Favorite Disney Animal Sidekick

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and fluffed it out to 31 entries (since December has 31 days).  I have done a 30-day challenge before for movies, though that one was poorly executed (I started it in the middle of a month, at one point I posted 2 entries on one day, it is a mess).  I did another one just this year in August on Video Games, that one was better, go read it after this one, all of it.  Or don’t, no pressure.

            Today is day 6 and the topic is “Favorite Animal Sidekick”.

            Back to talking about fun things that I enjoy.  I love dogs.  When raised by a loving home dogs are loyal, loving, and playful.  They do stupid things all the time but overall they are cuddly friends that we should be happy every day for.  My family has had several dogs that I have enjoyed playing with my whole life and since we do not currently have a pet it feels lame.

Sadly, my mom’s dog passed away earlier in 2016 just as my family was really getting to know him (she had adopted him from a friend and had known the dog for years, while the rest of us only got a month and a half), cause this year sucks!

This is just a random dog.
For the non-psychopaths in my readership this image made you marginally happier.

 I want to put that all up front because Disney makes animal sidekicks all the time and often main characters are the animals.  Just from the biggest hits of the 90’s you have a fish, seagull, crab, monkey, tiger, parrot, meerkat, warthog, cricket, humming bird, raccoon, dog, goat, and if you dip into the mythical there are also a pegasus and a dragon.

            Merchandising!  Merchandising!  Giving a character a pet or friend that often doesn’t talk, is cute, and is loyal is a pretty easy way to show the main character in a positive light.  Sure he’s a thief, but he has a monkey!  Yeah, he is a lazy coward but his buddies are the most laid back meerkat and hog ever!  She’s a liar, but Eddie Murphy likes her… I guess that is a good thing.

            There are so many animal sidekicks going all the way back to Cinderella’s mice that the idea of Disney handing out these sidekicks was parodied with… Eddie Murphy?  Weird.  When he played Donkey in “Shrek” over at Dreamworks.

            So I have plenty of non-dog things to choose from, but this guy made an impression immediately and I do not think anybody would give me trouble for picking him.

“My name is Dug, I have just met you, and I love you, my Master made me this collar, he is a good and smart Master and he made me this collar so that I may talk – SQUIRREL!! – My master is good and smart.” -Dug from the movie “Up”.

 

I am surprised I do not see Dug turning up in more places as far as products.

            And yes, it is a happy coincidence that this follows yesterday’s entry.  Ironically the best liked character on that show was the dog too.

            Dug is a good dog, and I love him.  That is all.

            Share your own thoughts on this in the comments.  I know I am not the only person out there who is nostalgic for Disney products, and I am sure many people disagree with my selection for today’s entry. 

I picked Disney stuff just because I knew there was so much of it to talk about and it lends itself to discussion in the comments.  So please, tell me how my opinion about cartoon movies is biased and how your opinion on cartoon movies is objectively right.

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