Ever notice in fictional works aimed at children,
animals tend to have much more (or at least a little more) intelligence than they should?
Nearly Normal Animals don't talk (though Largely Normal Animals can have some sort of
Animal Talk) and are usually quadrupedal if they are that way in real life. They are very much animals, particularly when it comes to instincts, priorities and motivations and they very rarely wear clothes. Like many
Speech Impaired Animals and
Talking Animals,
Nearly Normal Animals lack hands and walk on all fours, negating the possibility of performing many human tasks and behaviors.
Nearly Normal Animals come in three types, largely normal, mostly normal, and almost normal.
Largely Normal Animals (LNAs) clearly have thought processes and often
human-level intelligence but don't talk freely with humans. These animal characters may talk to each other, essentially
having their own language, but humans won't understand them. That is, unless they
can talk to animals or if the language is able to be learned. Their thought processes and personality is still very much like that of whatever animal they are. Many of them are able to make human-like arm and hand gestures and some can even grasp objects as if they have opposable thumbs. A few examples are bipedal even if their species isn't naturally so, but the majority of them stay on four legs if they are a four-legged animal in
Real Life. A few LNAs can sometimes act like the more anthropomorphic
Civilized Animal or
Funny Animal when required by a joke.
Mostly Normal Animals (MNAs) have clear thought processes as well as a few human and/or some or several
doglike characteristics (greater frequency of uttering sounds, human-like expressions) that still don't detract from their animality. Like Level 3, but unlike Level 1, they don't talk
Animal Talk. Their thought processes and personality is still very much like that of whatever animal they are. These animals usually don't go beyond being able to make human-like hand or arm gestures sometimes. They stay on all four legs if they are four-legged animals. This is the level between Level 1 and Level 3.
Almost Normal Animals (ANAs) have very few human and/or a few
doglike characteristics (e.g., greater frequency of uttering sounds, human-like expressions) that don't retract from their animality, but they allow an audience not well versed in the way of animal behavior to understand what's going on in the animals' minds. Can be merely a result of
Did Not Do the Research or completely intended. They don't make human-like arm or hand gestures and they stay on all four legs if they're four-legged animals.
This is the low end of the
Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism. The next step up is
Partially Civilized Animal.
Related to
Amplified Animal Aptitude. [LNAs] are often but not always
Intellectual Animals.
See
Speech Impaired Animal and
Talking Animal for [LNAs] that can talk freely with humans.
open/close all folders
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Ein from Cowboy Bebop. He is smart enough to read, play chess, figure out stuff Spike and Jet can't and even hacking. Problem is, he's otherwise a totally normal dog — he just has human-like intelligence — and thus he can't speak, only bark and point out stuff.
- The cats in Chi's Sweet Home
Comic Books
- Hot Dog of Archie Comics would act like this in his own title, where he was revealed to have a high-tech super-structure underneath his common dog house. The series didn't last long.
Disney and Pixar
- The animals in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Figaro and Cleo from Pinocchio
- The animals in Dumbo except Timothy Q. Mouse, the crows, and the stork the Civilized Animals.
- The animals in Bambi
- Lucifer the cat, Bruno the dog, and Major the horse in Cinderella
- The flamingos and hedgehogs, the broom-headed dog, and the Tulgy Wood critters in Alice in Wonderland
- Nana the dog, Tick Tock the crocodile, and other animals from Peter Pan, Fairies, and Jake And The Neverland Pirates
- The dogs and most of the other animals in Lady and the Tramp except the songbirds and pigeons, which are completely normal animals.
- The animals in Sleeping Beauty are this, especially Diablo the raven.
- The dogs and other animals in 101 Dalmatians
- The animals in The Jungle Book, though Louie the orangutan and the monkeys are Partially Civilized Animals.
- The cats, dogs, horse, and geese in The Aristocats are this, though the geese and the cats (especially the cats in Scat Cat's gang) are Partially Civilized Animals and Roquefort the mouse falls squarely into the Civilized Animal trope.
- Rufus the cat from The Rescuers
- The animals in The Small One
- The animals in The Foxandthe Hound.
- The animals in Oliver & Company
- Flounder, Flotsam, Jetsam, and many of the other marine animals The Little Mermaid
- Most of the Australian wildlife from The Rescuers Down Under.
- Abu the monkey from Aladdin straddles the line between this trope and Speech Impaired Animal.
- The animals in the three Lion King movies are this, though Timon and Rafiki are Civilized Animals.
- Meeko, Flit, and Percy in Pocahontas
- Crikee from Mulan
- Many of the animals in Tarzan, especially the gorillas and elephants.
- The dinosaurs and lemurs from Dinosaur. Yes, even the Carnotaurus.
- Bucky the squirrel from The Emperor's New Groove.
- The animals in Brother Bear.
- The animals in Home on the Range except Lucky Jack, who is a Civilized Animal.
- The animals in The Wild
- The animals in Bolt
- Stella the dog and Marcel the cat from The Princess and the Frog
- Pascal the chameleon and Maximus the horse from Tangled
- Mickey Mouse's dog, Pluto The Pup is this, as are many other "non-anthro" animals in the Classic Disney Shorts.
- The fish and other animals in Finding Nemo.
- The dogs in Up
Film - Animated
Film - Live Action
Literature
Live Action TV
- The titular kangaroo of Skippy The Bush Kangaroo not only showed a remarkable understanding of English, but would often imitate human behaviors like playing a piano or the drums.
- Lassie can not only understand, but also bark in some sort of code that humans understand to mean Timmy in a Well.
Newspaper Comics
- The four-legged Garfield in the earlier comic strips.
- The four-legged Snoopy from the earlier Peanuts comic strips.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- The animals in Krypto The Superdog except Mechanicat, who is a cyborg Funny Animal cat. The animal characters sometimes lean toward the Civilized Animal trope at times.
- The animals in the Curious George movies and TV series are this, though Curious George is a non-talking Civilized Animal himself.
- Most of the non-anthro animals in Arthur including Pal and Nemo.
- The animals in Martha Speaks except Martha, who is a Talking Animal.
- The cats in Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat.
- Marc Anthony the dog from Looney Tunes.
- Also, Wile E. and the Roadrunner, though a few cartoons show Wile E. as a Civilized Animal.
- Buttons the dog from Animaniacs
- Also, Newt as Schnappsi the dog in "Puttin on The Blitz"
- Sykes the crow, Scout the dog, and Squeakers the rat, Pharfignewton the horse, and Gobbles the turkey fall here too.
- Gary the snail in Sponge Bob Square Pants, though in his dream, he's a Funny Animal like SpongeBob.
- Opalescence the white Persian cat and the other animals and pets from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic
- The monkey in Chuggington
- Azrael from The Smurfs
- Tom and Jerry are usually shown as this, though sometimes they are shown as Civilized Animals.
- All animals in Phineas and Ferb except the agent animals, who are Civilized Animals.
Video Games
- Mabari war hounds of the Dragon Age series are said to be smart enough to talk, wise enough not to. They're certainly able to understand what people say and Hawke's mabari was able to learn to play cards. Dwarven enchanter Sandal even seems to have figured out how to speak "mabari speak."
Mostly Normal Animal:
Examples
Disney and Pixar
Film - Animated
- The equine cast in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron have some slightly doglike behaviour and expressions. They have human eyebrows and visible, white sclera. The narrator is a horse, and the horses have a sense of humour and can plan ahead. At least some individuals also have romantic love, although Spirit's home herd seems to follow the normal stallion/harem order.
- Dragon the cat from The Secret Of NIMH, as in the book.
- The hawk from Rango
Film - Live Action
Literature
Western Animation
Almost Normal Animal:
Examples
Anime and Manga
Disney and Pixar
Film - Live Action
- The otherwise completely normal moth that Gargamel saw in The Smurfs is able to carry out his order to send a swarm of moths. His order backfired and the moth sent a swarm of flies instead, but still.
Literature
- In the book Indian Paint, the horses were almost normal, and completely unable to talk. This is particularly interesting because part of the book was told from the point of view of one of them.
Western Animation
