Basic Trope: Animals given humanoid intelligence and usually speech.
- Straight: Rover the Dog is given human-like intelligence and speech.
- Exaggerated:
- Rover is lured into a room by Mad Scientist Alice and is sprayed with a gas. Rover gains thumbs, becomes bipedal and plantigrade. He is then compelled to put on a t-shirt, shorts, and a pair of boots that were left in the room by Alice.
- Humanity Ensues
- A virus is given human-level intelligence and the ability to communicate.
- Downplayed: Rover can talk when he feels like it, which isn't often, and sometimes acts human. He enjoys being petted and chasing balls, but has too much of a sense of shame to relieve himself on fire hydrants.
- Justified:
- This story is set in the far future.
- Or is set in a fantasy setting, with mythological creatures and sentient "animals".
- Inverted:
- Animorphism
- Was Once a Man
- Someone (or something) causes a human to become no smarter than a dog and unable to communicate.
- Subverted:
- They always were that smart — it turns out that all the procedure does is modify their vocal chords so they can speak.
- While Rover may have gained intelligence he isn't in any way human in psychology and doesn't gain speech or similar. He shows dangerous levels of highly specialized cunning and how to exploit tools but doesn't act or think anywhere like a human.
- Double Subverted: That's what the uplift consists of.
- It turns out that it was a result of socialization and trauma of being uplifted as an adult with a brain already fairly set beforehand - his aggression was related to being trained as a guard dog before who are specifically taught to think they are in charge and their guarded area is their territory to protect aggressively. Princess an uplifted puppy and socialized like a human is capable of a very rough form of speech and is far more human in psychology and able to operate any one-handed tool with shocking dexterity through sheer practice.
- Parodied: Rover may look like a handsome furry but he retains a lot of his unsanitary dog habits, like eating messily from a bowl, digging holes in the backyard...rolling around in garbage — because they couldn't change Rover himself, or the way his brain works.
- Zig Zagged: Though some animals display human intelligence when given modified vocal cords, others continue to display animal-like intelligence whilst others gradually develop human-like intelligence once learning they can communicate with humans.
- Averted:
- It works by magical means.
- The writers find a different way of showing off science.
- All animals maintain their intelligence at all times.
- Enforced: "We need to appeal to the Furry Fandom, but we can't do magic. How about making the people smart enough to uplift animals?"
- Lampshaded:Alice: I really like Rover now that he's our Captain!
Bob: I liked him better when he was a normal dog. - Invoked: A Mad Scientist seeks to invent a means of giving animals humanlike speech and intelligence.
- Exploited: Animal rights activists use the uplifting technology to free animals from human oppression.
- Defied: "Oh yes, let's develop a technology that can make all the physically superior species our mental equals as well."
- Discussed:Bob: Why was this uplifting technology invented anyways?
Alice: Well, we like to think it helps to connect all species on Earth as one harmonic group. - Conversed: "So in this show Animals are turned to people through science, I wonder what happens if someone eats a Hamburger in front of a Cow-Person?"
- Implied: Rover makes many references to "The Genesis", in the process vaguely describing an advanced lab.
- Deconstructed: With the uplifting technology being about forcing animals to operate under human ideals, serious questions about what humans think of non-humans are brought up. The animals themselves have great difficulty adapting to these radically different humanoid bodies and sensations, thus resulting in many of them being treated as lower than human anyways.
- Reconstructed: Though animals have difficulty adapting and questions about humanity's nature are raised, the animals are able to benefit from far greater respect now that humans acknowledge them as equal. Thus they're no longer slaughtered for food, being exploited for their materials, or as test subjects for potentially harmful substances.
- Played for Laughs: Rover is easily distracted from his duties by a tossed tennis ball or a squirrel — see Parodied, the same reason applies.
- Played for Drama: Uplifted Animals are NOT equal members of society; they are treated as less than slaves by their human masters, and their leader, Rover, risks his life daily trying to liberate them. It takes a Heel–Face Turn from the son of some country's leader to liberate them.
Uplifted Animal now has human hands and fingers. Was that meant to happen?
