A Cruel, Cruel Curse Upon Animal-Kind
Here’s a theory that hasn’t been confirmed but is worth noting. Every animal in every Pixar movie is cursed with human-like intelligence. If you watch any Pixar film with animals in them, you might come to the same conclusion. Even Doug, the goofy yet lovable dog in Up, has some level of intelligence.
This is how the theory goes. In Brave, the woodcarving witch/Boo experimented on animals with her sorcery. She tried it out on Merida, who still possessed her human knowledge in bear form. That would explain why Maximus and Pascal in Tangled behave so human-like.