History Main / SapientAllAlong

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Babies are often mistaken for mentally handicapped people. Every year people mistake every baby they see for a mentally handicapped person, completely unaware that people who aren't mentally handicapped are being born. This often leads to saying "gootchie gootchie goo".
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* Babies are often mistaken for mentally handicapped people. Every year people assume mistake every baby they see for a mentally handicapped person, completely unaware that people who aren't mentally handicapped are being born. This often leads to saying "gootchie gootchie goo".

* WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys may be the most thorough example in terms of demonstrating that every single animal is actually sapient, each episode has a new location and group of species demonstrating this to Eliza. Environmental protection is always promoted, but not recognizing animals for the sapient beings they are.
* Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog demonstrates this trope when the two main characters are turned into frogs. Apparently there was even an alligator that learned to play the trumpet, but never thought of using his remarkable hand coordination to try writing down that he was sapient.
* PoundPuppiesTheLegendOfBigPaw takes place in a world where dogs and humans gained the ability to communicate in the middle ages, and it seems to be common knowledge among humans. This gets a little disturbing when you realize that despite full knowledge that dogs are as intelligent as humans, they are still treated as pets.
* The PBS show ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' eventually revealed that babies and animals are able to communicate, and both secretly sapient. Even insects were eventually shown to be sapient.
* Usually averted in ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons''. Most spells or other magic used to communicate with animals state that the animals' speech should be limited by their lesser intelligence, so you aren't going to be able to have a philosophical discussion with a dog.
* Averted in CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs. Flint develops an animal translator and places it on a monkey named Steve (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris). Steve is still depicted to have the intelligence of a monkey, being incapable of forming complete sentences and not being able to say more than his own name and whatever object is in front of him at the time.
* Subverted in WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory, where Dexter creates a device which allows a dog to talk, only for the dog to just repeat things like, "Look, there's the thing! It's a thing! Look! A thing! There it is!" Further demolished when the dog's owner shows up, and is just about as smart as the dog.
* The ''Literature/DoctorDolittle'' series revolves around the title character learning to speak the languages of the animals. All animals in the series are intelligent, and have languages (even, for instance, shellfish, whose languages he spends much of the second book specialising in).
** This [[http://http://quantumbranching.deviantart.com/art/Dolittle-s-World-274163008 AlienSpaceBats setting]] on Website/DeviantArt setting shows what happens when humanity at large finds out.
* The fanfic HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality gives us this exchange between Harry and Draco, after Draco learns by accident of Harry's Parselmouth ability (which, as in canon, Harry himself was unaware of).
-->Harry stared at Draco.
-->"You mean just ''magical'' snakes, right?"
-->"N-no," said Draco. He was looking rather pale, and was still stammering, but had at least stopped the incoherent noises he'd been making earlier. "You're a Parselmouth, you can speak Parseltongue, it's the language of all snakes everywhere. You can understand any snake when it talks, and they can understand when you talk to them... Harry, you can't ''possibly'' believe you were Sorted into Ravenclaw! ''You're the Heir of Slytherin!''"
-->...
-->...
-->...
-->"SNAKES ARE SENTIENT?"
* The toys from ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory''.
--> '''Woody''': (to Sid)[[ExorcistHead We toys can see everything... (he spins his head around 360 degrees)]] [[NightmareFace ...so PLAY NICE!!!]]
* Averted in ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheRedKing''. One of the characters can talk to animals, who generally have less of an understanding of the world than the humans.
* In one of the WizardOfOz books, the characters wonder why Toto is the only animal in Oz who never talks. He reveals he could talk, but was afraid if he did, Dorothy would stop treating him like a pet. And he kinda liked the pampering.
* In the ''KnownSpace'' series, dolphins turn out to have been sapient all along, and are granted the same rights as humans [[AlternateHistory in the 1990s]]. Humans develop a thriving industry in selling artificial hands to dolphins, and they sue us for whaling.
* {{Subverted}} in a ''ComicStrip/RobotmanAndMonty'' storyline where a TranslatorCollar allows Flashy the Cat to speak... and he can't form coherent sentences, only utter random words. [[spoiler:DoubleSubverted later: he spoke seemingly random words because he was solving a crossword puzzle.]]
* Toyed with in ''Literature/TheImmortals''. Animals have unique magic that lets them "talk" to each other, and intelligibly. Daine communicates with them easily and few of them are too simpleminded to grasp her ideas. However, they don't think to try interspecies communication ''until'' Daine suggests it, because they're not good at "ideas" and other kinds of abstract thought.

* Variation with ''{{Tron}}'' where instead of animals, it's ''computer programs''. If you get digitized into a computer you can have a normal conversation with a word processor.
* The Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes had this in the Silver Age with the [[DorkAge Legion of Super-Pets]]. Proty, a shapeshifting blob, was capable of not only turning into Superboy's shape, but speaking to the point where people could think he is Superboy. He could also communicate with all the other Super-Pets telepathically on a level implying that they were all similarly sentient. Including Superboy's dog.

* {{Up}} plays this trope straight for the most part; the dogs that serve as the BigBad's {{Mooks}} are extremely competent. However, Dug is an aversion similar to the Dexter's Lab example above, telling everyone he meets he loves them (being a talking version of a big friendly dog), while also being distracted by sounds that may be squirrels.

* Averted in CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs. Flint develops an animal translator and places it on a monkey named Steve (voiced by [[HeyItsThatVoice Neil Patrick Harris]]). Steve is still depicted to have the intelligence of a monkey, being incapable of forming complete sentences and not being able to say more than his own name and whatever object is in front of him at the time.

* TheWildThornberrys may be the most thorough example in terms of demonstrating that every single animal is actually sapient, each episode has a new location and group of species demonstrating this to Eliza. Environmental protection is always promoted, but not recognizing animals for the sapient beings they are.
* ThePrincessAndTheFrog demonstrates this trope when the two main characters are turned into frogs. Apparently there was even an alligator that learned to play the trumpet, but never thought of using his remarkable hand coordination to try writing down that he was sapient.

** This [[http://http://quantumbranching.deviantart.com/art/Dolittle-s-World-274163008 AlienSpaceBats setting]] on DeviantArt setting shows what happens when humanity at large finds out.

* Usually averted in ''DungeonsAndDragons''. Most spells or other magic used to communicate with animals state that the animals' speech should be limited by their lesser intelligence, so you aren't going to be able to have a philosophical discussion with a dog.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BackAtTheBarnyard', it's mentioned that the reason that the reason why the main characters don't let humans know they can talk is because they wouldn't be able to live on the farm anymore. Evidently, they suffer HappinessInSlavery.

* In WesternAnimation/BackToTheBackyard, it's mentioned that the reason that the reason why the animals don't let humans know they can talk is because they wouldn't be able to live on the farm anymore. Evidently, they suffer happiness in slavery.

* Toyed with in the TortallUniverse. Exposure to TheBeastmaster Daine makes animals more and more intelligent in human ways - and these animals ''do'' make the effort to communicate.

* ''ComicBook/MarvelStarWars: Plif'' has a small-scale one where the cuddly rabbitlike animals the Rebels have been playing with and allowing to sleep on their beds since arriving on Arbra reveal themselves to be sentient.

* DoctorDolittle, moreso The Remake than the original, where we actually hear the animals talk.

* The toys from ''ToyStory''.

* Subverted in DextersLaboratory, where Dexter creates a device which allows a dog to talk, only for the dog to just repeat things like, "Look, there's the thing! It's a thing! Look! A thing! There it is!" Further demolished when the dog's owner shows up, and is just about as smart as the dog.

* Averted in ''ChildrenOfTheRedKing''. One of the characters can talk to animals, who generally have less of an understanding of the world than the humans.

* Averted in CharlieBone. One of the characters can talk to animals, who generally have less of an understanding of the world than the humans.

* The PBS show {{Arthur}} eventually revealed that babies and animals are able to communicate, and both secretly sapient. Even insects were eventually shown to be sapient.
* Usually averted in DungeonsAndDragons. Most spells or other magic used to communicate with animals state that the animals' speech should be limited by their lesser intelligence, so you aren't going to be able to have a philosophical discussion with a dog.

--> '''Woody''': (to Sid)[[AbnormalLimbRotationRange We toys can see everything... (he spins his head around 360 degrees)]] [[NightmareFace ...so PLAY NICE!!!]]

* Averted in CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs. Flint develops an animal translator and places it on a monkey named Steve. Steve is still depicted to have the intelligence of a monkey, being incapable of forming complete sentences and not being able to say more than his own name and whatever object is in front of him at the time.

In real life, there are mental differences between types of animals that go beyond incompatible vocal abilities. If we managed to make an animal translator in real life, they would not be able to communicate and interact exactly like humans. Not so in fiction, in an otherwise realistic setting, the ability to talk to animals will often result in every species having the same mental capabilities as humans, which they apparently always did. You'd think they'd try harder to communicate with humans if this is the case, but they're content to wait until a human bridges the language gap for them.