Fur Is Skin

In some animated films, shows, and video games, the anthropomorphic animals, be they Petting Zoo People or Funny Animals have fur, feathers, scales, skin, e.t.c. that is either solid colored or look like human skintone colored and with hardly any markings but the non-anthropomorphic/less anthropomorphic animals are bicolor, tricolor, or have other various markings and patterns.

One variant is to have anthros have fur, feathers, or scales that look like human skin or actually just have human-like skin, as well as a normal head of hair atop it (sometimes, facial and body hair is added), in contrast to non-anthro/less anthro animals, which do not. In this variant, the non-anthro or less anthro animals can either have makings or be solid-colored without seeming human-skintoned. This variant is a popular choice when designing Petting Zoo People in juxtaposition with "normal" animals.

Another variant is for anthropomorphic animals to be solid colored, but without it looking like a human skintone. The non-anthro/less anthro animals in this variant tend to have various markings on their fur, feathers, scales, skin, e.t.c. This variant is a sometimes used when designing Funny Animals in juxtaposition with "normal" animals.

Yet another variant is to have the more anthropomorphic version of one character to have fur, feathers, or scales that look like human skin or actually just have human-like skin, and the less anthropomorphic version to either have makings or be solid-colored without looking like a human skin tone.

This trope is part of a tendency for animal characters to be drawn with more colors and/or more complex markings and patterns the less anthropomorphic they are.

Sometimes, the anthro animals have a head of hair, either regardless of gender or depending on gender (or if they are not mammals), but non-anthro or less anthro animals lack one. Sometimes, the anthro animals lack a head of hair just as much as the non-anthro/less anthro animals.

It gets really funky when Petting Zoo People wear makeup or get tattooed.

Subtrope of Funny Animal Anatomy. Related to Through a Face Full of Fur.

Examples of Fur Is Skin include:

Comics

• Many (but not all) of the Dogfaces of Carl Barks's Disney Ducks Comic Universe comics, the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe comics, DuckTales, Goof Troop, A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie have a fur or skin color that resembles various human skintones, often have human-like head hair, and sometimes do have human-like facial hair and body hair (the Beagle Boys for example have stubble and hair on their arms).
  • This is in contrast to the other animal characters in the Classic Disney Shorts world (non-anthro, Civilized Animal, or Funny Animal), whose fur/feathers/e.t.c. do not resemble human skintones, whether they have markings like Chip and Dale or are (mostly) solid colored like Pluto and Donald Duck.
  • The Beagle Boys in Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, unlike in Carl Barks' and Don Rosa's comics and in DuckTales, are grey. Even though it they are still solid colored, they are a type of color that makes them look like they have fur.

Film

• Badger from the Disney adaptation of The Wind in the Willows is furless with a light human-like skintone and a white beard, but still has the facial markings of a badger. Badger in the original story and and in other adaptations, on the other hand, looks slightly less anthropomorphic, had a tail, and was furred like a normal badger.
  • Also, Mr. Toad's skin looks sort of human skintone except the back of his head.
• Similar to The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad example, Friar Tuck the from the World of Funny Animals Disney adaptation of Robin Hood is furless with a light human-like skintone and a white beard, but still has the facial markings of a badger.
• Any Native American mice from the An American Tail series will have reddish fur that echo the typical skin color of their human counterparts. The rest of the mice have brownish fur for the most part.
  • Occasional characters, such as Bridget in the first movie and Nellie Brie in the 4th, have Caucasian skintones and don't look like they have any fur at all (or very little fur anyway).

Video Games

• Many characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series play with this trope to some degree or another. Many of the characters have apricot human-skintone looking muzzles, bellies, and arms and Rouge the Bat has apricot human-skintone body and muzzle and a white head.
• The Caninu and Felineko of Solatorobo have both body fur and a full head of hair. Notably, females tend to have peach fur and shorter muzzles, while males tend to stick to one or two colors (though from a larger palette containing greys, whites, oranges, and other colors that wouldn't make much sense for a human skin).

Western Animation

• In Arthur, Sue Ellen the Petting Zoo Person cat has red hair and solid peach fur over the rest of her body, but Nemo the normal pet cat is black and white with a bicolor pattern.
  • Basically all the anthro animals are human skintone colored or otherwise solid colored, whether or not they have a head of hair, facial hair, or human-like body hair.
  • Subverted with Arthur's pet dog, Pal, who is solid colored.
• The Funny Animal bears in The Berenstain Bears are all light brown furred, but the normal animals tend to have various markings.
• The Funny Animal pigs in Olivia have various human-like skintones, but no head of hair, but the normal animals (except Edwin the black furred pet cat of Olivia) tend to have various markings.
• Gadget Hackwrench of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers is peach-colored and has no real hints of fur on her body at all, whereas Chip and Dale and Monterey Jack have markings on their fur.
  • But she does have a full head of strawberry-blond Eighties Hair.
• In the Alvin and The Chipmunks cartoons, the Chipmunks and the Chipettes are both peach colored, but the Chipettes look like they just have peach colored skin and have human-like head hair. The Chipmunks still look like they have fur, however.
  • Contrast that to the two LiveAction movies where they are less anthropomorphic and have fur and markings more like that of normal chipmunks.
• Inverted in The Simpsons where Bart, Lisa, and Maggie's hair are all colored like their skin.
• The rats from Flushed Away are all depicted with fur that is colored like human flesh. Exceptions would be two of the evil Toad's henchrats, Whitey, who has white fur due to him being an albino rat; and Thimblenose Ted, a zombie-like rat with a thimble on his nose, who has gray fur.
• The My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Periphery Demographic has this as one of their biggest questions. The ponies do indeed have manes, though they're treated as human hair, but no mention is made as to whether they have purple, blue, orange, etc. body hair/fur or they have no body hair and it's actually their skin. It gets a little weirder when talking about one of the most well-known elements of the show: the "cutie mark", a symbol of some sort that appears on a pony's hindquarters when he or she discovers his or her purpose in life. The question is, if a pony does indeed have body hair, what happens if they try to shave off the cutie mark? Is the mark on their skin as well?
  • This is finally adressed in the episode "Ponyville Confidential", after Snips and Snails get themselves stuck together with bubble gum. Later we see their fur was shaven off in places to get them apart, and indeed, the part with their cutie mark was shaven off as well.
• All of the Thundarians from Thundercats and ThunderCats (2011) have this trait. The Continuity Reboot takes more care to show "tufts" of fur at places like shoulders and elbows, and occasionally shows facial or bodily fur bristling with anger or surprise, though Through a Face Full of Fur still occurs.