Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3542887-20170726025435/@comment-366087-20170817224932

There are some humans who cannot even talk…

Depends on the franchise and the narrative. Some anthropomorphic animal franchises have animals which are "people", meaning in a human-like social structure, and others which are considered *by them* as "just animals". For example, if the "people" are herbivores, they might consider carnivores as "non-people". Or vice versa.

Another franchise might *only* depict a particular species as "the people" and all others as mindless animals.

So what that means is each narrative is to be adjudged on a case-by-case basis.

Now, in the case of the Madagascar 2 shark, I would have to say: not a villain. Yes, its pursuit on dry ground is *not* "normal"—at least not that far; sharks have been known to travel out of the water after prey up to 30 feet, even *dying* because they're not able to get back into water…hey, they're *mindless*, relatively speaking—but then this narrative is also strongly played for laughs.

In addition, there are *myths* about varied animals which even more serious franchises perpetuate. Not only out of misinformation, but also for the sake of drama. Many a Mythbusters myth involved what is or is not "movie magic" for the sake of "good story".

What is missing for this shark is *human-level intent*, and without that, *I* feel the extent of the shark's dry-ground pursuit is played for the lulz more than any sense of "normal animal" behavior.

That's *my* assessment. Feel free to ask other Admins to express theirs.