Earliest anthro/furry-related memories

[Furcade]

I was just flicking through the title sequences to nineties cartoons I vaguely remember on YouTube, and realised (remembered?) that my favourite cartoons when I was younger all contained anthro characters. Sure, that might be co-incidence, seeing as cartoons and anthropomorphism are best buddies and all, but I seem to recall it was specifically because the characters were anthro that I took a liking to them.

That train of thought got me interested in how far back anthropomorphic interests go for me (I think that's just about the start). So, what (and when) are the earliest memories (and connections) that you guys have to do with anthropomorphic characters and concepts?

PS: I apologise if this is a thread well-trodden. I checked back a few pages and ran a search so this should be sort of unique, at least.

 

[Tigercougar]

I used to watch the animated version of 101 Dalmatians several times a day as a young child. My very first characters (not personal sonas) were based off them.

 

[Dreaming]

THIS
[video=youtube;eCp-Duiu6EU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCp-Duiu6EU[/video]

I seem to remember my first two anthro characters being a giraffe and zebra when I was like, 4 or something, mid/late nineties sort of shit. Just two ordinary, antro characters

 

[Fallowfox]

When I was small I would get up when it was still dark to watch cartoons because there was a fox character I liked.

However I should note all kids get up early to watch cartoons.

 

[Tigercougar]

When I was small I would get up when it was still dark to watch cartoons because there was a fox character

Farthing Wood?

 

[Fallowfox]

Farthing Wood?

No. The characters were much more human shaped. I wish I remembered what it was.

 

[Fox_720B]

Well, if we're talking absolute earliest, I grew up in the 80s so there was TMNT and the original Disney Channel, Fox and the Hound and Beauty and the Beast, there was tons of anthropomorphic, huge pop culture things going on at the time and I'm sure that planted a seed somewhere.

But it didn't really take off for me until 2002, when after Lilo and Stitch came out people began creating a plethora of fan characters based on the "experiments". I joined in, had a lot of fun, and over time developed more characters. I was always especially fond of foxes though, and I think part of that had to do with being a HUGE fan of disney's Robin Hood when I was in the single digits of age.

So, I basically blame the 80s and disney for my anthropomorphic interests. In 2004 I considered a career as a costumed character at disney world. Sometimes I wish I'd taken that job.

 

[benignBiotic]

I feel like Swat Kats or Gargoyles were the first shows where I began to develop a taste for anthros. Gargoyles aren't really anthros, but you get the idea. After those shows I began looking out for 'animal people' as I probably referred to them. Animaniacs, Courage, TMNT, So many greats.

Then there's The Lion King which was must have had a huge impact on me.

 

[Fox_720B]

Ah Swat Kats I used to love that show.

 

[Nataku]

Like I imagine many of us did, I spent quite a bit of time watching cartoons with anthro characters when I was younger, as well as reading lots of Disney books which were all full of anthros as well (Donald, Mickey, etc). But I think I'd already come to have a preference for the anthros by that age, because I preferred watching those cartoons and shows over other ones that were human casts. Darkwing Duck, Rescue Rangers, Paw Paws, Duck Tales, Biker Mice From Mars, Pound Puppies, The Catillac Cats and who can forget Thundercats?
But shows like He-man, GI Joe, Smurfs... eh, not so much.

Also, I grew up in a house down a dirt road on some acreage that had no one else around, let alone any other kids my age. So it was me and the dogs who played outside, and then sat inside and watched TV together (or they just layed there and happened to make good pillows, same difference at that age). So my main socialization was with animals (there was a veritable petting zoo at that house with the cockatiels, cockatoos, sugar gliders, pythons, mice to feed said pythons, guinea pigs, fish tanks, rabbits etc. and there was a gopher tortoise in the back yard that I fed black berries to).
I also drew animals from a very young age. Art and furries, who knew. :V I've found ooooold art of mine from when I was maybe four of an eagle, another of a jaguar, and quite a few dog drawings throughout the younger years. But no humans. There were also several old anthro drawings that I figure I had to have drawn around the age of seven or so. So I was drawing anthro before I was drawing humans. I think the first human I didn't draw until I was thirteen or fourteen. It was an anime character (probably DBZ?) I thought it looked horrid, and promptly went back to drawing animals and anthros.

 

[WolfHiro]

I love swat cats ^_^ and Thundercats too

Its so cool to see other people were furries so long ago Its nice to see that im not the only one, and cool to see that some people were furry even earlier than I was! I didnt start drawing myself as a furry until I was in middleschool. At the time, I was surrounded by foxes, and cats... so I thought that I myself was a fox, then I grew up kinda like the ugly duckling and realized that I wasnt a fox at all haha

but yeah... so middle school for me ^_^

 

[RadioactiveRedFox]

I always used to watch the Looney Toons, Gargoyles, Alley Cat think that is what that one was called, and a shit ton of other anthro laden cartoons. Its pretty easy to see why I've always been drawn to anthros.

 

[Avlenna]

Disney cartoons/movies from an early age, namely Lion King, Fox and the Hound, Beauty and the Beast, etc. I also watched a lot of Scooby Doo, Looney Toons, Tom and Jerry, etc. growing up. I always used to pretend to be an animal when I would play too. What really did it for me was watching anime (namely InuYasha, Wolf's Rain) and how they would anthropomorphize the characters in various ways. I would (and still do) draw my own "anime characters" without truly realizing that I was drawing furries. Thus, I am now here.

 

[benignBiotic]

Damn. Now that I think about it Gargoyles was probably the most formative show in my eventual furryism. I loved the Gargoyles themselves and there were plenty of other nonhumans.

 

[RadioactiveRedFox]

Damn. Now that I think about it Gargoyles was probably the most formative show in my eventual furryism. I loved the Gargoyles themselves and there were plenty of other nonhumans.

Ya, the Gargoyles them selves are pretty much why I watched that one too. Of course that can be said about all the cartoons I watched, if there weren't anthros I wasn't really interested and that is still true in a lot of cases today.

 

[Retro]

I used to watch MGM and Hanna-Barbera cartoons when I was a little kid. Most of them had anthro animals as main characters.

 

[Tiives]

When I was 4, my aunt gave me a rabbit plush. It was quite a big plush - bigger than I was at the time. I hope that she gives me another one of those, so I can yiff it. :V
And when I was about 5, I used to pull all-nighters (I know that it is not recommended, especially at that age) because I wanted to watch cartoons such as Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry and others. I loved Disney cartoons too, especially Timon and Pumbaa. I still have my Pluto plush, which was bought in 1996.
Also, I played a lot of games of the Sonic series. I tried for about 3 months to get past the Marble Garden Zone boss from Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Looking back now, I can easily tell why I am here today.

 

[Ruastin]

Almost all of the kids books I have from when I was a kid have anthro in them

 

[Sarcastic Coffeecup]

Idk. Chances are I saw some disney shit first, but the actual likeable/cool anthro characters probably came from digimon

 

[Symlus]

This small list is in chronological order, as I remember it.
Tom and Jerry, (Screw words!)
Thundercats, although I didn't understand it.
Dragon tales, childish enough for two-year-old self to understand it.
Courage the Cowardly dog.
I know there is more, but I seem to be having memory issues.

 

[Furcade]

I'm pretty sure Rocko's Modern Life was my favourite show until I was about five (when they stopped playing repeats of it on free-to-air television). From memory, I was also into some French cartoon by the name of Billy the Cat. Can't remember being a massive fan of the Lion King, but I can't remember a lot from pre-2000.

Oh, and also this:
[video=youtube;aOJiB995gW0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOJiB995gW0[/video]

Wow, that's a bloody long title sequence.

 

[Distorted]

Aw man....

Sonic was my all-time favorite. Still is. I watched the shows, played the games, even had a few comic books here and there. I kinda tried to be like him and would go outside running and jumping off of everything. Not trying to brag, but I'm pretty damn agile now. I would've wrote my hero paper on him in elementary school, but my mother thought it'd be better to write it about my dad. Sadly, I didn't have as much to say.

Thundercats was rather enjoyable for me. Now that I think about it, I would always enjoy Lion O handle his mighty...sword....um...

Gargoyles was like a soap opera for me and my brother. Staying up secretly just to watch it.

My friend let me read his Redwall books and I was hooked. Salamandastron is my favorite of them all. Big Bad Badger Bitches ftw

so many memories. can't take it.

 

[skyelar]

I didn't watch too much TV so most of the furry TV shows I missed as a kid but I did watch the animated Disney films as a kid and loved Robin Hood and Fox and the Hound.
Got into more classics later, like The Secret of Nimh and the Redwall series.
Also anime. Lots and lots of catgirl animes.

 

[WolfHiro]

Oh yeah! the secret of Nimh was awesome!

Also another one was The Wind in the Willows ^_^

 

[skyelar]

Oh yeah! the secret of Nimh was awesome!

Also another one was The Wind in the Willows ^_^

As I have never heard of that one I will now be looking it up. :3