![]() ![]() and yet still live among species of the same order that have not evolved the same traits (other primates such as monkeys, chimps, and gorillas). Regardless, I like to look at it this way: Humans have evolved to walk upright, speak (woof), operate complicated machinery, etc. Kind of obvious right? But if Goofy and Pluto are both dogs, then why does Goofy get to walk, talk, wear clothes, ski, golf, drive, and hunt tigers while Pluto crawls around on all fours like a…what’s the word I’m looking for…dog?ĭisney’s FAQ answers that too: "Goofy was created as a human character, as opposed to Pluto, who was a pet, so he walked upright and had a speaking voice.” “Goofy is a dog!" Well, okay, that’s fine. So how does Disney themselves answer the question? So much so that there’s not only an entry regarding the topic on Goofy’s Wikipedia page but Disney felt the need to address the issue on the FAQ section of their website. Pluto, meanwhile, is meant to be an actual dog.So I first heard this question posed years ago by a young Wil Wheaton in the 1986 film Stand by Me and since then it’s been brought up in numerous TV shows and websites. So, Goofy is a "dog" mostly in name only - his species of anthropomorphic animals (like Mickey and Donald) are actually more like humans who resemble their animal counterparts. His brow is heavy and breaks the circle that outlines his skull. His ears for the most part are just trailing appendages and are not used in the same way as Pluto’s ears except for rare expressions. His eyes should remain partly closed to help give him a stupid, sloppy appearance, as though he were constantly straining to remain awake, but of course they can open wide for expressions or accents. The Goof’s head can be thought of in terms of a caricature of a person with a pointed dome-large, dreamy eyes, buck teeth and weak chin, a large mouth, a thick lower lip, a fat tongue and a bulbous nose that grows larger on its way out and turns up. The use of the eyes, mouth and ears are entirely different. It is true that there is a vague similarity in the construction of the Goof’s head and Pluto’s. This is borne out by Art Babbitt's 1934 character analysis of Goofy (available in full here: ): Rather than thinking of him as a dog, then, it might be more correct to think of him as a human who looks like a dog. Goofy was created as a human character, as opposed to Pluto, who was a pet, so he walked upright and had a speaking voice (first supplied by Colvig, and later by George Johnson, Bob Jackman, and Bill Farmer). According to the Disney Archives character description of Goofy (available in archive form here: ): ![]() Pluto, meanwhile, is meant to actually be a dog. Goofy, it seems, was always created to be a human type character, albeit as an anthropomorphic dog. So Goofy and Pluto are not members of the same species, and neither of them is a member of the real-life species known as either Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris. The fact that Mickey Mouse sometimes says Pluto is a dog merely means that in the fictional universe of Mickey Mouse stories (see Mickey Mouse Universe and Donald Duck Universe), the word used for Pluto's species is the same word we used for dogs in the real world - or maybe it is a different word in a different language translated into English as "dog". Pluto is a lot more like a real-life dog than Goofy is, but it would be an error to confuse Pluto with a dog. Pluto is a comic book and cartoon character belonging to a fictional species of quadruped animals that resemble dogs and don't talk but can behave a lot more or less like a human when the plot of a story or a joke requires it. Such comic book and cartoon dog-like characters are called anthropomorphic dogs. Goofy is a comic book and cartoon character belonging to an imaginary species of humanoid intelligent beings who look like dogs in many respects. Instead, they are cartoon and comic book characters. Neither Goofy nor Pluto are real-life dogs - members of the species named either Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris, depending on whether dogs are considered to be a separate species from wolves. ![]()
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