Beyond that takes place after the events in the Ga'Hoole series, but it about wolves. Reading the entire Ga'Hoole series before reading Wolves would be best to understand it.

 

[Butterfree]

How anthropomorphized are we talking here? There are animals-animals, living like animals on four legs and altogether being animals except for the talking bit, and there are external-appearance-only animals, which look like animals but act completely human and are animals only as an artistic choice. And there's everything in between. From the original post I figured you meant the first, but both Digger and Daisy Owl are anthropomorphized as far as I can see and you didn't object to them.

So... if you don't mind external-appearance-only animals, have you read Lackadaisy? It's kitties with guns smuggling alcohol in Prohibition-era St. Louis, and quite awesome, but like I said, they're pretty much artistic stand-ins for humans.

I am also completely geeky about Don Rosa's Disney duck comics, but again, they're only animals in the way they're drawn.

For the more animals-animals kind, when I was little I absolutely adored Animals of Farthing Wood, which was this series about a bunch of animals making a pact to get away from their home which was being destroyed by humans and making it to a safe haven in a wildlife park. I attribute a large part of my death-in-fiction thing to it, what with it killing off half of the characters in horrible, cruel ways (usually made to demonstrate that humans are bastards) before they ever got to the park.

 

[ultraviolet]

For the more animals-animals kind, when I was little I absolutely adored Animals of Farthing Wood, which was this series about a bunch of animals making a pact to get away from their home which was being destroyed by humans and making it to a safe haven in a wildlife park. I attribute a large part of my death-in-fiction thing to it, what with it killing off half of the characters in horrible, cruel ways (usually made to demonstrate that humans are bastards) before they ever got to the park.

I used to watch this all the time when I was a kid.

This place is pretty cool by way of talking animals. 10% is my favourite story.