Basically, I started getting confused about this ever since I saw Froggy. I mean, there are both human intelligent and normal intelligent animals. The normal animals I saw so far are, frogs, alligators, butterflies, and I'm pretty sure I saw more. It ticks me off because then you see a hybrid crocodile and a hybrid bee.
Then there's the lesser extent of animals in present-day Sonic games. Now the planet seems to be mostly human populated. Not that I mind because I'm human (duh) But still I would have liked to see what other furries thought about the destruction done in Sonic Adventure and about the GLOBAL threat in Sonic Adventure 2.
Well, you might get to hear about it from other animals in Riders since you will then have Jet, Storm, and Wave. As far as anthros and regular animals go I can't really say since in other things, like Disney, there are anthros and normal ones.
Yeah, I always wondered about that. It seems that for a storyline where the anthro-animals are the main characters, Sonic Team has actually given astonishingly little background about them. I mean, what ARE they exactly? Are they a separate civilisation, like Knux's echidnas? Are they aliens? Are they mutants?
They haven't even really been clear-cut about the planet they're on - while it's called 'Earth', and bears a vague resemblance to it, there are so many things that are patently un-Earthly about it, even within creative license, that makes it confusing. Is it really our Earth? Is it a parallel Earth? Is it some random planet with humans which just happens to be called 'Earth'?
While it's obviously not necessary to go into ridiculous detail about the background, it seems that Sonic Team hasn't even bothered to give any information whatsoever. Even the now discontinued 'Mobius' storyline from Sega of America had a more coherent backstory.
We have a lot of different 'groups' in the Sonic series.
- Humans (Eggman, President, GUN, StSq civilians etc)
- Furries/anthros (Sonic, Knux, Big, Jet, Speed Highway poster girl etc)
- Normal animals (frogs, crocodiles, butterflies, orcas, dolphins [which were in S3K's ending as well as the more realistic ones in SA1 Emerald Coast]). Some of these seem to grow very large (croc, frogs).
- Small animals - ones given to Chao. Even the elephants are tiny! The opposite end of the few gigantisism-affected creatures in with the 'normal' animals. A bit more 'cartoony' than the normal animals.
- "Original friends" (Pocky, Wocky, Ricky) in official art they're a bit closer to Sonic and co than the modern Small Animals, so I'd probably group 'em separately.
Then there's your strange things like Chao, Chaos, Ghosts, etc. Was the Sandopolis Golem a robot? I don't think he was, but I'm trying to remember if, when he enters the quicksand, he 'explodes' the same way boss machines do.
Speaking of weird things, the "Small Animals" also include the dragon, unicorn, phoenix, demon, merman and skeleton dog...
As for there being these animals with varying levels of sentience and humanlike proportions, I just liked to assume that millions and millions of years ago life branched, with some animals evolving into the more humanlike furries/anthros and others simply continuing to be.. normal animals. Etc.
"They haven't even really been clear-cut about the planet they're on - while it's called 'Earth', and bears a vague resemblance to it, there are so many things that are patently un-Earthly about it, even within creative license, that makes it confusing. Is it really our Earth? Is it a parallel Earth? Is it some random planet with humans which just happens to be called 'Earth'?"
Personally I just like to think of it the same way as DragonBall. It's Earth, but it's not our version of reality, and thus different forms of life exist there and it's normal for them.
Exactly. It's just a fairy-tale version of Earth, where some animals can talk and act like humans (think three bears and Big Bad Wolf). I mean, we don't think that Little Red Ridding Hood took place on Mars because there's a talking wolf, right? This also explains the "artistic license" angle.
Also, about the animals, think about how Mickey Mouse, a three foot tale mouse has a normal pet hound, and Minney Mouse has a pet cat (Figaro). Weird, huh? It's just the way fantasy works. 
I think that Mickey Mouse actively participates in Slavery while keeping Pluto, a dog, in a doghouse, tying him up, and making him eat dogfood while Goofy, also a dog, is able to walk free and wear clothes, have his own house, and eat whatever he pleases. It's abominable.
even Eggman is an anthro-morph of an egg - maybe he came from an anthro chicken-meets-human? XD
oh, and don't forget the aliens on Shadow the Hedgehog too
