Anthropomorphism (Personification)

One of the major characteristics of animated films is the endowment of animals, objects and environments with human characteristics, this is called Anthropomorphism (also known as personification).  

This technique is used within animation to create new forms while still providing an empathetic or identifiable human aspect. This allows animators to create unusual objects like “dancing washing machines and villainous shrubs, and endow otherwise ordinary things with appeal, ability and abstraction. At the same time, both worlds have a relationship to humankind, despite the sense of ‘difference’ and ‘otherness’.” Referenced from Basics Animation: Scriptwriting by Paul Wells.  This sense of ‘otherness’ is corrected through the animation and imposition of human characteristics and traits that make the material or natural objects familiar to the viewer although they aren’t human.

Anthropomorphism is commonly used in films that contain talking animals such as Animal Farm (1955). There are two terms which simplify this technique into two areas: Theriomorphism, when someone or something has the form of an animal or beast and Therianthopism, when someone or something combines with elements of an animal or beast. When animals are substituted for humans many more points and issues can be raised while avoiding social, political and religious taboos, “Such stories can thus talk about forbidden ideological, sexual, moral and cultural topics under another guise, where talking animals play significant roles.” Referenced from Basics Animation: Scriptwriting by Paul Wells.

Here is an example from Animal Farm by George Orwell (1955):