Anthropomorphism is the phenomenon when animals or non-living things are depicted with human tendencies such as human-like behaviour, intelligence and appearances, e.g. clothing. The term “anthropomorphism” is derived from Greek and combines two words “anthropos” that translates as “human”, and “morphe”, the “form” (Akshaya & Chellerian, 2021).
It is a popular feature in art, literature and media to apply anthropomorphism to things and animals. This concept is applied by storytellers mainly to tell an allegorical story to human audiences with the aim of making the story resonate immediately with these audiences. Two techniques of applying anthropomorphism may be distinguished: In the first one, animals are perceived and act completely like humans regardless of their appearance. In the second one, animals are perceived and behave like animals with the only human attribute of using human language to communicate. In both instances, language is a vital component to reach a full understanding of the audience.
In the 19th century, anthropomorphism became a frequently used device in literature, especially in children’s literature, and stirred the popularity and acceptance of fairy tales among large audiences. A further boost to anthropomorphism resulted from animation, with human appearances, such as facial expressions and body movements similar to human characters, making it easier for humans to relate to and understand novel characters (Akshaya & Chellerian, 2021). It is therefore not a coincidence that Disney used fairy tales as a blueprint for some of his animations and thus combined the 19th century’s use of anthropomorphic techniques with the new possibilities of the big screen (Krause, 2023).