Boris the Wolf
"My son suggested movies. Open a studio! Now I love a good film as much as anyone, but the magic of animation, now there's something special!" - Nathan Arch
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- This article refers to the cartoon character by Joey Drew Studios. For other uses, see Boris (disambiguation).
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Boris the Wolf is a cartoon character created by Joey Drew Studios in 1929. He serves as one of Bendy's friends and appear in the long-running series of cartoons and other media entries.
Overview
Creation
Boris was the result of Joey Drew Studios creating a best friend for Bendy, who would get bored easily. They created Boris mainly to keep things interesting, but he quickly evolved into one of the company's favorite characters. He was created by Henry Stein sometime after the creation of Bendy in 1929.
Physical appearance
Boris is a tall anthropomorphic wolf and easily the tallest of the studio's creations. He wears black boots and lighter-colored overalls, with a pair of buttons fasten the two straps to his waist and they appear to have several pockets on them. Both knees and center of his overalls are sewn with patches and he also wears a pair of blank white gloves.
He has rosy cheeks, freckle-dots on his muzzle, and long ears that point upwards, but unlike real-life wolves, he does not have a tail. As seen in some animated cartoons, Boris's mouth appears to have four pointy fangs and will have a full set of sharp teeth when angered.
Personality
Boris has a gluttonous nature and thus bears a great love for food. Boris has a mostly simple-minded, lackadaisical attitude and therefore does not seem to care much for those around him. He can often come off as mostly lazy, and has moments of being clumsy and will get cross whenever he is pranked. Boris can be a faithful friend as long as he is not distracted by food.
Boris barely speaks and can only communicate with growls and grunting sounds, excluding his appearances in the dime store-era and promotional comics. However, the only time he is heard speaking in the cartoons is from the Haunted Hijinx cartoon, where he shouts "BOO!" in a deep voice to scare Bendy with his ghost costume. As of now, it is unknown who voiced Boris in this cartoon.
Appearances
Cartoon appearances
Cartoons in 1929
- Sheep Songs! (1929) - Boris' first official appearance.
- Tombstone Picnic (1929) - He is seen eating a sandwich from the picnic basket in a graveyard. He ignores Bendy and is comically blasted by a soda pop bottle causing his own picnic basket to fly up, then gets briefly angry at Bendy for the prank before he runs away. The picnic basket, along with rain of several sandwiches, fell onto his head and quickly returns to eat his sandwich.
Cartoons in 1930s
- Hellfire Fighter (1931) - Boris works at the firefighter station with Bendy.
- Haunted Hijinx (1931) - Boris is seen taking a nap in the living room of his house as Bendy rings the door bell for candy. Bendy is frustrated and attempts to scare Boris by wearing a ghost costume while waiting for the door to open. Boris suddenly opens the front door also wearing a ghost costume, scaring Bendy away and then takes his trick-or-treat basket.
- Cookie Cookin (1931) - Boris somehow takes and eat the gingerbread man, shortly after Bendy takes the tray out of the oven.
- Snow Sillies (1934) - Boris is walking by while eating his carrots with one of them fell to the ground and used by Bendy for Mr. Snowman's nose. Boris later retrieves the carrot shortly after Mr. Snowman melts by the sun.
- Tasty Trio Troubles (1935) - Makes a brief appearance near the end of the episode where he picks up the hamburger that was thrown out of the restaurant's window and eats it.
- Cheap Seats - Boris is sleeping on his couch when Bendy calls him on a nearby wall phone. He denies Bendy's invitation to go to the movie, then goes back to sleep. At the end of the episode, he is revealed to be the star of the film, The Large Sleep, much to Bendy's dismay, and Alice Angel's amusement.
Comic appearances
Syndicated comic strips
- Barnyard Opry (1932) - At the Barnyard Theater, Boris plays with his clarinet but was pulled away off-stage by a cane when playing a sour note. Boris and Bendy gets hungry and collects pelted food from the audience.
Dime-store comics
TBA
Promotional comics
TBA
Behind the scenes
Boris first appears in Bendy and the Ink Machine, and later appears in Boris and the Dark Survival and Bendy and the Dark Revival. In all games, he was mostly seen in the cartoon posters, along with his dedicated toys and a lot of animation clips. He also appears in Bendy in Nightmare Run as one of the playable characters. Some animated individuals of the Cycle are based on the character; this includes Buddy Boris (the incarnation of Buddy Lewek), Tom (the incarnation of Thomas Connor), and a numerous amount of deceased Boris clones.
Development
Boris was originally named "Papa" during early development of Bendy and the Ink Machine's first chapter, and had a much different model design.
He is co-creator Mike D's favorite Bendy character.[1]
Inspirations
Boris was designed using various references from cartoons of the 1920s, with a blend of west coast and east coast animation styles.[2] That being said, his design appearance seems to be an expy of a multitude of cartoon characters, the most notable of which are the Disney characters Goofy and Pluto.
Etymology
Boris' name actually comes from the Bulgar name "Bogoris", meaning "wolf" which also referenced Boris' species.[3]
References
- ↑ Antonio Villaseñor-Baca (February 10, 2018). "Ink Demons & the Indie Canadian Game Scene: An Interview with ‘Bendy and the Ink Machine’ Programmer, Mike Mood". Con Safos Magazine.
- ↑ Bendy and the Ink Machine. Chapter ?: The Archives
- ↑ Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook