Too much IPA; voicing Happy Feet
Am hanging out in NYC for the holiday break; I hope your Thanksgiving was as great as mine (as great as one can be spent with a surrogate family! which is pretty great, actually!). I’ve noticed a couple of funny things while here.
One, I’ve been looking at too much phonetic transcription. On the subway I saw a flyer for some company (? blog? website?) that involved the words Sk8ter Boy* Antikz, and I totally thought it meant antiques, like it was a punk rock antique store, rather than antics. Um…also I’m realizing how prevalent it is to typographically use the plural -z for fashion, even when you’d never actually produce a voiced fricative there because it’s following a voiceless plosive.
Two, I saw Happy Feet last night, which is not really happy in the end (that’s a pseudo-spoiler), and also is heavily reliant on racial stereotypes as relayed through voice quality/dialect. The main character, Mumbles, voiced by Elijah Wood, sounds typically midwestern American (=white), as do most of his penguin colony. They are sort of milquetoast penguins, they are very straightlaced and rigid about their one penguin, one heartsong (um, see the movie and you’ll understand?) rule. This is made very clear by the vaguely Scottish-sounding, uppity-voiced old patriarch of the colony, one of his advisors who speaks in something like Shakespearean verse, and the Eastern European singing coach who is very stern and strict. On the other hand, the crazy, freewheelin’, “we like to party” penguin colony Mumbles encounters, represented by a Robin Williams-voiced Ramon, is made up of Hispanic and African-American voices, including the fortunetelling Lovelace, who speaks in sermonic tone. Because these penguins are penguins (duh), the dialects are really salient here and index precisely the stereotypical personalities that the different penguin characters are supposed to possess. I *could* go deeper into something about semiotic processes and iconicity here, but I’ll spare you - I’m on vacation, after all.
In sum, if anyone else has seen the movie, I’d be interested to hear thoughts on this matter. I mean, this is not new for cartoons to do (the uproar [!] over the hyenas in The Lion King comes to mind), but I was actually a little uncomfortable at times watching this film. Thank goodness the tap dancing was there to distract me (and great tap dancing it is!). Speaking of tapping, I’m off to do some! I heart NY.
*could’ve been boi
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lippi-green wrote all about that use of dialect in disney films back in the nineties - i think it’s in her book ‘language, ideology, and discrimination in the united states’?
voiced orthography representing voiceless fricatives is love
Comment by joshua — 11/25/2006 @ 11:19 pm
what, this thing won’t show a less than three heart? feh.
Comment by joshua — 11/25/2006 @ 11:20 pm
I didn’t mind so much that that Adelie penguins had Hispanic accents (though why Hispanic in particular could be problematic) nor that the lone Rockclimber penguin sounded black (especially since I think we were supposed to be reminded of Morgan Freeman), but I really couldn’t understand why all the Emperor penguins had different accents. I’m sure it was supposed to be helping us tell them apart, but still … Scottish, ?Slavic?, southern US, midwest US, and a bunch more? It was distracting, if nothing else.
Comment by The Ridger — 11/27/2006 @ 2:36 pm
my first thought, “too much ipa? oh, lauren’s drinking a lot.” my second thought, “i haven’t seen this movie, but it sounds HILARIOUS!”
Comment by katie — 11/29/2006 @ 7:58 am
Speaking of which, how about tghose Japanese-voiced sinister aliens at the beginning of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace?” Whereas making penguins Latino apparently makes them “fun,” making vaguely-humanoid, big-eyed creatures in long robes sound like the villian on a 40’s radio serial makes them “evil.”
I’m not touching the Jar-jar issue with a ten foot pole-pole.
Comment by Seth D. — 11/29/2006 @ 7:36 pm
Not only do they stereotpye the characters but who put together the story line? How does Mumble get back to his colony from the aquariium? The reason for him not being able to sing is not stated- yes he rolled out when he was an egg, but the dad just lives in guilt for the rest of his life. We’re supposed to assume that’s the reason. Also, why is his face different from all the others? Defect from rolling out?
Comment by Holly — 12/8/2006 @ 8:22 pm
I guess your part of the world is different to mine. In Australia there are many ethnic groups that are made fun. Its quite common to see comedians make references to the asians, blacks, kiwis, english, irish, etc. Yes this can be uncomfortable at times especially if you are the only person in the room that the joke is referring to. But happy feet is a family fun movie and most people look past any stereotypes it may have.
Comment by Ben — 3/28/2007 @ 8:43 am
I really enjoyed the film, but I found that they pushed the limits on every subject to a point where it was just pushing very inappropriate, I think the music choices were torturous, and the amount that they relied on stereotypes or race and gender assumptions or pushed gender classification was too much. I have to say I agree with the person above who said at times it was very uncomfortable they way the line was pushed.But at the same time I thought the movie had a lot of brilliance and was quite amazing, just shocking at the same time.
Comment by Mai — 4/24/2007 @ 1:09 am
I noticed all the inuendoes to the movies however I got it for my 2 year old grandson. All he cares is that it is in cartoon format and MUSIC. He asks me to put on Happy Feet so that he can MOVE to the music!
Comment by Fran — 4/7/2008 @ 4:04 pm