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Speaks Fluent Animal (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:Hawkman_birdtalk_250_5059.jpg|link=Hawkman|rightframe|Like all good crimefighters, Hawkman regularly talks with his network of informants.]]
 
{{quote|''"Are fish really worth talking to? Our genius scientists taught a gorilla sign language, and do you know what we learned? 'Banana is pretty! Banana make gorilla happy!'"''|'''[http://www.seanbaby.com/superfriends/aquamanb.htm Seanbaby]''', on ''[[Aquaman (Comic Book)|Aquaman]]''}}
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It seems as if the presence of someone who [[Speaks Fluent Animal]] heightens an animal's intelligence. They will verbally express an understanding of human actions that the animal's own actions up to then gave no indication.
 
The ability to talk to animals is also a common superpower. In the early days, it was fairly common, but due to the perceived lameness of Aquaman-style "talking to fish", it's now most often given to the [[Super Team]]'s [[Wacky Guy]] or [[Plucky Comic Relief]] as a sort of [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|joke power]]. It's more useful when you can [[The Beast Master|command the animals you communicate with]]; sometimes, the communication part is left out, and they can only really command animals to do things, rather than actually converse with them. This tends to avoid the problems mentioned above, in that you might be able to assume the animals are simply being compelled to do the commands by whatever magic or [[Applied Phlebotinum]] gave the character the powers in the first place.[[Heart Is an Awesome Power|Sometimes a character can make both work for them.]]
 
Speaking of which, unrelated shows with lots of magic or [[Applied Phlebotinum]] running around can sometimes result in a device that can replicate these kinds of effects for a one episode story.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* As mentioned above, [[Aquaman (Comic Book)|Aquaman]] Telepathically Commands ALL aquatic life. Doesn't ask, Telepathically Commands. However, many of them are quite stupid. Shark: "This is a nice hole." When Aquaman rescues them from a tuna net: "Let us look at the hole some more."
** It's also been shown that this ability can extend to humans (or at least {{spoiler|Martians}}), to an extent. In ''JLA'', when an enemy [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|ridicules Aquaman for being able to talk to fish]], he isolates the bad guy's basal ganglia (inherited from marine ancestors) and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|gives him a seizure]].
* [[Hawkman]] can talk to birds. Given the kind of stick Aquaman's been given though, he keeps quiet about it these days.
** [[The Falcon (Comic Book)|The Falcon]] can talk to birds telepathically.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Heavily subverted in an episode of ''[[Eerie Indiana]]'', in which a kid's braces give him the ability to talk to animals... {{spoiler|and he finds out [[Paranoia Fuel|they are planning a full-scale]] [[GaiasGaia's Vengeance|takeover of the Earth]] and will probably kill him for knowing too much.}}
* The title character from ''[[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr]].'' regularly has conversations with his horse Comet, who doesn't know he's a horse.
* Vince Noir from ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'' has this ability in the first series. His companion Howard Moon feels that it's wasted on him because he only uses the gift to talk about how much he admires Gary Numan.
* The Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' speaks all languages, including those of animals. He talked to a cow in one comic, and convinced a cat to investigate a strange room for him in ''The Lodger'', as no one would notice it and he could understand its meows.
* Spock from ''[[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' can communicate through Vulcan telepathy with many beings that would count as being basically animals. In ''[[Star Trek IV the Voyage Home (Film)|Star Trek IV the Voyage Home]]'', he actually mind-melded with Earth whales and deemed them most intelligent.
* Subverted on a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch called "Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals". It's [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]]; [[Mark Wahlberg]] talks to animals. [[This Is Reality|They don't talk back]].
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* From ''[[Captain Planet and The Planeteers]]'', Ma-ti, with the power of [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|heart]].
* Bubbles from ''[[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|The Powerpuff Girls]]'' can speak to animals. In one episode in which this would have been exceptionally useful, she loses her voice due to a bee stinging her throat.
** Partially [[Justified Trope|justified]] in that Bubbles' particular power is the ability to speak ''any'' language. At least, that's what this troper was led to believe.
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* In the ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'' episode "Raise the Oozy Scab" Jimmy has a device that allows him to speak to fish, which he hopes to use to ask for directions to a sunken treasure. It fails, as the fish just want to talk gossip. Later, when the sub is attacked by a giant squid, Jimmy modifies the device to be able to speak squid and convince it to let them go.
* Communication with animals was one of the abilities given to ''[[She Ra Princess of Power (Animation)|She Ra Princess of Power]].'' For some reason it wasn't frequently in evidence on the show; this troper recalls it being used in the series pilot, and in at least one other episode.
* Eliza Thornberry, in ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]''. (Her first name may be a [[Shout -Out]]: Eliza ''Doolittle'' was the female lead in ''[[My Fair Lady]]''. In the film, the male lead was played by Rex Harrison, who also starred in the 1967 version of ''Dr Dolittle''.)
* In the ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' episode "The Bird-bot of Alcatraz", Bender suffers an accident that causes him to reboot, and automatically goes into "Penguin mode" due to penguins being the first thing he sees upon reactivating. Interestingly enough, after he later returns to his default "human" mode, he appears to retain the ability to speak Penguin, encouraging them (in their own language) to attack the people trying to hunt them. Whether or not he can perform all this with other animals is unknown, but it seems entirely possible.
** In "The Sting" Bender is given a bee language cartridge to allow him to communicate with the space bees. So he's likely able to communicate with any animals with the right software.
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* Anne-Marie from ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]''.
* In the ''[[Jonny Quest]]'' TOS episode "Werewolf of the Timberland", the Indian named White Feather could speak to wolves and owls (and presumably other forest creatures).
* Possibly a [[Shout -Out]] to ''[[Mary Poppins]]'', in ''[[Arthur (Animation)|Arthur]]'', baby Kate can talk to dogs and cats. To them, people speak pure gibberish.
** Indeed, a story in the program's thirteenth season confirms that, in fact, all babies can speak to animals. As they start to grow up, they gradually begin to lose this power.
* Kronk from ''[[The Emperor's New Groove (Disney)|The Emperors New Groove]]'' can talk to little woodland creatures, thanks to his Junior Chipmunk training.
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[[Category:Animal Anthropomorphism Tropes]]
[[Category:Speaks Fluent Animal]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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