Basic Trope: A non human character who was fully sapient in the original source, is completely nonsapient in the adaptation.
- Straight: Bob had an anthropomorphic dog named Alex in the book, who walked upright. But he walks on all fours, and barks like a real dog in the movie.
- Exaggerated:
- Alex the dog isn't even a living creature in the movie, but just an inanimate plush toy.
- All talking animals in the original work are brought down to simple-minded beasts.
- Alex was a human character in the book.
- Downplayed:
- Alex can't talk in the movie, but can still understand Bob.
- Alex is changed from a smart anthropomorphic dog, to a moronic (albeit still sapient) sidekick.
- Justified: There were implications in the book that Bob was anthropomorphizing Alex, a normal dog, into a Sapient Pet.
- Inverted: Bob's dog Alex is a normal dog in the book, but a fully sapient anthropomorphic one in the movie.
- Subverted: Alex does speak near the end of the movie.
- Double Subverted: ...but it turns out to be a ventriloquism trick by Bob, or a line of dialogue from an off-screen television show that coincided with Alex yawning.
- Enforced: "We didn't have the budget to hire a voice actor for Bob's dog Alex. So, it was either this, or not even include him."
- Lampshaded: "For some reason, when you said Alex was smarter than most dogs, I expected him to be able to talk, (turns to the audience) like in the book."
