Intellectual Animal: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** Particularly the Rocket trio's Meowth, who originally learned to talk to impress a female Meowth (it didn't work).

** Additionally, ''Pokemon'' had a Slowking that could also talk in human speech, though in its case it was because of [[Brilliant but Lazy|the actual high intelligence level inherent in all Slowking.]]

*** Mewtwo fits this trope even more closely, being extremely intelligent, telepathic and not particularly friendly.

** Not Slowpoke!

* Nyanko-sensei/Madara from ''[[Natsume Yuujinchou]]''.

* [[Big Badass Wolf|Zafila]] of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', especially from the third season and up, where, [[All There in the Manual|according to the]] [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot|Megami Sound Stages]], less restrictive military rules for animals in the [[The Federation|TSAB]] means that he's now never seen out of his wolf form.

* Chi from ''[[Chi's Sweet Home]]'', although she's pretty low on the intellect scale, essentially being a cat toddler. Other older pets are smarter.

* It isn't clear how smart all of the animals from ''[[Mori no Ando]]'' are but [[Turtle Power|the turtle]] appears to be able to read kanji and the fish can speak English.

 

== Film ==

 

* The animal gods from ''[[Princess Mononoke]]''.

* Gromit from the ''[[Wallace and Gromit]]'' shorts and film - it can be argued that he's much smarter than his [[Bungling Inventor]] owner.

* Gourmet chef Remy from ''[[Ratatouille]]'', a rat.

* In the film adaptation of ''[[Watership Down]]'' the main group of rabbits are more intelligent than normal rabbits but they're still rabbits. All but two or three of them don't quite understand things like how some objects are able to sit on top of water and not sink and cars and tractors appear to be monsters that run along roads.

* [[Godzilla]]/Gojia and most of his [[Kaiju]] friends, although their intelligence varies from one film/adaptation to another. On average, Goji-san himself seems to have human or near-human intelligence.

* In ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'', a group of rats and a pair of mice are scientifically enhanced to have human-level intelligence. Oddly enough, the family of one of the enhanced mice seem perfectly intellegent themselves, even though it's a rather important plot point that they were ''not'' enhanced above normal mice (it's possible the children were supposed to have [[Lamarck Was Right|inherited]] some of their father's intellect, but the wife is disrciminated against by the rats for being a normal animal). The movie also features a crow who, while not especially smart, is capable of human-level conversation with mice, and an owl who gives life-saving advice.

 

** The Librarian, who technically ''used'' to be human before being turned into an orangutan and found he rather enjoyed it. He's not only quite possibly the most intelligent living thing in all of Ankh-Morpork, but he's also [[Genius Bruiser|capable of grabbing a grown man by his ankles, turning him upside down and bashing his head into the pavement.]]

** Quoth the Raven, one of {{smallcaps| [[Grim Reaper|Death's]]}} companions.

* ''[[Firekeeper]]'' has these in truckloads, considering that basically every wild animal comes in a smart variety.

* Feral in ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'' is a tiger-man so animal-like that he walks on all fours when in private and has back problems from standing on two feet in public.

* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series features a handful of non-humanoid creatures with humanoid-level intelligence, though most aren't any more gruff or cynical than what you'd expect of humans:

** The ''kyree'', wolf-like telepaths with a strong oral (mental?) history.

** The ''dyheli'', deer creatures with [[Psychic Powers]], a stong herd mentality, and the fuzzy concept of free will that you get when you mash the first two together. Probably the most powerful minds in the series; in one novel, a ''dyheli'' herd leader repeatedly displays the ability to ignore mental shields in order to get concepts across.

** There's also the [[Cool Horse|Companions]] and the Firecats, although they're less cool animals and more spirits in useful form or proxies of their deity, respectively.

* Frith and Inle, the rabbits from ''[[Watership Down]]''

* Smaug the [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragon,]] the giant eagles, and Bilbo's thrush in ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]].''

* [[Poul Anderson]]'s novel ''Brain Wave'', where Something sends the IQ's of every animal on Earth soaring, including Humankinds, resulting in [[The Singularity]].

* The Bunyip in Naomi Novik's ''[[Temeraire|Tounges of Serpents]]'', a race of landgators adapted to living underground who set complex traps, communicate between communities and understand the concept of trade/bribery.

* ''[[Harry Potter]]'' invokes this by way of the Wolfsbane Potion, which allows [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolves]] who drink it to keep their mind in a human state.

** ''[[Dinotopia]]'' is an entire island populated by this kind of character. In particular, Bix ''hates'' it when anyone calls her their [[Non-Human Sidekick]].

 

* Mr. Ed from ''[[Mister Ed]]'', although they used peanut butter to get his lips to move.

** Actually, the peanut butter thing is just a weird rumour. Though why somebody bothered to start a rumour involving peanut butter and a fictional talking horse is beyond this troper. In reality, they used fishing line beneath his lips.

 

== Mythology And Religion ==

** [[Statistically Speaking]] Okkus intelligence is below average. Though seeing as the average intelligence of a bear is a whopping 2, that shouldn't count too much against him.

* ''[[Lunar]]''

** And Ruby from ''Lunar 2: Eternal Blue''

** PSI-users can communicate with animals using telepathy, though Lucas could do this even before his powers awakened.

* The mabari hounds from ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' are described as having almost-human intelligence, and legend even tells that they're "smart enough to speak, but wise enough not to". You can recruit a mabari into your party, and he occasionally "converses" with your other party members while you wander around.

 

* Blackwing the raven from ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' has recently become this, offering advice and insight to his master, Vaarsuvius.

* Dietzel from ''[[Wapsi Square]]''.

* Any wizard/sorcerer familiars in ''[[Our Little Adventure]]''. Angelika's got a rat named [[Meaningful Name|Norveg]] and Simonicus has a cat named [[Ironic Name|Ebony.]]

 

== Western Animation ==

 

* Brian from ''[[Family Guy]]'' <s>may also qualify</s> definitely qualifies.

{{quote| '''Homer''': Let's see, "The steak was too..." Come on, help me out here.<br />

'''Santa's Little Helper''': Ruff!<br />

'''Assistant''': Maybe we should finally tell them the big secret: that [[Apes in Space|all the chimps we sent into space]] came back super-intelligent.<br />

'''Chimp''': No, I don't think we'll be telling them ''that''. }}

* Corneil from ''[[Watch My Chops]]''.

* Shipwreck's talking parrot Polly from ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' seems to possess human intelligence, or darn close to it.

* The mammoths in ''[[Cro]]'' are actually smarter than most of the human characters they share screentime with. Although since most of them are neanderthals, this is hardly surprising.

* In ''[[George of the Jungle]]'', Ape (a gorilla, to be precise) is probably the smartest member of the cast.

* A ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' episode was all about a gorilla being turned into this when his DNA was spliced with a human's.