Top 50 Animal Sidekicks

[Violentvixen]

39 (tie)
Votes: 2 Points: 44 Highest vote: 6 (@Beta Metroid )
Toothless

How to Train Your Dragon has become quite the franchise, and credit for a lot of that goes to how personable Toothless is. In a village constantly at risk of dragon attacks, the protagonist Hiccup manages to injure/trap a Night Fury dragon, then proceeds to regret that and make him a prosthetic to replace the damage to his tail.

I've only seen the first movie but the relationship between these two characters it great. Toothless has personality and sass and helps Hiccup (and his people) immensely on his journey of personal growth.

Also hooray for engineering!

 

[Violentvixen]

Oops! I misread a line and missed a tie, so here's the other winner for rank 39.

39 (tie)
Votes: 2 Points: 44 Highest vote: 10 (@Lumber Baron )
Salem the Cat

Salem the cat is one of the few animals who came up by name in the nomination thread, I said I'd vote for him and I did! I've always liked this character although as with so many comic characters he's had a lot of forms and backstory variation since he first appeared in the 60s. He has been a black cat, an orange cat, a black and white cat and human. He can be a demon cat form who talks and does his own spells or can't do spells without Sabrina, or just a cat who can't talk or use magic, or he's a warlock who has been cursed in cat form. Regardless, Salem is Sabrina's constant companion, sometimes being the sarcastic comic relief, sometimes something darker. Honestly he's a pretty good indicator for the tone of the Sabrina story/comic/show.

Also Lumber Baron specified that Salem always triggers memory of this Venture Bros scene, so please enjoy:

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Toothless is a good dragon (note, anyone can steal it if they want but I've definitely been considering a list of "top 50 mounts" and Toothless would definitely make my list.)

 

[Violentvixen]

Toothless is a good dragon (note, anyone can steal it if they want but I've definitely been considering a list of "top 50 mounts" and Toothless would definitely make my list.)

Oh yeah, that would be a fun one.

 

[Beta Metroid]

Absolutely insane decision by the Netflix Chilling Adventures of Sabrina series to include a character named Salem and give him no dialogue.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Also Lumber Baron specified that Salem always triggers memory of this Venture Bros scene, so please enjoy:

It's pretty great. Also, this is the kind of shit I would do if I were a man of leisure.

 

[Olli]

Absolutely insane decision by the Netflix Chilling Adventures of Sabrina series to include a character named Salem and give him no dialogue.

The dialogue is there, it's just not in human.

 

[Kirin]

It's pretty great. Also, this is the kind of shit I would do if I were a man of leisure.

Johnny, my man, you're running multiple recap threads *and* started this whole Top50 thing; this is the kind of shit you do now.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Johnny, my man, you're running multiple recap threads *and* started this whole Top50 thing; this is the kind of shit you do now.

But I also have to work. What if I didn't. Think about it.

 

[Kirin]

Point taken!

 

[Violentvixen]

And heading into another weekend where I'm out of town so there will be an update pause, but with a four-way tie! There are a lot of ties in this list, gotta say.

35 (tie)
Votes: 2 Points: 45 Highest vote: 8 (@Falselogic )
Abu- Aladdin

Abu the monkey is Aladdin's sidekick and has a pretty big personality. He's helpful and friendly but also pretty selfish and gets jealous of Aladdin entering into a relationship. Also he can't help but steal things which is what really kicks off the events of the film. To fit in better with Aladdin he's turned into an elephant for a chunk of the film. He continues to be a part of all the sequel movies and the TV series but his basic personality doesn't change much.

Also I liked the point @jpfriction made:

I mean, mostly only when he was an elephant. Heh, he can't open the banana

35 (tie)
Votes: 2 Points: 45 Highest vote: 4 (@Torzelbaum
Nall - Lunar

Nall is a somewhat odd looking cat who can talk and is quite sarcastic and is the sidekick of Alex in Lunar: Silver Star Story. Nall isn't a playable character in the game but revives party members and has a lot of fun dialogue. He insists he isn't a cat and has wings but doesn't seem to have a much better idea of what he might be instead. Also he very much likes fish!

Later in the game and in Lunar: Eternal Blue Nall's role and form changes significantly but in submissions and from my reading that seems like a pretty big spoiler so I'll leave it there!

35 (tie)
Votes: 2 Points: 45 Highest vote: 9 (@Violentvixen )
Scuttle- the little Mermaid

Scuttle is a seagull who claims to understand all sorts of human objects but is absolutely just bullshitting and it's great. He was one of my favourite Disney characters as a kid, I even had a stuffed animal of him! He is sincerely trying to help Ariel identify objects but is absolutely wrong. The classic one is a fork being called a "dinglehopper" and insisting it's a hairbrush.

In this year's live action version (which I haven't seen) Scuttle is changed to be a gannet and female. Being a diving bird makes involvement in underwater scenes possible and Scuttle has a few new songs and scenes, but it sounds like overall she's a similar character.

35 (tie)
Votes: 2 Points: 45 Highest vote: 7 (@Purple )
Swift Wind - She-ra

Swift wind is the unicorn/pegasus/alicorn of She-ra/Adora. In the newer Netflix series he is a horse permanently changed into the flying form, but in the 80s series he would switch back to normal form when Adora did. Swift Wind and She-Ra have a strong bond, telepathically in the 80s series and through speech in the Netflix one. I haven't seen the newer series but certainly seems like Swift Wind is a bit more involved and wackier in the new series, and more battle-hardened in the old one.

Also @Purple 's comment made me laugh.

Here's just this talking horse who's kind of a useless jerk, but we're still making him a senator, or something.

On another note, I totally remember this toy, I think my cousin had one?

 

[Falselogic]

The screech of Nall's voice still echoes in my mind...

 

[Violentvixen]

Very tired from my trip, should pick back up tomorrow.

 

[Kirin]

Get some rest!

 

[Violentvixen]

Another three way tie! I promise you the entire list is not ties! I am glad to see so much animal variety throughout this list, it's a lot of fun.

32 (tie)
Votes: 2 Points: 46 Highest vote: 9 (@WildcatJF )
Archimedes (The Sword in the Stone)

Sword in the Stone tells the story of the young boy Wart's journey to become King Arthur. Along the way Wart has quite the variety of tasks and adventures and is turned into animals because... uh... it was fun to animate? It really is a fun movie. Archimedes is a grump and is always pointing out Merlin and Wart's flaws. But when things go wrong Archimedes swoops in to help in ways that range from literally swooping in to helping Wart learn to read and write.

A scene I remember very well from when I was a kid is below, where Wart is turned into a bird and Archimedes helps him learn to fly and evade a hawk (with questionable success on the second one).

32 (tie)
Votes: 2 Points: 46 Highest vote: 4 (@WildcatJF )
Yakul (Princess Mononoke)

​

Yakul is the mount of Ashitaka, the banished protagonist of Princess Mononoke who is trying to cure a curse. Yakul doesn't speak and generally behaves like your standard horse (although quite well-trained) but has a lot of personality and the bond between these two is beautiful and sincere.

I also want to point out that there is an almost identical Yakul in the graphic novel Shuna's Journey, one of Miyazaki's earlier graphic novels. The story has some similarities and I've heard some people call it a prototype Princess Mononoke, but it is quite different. I recommend reading it if you haven't!

32 (tie)
Votes: 2 Points: 46 Highest vote: 10 (@jpfriction )
Zero (Nightmare before Christmas)

Zero is the spooky and cute ghost dog of Jack in Nightmare Before Christmas. Similar to your classic "person wearing a sheet", Zero is made of ghostly fabric with a bright pumpkin nose. Despite being a Halloween-based creature Zero takes on the role of Rudolph for Jack's team when he tries to be Santa.

From a technical side, Zero looks quite different from all the purely stop-motion characters, an effect which I really love. This was done by essentially having Zero staged in a different area than the other characters, but then reflecting him into the camera using a combination of a beam splitter and some special filters.

On another note good grief is it impossible to search for things related to this movie at this time of year, there is so much merch, it overwhelmed any results about the actual movie.

 

[Falselogic]

So mad at myself for forgetting Archimedes!

 

[Exposition Owl]

I love Archimedes so much. He’s the first owl who made an impression on me as a kid.

 

[Patrick]

Those are all good dogs.

 

[Kirin]

So many good boys who weren't on my list (though I did have Zero in my notes).

 

[Falselogic]

So mad at myself for forgetting Archimedes!

I'm now mad at myself for being so forgetful. I DID have Archimedes on my list!

 

[Violentvixen]

31
Votes: 2 Points: 48 Highest vote: 4 (@jpfriction
Tippy-Toe (Squirrel Girl)​

The constant companion of the Marvel character Squirrel Girl, Tippy-Toe is technically just a regular squirrel, but her connection with Squirrel Girl and the usual variety of comic interpretations make her communication with and understanding of humans something beyond a standard squirrel, it's pretty great!

The vast majority of Tippy-Toe's adventures are with Squirrel Girl but she has had a few independent adventures and shows bravery, resourcefulness and loyalty.

From @Torzelbaum

A girl squirrel who accompanies Squirrel Girl on her adventures. Knows how to rock a cute bow.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Squirrel Girl is always on my "I need to read this" list. I've never had a bad Ryan North experience.

This is also not to be confused with Squirrel Girl's first squirrel sidekick, the inexplicably named Monkey Joe, who died in the line of duty (in Dan Slott's Great Lakes Avengers mini-series with parodied grim dark marketing with the promise of a member death each issue).

 

[Olli]

Oh man I forgot about Tippy-Toe! She's a great choice.

 

[Violentvixen]

29 (tie)
Votes: 3 Points: 51 Highest vote: 12 (@Lumber Baron )
Duck Hunt Dog

Our first character to get three votes, and two of the three voters were mad at this sidekick!

@Kirin

[Actually the Worst animal sidekick]

@Lumber Baron

Ugh, that asshole

Okay, so when you played the NES Duck Hunt your dog would run into the weeds to flush the ducks out for you. However, a lot of people got real annoyed since the dog would laugh at your poor performance.

In 2014 the dog and a duck premiered as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. While I guess technically not a sidekick in this iteration it's pretty cute and much more useful!

29 (tie)
Votes: 2 Points: 51 Highest vote: 2 (@Beta Metroid )
Rambi the Rhino

Rambi is the first animal buddy to appear in Donkey Kong Country and is a ton of fun. Free him from the box and then you can stomp, trample and thrust through all sorts of things, uncover rooms and just rampage through a level with a ton of enemies that might otherwise require a ton of precision. Rambi continued to appear in subsequent games and hasn't changed much, although he gets an odd callout in the Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle game as a weapon skin that's "officially licensed merchandise" in the game.

In Donkey Kong Country 2, the Rambi Rumble level is especially satisfying because crashing through all of these stupid wasps feels great:

 

[Issun]

I love the Duck Hunt Dog for how iconic he is, but yeah, he's a dick.

 

[Kirin]

Our first character to get three votes, and two of the three voters were mad at this sidekick!

Hah, so I have a personal tradition of putting something completely goofy or that doesn't quite fit my list in at my rank 25. Usually it's something that has no chance of making the Top50, but this time it did!

although he gets an odd callout in the Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle game as a weapon skin that's "officially licensed merchandise" in the game.

Today I learned from that page the Mario+Rabids includes a Porco Rosso reference, dang. As well as like half a dozen Tron references. Some quality nerds working on that franchise apparently.

 

[Violentvixen]

Hah, so I have a personal tradition of putting something completely goofy or that doesn't quite fit my list in at my rank 25. Usually it's something that has no chance of making the Top50, but this time it did!

I had a feeling that was the case, but hey, it's a very iconic character so I'm glad he made it in.

 

[Violentvixen]

28
Votes: 3 Points: 52 Highest vote: 11 (@Violentvixen )
Cringer/Battlecat

Cringer has no interest at all in being turned into Battlecat but oh well too bad! Cringer is the pet of Prince Adam, but like Adam can be transformed into He-Man. However, Cringer really doesn't want this increased power and would much prefer to laze about and continue being scared of everything. They make a pretty goofy pair.

While researching this I found this very fun history of the Battlecat toy. I thought I had one of these growing up but honestly none of these look quite right so maybe I had a knockoff or something.

I haven't seen the 2002 remake, but from researching this it sounds like Cringer doesn't talk anymore? Seems like the tone of the cartoon is pretty different so I guess that makes sense but kind of a bummer.

 

[Violentvixen]

27
Votes: 2 Points: 54 Highest vote: 5 (@Lumber Baron )
Kochin

I loved the game Oreshika and had a LOT of posts about it on the old board. Throughout the game your companion is Kochin, a weasel who bounces around the map beind your character and assists (well, assists with a VERY low success rate) your characters in battle. Back at your base she does... uh... everything? Seriously instead of managing your inventory to go out on your next dungeon adventure you can just mark "leave it to Kochin" and she'll pack everything for you.

She also has the more somber role of helping to guide your characters at the end of their life, and I really love her shrine maiden outfit and dance during the weddings/births.

Full disclosure: I love her but I have to admit she was very much a fun throwaway vote for me and I did not expect Lumber to put her so high. Since a lot of the game is spent in her more human form it's a little questionable if she qualifies as an animal sidekick. But you know what? She shielded my character from a LOT of fatal blows in weasel form and her fur colour changes with the seasons are adorable so that works for me.

 

[Violentvixen]

26
Votes: 2 Points: 56 Highest vote: 6 (@Issun
Tock (The Phantom Tollbooth)

I was honestly shocked someone else voted for Tock! The Phantom Tollbooth was one of my favourite books growing up, and the stern but loyal Watchdog Tock is a big part of that. He joins the story by helping Milo escape The Doldrums and for the rest of the story continues to be the character keeping everyone on task. Also he ticks and is named Tock while his brother Tocks and is named Tick.

"I never knew words could be so confusing," Milo said to Tock as he bent down to scratch the dog's ear.
"Only when you use a lot to say a little," answered Tock.
Milo thought this was quite the wisest thing he'd heard all day.

Also I found a Chuck Jones movie while looking around, I don't know if I've ever seen this? Looks odd and I'm curious if anyone here is familiar with it.