(Re)Creating Language Identities in Animated Films

Dubbing Linguistic Variation

Vincenza Minutella

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030566371
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030566388
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Film & Video
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book describes the dubbing process of English-language animated films produced by US companies in the 21st century, exploring how linguistic variation and multilingualism are used to create characters and identities and examining how Italian dubbing professionals deal with this linguistic characterisation. The analysis carried out relies on a diverse range of research tools: text analysis, corpus study and personal communications with dubbing practitioners. The book describes the dubbing workflow and dubbing strategies in Italy and seeks to identify recurrent patterns and therefore norms, as well as stereotypes or creativity in the way multilingualism and linguistic variation are tackled. It will be of interest to students and scholars of translation, linguistic variation, film and media.

© The Author(s) 2021

V. Minutella(Re)Creating Language Identities in Animated FilmsPalgrave Studies in Translating and Interpretinghttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56638-8_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Vincenza Minutella¹

(1)

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

Vincenza Minutella

Email: [email protected]

1.1 Methodology

1.2 Outline of the Book

References

Keywords

Linguistic variationMultilingualismTranslation strategiesDescriptive approachCorpus basedDubbing professionals

End Abstract

This book focuses on the issue of the portrayal and recreation of linguistic identities in English-language animated films produced by US majors. Language variation and varieties are a means used to represent identities and have been employed for centuries as a characterisation tool both in literature and cinema. The way in which characters speak carries a wealth of information, which in multimodal texts such as films is combined with visual elements to convey meaning. In the case of animated films, voice actors develop the linguistic characterisation of animated characters by working on voice quality, intonation, rhythm, timbre, also resorting to specific accents which can immediately trigger connotations and stereotypes in the audience’s mind. As pointed out by Wells:

Accents constitute an important part of many stereotypes. We use indexical information we collect from listening to a person speak in order to slot him into an appropriate stereotype. […] a hearer, having made a stereotype identification of a speaker on the basis of his or her accent, then attributes to him or her all kinds of other qualities that are popularly associated with the stereotype in question. (1982, pp. 29–30)

Animated films as a genre are neither realistic nor dramatic: they focus on comedy and humour, they exploit the interaction between verbal and visual stereotypes, often exaggerating them in order to create comedy. As argued by Brode, “cartoons – with their extremely (and, for anyone who understands the medium, necessarily) broad form of portraiture – rely more heavily on caricature than any other cinematic form” (2005, p. 103). The meanings created by verbal/visual interaction in animated films cannot be ignored and must indeed be analysed in order to understand how filmmakers create characters. Therefore, since dialogue is the only element which is altered when the film crosses borders to another country, this book focuses on the verbal element and on the way characters speak in animated films and in their dubbed versions. Nevertheless, our analysis will make some reference to visual elements combined with verbal ones where relevant. Animated films have been chosen as the object of study due to their popularity, their use of humour, and the double audience they address, which makes them complex and interesting audiovisual products. In fact, although they are mainly aimed at children, they are conceived in such a way as to appeal to adults as well and they have different layers of meaning. A further reason for choosing animated films as the focus of this investigation is that they are dubbed in various countries, also in traditional subtitling countries, due to the young audience they are aimed at. As a result, the issues discussed in this study, though focusing on the Italian context, could be relevant in several other countries.

The translation of linguistic variation is one of the most difficult and thorny issues in audiovisual translation. A realistic or stylised representation of language variation is usually exploited in films to create characters and to establish a setting. Lippi-Green points out that:

Film uses language variation and accent to draw character quickly, building on established preconceived notions associated with specific loyalties, ethnic, racial, or economic alliances. This shortcut to characterization means that certain traits need not be laboriously demonstrated by means of a character’s actions and an examination of motive. (1997, p. 81)

Similarly, Kozloff notes that “[r]ecognizable, clichéd dialects are used on-screen to sketch in a character’s past and cultural heritage, to locate each person in terms of his or her financial standing, education level, geographical background, or ethnic group” (2000, p. 82) (see also Lippi-Green 2012; Hodson 2014). This applies to animated films where different varieties—geographical, temporal, social, ethnic and idiolects—are used to build quick characterisation and to mould specific identities, thus often reinforcing cultural stereotypes. The way a character speaks conveys meaning and associations that may or may not be recognised by the audience. If we consider that the main audience of animated films is children, this issue is particularly important and deserves attention. As observed by Hodson, “the fact remains that the language varieties used in the film[s] serve to guide the audience towards making certain assumptions about the characters, and that these varieties were the result of choices, made consciously or otherwise, by the filmmakers” (2014, p. 70). Animated characters are defined verbally through the type of language they use, and voice actors learn to create characters by using specific accents and varieties, which are called ‘dialects’ by dialect coaches and in manuals for actors. For instance, the manual Voice-Over for Animation explains that “dialects are another way to differentiate your characters” and describes “the basics of twelve of the most common dialects used in animation” (Wright and Lallo 2009, p. 57). The authors remind aspiring voice-over actors of animated characters that “dialects used in animation may be less about authentic realistic speech and more about portraying a character in a way that is believable to the audience and funny”, and advise them on playing with heavy accents or “only a hint of an accent” (Wright and Lallo 2009, p. 60). The above comments highlight the importance of accents and language varieties as a means for characterisation and especially as a means for comedy. As each linguistic variety plays an important role in the creation of character, and since language varieties and languages can be defined in different ways, an explanation of the terminology used in this book to discuss them is provided below. We start, however, with the main phases of the dubbing process before moving on to the central issue of language varieties.

Describing the components of dubbing script preparation in their chronological order, the first is a close translation of the source text dialogue into the target language followed by its adaptation (or localisation) into a dialogue which also complies with the requirements of synchronisation (lip and kinesic synchrony as well as isochrony), ready for the final stage of recording the dialogue. Simply put, we can say that there are three main phases of dubbing script preparation and output: translation, adaptation (dialogue writing) and recording. However, not everyone—whether professionals or academics—agrees on this segmentation. For example, the term ‘translation’ is often used by professionals and academics alike to refer to both the translation and adaptation/dialogue writing. In other cases, especially among Italian professionals, the term ‘adaptation/dialog...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process
• 3. Translating Language Varieties and Multilingualism in Audiovisual Texts: Research and Conversations with Dubbing Practitioners
• 4. Linguistic Variation in Animated Films from 2001 to 2017
• 5. Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing
• 6. Languages Other Than English/Foreign Languages in Italian Dubbing: Preservation, Neutralisation, Reduction or Adaptation?
• 7. Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing: Does Foreign-Accented English Become Foreign-Accented Italian?
• 8. (Re)Positioning Italianness in Animated Films: No Accent, Foreign Accent, Regional Italian or Dialect?
• 9. Conclusion
• Back Matter