What Animal Was Used To Pull A Chariot

What a cool ride.

This trope is about vehicles that are pulled by cool, fantastic and unusual draught animals.

Horses or oxen are the most mutual animals used to pull carts or carriages. In improver to bovine and equine species, reindeer, elephants, camels, llamas, sheep, goats, and dogs have been used every bit draught animals in real life. In fiction, things can go so much more than varied and then much more crawly. A cart, chariot, carriage or sleigh pulled by unusual animals is a sign that the graphic symbol is a fantastic beingness from myths, legends, sci-fi, fantasy or fairy-tales.

So if your character drives around in a chariot pulled by predatory animals, information technology scores some points on the awesomeness scale considering only a truly badass character can use animals like cats, lions, panthers, tigers, bears, polar bears or wolves every bit draught animals. Under normal circumstances, these animals will rip you to flinders if you attempt to harness them. Therefore anyone who succeeds in making predators substitute for equines must be cool, have magical abilities, be virtually omnipotent or cuckoo. It might also exist a sign of highly unconventional thinking.

In Mouse World and similar settings, chariots, carts or sleighs tin exist pulled by rodents, peculiarly mice, or rabbits or modest birds. Those petty draught animals give some "cuteness points" to our unconventional travellers and drivers. In the example of tiny animals, characters might need to harness big amounts of them. In fantasy settings, there might appear some vaguely ox-like fantasy creatures and large lizards, and some of them may be Mix-and-Match Critters. Fictional worlds set nether the sea or similar underwater settings can feature fish, eels, seahorses or turtles equally wagon-pullers. Swans as majestic and elegant birds are a pop option for gods and goddesses or other powerful characters (see also Swan Boats).

Cats and Panthera Awesome are an extremely popular choice, and then much so they course an Internal Subtrope. More often than not because cats are cute, absurd, superior and connected to magic. They're domesticated and therefore very familiar, but they're still somewhat wild and untamed, mysterious and unpredictable. They're notoriously ill-behaved and known to practise only what pleases them. Whoever manages to harness them and become them to cooperate must be awesome and powerful, and immediately gains the symbolism connected to cats or big cats.

This trope is usually seen in myths, fairy-tales or fantasy. These vehicles and animals volition signify prestige transportation in areas where other mechanical transport is cheap and easy. Occasionally it is employed for comedy when a Cloudcuckoolander or somebody truly insane attempts to pull this in a fictional work that is fairly realistic.

Sister trope to a Equus caballus of a Different Color which is for animals that tin can be mounted every bit a horse, and close to a Dragon Rider. The ability relationship is however different: a mount has a shut, special bond with its rider, based on trust and mutual respect, while railroad vehicle-pullers are more like servants or even slaves, with the railroad vehicle-driver acting like their master who dominates them.

May overlap with Fantastic Brute Counterpart, if the draught animal is treated as the setting's equivalent of oxen.

Examples:

open up/close all folders

Anime & Manga

Digimon Gamble:
- Etemon, the Big Bad of the 2d arc, goes around in a trailer pulled by a styracosaur-similar Monochromon.
- Myotismon, the third arc's Large Bad, rides in a carriage pulled by a Devidramon, a demonic dragon.
In Princess Tutu, the Prince uses a flying chariot pulled by swans to return to his story with his Princess.
I Slice:
- The Officer Agents of Bizarre Works are transported from the Spiders Buffet to Rainbase in a carriage pulled past Bunchie, a giant turtle.
- In the Totto Land Arc, the 2d wedding cake is pulled from the kitchen on a wagon pulled by a seal. On land. And the seal is on a ball, also.

Comic Books

Lucky Luke: One story has Luke escort a carriage convoy w. At one point the convoy packs up and leaves in the dark, hitching animals without checking who they belong to, resulting in wagons being pulled by pairs of donkeys, horses, cows, and one very confused buffalo.
In the Asterix album Asterix and the Chariot Race, the Kushite racers have a chariot pulled by zebras.

Films — Animation

Disney:
- Disney Fairies: The fairies have races using special carriages fatigued by a pair of frogs. Non 2 frogs in the front, however, just one before and one behind with the seats in the middle. They motion thanks to the back frog jumping above the carriage (which rotates along the two poles connecting the frogs to stay horizontal), thus the frogs switching place. Rinse and repeat.
- The Footling Mermaid (1989):
  - Male monarch Triton makes his entrance into the concert hall riding on a behemothic oyster trounce pulled by dolphins.
  - He is followed by Sebastian, who rides a normal-sized seashell pulled past a pair of goldfish, which Sebastian has a piffling trouble decision-making.
- The Rescuers: Bernard and Bianca become an express ride to Madame Medusa's derelict steamboat in the bayou courtesy of a leaf-boat powered by a dragonfly named Evinrude. It is taxing on this insect to go any meaningful altitude, just he diligently does his job.
The LEGO Movie: In the final battle, Emmet'southward Crazy Cat Lady neighbor tin be seen driving a chariot pulled by her herd of cats. In the Wild W sequence, Emmet's party escape a police force ambush in a ramshackle vehicle drawn by pigs.
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Dr. Finkelstein creates flight skeletal reindeer for Jack Skellington. They pull Jack's sleigh when he travels around the earth to deliver gifts for Christmas instead of Santa Claus.

Films — Live-Action

Barbarella: Barbarella is rescued from the feral children of Planet xvi, and gets a ride to the city of SoGo on a sled pulled by something like a stingray. The ground is presumed to be dry ice, as in that location's a abiding mist vi inches deep. How this critter gets traction enough to pull Barbarella around, and see where its going amid the fog goes unexplained.
The Hobbit:
- Radagast the Brown's sleigh is pulled past giant rabbits (Radagast calls them "Rhosgobel rabbits").
- In the extended version of The Hobbit: The Battle of the V Armies, a dwarven war chariot is pulled by large mountain goats.
Hop: The Easter Bunny'due south sleigh is pulled by a team of tiny, downy chicks that can fly somehow. And later also by Carlos who has been mutated into a bunny-chick abomination.
In The King of beasts, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Jadis the White Witch goes to boxing in a carriage pulled past polar bears.
Morozko: Marfushka is rude to Father Frost, and is forced to ride back into her village on a pig-drawn dinky sleigh. Her humiliation is played for laughs, but considering she threatened a personification of frost and freezing to death, she'due south lucky. This is a example of Spared by the Adaptation: in the original folk tales that the movie was based on, Marfushka was frozen to decease and her corpse was pulled back into town on the pig sleigh.

Literature

Hans Christian Andersen:
- In the fairy tale "Ole-Luk-Oie", Hjalmar dreams that he rides in a gunkhole pulled by swans.
- "Thumbelina": When Thumbelina escapes the toad and her son, she floats on Leaf Boat down the stream. A lovely white butterfly starts fluttering around her. Thumbelina undoes her sash and she then ties one cease to the butterfly and the other end to the foliage. She keeps sailing on a butterfly-powered little Foliage Boat.
Beware of Chicken: Jin builds himself a giant cart, to carry so much rice that it would break under its ain weight if information technology weren't reinforced with qi, and and so Yin — a small white rabbit — volunteers to pull it for him every bit force grooming. (Eventually he does take a turn himself, because it's awkward for her to apply force to something then large.)
In Bubaci A Hastrmani (Bogeymen and H2o Goblins) by Josef Lada, a kindly, skilful-natured water goblin Brcal has a vehicle pulled by half-dozen blackness cats. In the blithe version, he only has 4 of them. Inspired by Czech mythology.
In The Death Gate Cycle, the humans of Arianus use a species of enormous flightless birds known every bit tiers as beasts of burden, and oft use them to pull carts and wagons.
Discworld:
- The Disc's Santa Claus equivalent is the Hogfather, who goes around bringing gifts to good children in an elegant sleigh drawn by cute lilliputian pinkish pigs. Or at least the sanitized modern version does, when Death covers the Hogfather's shift, he does it with a massive rough sled congenital out of logs and drawn by equally huge, hairy and non-housebroken boars.
- When some Mad Max-style raiders trying to go at Mad the dwarf's cargo show upwards in The Terminal Continent, they apply carts being pulled by a diverseness of things that are very notably not horses (including one that'southward essentially a unicycle pulled by an emu, as described by someone who has never heard of such a thing). Information technology'southward mostly to illustrate how utterly insane Fourecks is.
- In The Terminal Hero, when characters who aren't applied science geniuses are trying to visualise Leonard'southward plans for a dragon-powered spacecraft, at that place's a double-page spread showing a fantasia of Leonard riding in a hot air balloon existence towed by dragons. (In the actual vehicle, however, the dragons are used as rockets.)
Dune: Smashing-worms and bottom-worms are used in teams to pull a chariot.
Harry Potter: In the fifth book, it'due south revealed that the Wizarding School'due south "horseless" carriages are actually pulled by Thestrals — skeletal pegasus-like creatures only visible to those who accept witnessed death. They're morbid, only friendly and Ugly Cute.
James and the Giant Peach: After the peach falls into the ocean, information technology'due south attacked past sharks biting holes that could sink information technology. To escape, the heroes lure seagulls close with Earthworm as bait (he's very unhappy well-nigh this) then catch and tie them to the peach with silk from Miss Spider and the Silkworm. With an unabridged flock of seagulls towing them, the peach rises out of the sea and into the clouds.
Land of Oz: In several books, Princess Ozma'due south chariot is pulled by the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger. This is often the extent of their participation in the books.
In Leviathan, the Darwinists use a large variety of bio-engineered creatures every bit chariot-pullers and beasts of brunt. Amongst those seen are elephantines and mammothines (presumably modified elephants and mammoths) likewise as a cart pulled past a pair of wolf-tiger hybrid creatures.
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Jadis the White Witch rides a chariot pulled by a pair of polar bears in boxing.
In The Silmarillion, when the Teleri (Sea Elves) of Tol Eressëa wanted to emigrate to Valinor, they travelled in ships pulled by big swans.
The Silver Warriors: The cover features a man in a sled beingness pulled by (weirdly tiny) polar bears.
The Stormlight Archive:
- The planet Roshar's unique ecology leans heavily towards crustaceans, so the primary draught animal is a huge, docile, crab-like fauna chosen a chull. They're fairly slow-moving, but actual horses are far too rare and expensive to waste on draught work.
- The ships that navigate the Spirit Globe of the Cognitive Realm are pulled past Mandras, Giant Flyer spren that await similar a cross between an eel and a sea slug. They don't need to exist fed, so they're a very economical means of ship, their habit of occasionally vanishing into the Physical Realm notwithstanding.
'Twas the Nighttime Earlier Christmas: Santa Claus flies around on a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer, an image that has endured in the Santa Claus mythos.
In Year in Review (2000) past Dave Barry, there is a joke about the president driving a chariot pulled by lions.
[...] there is tension at the Autonomous convention in Los Angeles, where the Gore camp suspects that Bill Clinton is trying to hog the limelight. A Clinton staffer denies this, claiming that "security considerations" led to the conclusion to have the president enter the convention hall riding a chariot fatigued by lions.

Live-Activeness Boob tube

Community: In "Basic Intergluteal Numismatics", Star-Burns tries to develop the earth's kickoff cat-powered vehicle. He's seen trying to escape on a prototype. In a Brick Joke, at that place appears a crowd-funding video in which Star-Burns asks for donations for his cat automobile idea.
Medico Who: In the 2010 Christmas Special the Doctor rides in a railroad vehicle pulled by a flight shark.
Final Calendar week Tonight with John Oliver: The idea that someone might endeavor to pull off driving a sleigh pulled past 400 hamsters in real life is used as a gag in the episode on climate change.
John Oliver: We've universally agreed that polluting is bad and yet, it's gratuitous to do information technology. When you litter, you pay a fine. When you lot drive above the speed limit, y'all pay a fine. When you lot steal 400 hamsters from PetSmart, tie them to a sled and race through the streets on a hamster sleigh, you pay a fine. Is that fine worth it? Of grade information technology is! Simply you do pay it.
A 1959 dark episode of The Price Is Right had a contestant winning a trailer, and to pull it the bonus prize was...a Chihuahua. (Really a joke; the real bonus prize was a car.)

Myths & Religion

Equally office of her office as goddess of state of war, the Babylonian goddess Ishtar (and her Sumerian analogue deity Inanna) is depicted as riding in a chariot drawn by seven lions.
Classical Mythology:
- Dionysus is shown in artwork as being in a chariot fatigued past panthers.
- Aphrodite's chariot is fatigued by swans or geese when non being pulled by the Erotes.
- Apollo is the God of calorie-free, archery and the arts and his sacred swans pulled his chariot.
- Artemis'southward chariot was pulled past a pair of her sacred deer.
- Demeter gave Triptolemus a serpent drawn winged chariot subsequently she was reunited with her daughter Persephone.
- Demeter's own chariot was drawn by her dragons.
- Medea's chariot was pulled by flying dragons that were built-in of Titans' blood.
- Poseidon had a pair of hippocamps draw his chariot.
Norse Mythology:
- Goddess Freyja, goddess of love and witchcraft ^note and also warfare, sex, fertility, beauty and death, drives a chariot pulled by ii cats. This webpage has collected many images of Freya and her cats.
- Thor rides a chariot pulled past a pair of baton goats: Tanngrisnir ^note "Teeth-barer" and Tanngnjóstr ^notation "Teeth-grinder". Thor besides slaughters, cooks, and eats the goats at the stop of each day, then brings them back to life the next morning.
- Freyr rides a chariot pulled by Gullinbursti, a gilt boar congenital by dwarves.
Cybele, a Phrygian mother goddess worshipped by the Greeks and (eventually) Romans every bit a goddess of nature, mountains, wild animals, magic, and metropolis walls, is often depicted driving in her chariot drawn by lions.
Water goblins (evil beings residing in water areas similar rivers, lakes and ponds who drown people and shop their spirits in pots) from Czech mythology traditionally drive (or ride in) a carriage pulled past six blackness cats, though it'south not their nigh known characteristic.
Jakub Krcin of Jelcany is a existent person who founded many fish ponds in southern Bohemia in the 16th century. A legend of him emerged after his death: He was so successful in his business because he had made a deal with the devil. In that location is a local legend virtually him. He is known to be travelling around the land in a shabby black railroad vehicle drawn past six black tom-cats.
The Korean gye-lyong, a cockatrice-like dragon, is depicted as a chariot puller for various legendary figures.
Welsh folklore states that corgis were gifts from fairies who had them pull their carriages or even ride them into battle. As corgis tend to be have different coloration in a band around its neck or their back, this was said to be from the saddle and harnesses that were put on them.
In the medieval legend of the "Knight of the Swan", a mysterious knight rides in a boat pulled by swans when he comes to rescue a Damsel in Distress. Richard Wagner's Lohengrin is based on this legend.
Frau Gauden, a being from the sociology of Mecklenburg often associated with The Wild Hunt, is said to ride in a chariot pulled by hounds.

Radio

One of the unlikely modes of transportation used by the present-day descendent of Businesswoman Münchausen in The BBC radio series The Farther Adventures of Baron Munchausen is an uprooted tree which he manages to get under control past harnessing swans.

Tabletop Games

Rocket Age:
- Bahmoots, velociraptor-like reptiles, are used every bit beasts of burden on Mars.
- The Silthuri use a 3 and a half metre tall bird called the Royal Karn to pull their chariots.
Tarot Cards: "The Chariot Card" is fatigued as a chariot that is dragged past two differently coloured sphinxes ^note horses in Marseilles) each looking in its ain direction.
Warhammer:
- High elves have chariots pulled by white lions.
- The Dark Elves utilize chariots pulled by Cold Ones — essentially, cruel, scaly Jurassic Park-fashion raptors.
- The Beastmen use chariots fatigued by enormous mutated boars covered in bony spikes.
- Among the Greenskins, Orcs use chariots fatigued by normal (just still huge and foul-tempered) boars, while the Goblins utilize wolf-drawn chariots instead.
In Warhammer 40,000, Logan Grimnar, the Space Wolves' Chapter Master, rides into battle on an antigrav chariot called Stormrider, pulled by a pair of huge Fenrisian wolves.
Dungeons & Dragons, Avant-garde Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition supplement Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia.
- The Chinese Mythology state of war deity Huan-Ti can fly through the air in a chariot pulled by iv pegasi (winged horses).
- The Classical Mythology deity Hades has a chariot that is jet blackness in color and is pulled by nightmares (horse-similar monsters from another plane of existence).

Theme Parks

In the original version of Poseidon'south Fury at Universal'southward Islands of Gamble, Poseidon at one point is shown using sea turtles to pull his underwater chariot.

Video Games

Age of Wonders iii:
- The Tigran Sabertooth Chariot is pulled past sabertooth tigers.
- The Frostling Ice Queen rides a chariot pulled by polar bears.
A Lid in Time: The Nyakuza DLC adds in a sprawling metro complex where the subway trains are all pulled by giant cats.
EXTRAPOWER: Star Resistance: Nemuri'south sled is pulled by Edelweiss... a giant, clawed ruddy hand that she plant floating in space. Information technology loyally conveys her though space and skies and assail on command. Nemuri makes information technology articulate that she isn't sure what Edelweiss even is, simply it's actually a Bem — a parasitic space organism final seen in Assault of Darkforce.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The desert-dwelling sand seals tin can be used to improvise a chariot-similar contraption by getting ane to pull you while you're riding on a shield. This is one of the most efficient ways of crossing the desert, and is needed to chase one of the Divine Beasts.
Paper Mario: Colour Splash has three chariots pulled by Chain Chomps (basically a metallic sphere with the behavior of an Angry Guard Domestic dog) in the Golden Coliseum boss fight.
Stardew Valley: A more understated case — the Traveling Cart is a caravan pulled by a purple pig with a fez.
Total War: Warhammer:
- The goblins and Norscans both employ chariots pulled past wolves.
- The Warriors of Chaos have Gorebeast Chariots, which are pulled past demonic, gorilla-similar beasts.
- The beastmen's Razorgor Chariots are drawn by monstrous, mutated boars covered in spikes.
- The night elves take Cold One Chariots, which are drawn by scaly, monstrous raptorial dinosaurs.
Warlords Battlecry: The Empire's Titan unit of measurement is the Lion Throne, a state of war chariot pulled by lions.

Web Blitheness

Double King:

Webcomics

Web Original

Web Videos

At that place is a web video of the Chicken Chariot. It is a matter to behold.

Western Blitheness

Risk Time: Ane episode features Finn and Jake making a picture show and they try to go far await similar Princess Bubblegum is driving a chariot fatigued by a frog. Throughout the show nosotros come across carriages and carts pulled by all kinds of strange creatures, which fit the Land of Ooo nicely.
Animaniacs: In "'Twas the Day Before Christmas", Ralph plays Santa for the Warners, and he rides a sleigh driven by pigeons (3 of which are the Goodfeathers).
Ralph: Dah, now, Bobby! At present, Squit! Now, Pesto! Now, Vixen! On, Comet! On, Cupid, On, Richard and Nixon! To the peak of the tower! Come on, now, allow'due south fly!

Pesto: I just got a hernia thanks to this guy!
Looney Tunes: In "Kiss Me True cat" (a sequel to "Feed the Kitty"), Marc Anthony tries to go Pussyfoot to catch the mouse that has been raiding the kitchen. Instead, the mouse hitches Pussyfoot to a wagon and uses him to get more food.
In the Popeye drawing short "Seasin's Greetinks", Bluto is introduced being drawn on a sled driven past a small dog.
The Simpsons, "White Christmas Blues":
- The crazy cat lady is seen in the intro driving a sleigh pulled by several of her cats.
- In the intro, Mr Burns is driving a sleigh drawn by his signature hounds. (Dogs are sometimes used to pull sleigh in real life, simply it'due south Played for Laughs here as Mr Burns hounds are usually sent to hunt away unwanted guests.)
- Marge and Maggie equally Christmas elves ride in a sleigh pulled by several greyhounds in the intro.
- In the episode proper, Homer's romantic carriage ride through the snow is advertised as a horse-drawn carriage. It'south actually Homer sitting in a minor cart pulled by Snowball the true cat and Santa'due south Trivial Helper the dog. He puts pictures of a mouse and a cat in front of them to power the cart by Animal Jingoism. There's no place for the tourists to sit and they are supposed to just watch him drive.
Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (Filmation produced the cartoon series from 1976) featured lion-pulled chariots in Zandor, the City of Gold.

Real Life

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (Mata Hari) went to school in a railroad vehicle drawn by goats. At simply 6 years former, she became the talk of the boondocks when she travelled in a caprine animal-drawn railroad vehicle that her father had given her.
Victorian eccentric Businesswoman Rothschild travelled around London in a railroad vehicle fatigued by trained zebras.
There are several historical accounts of chariots being pulled by ostriches in several time periods, even today in some places at that place is nonetheless ostrich chariot racing existence held.

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChariotPulledByCats

Posted by: reyesfewillic.blogspot.com