How anthropomorphic are the animals to you?

[Kade Rivok]

The first few books (especially Redwall) had stuff that didn't carry over into the series as a whole, including sizes of creatures, certain species of animals, and the manner in which creatures moved about.  In Redwall specifically, it was assumed that sizes of creatures were mostly realistic (what with a horde of rats riding around in a hay pile in the back of a wagon being pulled by a GIANT horse).  In later books, though, I believe that they were meant to be considered as varying degrees of human sizes, with badgers basically being giants.

[Ripred the Gnawer]

The first few books (especially Redwall) had stuff that didn't carry over into the series as a whole, including sizes of creatures, certain species of animals, and the manner in which creatures moved about.  In Redwall specifically, it was assumed that sizes of creatures were mostly realistic (what with a horde of rats riding around in a hay pile in the back of a wagon being pulled by a GIANT horse).  In later books, though, I believe that they were meant to be considered as varying degrees of human sizes, with badgers basically being giants.

I guess so, but if they were giant in the first book, the horse would have to be giant as well.

Spoiler

Still, BJ did mention a town dog, pigs, horses and cattle in the first book, but the town was never mentioned again in any other books. Neither were the animals previously mentioned.

[close]

[Kade Rivok]

No no, I meant they were realistic sized compared to humans in the first book, so rats were small enough to fit a horde of them in the back of a wagon pulled by a horse (which to them was gigantic), and mice were small enough to fit into an owls beak/mouth.  In later books, that sense of scale wasn't really carried over.

[Ripred the Gnawer]

I see.

[Captain Wortshire]

OK...
But what about the animal sizes? I think that they are really big, about as big as a human. But then again, it would all be kinda strange that way too-

Spoiler

I mean, you got Basil Stag teaching Matthias how to duck and weave using blades of grass as a cover...they would have to be SUPER small to do that!

[close]

But the badgers are always about 6 feet tall in my mind, with 6-inch thick paws. In a word, they are massive.

I always thought up the animals to fall under several size classes:
Extra Small: Pygmy Shrews
Small: Shrews, Mice, Moles, Voles
Medium: Squirrels, Hedgehogs, Rats, Hares
Large: Otters, Stoats, Ferrets. Weasels
Extra-Large: Badgers, Wolverines

As for the grass, I imagine that they used a large field of tall grass as a cover. (Think the raptor scene from The Lost World: Jurassic Park.)

[Ebantu the Kararehe]

I agree with that, except I would swap hares and weasels around and add foxes to the large section.

[Ripred the Gnawer]

I agree with that, except I would swap hares and weasels around and add foxes to the large section.

Same with me.

[Captain Wortshire]

I knew that I had to forget something...

Size List Update Patch 1.1:
Extra Small: Pygmy Shrews
Small: Shrews, Mice, Moles, Voles
Medium: Squirrels, Hedgehogs, Rats, Hares, Weasels
Large: Otters, Stoats, Ferrets, Weasels, Hares, Wildcats
Extra-Large: Badgers, Wolverines

Animal Added
Animal moved

[lass of something much]

On the subject of how anthro I think they are...A little less anthro than how I draw them(I'll put a random one of my drawings below for those who don't know)...The book covers sorta tell you, and I guess the cartoon to, but I refuse to accept the cartoon as canon..

Aaaabout how anthro I think of them as

[close]

[Ripred the Gnawer]

On the subject of how anthro I think they are...A little less anthro than how I draw them(I'll put a random one of my drawings below for those who don't know)...The book covers sorta tell you, and I guess the cartoon to, but I refuse to accept the cartoon as canon..

Aaaabout how anthro I think of them as

[close]

Great picture, Lass! I didn't know that you were an artist!

[Flib Bigboat]

Yeah the size comparison is real hard with drawing, so I make them all the same height. But then when I'm reading the books I have a hard time imagining them, because of the changing sizes. I actually think  Brian Jacques had trouble with that, too. Like every book has one or two character descriptions that don't make sense to me. He described the shrews in the book Redwall as slightly bigger than Matthias, but in the next book, they are slightly smaller. Maybe it was because he was only a young mouse before, and in Mattimeo he was older? It does say that Mattimeo was around the same age as Matthias was in Redwall. Maybe that's it. (Sorry if this post doesn't make any sense).

[Ripred the Gnawer]

Yes, it does!

[lass of something much]

I just realized something! Gabool has a beard! Which means redwallers can have hair...Weird

[Mara the Wolf]

Not just Gabool. Boar the Fighter is the first creature (publication-wise) to be mentioned having a beard. Personally, I find these animals having facial hair (or hair on top of their heads that isn't fur) to be weird. It's one thing to do it over in Sonic, where the animals are so anthropomorphic they're more like (mostly) small humans with fur and tails (and hair-like quills for hedgehogs and echidnas), but in Redwall? The animals seem more like animals standing on their hind-legs, body-wise.

Then again, it depends on the artist. Troy Howell's cover art looks a bit too much like regular animals, with no human elements, while Gary Chalk's illustrations look way too much like humans with fur, human-ish heads, and tails. My reaction to Mattimeo's picture in Chapter 5? "Whoa, no! Nononono! This is Redwall, not Wind In the Willows!"

[The Grey Coincidence]

Goats also have facial hair so to speak- which is little more than an extra growth of fur positioned at the bottom of teh chin. I imagine any characters mentioned with beards to have something similar. Accounting for style as well it's not hard to imagine the animals dying parts of their fur a certain colour for specific effects. Do I imagine them with hair and beards? Hahahahahanonever. But there are certain circumstances where I can frown and say 'fine this is acceptable'.