Boris the Wolf

*See Boris (disambiguation) for other related uses.*

Cutout of Boris in "Bendy and the Dark Revival".

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**"***Good golly gosh!***"**
— **Boris' catchphrase**

**Boris the Wolf** is a cartoon character created by Joey Drew Studios for the fictional *Bendy* series. Much like other cartoon characters such as Bendy and Alice Angel, Boris starred in a series of popular Bendy cartoon shorts thirty years before the studio's downfall.

## Overview

### Creation

**"***Every animated character needs a best pal, and Bendy has one in Boris the Wolf!***"**
— ***Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook***

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, but the record book of Joey Drew Studios claims that Joey was the person who created him.

### Physical Appearance

**"***And something like a tall wolf, ears sticking straight up in the air and wearing overalls.***"**
— ***Dreams Come to Life***

Boris is a tall anthropomorphic wolf wearing white overalls and black boots. 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.

Boris is easily the tallest of the studio's creations. He sports rosy cheeks, freckle-dots on his muzzle, and long ears that point upwards. Similar to other cartoon characters, Boris has pie cut eyes. Unlike a real-life wolf, he does not have a tail. Seen in the animated shorts, Boris appears to have four pointy fangs and will have a full set of sharp teeth when angered.

### Personality

**"***Boris isn't quite as bright as Bendy, so he often ends up the short end of the stick in Bendy's schemes. Through it all, Boris stays loyal to his friends, so as long as they don't come between him and his lunch!***"**
— ***Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook***

Boris has a great love for food in the cartoons. 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. He has moments of being clumsy and will get cross when he is disturbed during his activities. In "*Haunted Hijinx*", Boris seems to be a bit of a trickster and can outsmart most characters, as seen when Boris wears a ghost costume to scare Bendy off, and then proceeds to take his trick-or-treat candy basket. From the "*Snow Sillies*" cartoon, Boris is shown to be an opportunist, as seen when he snatches the carrot that Bendy used for a nose when the latter's snowman melted. Boris' description in *Bendy in Nightmare Run* and *Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook* implies that he can be a faithful friend as long as he isn't distracted by food.

## Cartoon Appearances

* *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 fell onto his head (with raining several sandwiches) and quickly returns to eat his sandwich.
* *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 Gingerbread Man out of the oven.
* *Snow Sillies* (1934) - Is seen walking while eating his carrots with one of them fell to the ground and used by Bendy for Mr. Snowman's nose. Boris later picks the carrot up 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

Boris appeared in 30 of the 36 known Syndicated comics, and in all of the Dime-Store and Promotional Comics.

## In-Game Appearances

Boris appears in *Bendy and the Ink Machine*, *Boris and the Dark Survival*, and *Bendy and the Dark Revival* but mostly seen in the cartoon posters, along with a lot of animation clips and dolls.

The physically-formed cartoon characters based on Boris reside in the Cycle. This includes Buddy Boris (the animated incarnation of Buddy Lewek) and Tom (the animated incarnation of Thomas Connor. There is also Brute Boris the monster form of Buddy Boris and Borkis an enemy version of Boris.

Boris also appears in *Bendy in Nightmare Run* as one of the main playable characters in *Nightmare Run*, available after purchasing 7,500 Bacon Soup cans.

## Trivia

* Boris was originally named "Papa" during the starting development of *Bendy and the Ink Machine*'s first chapter.
* Boris' name actually comes from the Bulgar name "Bogoris", meaning "wolf" which also referenced Boris' species.
	+ Boris' name is also the Dutch and Indonesian name of the Disney character Pete.
* Boris is co-creator Mike Mood's favorite character of all time.
* Boris' gluttonous nature is a reference to real-life wolves, which are capable of eating copious amounts of food in one sitting.
* Boris hardly speaks in the cartoons where he can only communicate with growls or grunting sounds. However, the only times he is heard speaking are from the "*Haunted Hijinx*" cartoon short, where he shouts "*BOO!*" in a silly deep voice to scare Bendy with his ghost costume, and in the "*Cheap Seats*", where he responds to Bendy’s movie invitation with an indifferent grunt. As of now, it is unknown who voiced Boris.
* Boris' overall appearance seems to be an expy of a multitude of cartoon characters, the most notable of which are the Disney characters Goofy and Pluto. He also bears a slight resemblance to the Big Bad Wolf, a character from one of Disney's Silly Symphony shorts *Three Little Pigs*.
	+ Considering the time period Boris is implied to have hailed from, he could also be inspired by Dippy Dawg, an early "prototype" of what became Goofy.
	+ The fact that Boris plays the clarinet shown from his "*Sheep Songs!*" poster may be a reminiscent to Goofy in the Mickey Mouse short "*The Band Concert*" where he is also seen playing the clarinet.
* Although most likely unintentional, Boris bears a resemblance to Walker from the *Animal Crossing* video game series.
* The words "*Do we have **a wolf in sheep's clothing**...?*" from the description of Boris' poster merchandise on the official store website, and the phrase "*Is he perhaps **a wolf in sheep's clothing** after all?*" from *Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook* are a reference to Matthew 7:15 from the Bible, warning about false prophets appearing as wolves in sheep's clothing:

"*Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.*" - **Matthew 7:15 (KJV)**

* In *Bendy in Nightmare Run*, Boris' model appearance is a replica some of his PhatMojo merchandise products (such as hangers and collectible figure packs).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook*, page 48
2. ↑ *Bendy and the Ink Machine: Dreams Come to Life* - Chapter 3, page 15
3. ↑ Con Safos Magazine - Ink Demons & the Indie Canadian Game Scene: An Interview with ‘Bendy and the Ink Machine’ Programmer, Mike Mood