I'm looking for any media in any way visual that only has non-human characters.

[Concrete]

Be it a comic or a cartoon or even live action, I'm looking for visual medias where none of the characters is human, optimally not even humanoid. Sapience is fine, but not necessary. It doesn't have to be good, or even watchable, but if there is something you would recommend, I'm all ears.
These are literally the only criteria I have for this question.
/With preemptive gratitude, Concrete.

[Xefas]

The Lion King was the first thing I thought of.

Does the setting itself have to not have humans in it at all? Or does a work qualify if humans technically exist within it, but no human is developed as a character? For example, that 90s movie, Antz, with the horrible uncanny valley cg faces, has a human in one of its scenes - but they're a brief force of nature so far divorced from the scope of the story as to be indistinguishable from, say, a rock slide or a thunderstorm.

(But seriously, google image that movie if you've never seen it. Those faces really creep me out.)

[Concrete]

The Lion King was the first thing I thought of.
Huh, I wonder why I didn't even consider that.


Does the setting itself have to not have humans in it at all? Or does a work qualify if humans technically exist within it, but no human is developed as a character?

Preferably, no humans at all. Humans having existed is acceptable, as long as they are not around anymore.


(But seriously, google image that movie if you've never seen it. Those faces really creep me out.)
Well that's terrifying.

[Serpentine]

The Animals of Farthing Wood
The Land Before Time
Um... Antz and A Bug's Life, that one about the bear, the one about the robots.

You don't want books, right? I know a few books.

edit: Oh, there are humans in Animals of Farthing Wood, they're just not characters, and humans exist in Antz and A Bug's Life, but only as landscape, really. Same with Rango.

[Cheesegear]

The Animals of Farthing Wood. Has about 40 episodes. I loved it when I was kid. Be aware that unlike other cartoons made in the '90s, characters do get killed and/or die.
(EDIT: I'm pretty sure that there's a hunter in Season 3)

[Starwulf]

Cars, Cars 2, and planes. Monster Inc by and large(with the exception of the kids that are being scared, but they are pretty much irrelevant except the little girl, who is still just a minor role to spur the plot forward). It's prequel Monster University as well. And the actual sequel as well? Finding Nemo(though it's got cameo appearances by humans as well like Monster Inc).

Strange Magic is another. Flushed away is much like Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo as well, humans have a small cameo but are entirely irrelevant to the plot.

Homeward bound has humans, but the plot revolves around the animals for 90% of the movie, with just a few scenes where the humans are panicking that their animals are lost in the wilderness and them contacting people to try to find them.

Rock-a-Doodle-Do? I think that's the name of it. And..Barnyard? With the anthromorphic upright walking cows.

[Serpentine]

The Animals of Farthing Wood. Has about 40 episodes. I loved it when I was kid. Be aware that unlike other cartoons made in the '90s, characters do get killed and/or die.
Sometimes horrifically! :smallbiggrin:
There's a book of short stories that's really similar. I can never remember what it's called... Dammit, my dad reminded me just recently.

Watership Down (again, has some reference to the existence of humans)

[Ninja_Prawn]

Be it a comic or a cartoon or even live action, I'm looking for visual medias where none of the characters is human, optimally not even humanoid. Sapience is fine, but not necessary. It doesn't have to be good, or even watchable, but if there is something you would recommend, I'm all ears.
These are literally the only criteria I have for this question.


Is there some kind of unspoken agreement about not mentioning My Little Pony outside of its designated thread? Because it meets the criteria set out above...

I remember The Animals of Farthing Wood! So depressing!

[Cheesegear]

There's a book of short stories that's really similar. I can never remember what it's called... Dammit, my dad reminded me just recently.

Redwall?
(It's not even remotely the same, but characters do get killed and die. But by the 6th-7th book it gets real repetitive)


EDIT: OH! Dur. *headdesk*... Zootopia. But they may be too anthropomorphic for the OP.
Uhh...My Little Pony?
Various incarnations of Thomas the Tank Engine, where the Fat Controller isn't in it.

[Eldan]

The Wind in the Willows? At least I don't remember any humans in it.

[Serpentine]

Redwall?
(It's not even remotely the same, but characters do get killed and die. But by the 6th-7th book it gets real repetitive)No, not at all. They're not sword-wielding fantasy animals, just animals. Like, in one story there's a hedgehog that sees a beautiful silver line off in the distance and goes on an epic journey to find it.
It's a road. With a bright light coming closer...

And then there's the one with the toad that I can't remember much of except
the big gross toad gets skinned alive... but freaking survives and comes back out of nowhere at the end to **** the baddies' **** right up.

If we were talking about books as well, I'd mention Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song and this series of books all about dragons.

[comicshorse]

I've heard the 'Mouse Guard' comics are good

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_Guard

[Frozen_Feet]

Wind in the Willows, with its many adaptions.

Saarnimetsän tarinoita (unable to find if an English version exists), an illustrated children's book about two badgers and a mole.

Disney's Robin Hood.

Cartoon versions of the Three Musketeers, Around the world in 80 days, Journey to the centre of Earth and Around the world in a Submarine. (All characters portrayed as antropomorphic animals.)

Plenty of Aesop's fables with just talking animals in them have been illustrated, adapted into comics, animated or made into plays.

Inspictor Canardo.

[Metahuman1]

Is there some kind of unspoken agreement about not mentioning My Little Pony outside of its designated thread? Because it meets the criteria set out above...



I think around the time the Gen 4 series got big for the first time, a ban was placed on such, yes. On grounds lot's of people were complaining about it derailing other threads. Why they didn't complain when other shows that got big later did the EXACT same thing is a question to which I do not have an answer.

[Professor Gnoll]

Pingu. An incredibly in-depth, cerebral experience that explores the non-human perspective in a truly thought-provoking way.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Pingu. An incredibly in-depth, cerebral experience that explores the non-human perspective in a truly thought-provoking way.

NOOT-NOOT

Headcanon: Pingu is a villain protagonist.

[Professor Gnoll]

NOOT-NOOT

Headcanon: Pingu is a villain protagonist.
Pingu is inarguably Chaotic Evil.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

There's the 1988 The Bear (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bear_%281988_film%29). Contains some humans but makes up for it by featuring two perfectly ordinary non-talking bears as protagonists.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Bambi among the non-human Disney films. Also, no Animal Farm (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047834/?ref_=tt_rec_tti)?

The Land Before Time and Watership Down are two recomendations I'll second - TLBT is about dinosaurs and is just about paleontologically accurate enough to not contain any humans. Watership Down features rabbits in a modern day setting in the English countryside, but humans and human activities are more poorly-understood forces of nature than anything else to the rabbits. It's a brilliant novel, but there's also a 1978 animated film which is quite good but shows it's age. Also features surprisingly graphic violence for a film about bunnies.



The Wind in the Willows? At least I don't remember any humans in it.

They come up in a few places. IIRC, Ratty and Mole walk through a human village at night at some point. But given the animals drive cars and wear waistcoats and whatnot, they might count as "too humanoid".

[Rakaydos]

http://shivae.com/
How about a bambi typr story starring a young winged velociraptor
http://shivae.com/gnip/vas/vas-2/

[Serpentine]

Oh! The Guardians of Something, the one about the owls.

Blinky Bill?

[hamishspence]

It's a brilliant novel, but there's also a 1978 animated film which is quite good but shows it's age. Also features surprisingly graphic violence for a film about bunnies.

And exceptionally graphic violence for a film sometimes released with a U certificate.

[Cheesegear]

Oh! The Guardians of Something, the one about the owls.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole.
Which then reminds me of Valiant.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Does anyone remember Tale Spin? I used to love that when I was little.

For something more modern, I don't think Rastamouse has any human characters in it, but I've never actually watched it.

[Professor Gnoll]

Does anyone remember Tale Spin? I used to love that when I was little.

For something more modern, I don't think Rastamouse has any human characters in it, but I've never actually watched it.
No humans. Only mice who know how to make a bad thing good.

[Kitten Champion]

While some of its characters are humanoid, Reboot's characters are all various forms of computer data. Also takes the interesting step of making humans unseen god-like entities who toy with the world and the lives of its inhabitants for our own inscrutable purposes.

[Kyberwulf]

Milo and oTIS

[JoshL]

One of my all time favorites: The Dark Crystal! (though humanoids there, no humans)

Lots of great stuff mentioned, and I'll vouch for Mouse Guard being in fact very good!

[Lethologica]

Lackadaisy Cats.

[Mx.Silver]

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (Secret of Nimh being the animated film adaptation) should probably be mentioned. Humans do exist, but not really as characters.


Robots lacks humans (although the characters are humanoid), and I think the Ice Age films stopped featuring humans after the first one. The Beast Wars/Machines incarnation of the Transformers franchise were also human-free iirc.
In a similar vein to The Land Before Time there's the (justifiably) forgotten Disney CGI film Dinosaur. Speaking of justifiably forgotten films, Once Upon A Forest probably also qualifies.


Arthur is pretty obvious, although very humanoid. Similarly humanoid, but on the opposite end of the obviousness scale is Fantomcat (if you've heard of that, congratulations on being over 25 and British :smalltongue: ). On about the same level of obscurity, but with emphatically not humanoid characters, Noah's Island.


The Wind in the Willows? At least I don't remember any humans in it.
There are quite a lot of humans in The Wind in the Willows (basically everyone involved in send Toad to prison is human, for instance). They're only side-characters but they're definitely there.

[Aotrs Commander]

While some of its characters are humanoid, Reboot's characters are all various forms of computer data. Also takes the interesting step of making humans unseen god-like entities who toy with the world and the lives of its inhabitants for our own inscrutable purposes.

Also has the advantage of been fracking awesome.


Shadow Raiders: War Planets (by the same crowd) is similar, and also has the advantage of having basically the largest starfighter dogfight scenes I've ever seen. (It is frankly a travesty that Shadow Raiders had, far from being beaten, not even been equally in the past twenty years on that front.)




TLBT is about dinosaurs and is just about paleontologically accurate enough to not contain any humans.

*eyeglow twitch*

*eyeglow twitch*

Even by that dismal metric, the use of "paleontologically accurate" and "land before time" in the same sentence makes me reach for the nearest rocket launcher.

As a child who at age four, was correcting the massive errors in the school educational vidoes on dinosaurs (which is a frankly SHOCKING level of incompetance in education), you can imagine that even as a child, my reaction to Land Before Time was deep revulsion.



Large parts of the Marvel UK Transformers comic were sans humans, and focussed on the actual Transformers.



As a runner-up, the greatest literary work ever created, Spacecraft 2000-2100AD, has humans in it only a technical sense, as it is mostly about the starships and there are MAYBE three humans even named in passing in it. Though it doesn't really have "characters" as such (except in the barest sense of "Thing the Story is About"). I, however, perhaps obviosuly considering the accolade in the previous sentence, think that it is the gold standard of showing you DON'T need characters in the typical sense to actually tell a story. And I wish more works of fiction would follow suite.

[Rakaydos]

http://shivae.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/2002-10-17.jpg

[Reddish Mage]

Animals are the first thing that comes to everyone's mind but don't forget there's works about elves, and aliens, and other sentience. The problem is the "no human rule" rules out quite a lot as there are plenty of works where humans appear as minor characters (Lord of the Rings or The Hobbot for one, unless you count Aragorn whose rather special, or Gandalf who actually isn't human...) or as "the enemy" (Animal Farm) or "these strange people we don't care about" (Watership Down).

I recall Asimov wrote one novel where all the characters were some sort of alien that wasn't identified (he said you could picture them as human though....makes no differences). His last novel perhaps: Nightfall

I would say the best classic work is the 19th century novel Flatland, about two-dimensional beings living in the world of tabletop and one in particular having a conversation with "Lord Sphere" about this mysterious incomprehensible "third dimension"

Of course...if we go really old. A LOT of ancient mythology is just about gods fighting among themselves or creating the world. No humans at all enter the picture in Greek origin of the gods, or Norse or probably most others. They actually are fairly late to the party usually the last thing created...

[KillingAScarab]

There was a videogame released for the Nintendo Wii titled Deadly Creatures (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1enFuQnF6E). There are humans in the game and they shape a background story, but you play as a tarantula and a scorpion which are largely just roaming the southwestern United States and fight against wildlife and one or two pets. You do not interact much with the humans, though they can sometimes create/destroy obstacles and one of them will be a boss fight. I liked the level design in the game largely because of the unique perspective for platforming this afforded.


Disney's Robin Hood.

Cartoon versions of the Three Musketeers, Around the world in 80 days, Journey to the centre of Earth and Around the world in a Submarine. (All characters portrayed as antropomorphic animals.)

Does anyone remember Tale Spin? I used to love that when I was little.If these are on the table, then so are Duck Tales and Darkwing Duck.

[mallorean_thug]

There is a fantastic short film called Cat Soup that's exactly what you're looking for.

[Kitten Champion]

There's a manga series called Centaur's Worries or Centaur no Nayami where the world is exclusively populated by various mythical creatures - Centaurs, Imps, Angels, Mermaids, Fauns, Lizard-People, etc. - and written as if they'd evolved naturally and formed modern societies around themselves. Does a lot of interesting conceptual world-building with how the various races' function as a heterogeneous society with all their various physical differences and perspectives.

They're still pretty human in the way they think, interact, and look - for the most part - there's a lot of interesting subtle differences the writer brings to them though.