Sorry, gang, gotta weigh in on this one.
Pluto and Goofy are both cartoon dogs. The idea of them being different species of cartoon dogs doesn't hold water for a few reasons.
- Pluto does not have digitigrade legs.
Here's a real dog with real digitigrade legs.
We should all know how that works. The weight rests on the 'toes', the bones which parallel our ankle joints are positioned higher and act as locomotive joints as opposed to weight-bearing joints, and the knee/hip are similar to ours.
Okay, so here's Pluto:
Pluto puts his weight on his ankle, and his knee is the main locomotive joint. He's plantigrade. I'm actually finding it impossible to grab examples of him walking in a such way that doesn't suggest that he and Goofy have extremely similar anatomical structures, (minus Goofy doesn't have a tail and Pluto has less digits* - but those can be chalked up to individual variation.)
*Sometimes Pluto summons a thumb out of nowhere in order to complete a gag so who knows.
Walking comfortably as a quadruped is not evidence of him being a different species; some humans can do that. He can otherwise emote as well as Goofy, shows as complex an emotional range as Goofy, is as much a character as Goofy is. Rarely we get Pluto's internal monologue, and it is complex and very human. The only reason he is considered less anthropomorphic is because he acts less anthropomorphic. And doesn't wear clothes; lots of cartoon animals don't wear clothes, though.
But, I mean, Goofy can talk. Pluto can't talk. Right?
- Pluto Can Talk
Pluto only speaks in barks and some maybe human-sounding interjections (huh, yeah, woah), but his earliest incarnations delivered some dialogue. He could, once upon a time, speak some english and communicate with Mickey. His lines were brief, and his character's ability to talk was phased out pretty early.
It may be worth noting that 75% of his spoken dialogue was racist enough that The Walt Disney Company went back and redubbed those few lines with barking. So, I mean. That might explain why they don't let him talk anymore.
I think I started replying to all this with a different point, but now I guess my point is that the Goofy/Pluto situation raises so many questions that after taking the time to read more about Pluto and draft this reply, I am more convinced that Goofy and Pluto are the same kind of cartoon dog, and I have even more questions about what the hell is going on here.
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