(Re) Creating Language Identities in Animated Films: Dubbing Linguistic Variation
(Re) Creating Language Identities in Animated Films: Dubbing Linguistic Variation
(Re) Creating Language Identities in Animated Films: Dubbing Linguistic Variation
(Re)Creating
Language
Identities in
Animated Films
Dubbing Linguistic Variation
Vincenza Minutella
Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting
Series Editor
Margaret Rogers
School of Literature and Languages
University of Surrey
Guildford, UK
This series examines the crucial role which translation and interpreting in
their myriad forms play at all levels of communication in today’s world,
from the local to the global. Whilst this role is being increasingly recog-
nised in some quarters (for example, through European Union legisla-
tion), in others it remains controversial for economic, political and social
reasons. The rapidly changing landscape of translation and interpreting
practice is accompanied by equally challenging developments in their
academic study, often in an interdisciplinary framework and increas-
ingly reflecting commonalities between what were once considered to
be separate disciplines. The books in this series address specific issues in
both translation and interpreting with the aim not only of charting but
also of shaping the discipline with respect to contemporary practice and
research.
(Re)Creating
Language Identities
in Animated Films
Dubbing Linguistic Variation
Vincenza Minutella
Department of Foreign Languages
and Literatures
University of Turin
Turin, Italy
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland
AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To Emanuele and Marianna
Preface
vii
viii Preface
My gratitude goes to all the people who have supported this project.
I would like to thank all my students at the University of Turin, espe-
cially those attending my courses in 2015–2016 and 2019–2020, those
I supervised for their final dissertations and students taking the MA
in Audiovisual Translation (MAVTO). Thank you for your enthusiasm
about the topic of this book, for sharing ideas and for helping me with
the transcriptions.
Thanks go to the publishers and the editors Cathy Scott, Alice
Green and, most of all, to Professor Margaret Rogers for challenging
my research with her feedback and wise comments and for being very
supportive. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their
insights and suggestions and Ms Zobariya Jidda for her kind help.
My deepest gratitude goes to Roberto Morville and Elena Di
Carlo who generously shared their knowledge of the dubbing world and
their vast professional experience, discussed several translation issues with
me and provided precious comments.
ix
x Acknowledgements
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Methodology 8
1.2 Outline of the Book 13
References 15
xiii
xiv Contents
9 Conclusion 375
References 386
Index 399
List of Tables
xxi
xxii List of Tables
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 under-
stand 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 charac-
ters 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 inter-
esting 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 representa-
tion of language variation is usually exploited in films to create characters
and to establish a setting. Lippi-Green points out that:
dialogue into the target language followed by its adaptation (or local-
isation) 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/dialogue writing’ is used instead to
refer to both the translation and the adaptation. In Italy, and especially as
regards animated films, these two tasks are often performed by different
people, in which case the dialogue writer will normally commission a
professional translation with which he/she can then work. The resulting
translation is a kind of draft for the dialogue writer but remains unseen
to others, as does the translator. Sometimes, however, the same person
(the dialogue writer) carries out both tasks. It is wise therefore to be
aware that there is no agreed way of referring to these phases and that the
term ‘translation’ often, though not always, subsumes dialogue writing,
or it can remain hidden under the term ‘adaptation/dialogue writing’.
In the present study I propose to distinguish three main phases—trans-
lation, adaptation/dialogue writing, recording (see Sect. 2.1.3)—as this
is useful for analytical purposes, even though it was impossible to gain
access to the translations underlying the dialogues recorded for each
film. Moreover, as this study will illustrate, there are a number of other
stages between the adaptation and recording phases, as well as a number
of professional roles involved in the dubbing post-production process
leading to the final dialogue as recorded in the dubbing studio.
For the sake of clarity and the purposes of this study, the English
language spoken in the selected films will be divided into native and
non-native varieties of English, as this appears to affect the way in
which the linguistic identity of the characters is represented and then
treated in dubbing. Broad national varieties will be considered. Language
varieties from the United States will be divided into a broad General
1 Introduction 5
the regional varieties of Italian are varieties of the national language that
are spoken in different geographical areas. They differ both from each
other and from standard Italian […] at all levels of the language system,
especially with regard to phonetics, phonology and prosody, and repre-
sent the Italian actually spoken in contemporary Italy. Common Italian
speakers regularly speak a regional variety of Italian, which is termed
regional Italian (henceforth RI). (2011, p. 9)
only the ‘official’ taxonomy of languages but also the incredible range
of subtypes and varieties existing within the various officially recognised
languages, and indeed cutting across and challenging our neat linguistic
typologies. (Delabastita and Grutman 2005, p. 15)
1.1 Methodology
As far as the methodology is concerned, the analysis adopts a descrip-
tive translation studies (DTS) and a corpus-based approach and relies
on a diverse range of research tools: text analysis, corpus study, personal
communications and observations of dubbing sessions. The study of a
large corpus enables us to observe patterns and regularities and provide
a quantitative analysis which may lead to identifying norms regulating
translational practice (Toury 1978/1995, 1980). This is accompanied
by a qualitative linguistic analysis of meaningful sequences and charac-
ters. Macro-textual and micro-textual examination is triangulated with
information gathered from agents involved in the audiovisual translation
process (for methodological issues in audiovisual translation research see
Chaume 2018).
Fundamental sources of information on the dubbing process of
animated films were personal communications with several dubbing
practitioners, all working in Rome and involved in the complex process
of preparation of the dubbed versions of animated films. Over a number
of years of exploring this area of research, and due to my interest in the
professionals’ point of view, I contacted the following dubbing practi-
tioners: Massimiliano Alto (dubbing director and actor), Oreste Baldini
(dubbing actor and director), Stefano Brusa (dubbing actor, dialogue
writer, dubbing director), Elena Di Carlo (translator and dialogue
writer), Chiara Gioncardi (dubbing actress), Marco Guadagno (dubbing
director and actor, dialogue writer), Fiamma Izzo (dubbing director,
dialogue writer, singer), Leslie La Penna (dubbing director and actor,
dialogue writer), Massimiliano Manfredi (dubbing director and actor,
dialogue writer), Marco Mete (dubbing director and actor, dialogue
writer), Roberto Morville (former Creative Director, Disney Char-
acter Voices International, translator and dialogue writer), Maria Grazia
1 Introduction 9
3The transcriptions were carried out by the author and by her students at the University of
Torino. She would like to thank her students for transcribing many of the films discussed in
this book.
4 A table containing the films in alphabetical order is provided in Appendix 1.
1 Introduction 11
As can be seen from the list above, the number of dialogue writers
and dubbing directors who work on animated films is relatively limited.
1 Introduction 13
References
Bell, Allan, and Andy Gibson. 2011. Staging Language: An Introduction to the
Sociolinguistics of Performance. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15 (5): 555–572.
Bleichenbacher, Lukas. 2008. Multilingualism in the Movies: Hollywood Char-
acters and Their Language Choices. Tübingen: Francke Verlag.
Brode, Douglas. 2005. Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney
Entertainment. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Cerruti, Massimo. 2011. Regional Varieties of Italian in the Linguistic Reper-
toire. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 210: 9–28. https://
doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2011.028.
Chaume, Frederic. 2018. An Overview of Audiovisual Translation: Four
Methodological Turns in a Mature Discipline. Journal of Audiovisual Trans-
lation 1 (1): 40–63. http://www.jatjournal.org/index.php/jat/article/view/
43/3.
Coupland, Nikolas. 2001. Dialect Stylization in Radio Talk. Language in Society
30 (3): 345–375.
Delabastita, Dirk, and Rainier Grutman. 2005. Introduction: Fictional Repre-
sentations of Multilingualism and Translation. Linguistica Antverpiensia 4:
11–34.
Dwyer, Tessa. 2005. Universally Speaking: Lost in Translation and Polyglot
Cinema. In Fictionalising Translation and Multilingualism. Linguistica Antver-
piensia, New Series—Themes in Translation Studies, vol. 4., ed. D. Delabastita
and R. Grutman, 295–310.
16 V. Minutella
Websites
https://www.antoniogenna.net/.
https://www.imdb.com/.
2
Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex
Collaborative Process
2.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on the process of dubbing animated films. It aims
at describing its complex nature, showing that it is a process in which
various people and various forces are involved and multiple texts are
created, transferred and rewritten for various reasons until the final
dubbed version emerges and is released in cinemas, reaching the new
target audience. The dubbing process of animated films is clearly not
only a matter of language transfer, a linguistic and cultural issue, but is
also part of an industrial process in an international market (see Chaume
2012). As pointed out by Ferrari, “complex cultural and industrial nego-
tiations are at play when individual countries import globally distributed
programs” (2010, p. 127). Moreover, as in all kinds of translation,
choices at the level of language may be due to extralinguistic factors and
be dictated by cultural, marketing and/or industrial or ideological forces
(Bassnett and Lefevere 1990). This chapter will show that the dubbing
of animated films is a creative industrial post-production process that is
strictly controlled by the US producers. It follows very clear guidelines
and steps in which several agents, to which we return below, take a part.
© The Author(s) 2021 19
V. Minutella, (Re)Creating Language Identities in Animated Films,
Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56638-8_2
20 V. Minutella
producers and their global distributors control all the localising phases up
to the final dubbed product (see also Spiteri Miggiani 2019, p. 176). For
instance, great care is taken in choosing the voices through voice tests and
in guiding the translation/adaptation/dubbing process. As this and the
following chapter will show, the majors often provide the dubbing team
with detailed English Dialogue Lists and appoint dubbing supervisors in
each territory (country or group of countries). Furthermore, the majors
sometimes organise meetings to discuss important issues regarding the
translation of key words and phrases in different languages (Alto, p.c. 27
November 2019; Izzo, p.c. 4 March 2019).
The chapter will explore how the dubbing process works in Italy,
describing its stages, the texts that are (re)created and the agents that
contribute to shaping the final dubbed text. While the chapter will focus
specifically on the Italian context, it is likely that the procedures and
agents are similar in other countries since the animated films analysed are
produced in the United States and then dubbed into various languages in
several different territories. The same material (with localisation guide-
lines) is likely to be sent by the production company to the distributors
and dubbing companies in various countries with obvious specificities
for each country.
1 Fora comprehensive and detailed description of the Dubbing Process, the Dubbing production
chain and the professionals involved see Whitman-Linsen (1992), Chaume (2012, pp. 27–
39), and Spiteri Miggiani (2019). On French dubbing see Bosseaux (2018), on Spanish
Dubbing see Richart Marset (2012), see also Matamala on Catalan dubbing (2010), on Voice-
over animation and dubbing of animation in Spain see Sánchez Mompeán (2015, 2020),
on the dubbing of Animated Films in French (in both France and Québec) see Montgomery
(2017) among others.
22 V. Minutella
The client commissions the dubbed version. The client [for many
animated films] is an Italian distributor that has a Dubbing and Local-
ization Department in charge of overseeing and guiding the dubbing
process in all its phases. The dubbing department chooses the dubbing
company and the ‘creative team’ (i.e., dubbing director, dialogue writer
and dubbing assistant) and makes comments and takes decisions on every
aspect of dubbing, from voice casting to linguistic choices, also making
amendments to the Italian dialogues. (Izzo, p.c. 4 March 2019)
Sometimes, for some films the client is not only the distributor with its
own Italian branch, but the film directors themselves. Izzo provides the
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 25
but also regarding any translation choice, for that matter, are discussed
with the client and, more specifically, with the dubbing supervisor who
is appointed as the company’s proxy. He/she represents the client and
communicates their wishes. For the Walt Disney Company the role
of the dubbing supervisor is called the creative director. He/she is the
person who oversees and guides the dubbing process for all Disney and
Disney-Pixar products in Italy. Information gathered from professionals
suggests that other US majors or distributors such as DreamWorks, 20th
Century Fox, Paramount, Sony, and Universal also seem to have a person
who controls the dubbing process in various territories at the inter-
national level. Italian dubbing professionals refer to this person as the
supervisor, using an English loanword in Italian.
The dubbing supervisor is thus a key agent in the post-production
process of animated films. Whatever the production company or distrib-
utor, a dubbing supervisor is in charge of overseeing the whole process,
controlling all stages from the adaptation to the final mixing of the
dubbed version. He/she is a person appointed by the distributor or
by the US major who is responsible for overseeing the whole dubbing
process and for ensuring that the final dubbed version reproduces the
original film in terms of content and that it is localised; that is, trans-
lated and adapted in another language in the right way (i.e., following
the producer’s requests). The dubbing supervisor is responsible for the
quality of the final product and its fidelity to the original film and
creative content. As pointed out above, Disney and Disney-Pixar have
their own in-house dubbing supervisor (creative director) who takes
on the responsibilites of the dubbing supervisor and more. Morville
worked as a creative director for Disney until 2017. He is the Creative
Director of all the Disney and Disney-Pixar films discussed in this book.
As explained by Morville himself (p.c. 25 January 2016), the creative
director’s role for Disney is to supervise all the stages of dubbing in
Italy. He/she is responsible for guiding and directing all the phases of
the dubbing chain from the choice of dubbing studio/company, dubbing
director and dialogue writer to the selection of voice talents, the revision
of Italian dialogues and the supervision of dubbing sessions in the studio
including final recording and mixage.
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 27
Other big majors also seem to have dubbing supervisors whose role
takes on a similar shape to Disney’s creative director. However, the
number and type of supervisors may vary, they may be based in various
countries and their role may have different names. The person who
oversees the dubbing process and controls the adaptation and the final
dubbed version of non-Disney films may be an international dubbing
supervisor, a creative dubbing supervisor based in Italy or the head of the
Dubbing Department of the distributor based in Italy. A further distinc-
tion is made between supervisors who work directly for the majors and
freelance consultants called dubbing supervisors or dubbing producers.
For instance, several Italian dubbing directors have mentioned collab-
orating with International Supervisor Jody Toll. The LinkedIn profile
of Toll shows that she has worked as a freelance dubbing producer and
dubbing consultant for several big majors such as Sony Pictures Enter-
tainment, Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation and Paramount
Pictures. Her role encompassed “creative management including creative
materials, process and guidelines, casting and marketing support, trans-
lation review and quality control” for films such as Hotel Transylvania
1–3 and The Lorax, “in-territory supervision” for films such as Despicable
Me, the Shrek films, Kung Fu Panda 1–2, Madagascar, How to Train Your
Dragon and Rango. She also produced creative and translation letters and
was “responsible for managing the creative dubbing process including
corporate approvals for casting translations, key name and phrases and
misc. marketing materials.”2 The dubbing of several non-Disney films
discussed in this book was supervised by Toll.
The key role of the dubbing supervisor in the dubbing process can also
be seen in job advertisements appearing on the web. For instance, Netflix
has recently advertised a position as creative dubbing supervisor.3 In
March 2019 Netflix advertised positions as production dubbing super-
visor for Italy and Germany and for a creative dubbing supervisor. As
explained in the job description, the mission of the creative dubbing
supervisor “is to preserve the original creative intent of our filmmakers
only request was total adherence to the source text, a very vague and
unspecified ‘literal translation’:
4 Unless otherwise stated, all translations into English are by Hilary Siddons.
30 V. Minutella
and Weiss) for which he wrote the Italian dialogues and was the dubbing
director, as well as the voice of Quattrocchi/Brainy. When Quattrocchi
(Brainy) speaks in the Italian dialogues, Guadagno added the line Che
è meglio! (And that’s it), although this expression was not present
in the original English dialogues. Che è meglio was an expression that
connoted Brainy in the 1980s’ TV series in Italy, but was not in the
original English dialogues. This improvised line by Guadagno made
the people in the dubbing booth laugh, so they decided to record it
and insert it in the Italian dialogues because this expression comes to
mind when the Italian audience thinks of Quattrocchi/Brainy. When
Guadagno was asked to adapt the English dialogues of the 2011 film, he
therefore also used this expression, following localisation principles rather
than literal meaning. The international dubbing supervisor, however,
complained that the line was not in the original Dialogue List and so
had to be removed. Dialogue writer and dubbing director Guadagno
managed to convince the supervisor that, despite this ‘unfaithfulness’
to the original, the line should be retained and repeated throughout
the film, otherwise the character would lose an important element
of his Italian linguistic characterisation and the audience might be
disappointed (Guadagno, p.c. 4 March 2019).
Other examples of fruitful collaboration and exchange between
the dubbing supervisor and the dubbing director/dialogue writer for
animated films are provided by Alto and Izzo. Alto, who directed the
dubbing of all the Madagascar films, explained that before starting the
dubbing process the international dubbing supervisor (Toll) summoned
the dubbing teams from various countries to a 3-day meeting in London.
Alto and the Italian head of dubbing of the distributor took part. The
international dubbing supervisor explained key names and phrases and
gave directives on how to approach the dialogues and how to solve
translation and adaptation challenges. She explained the meaning of
specific scenes, dialogues and lines and discussed how to convey them
in different languages. Alto points out the positive role played by the
international creative dubbing supervisor. Since she/he is a person who
has spoken with the director and knows the ins and outs of the film and
its English dialogues, she/he can give precious information and advice
on how to approach the film and adapt it for different markets where
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 31
A last stage consists in the final mixing of the film with other tracks such
as music, including versions in other languages. In the case of Disney
/Pixar products, this final mixing usually takes place at Shepperton
Studios in the United Kingdom where all the different international
tracks are mixed (Morville, p.c. 20 April 2018). Other animated films
may also be mixed in studios abroad such as Pinewood Studios, Ealing
Studios and Twickenham Studios, all of which are in and around
London.
out by Chaume (2012) and Spiteri Miggiani (2019), the English script
of a film is often, though not always, translated by a professional trans-
lator who provides a so-called rough translation which is the basis of the
work of the dialogue writer. As stated by Spiteri Miggiani, “the initial
translation of a script is very often carried out by external professional
translators and not by the dialogue writers themselves” (2019, p. 26).
Most of the dubbing professionals consulted confirm that they work
with translators who are usually appointed by them and work directly
for them. It is worth pointing out that the names of the translators are
not usually known or credited, however, and hence we can speak here
about the “translator’s invisibility” (Venuti 1995) in the Italian audiovi-
sual context. This is perhaps due to the fact that the contratto nazionale
del lavoro (the Italian contract) does not take translators into account,
or because translators work directly for the dialogue writer and are thus
not part of the whole dubbing process set in motion by the produc-
tion company and distributor. The task of the translator is usually to
provide a close rendering of the English dialogue and other texts that
need to be translated such as the dialogue of the trailer and other material
which will be discussed later in this chapter. The features of the transla-
tion produced by the professional translator may vary considerably and
depend on the dialogue writer’s requests (the translation commission).
Generally speaking, the translation is considered a linguistically close,
literal translation where fidelity to the original text is paramount and
very little or no creativity is required. On the other hand, explanations
of puns, idioms, cultural references and ambiguous language are usually
required. Moreover, the translator is not usually asked to insert dubbing
symbols or adapt the text to the images according to synchronisation
or to write natural-sounding and credible dialogue since these tasks will
be undertaken by the dialogue writer (for a detailed description of the
translator’s task see Chaume 2012, pp. 33–34).
Nevertheless, conversations with dubbing professionals have revealed
that the type of translation and its degree of complexity, creativity and
adaptation/adjustment actually depend on the translation brief (i.e., on
what the dialogue writer asks the translator to do). Izzo, for instance,
explains that she collaborates with more than one translator and wants
them to be very precise—not creative. As she points out, “everything
34 V. Minutella
What I require is a literal translation of the text, that is, one which is as
close as possible to the original words, without any creative solutions or an
embellished style. Once I have the literal translation, I do the adaptation
myself. However, naturally, I expect idiomatic expressions to be translated
with equivalent Italian idioms. For example, a translation like ‘piovono
cani e gatti’ (the literal version of ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’) is useless
for me. What I need is the corresponding idiom, that is ‘piove a catinelle’
(literally it’s raining in basins’). (Valli, p.c. 10 January 2020)
I agree with this view: when discussing the dubbing process the first
fundamental step of interpreting and understanding the meaning of
the original text and conveying it in the target language is not given
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 35
the target language” (Di Carlo, p.c. 21 January 2016). Moreover, some of
Di Carlo’s translations might be considered pre-adaptations because she
tries to keep to the line length of the original text. If she notices there
is a labial consonant, then she looks for Italian words containing similar
consonants (Di Carlo, p.c. 21 January 2016). However, this is perhaps an
exceptional case of a very experienced and skilled professional translator
who is also a dialogue writer. In other cases, translators are not asked to
pay attention to line length nor to synchronisation.
In a previous paper (Minutella 2015) I illustrated text manipulation,
rewritings and the type of translation produced by Di Carlo for the
Shrek films adapted by Vairano. Smooth communication and collabora-
tion between translator and dialogue writer is extremely important and
is key to producing a good-quality Italian adaptation. The translator may
signal to the dialogue writer if a specific character uses dialect, incorrect
grammar or a particular idiolect and register; the translator and dialogue
writer may decide together how to approach these issues (Di Carlo, p.c.
21 January 2016). For instance, this happened in DreamWorks film
Home (2015) where the Boov species spoke a kind of ‘interlanguage’ or
broken English. Translator Di Carlo signalled this feature to Guadagno
and they decided together on how to convey this non-standard English in
a consistent way. The dialogue writer and dubbing director explained to
the dubbing supervisor how they wanted to convey the linguistic char-
acterisation of the Boov species and this choice was approved. A good
translator thus proposes translation strategies to overcome translation
and adaptation challenges. He/she can also suggest possible solutions
for puns, idioms and rhyming language, which the dialogue writer does
not necessarily have to agree with or use in the final Italian dialogues.
This happened, for instance, to Di Carlo’s proposal for a song in Shrek 2
(Minutella 2015, pp. 151–153). The translator provided both a literal
translation of Donkey’s lines and a possible rhyming translation that
would retain the rhythm, the length of the original song, as well as
a similar meaning, keeping the same semantic field as the original.
Although this solution would have worked well as an adaptation and was
‘singable’ and synchronised, dialogue writer Vairano completely changed
the text, inventing a new rhythm and lyrics. This example shows that
the translator can suggest solutions and the dialogue writer can decide
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 37
whether to accept or rewrite the text at will according to his or her own
personal taste. Several professionals in fact talk about gusto, which is a
key element in the rewriting and moulding process in dubbing.
In a previous paper I concluded that “the high quality of the dubbed
version starts with a good, detailed Dialogue List which is translated by
a highly qualified professional and is then reworked and given new life
by the dialogue writer, who imbues it with his own wittiness” (Minutella
2015, p. 156). In the light of recent information gathered from personal
communications and observations in the dubbing studios, I can state that
this excellent quality often also depends on constructive collaboration
between several skilled professionals and a whole series of rewritings.
The dialogue writer then works further on this translation and rewrites
it, adapts it and creates the Italian adaptation (called adattamento). The
Italian adaptation is also called Italian dialogues (dialoghi italiani) and
corresponds to the Italian dubbing script. The dialogue writer produces
the Italian dialogue inserting dubbing symbols, respecting lip synchrony
and utterance length or isochrony and making sure that the adaptation
respects the rhythm and pauses of the original text, labial consonants and
open and closed vowels; the resulting text, moreover, must sound natural
and believable. The dialogue writer has to use his/her own creativity to
recreate humour, puns, idiomatic expressions, metaphors and culture-
specific elements, to mention just a few linguistic challenges. As Chaume
(2012, p. 35) explains:
The dialogue writer, or the adapter, [is] the person who will rewrite the
dialogues […] their task is to create a fresh, workable, convincing, prefab-
ricated oral script that meets all lip-sync requirements, but at the same
time gives the impression that it is an original dialogue. […] the dialogue
writer thus has to achieve a balance between standard prosodic and
grammar rules and credible oral discourse. In other words, the dialogue
writer must avoid artificiality, and make dialogue lines sound credible
and true-to-life. […] The other important task for dialogue writers is
38 V. Minutella
Once the Italian dialogues have been approved by the client the dubbing
sessions can start in the dubbing studio. The dubbing assistant prepares
the dubbing/recording sheet (piano di lavorazione) and organises the
recording/dubbing sessions (turni di doppiaggio). The dubbing actors are
then called into the dubbing studio to voice their characters. Sometimes
the client such as Disney’s creative director, in-territory supervisors or the
head of dubbing for Dreamworks/Universal/Sony may also be present
during the dubbing sessions and make comments or suggestions.
Based on my own observations of dubbing sessions at Dubbing
Brothers International Italia and SDI Media Italia, during a dubbing
session in the dubbing booth the dubbing assistant and the dubbing
actor/voice talent are in the cabin where the film is projected on a screen,
and the dubbing director and sound technician are separated from them
by a glass partition. The dubbing assistant has the dubbing plan, a
computer and files of the English and Italian dialogues, as well as a hard
copy of the Italian dialogues. The dubbing actor stands by the lectern and
reads the Italian dialogues off a hard copy, while the film is projected
onto a movie screen (often, but not always, in black and white). The
dubbing actors wear headphones so that they can clearly hear the orig-
inal voices and adjust the volume as they please. In the other booth sit
40 V. Minutella
Like the director of a theatre play or film, the dubbing director is respon-
sible for prompting, stimulating and instructing the actors to put on
their best performances. He can demand that lines be read differently,
re-directing emphasis and shifting expression. Suggestions and criticism
pertaining to intonation, expression and voice-projection are also made
by the director. Before each take, the director might add a remark or two
sketching in missing context for the benefit of the dubbing actor: where
the character is, what the character feels, what message is intended to be
imparted. (Whitman-Linsen 1992, p. 82)
Chaume’s description of the dubbing director’s role and skills are also
worth quoting fully:
The dubbing director must have good story-telling skills since the voice
talents never actually see the whole film, only the loops they have to dub.
It is the director’s job to guide them through the film, instruct them on
the plot of the film and on their particular character, tell them what into-
nation they need to use in each sentence and how to interpret each take
or loop, and finally reject or approve the recorded take. Directors might
change the translation, should they feel that a particular word or sentence
does not convey the appropriate (semantic or pragmatic) meaning for a
particular occasion. (Chaume 2012, p. 36)
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 41
There may be several rehearsals before the actual recording takes place.
The sound engineer projects the video. The dubbing actor watches the
scene a couple of times in the original version; comments are made by the
dubbing director on voice, intonation and feelings; and then the volume
of the original is turned down and the dubber rehearses the lines while
watching the scene again. When he/she feels ready the lines are recorded.
The sound technician records the new voice track and adjusts some of the
voice files, stretching, reducing and synchronising the track.
Everyone then watches the take or loop with the new Italian dialogues
and the dubbing director may comment on the performance, clarity of
enunciation and synchronisation. The dubbing assistant and sound engi-
neer can also contribute to enhancing the performance by making their
own comments and suggestions. Interpretation, pronunciation, tonality
and pitch are taken into consideration. The aim is to recreate the utter-
ances of the original actor and reproduce the same intonation, rhythm
and meaning. For example, the dubbing assistant and sound engineer
control the length of words and utterances since the dubbed voice track
has to perfectly match the length of the original dialogues. Moreover,
together with the dubbing director they also judge the proper, correct
pronunciation of words since they should usually be pronounced in
standard Italian, follow the rules of diction and be clearly enunciated.
Although this may sound very prescriptive, the use of standard Italian,
proper diction and clear enunciation are part of the language of Italian
dubbing and of the training of dubbing actors. However, as we shall see
later in the book, if the original actor does not clearly articulate (delib-
erately), speaks dialect or has a very marked accent, then the dubbing
actor might be asked not to use standard Italian with proper diction
and opt for a less standard or a rough accent. If a word or line is not
clear enough, then the dubbing actor has to re-record the whole line or
sometimes only a single word. On occasion they record a take, a line, a
phrase or a sentence. If the dubbing director believes that there is still
room for improvement, then the sounds that are not clear enough are
isolated and re-recorded. In this case the role of the sound engineer is
particularly important, since he/she is tasked with isolating the word(s),
cutting and pasting from various files and selecting the most appropriate
recordings so that the final version is a smooth and clear voice flow. The
42 V. Minutella
Dubbing Actors
Both dubbers and voice actors make use of a pair of headphones and
stand in front of a microphone, but the latter barely need the printed
copy of the script placed on their lectern, since they have previously had
the time to learn most of their lines by heart. On the contrary, dubbing
actors need to build up an effective visual acuity to shift repeatedly from
the written script placed on the fixed lectern to the ongoing and mute
scene that is to be filled with their words and must strike a balance
between an appropriate intonation and a similar-to-real oral discourse
while reading their lines. (Sánchez Mompeán 2015, p. 91)
List, a key names and phrases (KNP) file and a text called the creative
letter. Sometimes a glossary and a subtitle/spotting list are also included.
To summarise, the following source text files in English may be sent to
the dubbing team along with the video (the documents that are always
sent are shown in bold):
The dubbing team always receives an English script that has to be trans-
lated and adapted. This is called the Master English Dialogue List,
English Dialogue List or Annotated Dialogue List. It is a detailed text
prepared by selected vendors specialised in script composition such as
Deluxe, Technicolor and MasterWord. It contains the film dialogues,
onscreen text and explanatory notes. It is thus a post-production tran-
script of the film dialogue and of any written text that requires transla-
tion/adaptation. Although dialogue lists may vary considerably in form
and layout (see Chaume 2012, p. 122; Spiteri Miggiani 2019, pp. 102–
107), they are usually made up of three columns: one indicating the
footage (i.e., the exact time in the video file when the words occur),
one with the name of the character and one containing the dialogue,
as illustrated in Table 2.1.
The script of animated films usually contains explanations of the
words/expressions used by each speaker in parentheses in the dialogue
column (after some lines of dialogue). Such explanatory notes include
the meaning of contracted forms, colloquial or slang forms, ungram-
maticalities, cultural references, puns, and idioms. They further explain
the interaction between words and images, or references and allusions to
other films, texts, songs, etc. The quantity and type of explanatory notes
may vary considerably. Some examples of “explanatory notes within a
dialogue transcript” can be found in Spiteri Miggiani (2019, pp. 105–
107). The information encompassed by the notes helps the translator and
dialogue writer to understand the meaning of the lines so that they can
translate the dialogue according to the filmmakers’ conception. Although
the aim of these explanatory notes in the Dialogue List is probably
“to ensure correct interpretation of meaning” (Spiteri Miggiani 2019,
p. 105) and speed up the translation and adaptation process, it may also
be to control the process of interpretation.
Nevertheless, the content of dialogue lists and explanatory notes may
be subject to some criticism since they are produced by an external
person/company providing this type of material—not by the filmmakers
themselves. Izzo comments on this issue as follows: English “dialogue
lists with explanatory notes are sent from America. However, they are
the result of an interpretation by an external person transcribing the
dialogue, not by the author of the script. Are we sure that the author’s
intentions are the ones written down by a person who listens to the film
dialogue with his/her headphones and transcribes it in a word file?” (Izzo,
p.c. 30 January 2019). I would also like to add a further problem in
that the external company’s interpretation is regarded as the only correct
interpretation, rather than one among many possibilities. Morville also
criticises the fact that dialogue lists sometimes contain explanations of
contracted forms or greetings, or of words whose meaning is easy to
decode, while they might not clarify the meaning of more complex words
or expressions which may present translation challenges. For instance,
they may clarify that ‘isn’t’ stands for ‘is not’, but might not contain
information which is needed by a translator about more complex issues
(Morville, p.c. 20 April 2020). A dialogue list may contain the line of
dialogue “Hey! That’s Paul” followed by the explanatory comment (Hey!:
used to call attention to something ); the line of dialogue “Great party,
Susan!” followed by the explanatory note (Great: informal —‘excellent’ );
“What?” followed by the explanatory note (What: used as an exclamation
expressing surprise); or even “Oops!” followed by a dictionary definition
in the explanatory note (Oops: colloquial exclamation used to show recog-
nition of a mistake or minor accident often as part of an apology). Such
explanations might be considered unnecessary by translators as language
experts. However, generally speaking, explanatory notes do often provide
useful information and comments. For instance, the line of dialogue “I
did not see that coming” has been explained as (see that coming: idiomatic
phrase meaning ‘expect that to happen’ ). Double meanings, humour, puns,
idiomatic expressions, cultural references and allusions are also usually
explained in the notes. For instance, a note in the Dialogue List of Mr.
Peabody and Sherman explains that Marie Antoinette’s line “Cake! I love
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 49
cake so much!” was a reference to the quote “Let them eat cake” suppos-
edly said by the French Queen (Di Carlo, p.c. 20 April 2020). “Cake! I
love cake so much!” was also one of the key expressions of the film and
was therefore also included in the key names and phrases (KNP) file.
The translator/dialogue writer had to provide his/her Italian adaptation
of the line and add a back translation into English in order to prove to
the client that the reference to the famous sentence by Marie Antoinette
had been conveyed in Italian so that the audience of the dubbed version
would understand this humorous reference. Translator Di Carlo points
out that the English Dialogue List of the same film also provided useful
explanations of the presence of puns, visual references and guidelines on
how to approach them in translation. For instance, when Mr Peabody
comments on Marie Antoinette’s “Smashing party”, the notes explain to
the translators that ‘smashing’ is an informal word meaning ‘wonderful’,
but they also add that the translator should note the visual reference to
the brick which has just broken the window and try to find a suitable
equivalent in the target language (i.e., a compliment which can have a
double meaning and be linked with the images) (Di Carlo, p.c. 20 April
2020).
Dubbing professionals also point out that there are often multiple
versions of the English Dialogue List. The client may provide dialogue
writers with more than one version if the film has not reached its defini-
tive version yet, sometimes also done for reasons of confidentiality. There
may be a Preliminary English Dialogue List 1, Preliminary 2, Preliminary
3, etc. and a Final Dialogue List. Each new version contains modifi-
cations which are signalled in various ways (Guadagno, p.c. 4 March
2019). The Dialogue List file is the starting point for the translation and
adaptation stage. The dialogue writer is also provided with the actual
film. If any discrepancies between the English dialogue in the script and
the video are noted, then the dialogue writer must translate and adapt
the words as uttered by the actors in the film—not the written ones
contained in the Dialogue List (Di Carlo, p.c. 20 January 2020). Spiteri
Miggiani points out that “when the script in hand differs from the audio-
visual material (in its final cut), dialogue writers must consider the latter
as the reliable source, and must adhere to it faithfully. This may imply
transcribing segments of dialogue directly from the video file” (2019,
50 V. Minutella
Dubbing professionals point out that most animated films are also
accompanied by a key names and phrases (KNP) file which is sent to
every country in which the film is dubbed. The KNP file is an Excel file
which contains a list of the most important names, words and phrases
extracted from the film script. However, the specific content and func-
tion of this file can vary considerably. For Disney animated films the
KNP file contains important names and words/expressions in the film
and translations into the various languages of these names/words in the
dubbed versions. Sometimes the terms are accompanied by a brief expla-
nation (comment). The KNP file has the function of summarising how
names and important words/phrases are translated in various languages
so that Disney Character Voices International can have all this informa-
tion contained in a single document. The file is shared with dubbing
teams in different countries and can help their work since it can be used
as a reference point to compare the choices made in different languages.
The document can also prove useful in spin-offs of the film or when a
character or line from the film is quoted in later audiovisual products.
Rather than searching the dubbing scripts to discover how the name
or line was translated into Italian, the KNP can be consulted and the
translation immediately found (Morville, p.c. 28 April 2020).
Other majors use different KNP files containing a list of the most
important names, words and phrases extracted from the script with
comments and explanations of their meaning, sometimes with trans-
lations and back translations into English. Although the meaning of
the key names, words and expressions is also explained in the English
Dialogue List (in the explanatory notes), the KNP file is a much shorter
document whose sole function is to summarise the most important
elements and issues involved in the dubbing of the film, especially those
that require consistency. Compared with a dialogue list the KNP may
contain longer explanations and sometimes provide guidelines on how to
tackle such key names and phrases in the dubbed versions. The file may
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 51
Table 2.2 Mock-up KNP file with English terms and comments
Reel/page/timecode English term Comments
Table 2.3 Mock-up KNP file with English text, comments and target language
translation
English Comments Translation
Table 2.4 Mock-up KNP file with back translation of the target language
translation in the dubbed version required
Footage KNP (English Target language English back Comments
term) translation translation
5 It
is not possible to provide actual examples of layout or content since the documents are
commercially confidential.
52 V. Minutella
Gvirtzman Dichter, the aim of the creative letter “is not to explain the
story, but to discuss the subtext and who the characters really are” (p.c.
13 June 2020). The creative letter is a confidential document that is
sent to the dialogue writer/dubbing director/dubbing assistant/dubbing
company. It cannot be disclosed to people who are not directly involved
in the dubbing project.
The creative letter may also contain voice-casting guidelines. As can be
seen in Toll’s LinkedIn profile and in some job advertisements for creative
dubbing managers, one of the tasks of the creative dubbing manager is
to develop ceative letters and guidelines called ‘Creative Dubbing Guide-
lines and Voice Testing Guidelines’ by DreamWorks. The choice of voices
in the dubbed versions of animated films is another very important part
of the dubbing process of animated films.
script for the voice casting, the creative letter containing information on
the characters and the voice quality of the voice actors required in the
dubbed version. Manfredi explains that for Disney and Paramount the
dubbing actors are selected by the Italian creative director (for Disney)
or the head of dubbing of the distributor (for Paramount) together with
the American dubbing supervisor (Manfredi, p.c. 10 May 2018). For
Disney and Disney Pixar films the creative director collaborates with the
dubbing director to find the right voices. Voice tests are recorded and
sent back to the client. For non-Disney films voice casting is organised
by the head of dubbing of the distributor, perhaps with the help of the
dubbing director and the international supervisor. Suitable candidates
are selected by taking into account criteria such as voice quality and simi-
larity to the original actor’s voice and interpretation. For each character
three appropriate dubbing actors are recorded (three voice tests). The
audio files are sent to the American client who chooses the voices. Mete
explains that DreamWorks asks for voice tests for the main characters in
their animated films (Mete, p.c. 7 February 2016). For some animated
films voice tests may be required for several characters. For instance,
when choosing the Italian voices for Sing, voice tests were carried out
for most of the characters (Mete, p.c. 9 June 2020). Alto and Mete
point out that although the voices are chosen in the United States, the
dubbing director can have a say in this, or at least give the client his/her
own opinion, by filling in a form where he/she can evaluate the voice
and provide comments. Nevertheless, the choice is ultimately made by
the client (Alto, p.c. 25 January 2016, 27 November 2018; Mete, p.c.
20 September 2019). According to Mete, most US majors ask for the
dubbing director’s comments (Mete, p.c. 20 September 2019).
The criteria used to judge the dubbing actors’ voice tests are often
stated in the casting guidelines contained in the creative letter. Although
the choice is often based on a voice match with the original voice actor,
especially for Disney films, it is also based on the dubbing actor’s perfor-
mance and interpretation of the character and his/her delivery and acting
style (Morville, p.c. 17 June 2015).
Bosseaux emphasises “how critical it is to choose the ‘right’ voices
throughout a film or an actor’s career to make sure audiences, including
original actors, engage positively with the translated versions” (2018,
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 57
6 For instance, Let It Go (behind the mic multilanguage version from Frozen in 25 languages)
and various artists performing How Far I’ll Go (heard around the world in 24 languages from
Moana).
58 V. Minutella
In recent years (roughly since the late 1990s) animated films have
been dubbed by either professional dubbing actors or celebrity, non-
professional dubbers known as star talents (on the phenomenon of
celebrities in voice-over animation and Spanish dubbing see Sánchez-
Mompeán 2015; Whittaker 2017). The casting of celebrity voices as
dubbers has become an important marketing strategy and first started
in the United States. As Wright and Lallo point out when discussing
voice-over for animation:
A more recent problem for voice-over artists is the use of celebrity voices.
Businessmen feel that known celebrity names will bring in an audience,
especially to films. Fans may go to see a celebrity’s work, even when they
can’t see the celebrity himself. And a celebrity can give a film publicity.
(2009, p. 5)
7 On Marco Messeri’s interpretation of Cricchetto (Tow Mater) in the Italian dubbed version
see the YouTube video Disney Pixar: Cars 3 – Marco Messeri è la voce di Cricchetto – Featurette,
available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F6TI9cI5D4.
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 61
The preferred choice of producers is to use star talents for the dubbing
of main characters, since 14 movies include famous figures in leading
roles. Similar to the pattern followed in the US, main characters’
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 63
However, this does not always hold true in the Italian context. In several
cases the marketing department also decides the character the celebrity
should dub regardless of their acting and dubbing skills (Guadagno, p.c.
4 March 2019; Izzo, p.c. 4 March 2019).
It is also worth pointing out that the casting of star talents as dubbers
in animated films can pose other challenges for the dubbing director.
From a practical point of view the fact that star talents are people who
work outside the dubbing world means that their schedules may be tight
and availability may be reduced. Moreover, while most Italian profes-
sional dubbing actors tend to be based in Rome where the main dubbing
studios are located, star talents or celebrities may live in a different city
(sometimes even in a different country). Thus organising their shifts
may be more problematic and expensive. A celebrity will obviously cost
more than a professional dubbing actor. However, apparently the bene-
fits are greater than the costs (and if the marketing department wants
stars, then clearly they consider such a choice to be cost-effective). Since
some star talents live abroad and cannot easily reach the dubbing studio
in Rome their lines are sometimes recorded elsewhere in dubbing studios
in other countries such as Paris, London (where the final audio mixing of
the overseas versions in several languages often takes place) or even Los
Angeles if the star talent dubbing the character voicing him/her in the
English version lives in the United States. This happened, for example,
with both Antonio Banderas and Danny DeVito who voiced the main
characters in the original English versions of Puss in Boots (2011) and
The Lorax (2012), respectively, and also dubbed the Italian versions.
Dubbing directors Mete (for Banderas) and Izzo (for DeVito) flew to Los
Angeles to help them record their roles for the Italian dubbed version.
Disney Italia creative director Morville flew to Paris to record Amanda
Lear dubbing Edna Mode in Italian for Incredibles 2, while he helped
Lewis Hamilton to dub his cameo role recording his lines in Italian in the
London studios. Sometimes voice tests may also be carried out through
64 V. Minutella
conference calls with the voice talent in one city and the dubbing director
in another.
The practice of recording some parts of a dubbed product in
different studios is termed “collaborative dubbing” (Chaume 2019;
Spiteri Miggiani 2019). As explained by Spiteri Miggiani, “this enables
directors to engage actors who are not necessarily, to say the least, within
reaching distance of the main studio or who could be based […] in
other cities or countries” (2019, p. 24). As already mentioned, Chaume
calls this new trend as practised in Europe and America “collaborative
dubbing” and describes this as a “single dubbed work recorded in various
companies and countries and eventually edited in one company” (2019,
p. 112):
8 An example of the dubbing session can be seen in the YouTube video Lee Ryan at the dubbing
L’Era Glaciale 4 continenti alla deriva (Ice Age 4 Continental Drift), available at: https://www.you
tube.com/watch?v=EkIzdXWCLE4. Guadagno guides Ryan working on syllables and musicality
(Lee Ryan does not speak any Italian).
2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 67
References
Bassnett, Susan, and André Lefevere (eds.). 1990. Translation, History and
Culture. London and New York: Pinter.
Barthes, Roland. 1977. The Grain of the Voice. In Image, Music, Text, trans.
Stephen Heath, 179–189. London: Fontana Press.
Bosseaux, Charlotte. 2018. Voice in French Dubbing: The Case of Julianne
Moore. Perspectives 27 (2): 218–234.
68 V. Minutella
Online References
Websites
www.creatingvoices.com.
www.voice-overs.com.
Filmography
Zootopia. (2016). Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush, Walt Disney
Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios.
TV Series
3.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on the translation of multilingualism and language
varieties in dubbing. The first section of the chapter discusses these
issues from the point of view of existing scholarly research, summarising
the main studies devoted to this topic. The second section of the
chapter moves away from the scholarly field to the professional arena
and describes the data gathered through personal communications
concerning English–Italian dubbing with leading professionals, as well
as from lectures and observations of dubbing sessions. The aim of this
section is to shed light on how dubbing practitioners approach the
language of dubbing, the challenges posed by foreign-accented charac-
ters, the casting of star talents as dubbers and their opinion on the use
of standard Italian, Italian with an accent and regional Italian or dialects
in dubbing. These two perspectives on the practice of dubbing will be
compared in later chapters on the basis of the findings of the study of the
animated films selected in the corpus and thereby establish the extent to
which they coincide or differ.
1 On the translation of linguistic variation and multilingualism in audiovisual texts see also
Pavesi (1994, 2005), Grutman (1996), Heiss (2004, 2014), Meylaerts (2006), Barra (2007),
Di Giovanni (2007), Chiaro (2008, 2009), Bruti (2009, 2014), Dore (2009, 2019a, b), Parini
(2009, 2019 on Italian–American), Ferrari (2010), Martínez Sierra et al. (2010), Ranzato (2010,
2018a, b on British dialects in dubbed Italian), Corrius and Zabalbeascoa (2011), Díaz-Cintas
(2011), O’Sullivan (2011), Chaume (2012, pp. 131–133), Guillot (2012), Minutella (2012,
2014, 2015, 2016, 2018), De Bonis (2014, 2015a, b), De Higes Andino (2014), De Higes
Andino et al. (2013), Zabalbeascoa and Corrius (2014), Ellender (2015), Iaia (2015), Petrucci
(2015), Bruti and Vignozzi (2016), Monti (2016), Beseghi (2017, 2019), Santamaria Guinot
and Pujol Tubau (2018), Corrius et al. (2019), De Heredia and De Higes Andino (2019),
Spiteri Miggiani (2019, pp. 166–177), Yau (2019), and Geyer and Dore (2020).
3 Translating Language Varieties and Multilingualism … 77
such a choice are evident, but presumably opting for this preference does
tend to be true to the original skopos.
The use of Italian with a Sicilian accent and regional lexis and syntax to
dub Italian American gangsters has thus become a dubbing stereotype
(a convention). This is confirmed by studies by Rossi (2006), Ferrari
(2010), Parini (2017, 2019) among others. Alternatively, a Neapolitan
accent might be used, as is the case for the popular American TV series
The Sopranos. This is based on ethnic stereotypes in which the Italian
American Mafia boss Tony Soprano of the original version is dubbed in
Italian with a Neapolitan accent or dialect (Ferrari 2010, p. 109).
Other cases in which dubbing uses adaptation and domestication
(strategy 5) through the use of Italian regional varieties instead of
neutralisation are the film My Fair Lady (1964) and the American TV
series The Nanny (1993–1999). In the dubbed version of My Fair Lady
the protagonist’s contrived Cockney is localised using “a non-existent
Italian language” (Ranzato 2010, p. 114). In The Nanny Jewish Amer-
ican Fran Fine is turned into a woman from southern Italy’s Ciociaria
(Ferrari 2010). However, these seem to be exceptions to the norm which
continues to be the neutralisation of accents and of language varieties by
choosing standard Italian devoid of any regional inflection or trait (Bruti
and Vignozzi 2016; Sandrelli 2016; Ranzato 2018a, b).
Other exceptions to the homogenising norm in Italian dubbing are
some animated films and TV series which exploit Italian regional dialects.
For instance, as pointed out by Bruti (2009), in The Aristocats (1970)
the stray cat Thomas O’Malley became Romeo er mejo der Colosseo (a
cat speaking Romanesco dialect). In Lady and the Tramp (1955) the
Italian waiter and chef who speak with a marked Italian American
accent in the original version were given a Sicilian accent in the first
Italian dubbed version of the film, and then a Neapolitan accent in
the 1997 redubbing (Rossi 2006, pp. 325–326). The Italian version
of The Simpsons (1989–ongoing) is famous for its widespread use of
Italian regional dialects which transform the American characters into
local Italian ones according to Italian stereotypes (see Barra 2007; Fusari
2007; Dore 2009; Ferrari 2010; Puddu and Virdis 2014). As illustrated
by Parini (2019) and further discussed in this book, the mobster shark
82 V. Minutella
Don Lino in the dubbed version of Shark Tale (2004) speaks with a
strong Sicilian accent and uses dialect words, while his subordinate Sykes
has a Neapolitan accent. Another recent animated film whose dubbed
version makes constant use of several Italian regional dialects is Gnomeo
& Juliet (2011), a film in which the story of the star-crossed lovers is
linguistically reinterpreted and localised in terms of a north vs south
divide (Bruti and Vignozzi 2016; Minutella 2016). Such films provide
evidence that regional Italian is resorted to in dubbed animation where it
often has a comic function associated with animation’s use of caricatures
and stereotypes.
A further strategy to deal with linguistic variation is by retaining,
conveying and perhaps emphasizing foreign accents (strategy 4). In my
view this is especially associated with characters who are marked as non-
native speakers of L1. The language variety they speak can be defined
as foreign-accented English, a non-native variety or an ethnolect. The
concept of ethnolect has been put forward to refer to “ethnic varieties
of the majority language”; that is, varieties which signal that the speaker
was born in the same country but belongs to a specific ethnic group
and has a different native language, or that the speaker was not born
in that country (Salmon Kovarski 2000, pp. 68–69). The strategy of
marking and emphasising the foreignness of a character as a non-native
speaker (i.e., of retaining their ethnolect) seems to be used in come-
dies and animated films for humorous purposes and to highlight the
ethnic difference of a specific character or his/her nationality. Analysing
a series of films dubbed into German and Italian, Heiss demonstrates
that compensation strategies at the levels of lexis, syntax and pronun-
ciation are adopted to “characterise the various ways of speaking of the
individual characters in a manner that makes them distinguishable from
one another. […] At a phonetic level it is possible to reproduce typical
accents (for example, a German accent or various ethnic accents)” (Heiss
2004, p. 211). According to Heiss the comedy genre allows for more
“‘unorthodox’ solutions in translation” since it is “perceived as being
detached from reality” (2004, p. 211). The same can be said about
animated films: they do not aim at realism, are usually comedies, often
create funny caricatural characters and draw on stereotypes. As pointed
out by Heiss:
3 Translating Language Varieties and Multilingualism … 83
The cliché of ‘foreign talk’ has always been a favorite means of parodic
character representation in comedy. […] Dubbing a film that instrumen-
talizes ‘foreign talk’ is not commonly seen as problematic, since similar
strategies can be developed in the target language to accommodate this.
Incorrect syntax, pronunciation, inadequate lexical use, and so on, can be
reproduced in all languages with little difficulty […]. Foreign accents also
exhibit certain patterns that call up clichéd representations. (Heiss 2014,
p. 7)
The previous chapter described the main phases and agents of the
dubbing process, highlighting the key role played by the client. The
client is an umbrella term used by dubbing practitioners to refer to the
entity commissioning the dubbed version and for whom they work. As
pointed out in the previous chapter, for feature films and animated films
the client may be the American producer (or the directors themselves
in very few cases), the distributor (with its head of the Dubbing and
Localization Department), the international or local creative dubbing
supervisor or Disney’s creative director. An important element that
emerges from interactions with dubbing practitioners is that the choice
of whether to use specific foreign accents, Italian regional accents or
dialects and various languages in the dubbed version lies with the client.
86 V. Minutella
In other words, when important feature films and animated films are
dubbed, it is the client who decides whether linguistic characterisa-
tion and differentiation through accents, dialects or languages should be
conveyed, although dubbing professionals do exercise their judgement in
certain cases, albeit subject to final approval by the client (Sect 3.2.3).
The client gives directions on how to convey languages, varieties of
English and foreign accents and whether to use Italian regiolects or not. It
is an editorial, localisation choice that the dubbing team has to comply
with. This is confirmed by most of the practitioners contacted (Rossi,
p.c. 30 November 2017; Vairano, p.c. 27 November 2018; Izzo, p.c. 4
March 2019; Morville, p.c. 5 May 2019 among others). As reported by
most practitioners, the client gives directions and decides. For instance,
Rossi reports that the production company provides specifications on
what type of language and accents to use in the dubbed version and
that the big majors adopt the same strategy in different countries for all
the territories where the film is localised. As he puts it: “guidelines with
regards to accents are forwarded by the production house itself in the
case of global producers. For instance, Sony, being a global producer,
that is, a major ‘film publisher’, makes the same creative choices for all
geographical regions. […] This is the case for high-quality and high-end
productions. The major opts for a consistent editorial policy for all the
territories” (Rossi, p.c. 30 November 2017).2 Izzo also emphasises that
the dialogue writer, dubbing director and dubbing company do not have
decisional power about using regional accents, Italian dialects, foreign
accents and languages in the dubbed versions. It is the client (i.e., the
distributor or the Italian or international supervisor) who decides: “we,
the artistic directors of the dubbing companies or dubbing directors,
have little say in the matter. It’s the Italian or international supervi-
sors or the distributors who decide […] The decision is never left to
the dubbing director or the dubbing company” (Izzo, p.c. 30 November
2019, 4 March 2019).
2Iwould like to thank Lydia Corbelli and Giselle Spiteri Miggiani for their help in interpreting
and translating this quotation from Italian.
3 Translating Language Varieties and Multilingualism … 87
Izzo explains that the American client generally requires the use of
specific foreign accents for those characters who have a foreign (non-
English) accent in the original film. The document in which this is
specified can vary by company. Indications on the type of language
or accent that should be used in dubbing are usually provided and
explained, as noted in Chapter 2, in the creative letter that is sent to
the dubbing director and dialogue writer or in the KNP (key names and
phrases) file (Izzo, p.c. 4 March 2019).
While it is true that the use of foreign words, utterances and foreign
accents is usually decided by and with the client and that the Dialogue
List, the KNP and the creative letter often provide guidelines and direc-
tions about this, Morville points out that sometimes it is not possible to
reproduce the original choices exactly as they were specified (Morville,
p.c. 1 March 2019). Furthermore, as we shall see in the chapters
discussing dubbed versions, in some cases the client allows the dubbing
team to choose from a series of alternatives. This means that the dubbing
team actually does have some discretion over what is stated as the client’s
preference in the documents accompanying the video and may discuss
these requests with the client. Some examples of ‘unfaithfulness’ to the
original film in the portrayal of characters and of otherness will be
provided in the following chapters.
Translator Elena Di Carlo also points out that the English Dialogue
List usually specifies if a character has a foreign accent, uses foreign words
or speaks in a peculiar way (e.g., making grammar mistakes or using
certain fixed expressions). Therefore, when Di Carlo translates English
dialogues into Italian, she usually adds this information in her trans-
lation in the form of notes for the dialogue writer, talks about this
issue with him/her and then they decide how to approach the transla-
tion/adaptation. All of this will then be discussed with the client (Di
Carlo, p.c. 21 January 2016). This happened, for instance, with Dream-
Works’ film Home (2015) where the alien species of the Boov speak
English with grammar mistakes. Their broken English has a humorous
function. Translator Di Carlo and dialogue writer Guadagno thus had
to create a kind of ‘interlanguage’ in Italian. For this to happen they
suggested that all the Boov made the same types of mistakes. Although
the protagonist Oh seems to make more mistakes than the other Boov in
88 V. Minutella
the original English dialogues, the Italian translator and dialogue writer
convincingly argued that all the Boov had to make the same types of
mistakes. If Oh made more mistakes, then he would appear less educated
than the other Boov. While Oh is indeed different from the other Boov,
he is not less educated. They presented their translational approach to
the client who agreed with their choice.
In this way the dialogue writer can identify a specific ‘translational
problem’ (such as the presence of puns, culture-specific references,
accents, dialects or foreign languages and characters who speak a broken
form of language), signal it to the dubbing director and then discuss it
with the client. However, it is the client who will take the final deci-
sion. This is confirmed by former creative director Morville who states
that the dialogue writer can make suggestions like saying the character
would use a specific accent, but this has to be discussed with the dubbing
director and the creative director or dubbing supervisor (Morville, p.c. 1
March 2019). Sometimes, if a final solution has not been reached, the
dubbing director will then decide to record various alternative versions
of some lines/utterances and let the client decide which one to use at
a later stage. When foreign languages are present to a certain extent in
the original film with no translation, a dubbed version retaining these
foreign words and utterances may be recorded and then shown to a
selected audience in order to examine whether the product would be
understood and enjoyed by the Italian audience. If the dubbed version
works, then the foreign language will be kept; if the dubbing team believe
the audience has not responded positively to the film because of the
presence of foreign words, then amendments to the dubbed version will
be made. For instance, a test screening was organised for the dubbed
version of Disney-Pixar’s Coco (2017), an animated film set in Mexico
which contains several Mexican words that are not familiar to the average
Italian viewer. Since the audience response was positive, Disney’s creative
director and the dubbing team decided to go ahead and release the
version with the Spanish words untranslated (Morville, Manfredi, p.c.
27 September 2018).
3 Translating Language Varieties and Multilingualism … 89
When asked how they deal with language varieties in films, most of
the practitioners consulted point out that each film is unique, that there
are no strict rules on how to approach accents or foreign languages
and that, as noted, it is the client who usually makes the decisions
and comes up with requests. Izzo explains that each audiovisual product
has to be examined and judged separately per se (Izzo, p.c. 30 January
2019). Regarding the use of accents and dialects La Penna similarly states
that “you have to reason case by case” (La Penna, p.c. 1 March 2019).
Nevertheless, although the dubbing practitioners consulted state that no
definitive, strict rules or guidelines exist and that decisions are taken by
the client, when I asked further and more specific questions, some strate-
gies for dealing with linguistic variation and linguistic characterisation
emerged. Furthermore, the dubbing practitioners consulted comment on
the variables they have to take into account and the challenges they have
to tackle when characters with accents or foreign languages are present
in films.
The dubbing professionals consulted in the present study agree that the
base language of a film (i.e., the main or dominant language spoken in
a film be it English, French, Spanish or any other language) is usually
dubbed into standard Italian with no foreign, regional or socially marked
accent (Guadagno, p.c. 7 January 2016, 4 March 2019; Alto, p.c. 25
January 2016; Vairano, p.c. 27 November 2018 among others). For
instance, Vairano (p.c. 27 November 2018) explains that if the setting
of a film is the United States, France, England, Germany or any other
country and if the language spoken is English, French, Spanish, German
or another language, then the main language spoken in the film becomes
standard Italian in dubbing. Moreover, no distinction is made in dubbing
for characters whose accent is geographically connoted in the orig-
inal film. In other words, if they speak English in the original version
92 V. Minutella
mistakes that the characters had to make. The director refused to discuss
any issues with Rossi who wanted to use subtitles when the Russian char-
acters spoke Russian (Rossi, p.c. 30 November 2017). Despite suggesting
alternative solutions such as using a reference language, using Russian
with subtitles and using a broken/distorted language when the characters
spoke French, Rossi had no choice and was not allowed to hire Russian
dubbing actors. Although the actors playing the Russian characters in the
original film are either Russian or from Eastern Europe, in the Italian
dubbed version they are all professional Italian dubbers who contrived
accents and used broken Italian, thus making caricatures of the charac-
ters. This anecdote is a clear and extreme example of how the issue of
linguistic characterisation is controlled by the client who has the final
say.
Valli maintains that “in order to differentiate those characters in the
original film who speak a language other than English, or English with
a foreign accent, the Italian dubbed version must make them speak in
a different language, not Italian, or they should at least speak Italian
with an accent. Sometimes grammar mistakes may be added, since they
contribute to conveying ‘foreignness’” (Valli, p.c. 6 April 2018). Valli’s
opinion suggests that sometimes foreignness is recreated in dubbing not
only through a foreign accent, but also by using non-standard grammar.
The case studies examined in Chapter 7 will investigate whether foreign
characters do actually speak Italian with a foreign accent and whether
grammar mistakes are also inserted into their speech.
Former Creative director Morville (p.c. 17 June 2015) argues that if
a character speaks English with a foreign accent to achieve a specific
linguistic characterisation, then dubbing should match and reproduce
such characterisation in order to ensure voice match and correspondence
with the original. However, since heavy accents may hinder commu-
nication or annoy the audience, it is preferable to use some sporcatura
(a colouring or flavouring in the speech, a diction that is not neutral
and somehow betrays the origin of the speaker), sparse use of foreign
accents or the insertion of a few foreign words and a few non-standard
words (Morville, p.c. 28 January 2016). The principle he tries to follow
when choosing a dubbing strategy is “to avoid attracting the audi-
ence’s attention to the language of dubbing” (Morville, p.c. 28 January
98 V. Minutella
into Italian, whether to dub or subtitle the parts in languages other than
English (French, German, Italian) and whether to make the characters
speak with an accent or not. The director initially wanted Izzo to dub
the whole film, neutralising its multilingualism. However, she explained
to him that this type of film could not and should not be completely
dubbed because it would lose its identity and meaning. Izzo insisted
that alternative audiovisual translation methods be adopted and subti-
tles in some parts be used. Moreover, Tarantino wanted to read the
Italian dialogues and a back translation into English before approving
the Italian version (Izzo, p.c. 30 January 2019). When Colonel Hans
Landa (played by Austrian actor Christoph Waltz) speaks English (with
a German accent) in the original version, he has to speak Italian with
a German accent in the dubbed version. Although Izzo prefers to cast
native speakers as dubbers, in this case she wanted a professional dubber.
As a result, Stefano Benassi was chosen and a language advisor was used
to teach him how to pronounce the lines in Italian with a German
accent such that he sounded like a German speaking Italian—not an
Italian pretending to speak like a German. It turns out that Izzo tried out
five different coaches because she was not happy with the performance.
Benassi had to repeat the same lines over and over again every day with
a different coach until Izzo found the right one to help Benassi find the
right voice and give a believable and authentic vocal performance (Izzo,
p.c. 30 January 2019).
Although dubbing directors prefer to cast native speakers or use
dialect coaches to help professional dubbers sound authentic, in come-
dies and animated films some examples of inauthentic, mock accents
can be found. There are cases in which authenticity of accent is not of
paramount importance, especially when the original film itself does not
aim at authenticity but at ‘styling’ an accent and representing otherness
with a comic and often parodic function. For instance, in the dubbed
version of Madagascar 3 no dialect coaches were used for the Russian
tiger Vitaly or for the speech of Gia and Stefano who spoke with a
contrived Italian accent in the original version and an undefined foreign-
sounding or Spanish-sounding Italian in the Italian dubbed version. This
was partly justified by the fact that these characters spoke with contrived
accents in the original film version, where they were voiced by American
102 V. Minutella
actors, and because hiring dialect coaches for all the supposedly foreign
characters would have been too expensive (Alto, p.c. 25 January 2016).
Several professionals point out that comedies and animated films also
allow for more freedom in the exploitation of mock foreign accents
because of their comic function. If the original film has a contrived
accent, then the dubbed version can recreate a comic accent. The impor-
tant thing is to reproduce the particular function of the original and the
choices made there. For instance, discussing the Hotel Transylvania films
Rossi maintains that “what we have to do is try to recreate what there
is in the original. If the original film stars a famous, well-known comic
actor who pretends to speak ‘Transylvanian’, then I do the same thing
in my dubbed film” (Rossi, p.c. 30 November 2017). Since in the orig-
inal version of Hotel Transylvania Dracula was voiced by US comedian
Adam Sandler contriving an undefined Eastern European or ‘Transylva-
nian’ accent, in the Italian dubbed version popular comedian Claudio
Bisio was cast and asked to create a kind of ‘Transylvanian’ Italian (i.e.,
Italian with a kind of Russian or Eastern European accent). Although it is
a comic characterisation with no pretension at authenticity, it is one that
aims at making the audience laugh and remains faithful to the intentions
of the original film. In this case it can be argued that what is important
is not that the character’s speech sounds believable and natural, but that
it approximates the image (i.e., the stereotype of an Eastern European
speaking Italian). The aim is not a faithful reproduction of a native-like
accent, but rather a comic mimicry/comic impression of a very generic
‘other’.
Despite her dislike of fake accents, Izzo (p.c., 4 March 2019) also
acknowledges that a contrived foreign accent can be used in the dubbing
of comedies since their function is to make people laugh. Hence she
would accept and justify the use of an inauthentic, contrived foreign
accent in dubbing if the original film had a mock foreign accent as well.
If the director wanted a character in the original film to mimic an accent,
since the aim of the dubbed version is to reproduce the original film, then
the Italian dubber can do the same and put on an accent. In other words,
if it is all fake in the original, then it can be all fake in the Italian version.
3 Translating Language Varieties and Multilingualism … 103
Use of Italian
Regional Accents and Italian Dialects in Dubbing
When asked what they think about the use of Italian dialects and regional
accents in dubbing, whether and how frequently they resort to Italian
dialects or regional accents in dubbed animated films and the reasons for
104 V. Minutella
in the dubbed version makes sense since it recreates the intentions of the
original film (Alto, p.c. 25 January 2016). Mete (who was the dubbing
director of Shark Tale) similarly states that although dubbing directors
tend to avoid Italian dialects and regional Italian words and accents, in
some exceptional cases they are necessary.
Another reason for using Italian regional accents or dialects is to add
extra humour. As Ferrari points out: “The Simpsons […] represents but
one case that exemplifies the tendency of using regionalized accents in
Italy to increase the comical effect of animated characters” (2010, p. 45).
The dubbing professionals consulted confirm that Italian dialects or
regional accents may be resorted to for comic purposes. Stefano Brusa,
who dubbed the character of Gnomeo and gave him a northern Italian
accent in the animated film Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), points out that
the use of Italian dialects has the function of providing characterisation
(in the specific film it also highlighted the differences between the two
families). He further points out that it is an easy way of making the
audience laugh (Brusa, p.c. 14 April 2020) arguably because this contra-
venes the norm of using standard Italian, which has greater prestige,
and because dialects are used in comedies in Italian cinema (see Rossi
2006, 2015). Although Vairano agrees that the function of a regional
accent is to be funny, he explains that he usually tries to avoid Italian
dialects. In order to trigger humour he prefers to play with words or to
make up new words rather than resorting to dialects or regional Italian
(Vairano, p.c. 27 November 2018). In keeping with the views of other
interviewees in this study, he uses dialect only if it is inevitable (e.g.,
when the original film has Italian American characters). In such a case
linguistic characterisation is effected by using a Sicilian or Neapolitan
dialect. Vairano believes that although the dialect has to be from the
south, it does not necessarily carry negative connotations (Vairano, p.c.
27 November 2018).
Therefore, a marked accent has a comic effect. However, since it
runs the risk of making caricatures of the characters it is advisable to
resort to it with caution (Galassi 1994, pp. 66–67; Paccagnella, p.c. 20
January 2016; Alto, p.c. 25 January 2016; Morville, p.c. 28 January
2016; Guadagno, p.c. 30 January 2016; Rossi, p.c. 30 November 2017;
Manfredi, p.c. 27 September 2018). Dubbing directors and dubbing
actors may thus decide in rare cases, though always for humorous
106 V. Minutella
that star talents are usually allowed more freedom and creativity in their
vocal performance in animated films as a result of such a requirement
(Alto, p.c. 25 January 2016; Vairano, p.c. 28 November 2018; Izzo,
p.c. 4 March 2019). Alto points out that when it comes to pronuncia-
tion “there is a different degree of acceptance/tolerance with star talents”
(Alto, p.c. 25 January 2016). Izzo adds that “in animation anything is
possible and allowed, especially if the dubber is a star talent” (Izzo, p.c.
30 January 2019). Some examples are given in Sect. 2.3.2.
Vairano argues that regional accents heard by the audience in animated
films are generally the direct consequence of casting star talent dubbers
chosen because they are well known in Italy—not because of a delib-
erate artistic choice by the dubbing director (Vairano, p.c. 27 November
2018). While professional dubbing actors generally use neutral diction,
some kind of regional accent and cadence (cadenza) may be perceived in
dubbing, especially when non-professional dubbers are chosen to voice
the characters. As explained by Vairano, “if the dubbing director elimi-
nated the distinctive features of the star talents’ voice, there would be no
point in having them. Assuming you succeeded in a complete ‘polishing
up’, the audience would no longer be able to recognise their voice” (i.e.,
there would be no point in casting them). The dubbing director thus
has to somehow mediate “between the dubbing norm of standard Italian
with clear diction and the star talent’s vocal features and regional accent,
their idiolect. He needs to look for an acceptable compromise” (Vairano,
p.c. 27 November 2018). Vairano provides the example of star talent
Fabio Volo who dubs the protagonist in the Kung Fu Panda trilogy. He
reports working hard with Volo to help him deliver his lines clearly, while
still letting him keep his personal, typical way of pronouncing words
and hastening or slurring sentences according to his own speech rhythm,
intonation and regional accent. His voice had to be recongnisable.
Another example of Italian spoken with a regional accent due to using
a star talent can be found in Disney’s The Wild/Uno zoo in fuga (directed
by Izzo) in which Piemontese comedian Luciana Littizzetto dubs one of
the animal protagonists employing her clearly distinguishable, marked
Piemontese accent and making use of dialect words such as balengo
(stupid).
3 Translating Language Varieties and Multilingualism … 111
Izzo (2019) also points out that it is often the marketing departments
of the distributor who decide to use star talents. Such talents are chosen
because they are popular and have accents that are instantly recognisable.
This was the case with TV showman/comedian Max Giusti who dubs
Gru in the Despicable Me trilogy. As we will see in Chapter 7, in the
original film Gru (voiced by US comedian Steve Carell) has a kind of
undefined, contrived Eastern European or German accent which is lost
in the Italian version. This contravenes the norm of retaining foreign
accents in dubbing and the dubbing practitioners’ tendency to be faithful
to the original film’s intentions. Such a ‘betrayal’ of the original linguistic
characterisation had its roots in marketing where the need to recognise
the star talent dubbing the protagonist was deemed more important than
any fidelity to the original character. The vocal features of Giusti, his own
specific way of speaking and his idiolect had to be easily recognised by
the audience (Izzo, p.c. 4 March 2019). Since the marketing department
of Universal decided that Gru had to be voiced by Giusti and wanted
him to be recognisable (Izzo, p.c. 27 April 2020) Gru’s specific linguistic
identity in Despicable Me was thus completely lost and modified in the
dubbed Italian version.
The casting of star talents to dub the Italian voices of animated char-
acters thus appears to constitute a challenge for dubbing directors. Such
casting determines whether regional accents or dialects are used in the
Italian dubbed version. Star talents generally speak using their own voice
or regional Italian. No attempt is usually made at using standard Italian
with neutral diction. Sometimes a specific star talent may be chosen to
dub a certain character precisely because of his/her geographical origin
such that he/she can add an extra layer of meaning to the character
through his/her voice. Examples of star talents displaying regional accents
or a specific cadence will be discussed in further detail in the following
chapters.
112 V. Minutella
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Illumination Entertainment.
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Illumination Entertainment.
Gnomeo & Juliet. 2011. Kelly Asbury, Rocket Pictures, Arc Productions,
Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Starz Animation.
Home. 2015. Tim Johnson, DreamWorks Animation.
Hotel Transylvania. 2012. Genndy Tartakovsky, Columbia Pictures, Sony
Pictures Animation.
Hotel Transylvania 2. 2015. Genndy Tartakovsky, Columbia Pictures, Sony
Pictures Animation.
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. 2018. Sony Pictures Animation, Media
Rights Capital (MRC), Rough Draft Korea.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. 2008. Steven Spielberg,
Paramount Pictures, Lucasfilm, The Kennedy/Marshall Company.
Inglourious Basterds. 2009. Quentin Tarantino, Universal Pictures, The Wein-
stein Company, A Band Apart, Studio Babelsberg, Visiona Romantica.
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tion, Dragon Warrior Media.
Kung Fu Panda 2. 2011. Jennifer Yuh Nelson, DreamWorks Animation.
Le Concert. 2009. Radu Mihaileanu, Oï Oï Oï Productions, Trésor Films,
France 3 Cinéma, EuropaCorp, Castel Film Romania, Panache Productions,
Radio Télévision Belge Francophone, BIM Distribuzione.
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. 2012. Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath,
Conrad Vernon, DreamWorks Animation, Pacific Data Images.
3 Translating Language Varieties and Multilingualism … 121
TV series
Websites
https://www.antoniogenna.net/.
https://www.imdb.com/.
4
Linguistic Variation in Animated Films
from 2001 to 2017
4.1 Introduction
As previously pointed out, scriptwriters often use conventionalised
linguistic features and traits such as different language varieties to supply
information about location and character (Hodson 2014, p. 7). Different
types of language varieties and accents in films are adopted “as a quick
way to build character and reaffirm stereotype” (Lippi-Green 1997,
p. 85), to provide a setting for the story and to trigger humour (Lippi-
Green 1997, p. 87; Kozloff 2000, p. 82; Hodson 2014, pp. 6–7). For
instance, we can observe the tendency to use foreign accents and a few
foreign words or expressions to give local colour to a film, to convey the
setting of the story or point out the nationality of the speaker (Lippi-
Green 1997, p. 87; Wahl 2005). This phenomenon has been defined as
“audio-postcarding” (Wahl 2005, 2008) (i.e., using foreign accents and a
few foreign words or expressions to give local colour to a film, convey the
setting of the story or point out the nationality of the speaker) or as sign-
posting or “evocation” (Bleichenbacher 2008; O’Sullivan 2011). Specific
language varieties and accents, in particular, are adopted to connote
otherness and are also often used as vehicles of humour since they can
© The Author(s) 2021 123
V. Minutella, (Re)Creating Language Identities in Animated Films,
Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56638-8_4
124 V. Minutella
2 On the use of General American by actors and trained speech teachers to teach a non-
regionally marked variety of American English for the stage see the International Dialects of
English Archive (IDEA): https://www.dialectsarchive.com/general-american.
128 V. Minutella
Disney’s Atlantis, set in the early twentieth century, tells the story of
Milo, a young American linguist and philologist who embarks on a
mission with a group of adventurers to discover the lost empire of
Atlantis. The film includes both native and non-native varieties of
English, as well as some lines uttered in French and in the invented,
constructed language of Atlantean. A pre-credits sequence shows people
of Atlantis speaking a foreign tongue which is subtitled into English.
This provides the setting of the story. After this pre-credits sequence the
title of the film appears followed by a more familiar setting: Washington,
DC, 1914. This film is thus partly set in an English-speaking country
and partly in a mythical kingdom (Lippi-Green 1997, p. 88), and the
combination of languages and language varieties makes it an interesting
and rare example of a multilingual animated film.
The protagonist Milo, the antagonist Commander Rourke and several
other characters speak General American. The scruffy cook Cookie
speaks with a marked Southern American accent, while the doctor Dr
Joshua Strongbear Sweet speaks General American with some phonetic
4 Linguistic Variation … 129
In the films of the Shrek saga several varieties of English, both native and
non-native, can be heard. As far as native varieties are concerned, the
green ogre Shrek (voiced by Canadian actor Mike Myers) speaks with
a contrived Scottish accent, while Princess Fiona (voiced by Cameron
Diaz) speaks American English, initially with Middle English features
(such as the use of archaic lexis and a formal register). British English
(RP) is used in Shrek 2 by characters who are voiced by well-known
British actors. These are Fiona’s parents (the King and Queen of the
kingdom of Far Far Away voiced by John Cleese and Julie Andrews,
respectively) and the villains in the film: the evil Prince Charming
(Rupert Everett) and his mother the Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saun-
ders). On the other hand, Shrek’s comic sidekick Donkey (Eddie
Murphy) “often uses non-standard dialect similar to African American
Vernacular English and a ‘hip style’” (Minutella 2014, p. 81), drawing
on rhythmic, lexical and morphosyntactic features that are frequently
employed in films to identify African American characters (Green 2002;
Zanotti 2011; Minutella 2014).
Several non-native varieties of English are also exploited to achieve
humorous effect and perpetuate stereotypical representations. These
are Spanish-accented, French-accented and German-accented English.
Spanish-accented English is spoken by Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas),
a booted cat who initially attacks Shrek and then becomes his friend and
helper. His Spanish identity is testified to by his accent and some lexical
choices (see Minutella 2014, p. 175). The characters of Monsieur Hood
(a seductive but rude Latin lover), the Muffin Man (a skilled chef ) and
Jerome (the Fairy Godmother’s affected receptionist) all speak French-
accented English. German-accented English is spoken by the three little
pigs who sometimes also use common German words such as ja. Table
4.2 summarises the Language varieties spoken in the Shrek films.
4 Linguistic Variation … 131
Lilo and Stitch is set in Hawai’i and portrays the life of a young girl, Lilo,
who befriends an aggressive alien monster which she believes is a dog and
132 V. Minutella
she calls Stitch. The protagonist speaks General American English with
Hawai’i Creole (HC) intonation and rhythms, as does her sister Nana.
Other minor characters utter a few words and sing a song in Hawai’i
Creole. Most of the aliens speak AmE and BrE, with various accents,
and one of them speaks foreign-accented English. This film is praised by
Lippi-Green for its “sensitive portrayal of Hawai’i, Hawai’ian culture and
people of color” (2012, p. 124). According to Lippi-Green, Lilo and her
family “have features that are not Anglicized, and their lives are neither
romanticized nor trivialized; they all speak with Hawai’i Creole (HC)
intonation and rhythms, and HC is heard now and then in the back-
ground” (2012, p. 124). Moreover, the film also features one African
American character, the social worker Cobra Bubbles, who has a positive
role. Lippi-Green argues that he “looks a great deal like a professional
weight lifter. His looks are frightening and his voice—distinctly African
American—is imposing, but this character is in fact one of the good
guys, sincere in his concern for the orphaned sisters” (2012, p. 124).
Cobra Bubbles is voiced by African American actor Ving Rhames and
is represented as a big, muscular and menacing man, with his name
tattooed on his knuckles and a deep voice which may be recognised as
AAVE due to its intonation. However, Cobra Bubbles’ speech does not
display any lexical or syntactic features typical of AAVE. As far as vocab-
ulary and grammar are concerned, he speaks Standard American English.
Moreover, his register is also quite formal, as required by his professional
role.
Despite Disney’s attempt to be politically correct by casting some
Hawai’ian actors and making characters speak with Hawai’i Creole into-
nation and rhythms and by assigning a positive role to an African Amer-
ican character, it can be argued that a negative, stereotypical portrayal of
‘foreigners’ may still be found. In fact, the negative character in the film,
the alien scientist Dr Jumba Jookiba, who conducts illegal genetic exper-
iments and creates an abomination (Stitch), is made to speak English
with a broad and exaggerated foreign, Russian accent. Dr Jumba Jookiba’s
characterisation will be analysed in further detail in Chapter 7. Table 4.3
summarises the Language varieties spoken in Lilo and Stitch.
4 Linguistic Variation … 133
In Pixar’s Finding Nemo (2003) the little clown fish Nemo is captured in
the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, Australia. His father Marlin
faces several challenges in order to save him, helped by the blue tang fish
Dory. Most of the characters in this film speak native varieties of English,
in particular AmE and AusE. Despite the Australian setting, the main
characters (Nemo, Marlin and Dory) speak General American English
and are voiced by American actors, while some secondary characters
voiced by Australian or New Zealand actors have an Australian accent
and use some typically AusE words such as mate, G’day and Crikey.
134 V. Minutella
Characters with an Aussie accent are Bruce, Anchor and Chum (three
vegetarian sharks), the dentist Philip Sherman (the person who caught
Nemo) and the pelican Nigel. The sharks have a strong Australian accent,
while the pelican (voiced by Geoffrey Rush, whose voice is recognisable)
has a more general Australian accent. In Finding Nemo there is only one
character who speaks foreign-accented English: the shrimp Jacques who
lives in the dentist’s fish tank and helps Nemo escape from it. Jacques
(voiced by US actor Joe Ranft) has a marked French accent and uses a few
French expressions (Ouh la mer … bon! Voilà he’s clean) that are widely
termed “spectacular fragments” (i.e., the insertion of foreign words into
an English dialogue; Rampton 1999, p. 423).
In Finding Dory (2016) the protagonist Dory, who suffers from short-
term memory loss, starts remembering her past and thus leaves the reef
in search of her parents. Nemo and Marlin try to follow her and end up
in a marine institute in the United States. In this film General Amer-
ican English is the preferred language variety spoken by most of the
characters. However, two comic characters emerge as linguistically differ-
entiated through their British English variety. The sea lions Fluke and
Rudder (voiced by British actors Idris Elba and Dominic West) speak
English with a broad Cockney accent, with phonetic and lexical features
typical of this sometimes stigmatised variety of English. Another inter-
esting secondary character appearing in both films is Crush the Turtle.
His language is stereotypical of the Californian or ‘surfer dude’.3 Table
4.4 summarises the Language varieties spoken in Finding Nemo and
Finding Dory.
Table 4.4 Language varieties spoken in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory
Name of Voice Role in the film
character actor/actress Occupation Language variety
Nemo Alexander Gould Main character General
(in Finding Clown fish American
Nemo)
Nemo Hayden Rolence Main character General
(in Finding American
Dory)
Marlin Albert Brooks Main character General
Clown fish American
Dory Ellen DeGeneres Helper to main General
character American
Main character
Blue tang fish
Bruce Barry Humphries Minor character AusE
(Australian) Shark
Anchor Eric Bana Minor character AusE
(Australian) Shark
Chum Bruce Spence Minor character AusE
(New Zealand) Shark
Philip Bill Hunter Minor character AusE
Sherman (Australian) Dentist
Australian
Nigel Geoffrey Rush Minor character AusE
(Australian) Pelican
Jacques Joe Ranft Minor character French-accented
Shrimp English,
French words or
expressions
Fluke Idris Elba Minor character BrE
(British) Sea lion
Rudder Dominic West Minor character BrE
(British) Sea lion
Crush the Andrew Stanton Minor character General
Turtle Turtle American
‘surfer dude’
rich and famous. His boss is the puffer fish Sykes (Martin Scorsese) who
lends money with interest and works for Don Lino. When the shark
Frankie is accidentally hit and killed, Oscar is mistakenly thought to have
killed him and becomes the reef ’s hero.
In Shark Tale several varieties of American English can be heard, with
instances of AAVE (Oscar) and Jamaican English (the jellyfish Ernie and
136 V. Minutella
Bernie). Angie (Oscar’s best friend), the sensual Lola (a gold digger),
Lenny and other minor characters speak General American. On the other
hand, the sharks speak an Italian American variety of English which is
used to trigger stereotypical associations. The only shark who does not
speak Italian American is the non-violent, flower-loving and vegetarian
Lenny who is different from his family and therefore also speaks differ-
ently. Don Lino and the sharks are portrayed in the film both visually and
verbally as a parody of the gangsters in the film The Godfather (1972),
creating a negative representation of the Italian American ethnic group.
As Parini explains:
In Disney’s The Wild a group of animals escape from the New York zoo
to save Ryan, a young lion cub who was accidentally trapped and taken
to Africa. Most of the characters speak native varieties of English. Among
the protagonists, Ryan (Greg Cipes), his father Samson (Kiefer Suther-
land), the giraffe Bridget (Janeane Garofalo) and the squirrel Benny (Jim
Belushi) speak General American English, while the koala Nigel voiced
by British comedian Eddie Izzard speaks British English. The film also
contains minor characters speaking other native and non-native varieties
of English. The two sewer-dwelling alligators Stan and Carmine (voiced
by Lenny Venito and Joseph Siravo) speak with a New York accent also
known as ‘Brooklynese’ (Wells 1982c, p. 502; Labov 1966). A flock
of dancing pigeons have an exaggerated Indian accent, and the pigeon
Hamir is represented in a stereotypical and parodic way by exploiting
phonological and morphosyntactic features typical of Indian English
(Kachru 1983). Furthermore, when the zoo animals are in the jungle,
Benny is mistaken for a ball of dung by a group of dung beetles rolling
their balls of dung, singing and dancing. The dung beetles have long
blonde hair, red lips and wear colourful clothes that resemble traditional
Tirolese costumes and speak with a marked German accent, using the
recognisably German words Achtung and ja. The visual elements and
their accent and pronunciation are definitely meant to quickly create a
humorous characterisation. Stereotypical and stylised German-accented
and Indian-accented English are thus exploited in this film together with
a stereotypical New York or Brooklyn accent to bring about instant char-
acterisation and to trigger humour. Table 4.7 summarises the Language
varieties spoken in The Wild .
140 V. Minutella
In the original Cars, Mater, who has a thick American southern twang,
is strongly demarcated as lower class both visibly (vis-à-vis his rusted
carriage) and audibly through his poor grammar and mispronunciations.
In the English language version, this characterization is also audibly
communicated through vocal performer Daniel Whitney’s (also known
by his stage persona, ‘Larry the Cable Guy’) trademark ‘redneck’ humour
and put on, exaggerated southern accent. (2017, p. 89)
The Ice Age films were made by Blue Sky Studios/20th Century Fox.
The protagonists are Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano), Sid the sloth
(John Leguizamo), Diego the sabre-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) and the
female mammoth Ellie (Queen Latifah). Searching for a milder climate
during the Ice Age, Manny, Diego and Sid end up living together as a
herd and settle down in an isolated valley which they have to leave when
the ice wall surrounding it starts to melt. During their exodus they are
joined by Ellie, a mammoth who is convinced she is a possum since she
has spent all her life with her brothers, two funny possums called Eddie
(Josh Peck) and Crush (Seann William Scott). In the third film of the
saga Manny and Ellie are expecting a baby, Diego wants to leave the
herd and Sid desperately wishes to have a family of his own and thus
steals some dinosaur eggs. Consequently, he ends up in an underground
world inhabited by dinosaurs. The herd is chased by the mother dinosaur
but is helped by a one-eyed weasel called Buck (voiced by British actor
4 Linguistic Variation … 147
Simon Pegg) who looks and behaves like a pirate and has a strong British
accent.
The main characters in these films speak native varieties of English,
more specifically General American English. Sid is slightly differentiated
in linguistic terms due to his use of a sigmatic /s/ and of a few Spanish
expressions such as Qué pasa? The fact that he is voiced by Colombian
American actor Leguizamo may suggest that his ethnicity was a way to
linguistically characterise the sloth. Moreover, as pointed out by King,
Lugo-Lugo and Bloodsworth-Lugo (2010, p. 124), Sid is insulted as a
result of the racial/ethnic slur uttered by two rhinos who call him a
‘furry piñata’. Accordingly: “to attach the character of the sloth to the
148 V. Minutella
DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots is a prequel to the Shrek films which sees the
booted cat as the protagonist and tells the story of how he became an
outlaw in search of the legendary magic beans. Puss (Antonio Banderas)
is an orphan who lives in the town of San Ricardo in an orphanage where
he is bullied by other orphans and becomes best friends with the egg
Humpty Alexander Dumpty (voiced by Zach Galifianakis). Some years
later, Kitty Softpaws (voiced by Mexican American Salma Hayek) and
Humpty Dumpty convince Puss in Boots to steal the magic beans from
the evil Jack and Jill (voiced by US actors Billy Bob Thornton and Amy
Sedaris).
The language varieties and languages spoken in the film are General
American, Spanish-accented English and Spanish. Kitty speaks Amer-
ican English with a slight Spanish accent, whereas Puss has a heavy
Spanish-accented English. The minor characters from San Ricardo also
use Spanish-accented English along with some Spanish words and
expressions. Several instances of code-mixing and code-switching (i.e.,
instances of dialogue in which a person switches from one language
to another) provide both setting and character portrayal and can be
considered spectacular fragments (Rampton 1999, p. 423). The Spanish
words found in the dialogues are mainly vocatives, terms referring to
food and people, and exclamations (leche, señor, señorita, maldito huevo,
152 V. Minutella
holy frijoles, adiós, pequeño, mama, etc.). It is worth pointing out that
the evil Jack and Jill speak a social variety of American English: they
have a Southern American accent and use several non-standard syntactic
features such as ‘them’ for ‘those’, double negation and ‘ain’t’, which are
stereotypically associated with Southern American English. As explained
in the DVD extras, this southern accent was deliberately chosen by the
voice talents to represent the rough, dirty, brutal and vicious couple. It
might be argued that in so doing the American stereotype of southerners
as rural, rough and uneducated is conveyed both visually and verbally.
Table 4.13 summarises the Language varieties spoken in Puss in Boots/Il
gatto con gli stivali.
Table 4.13 Language varieties spoken in Puss in Boots/Il gatto con gli stivali
Role in the film
Name of Occupation
character Voice actor/actress Nationality Language variety
Puss in boots Antonio Banderas Protagonist Spanish-accented
Cat English, Spanish
words and
expressions
Humpty Zach Galifianakis Puss’s best friend General American
Alexander Egg
Dumpty
Kitty Softpaws Salma Hayek Main character Slight
Cat Spanish-accented
English, Spanish
words and
expressions
Jack Billy Bob Thornton Antagonist Southern
Man American
English
Jill Amy Sedaris Antagonist Southern
Woman American
English
Comandante Guillermo del Toro Captain of the Spanish-accented
Guards of San English, Spanish
Ricardo words and
expressions
Mama Imelda Constance Marie Puss’s adoptive Spanish-accented
Lopez mother English, Spanish
Woman words and
expressions
4 Linguistic Variation … 153
Juliet is disguised and moves like a female Ninja warrior. Table 4.14
summarises the Language varieties spoken in Gnomeo & Juliet.
species left (Jewel). In Brazil the American foreigners Linda (Blu’s owner)
and Blu are welcomed by Brazilian ornithologist Tulio and they meet
several characters both animal and human. Linda and Blu take some
time to get accustomed to the new culture. Blu and Jewel are kidnapped
by some bird traffickers/smugglers and the evil cockatoo Nigel. In Rio 2
Blu and Jewel now live in Rio with their kids and they are completely
humanised city birds. They decide to go to Amazonia in order to help
the couple Linda and Tulio save the birds living in the Amazon forest.
When the family and their friends reach the forest, they discover a flock
of blue macaws and Jewel’s father. Blu finds it difficult to live in the
natural world and with his father-in-law.
The voice cast includes Jesse Eisenberg (Blu), Leslie Mann (Linda),
Anne Hathaway (Jewel), Andy García (Eduardo), New Zealand actor
Jemaine Clement (the cockatoo Nigel), Mexican American George Lopez
(the toucan Rafael), Brazilian Rodrigo Santoro (the Brazilian ornithol-
ogist Tulio) and African American celebrities Jamie Foxx (the canary
Nico), will.i.am (the red-crested cardinal Pedro) and Tracy Morgan (the
bulldog Luiz).
The language varieties spoken in the Rio films are General American
English, New Zealand English, AAVE, Brazilian Portuguese-accented
English and some slight Spanish-accented English. Some Brazilian
Portuguese is spoken. Nevertheless, as pointed out by Bruti (2014,
p. 93), despite the Brazilian setting many characters (also those who
are supposed to be Brazilian) speak General American and the amount
of Brazilian Portuguese-accented English and Brazilian Portuguese is
quantitatively scarce (see also De Rosa 2014; Petrucci 2015). In the
Rio films a few instances of spectacular fragments provide couleur locale
and help to establish the setting of the story. As will be discussed
in Chapter 6, a few words in Brazilian Portuguese are uttered by
Jewel when she first meets Blu, but then she immediately switches to
General American. A few words and expressions in Brazilian Portuguese
(Valeo, vem pra cà) are uttered by a man (a minor character) during
the Carnival parade, and Portuguese-accented English is spoken by
the Brazilian bird traffickers. The ornithologist Tulio is the only main
character who has a mild Brazilian accent. Regarding native vari-
eties of English, Pedro, Nico and Luiz are linguistically characterised
156 V. Minutella
the ethnic ‘other’ through visual and verbal clichés, some cheap humour
that verges on the vulgar and sometimes insulting (sexist) language.
For instance, when the sensual Indian plane Ishani turns her back,
Dusty comments “Look at that propeller!” Or when Mexican plane
El Chupacabra (‘El Chu’) tries to seduce Canadian plane Rochelle by
making romantic jokes, the female plane tired of El Chu’s exagger-
ated behaviour replies by saying that the mind of the Mexican plane is
“teeny tiny”. Stereotypes are also conveyed through linguistic variation.
An attempt to provide authenticity of accent, naturalness and credibility
can be seen in the choice of voice actors. For instance, El Chupacabra
is voiced by Mexican American Carlos Alazraqui, Ishani by Bollywood
actress Priyanka Chopra and British plane Bulldog by English actor
John Cleese. However, this does not prevent the film from indulging
in stereotypes and parody in an attempt to make the audience laugh.
Both native and non-native varieties of English are used in this film.
The protagonist Dusty Crophopper (Dane Cook) and several minor
characters speak General American. British English is used by Bulldog, a
plane whose visual and verbal characterisation is highly caricatural. The
164 V. Minutella
A genius dog called Mr Peabody and his adopted son Sherman travel
though time and across the world in the WABAC—a time machine
invented by Mr Peabody. While the story is set in contemporary America,
Mr Peabody and Sherman return to ancient Egypt, to ancient Greece
during the Trojan war, to France during the French Revolution and
to Italy during Leonardo’s work on the Mona Lisa. Such a plethora
of cultures and ages is linguistically represented in the English version
through the use of non-native varieties of English. While Mr Peabody
(Ty Burrell), Sherman (Max Charles), his schoolmate Penny (Ariel
Winterson), her parents and all the Americans in the film speak General
American, some historical figures from other countries speak non-native
varieties of English with foreign accents which are more or less easily
detectable and variously stereotyped. In particular, the linguistic char-
acterisation of Italian Leonardo (Stanley Tucci) and Mona Lisa (Lake
Bell) and of French Marie Antoinette (Lauri Fraser) and Robespierre
(voiced by French production designer Guillaume Aretos) adds a further
layer of humour to a film which abounds in cultural references, allu-
sions and wordplay. Foreign-accented English and lexical features as well
as instances of code-switching and code-mixing convey humour while
signalling the origins of the speakers and the countries where the action
takes place. Words and expressions in French and in Italian serve as
spectacular fragments, as noted for many of the films in the corpus.
168 V. Minutella
unusual museum guide tells them a story from “The Book of Life” which
takes place in the Mexican town of San Angel. The protagonists are
Manolo (a boy who wants to become a musician despite his family tradi-
tion of bullfighting), his friend and rival Joaquín (a brave boy who will
become a fighter/soldier) and María (the daughter of the village general
with whom both boys are in love). Other important characters are La
Muerte (the ruler of the Land of the Remembered) and Xibalba (the
ruler of the Land of the Forgotten) who belong to the world of the dead
and influence the life of the three friends. In order to save María from
death Manolo enters the realm of the dead during the Mexican celebra-
tion of Día de Muertos and has to face several challenges. The film’s voice
cast is made up of several Latino actors such as Diego Luna (Manolo),
Zoe Saldana (María) and Kate del Castillo (La Muerte). Some Amer-
ican actors voice other characters such as Joaquín (Channing Tatum) and
Xibalba (Ron Perlman).
Both General American and Spanish-accented English are the
language varieties spoken in the film and there are some instances of
code-mixing and code-switching. Spanish words or expressions are used
by various characters to suggest that they should realistically be speaking
Spanish since the story is set in Mexico. Such words as fiesta, mi amor,
señora, señorita, mijo, adiós, buenas noches, Cinco de Mayo, La Muerte and
venga toro abound in the English dialogue. Most of the main charac-
ters tend to speak General American and sometimes with a very slight
Spanish accent (and with Spanish words and expressions interspersed
in their dialogue). A few minor characters speak English with a broad
Spanish accent. The characters who have a broad foreign accent are
María’s father (General Posada), Manolo’s grandmother and some minor
older characters. This results in a generational contrast. As pointed out
by Planchenault (2017, p. 287), the film provides an example of the
“commodification of accented voices across generations: while the grand-
parents and parents speak English with a non-native accent (with the
grandparents displaying the strongest Mexican accent) and code-switch
frequently in Spanish, the children speak unaccented American English.”
Although linguistic characterisation sounds quite authentic, it only rarely
appears like a stylised, stereotypical and comic representation. Table 4.24
170 V. Minutella
Table 4.24 Language varieties spoken in The Book of Life/Il libro della vita
Voice Role in the film
Name of character actor/actress Occupation Language variety
Young Manolo Protagonist General American
Young Joaquín Protagonist General American
Manolo Diego Luna Protagonist General American,
Aspiring slight
musician Spanish-accented
English,
a few Spanish
words and
expressions
Joaquín Channing Main character General American,
Tatum Manolo’s rival sometimes slight
Aspiring soldier Spanish-accented
English, some
Spanish words
and expressions
María Posada Zoe Saldana Main character General American,
Love interest sometimes with
General’s slight
daughter Spanish-accented
English, some
Spanish words
and expressions
General Ramiro Carlos Maria’s father Spanish-accented
Posada Alazraqui General English, some
Spanish words
and expressions
La Muerte Kate del Supporting General American,
Castillo character slight Spanish
Ruler of the accent
Land of the
Remembered
Xibalba Ron Perlman Antagonist General American
(villain)
Ruler of the
Land of the
Forgotten
Carlos Sanchez Hector Manolo’s father Spanish-accented
Helizondo Bullfighter English
Manolo’s Grey Griffin Manolo’s Spanish-accented
grandmother grandmother English
Candle maker Ice Cube Minor character AAVE intonation
and rhythm
(continued)
4 Linguistic Variation … 171
summarises the Language varieties spoken in The Book of Life/Il libro della
vita.
species, or more broadly, whether they fall into the category of prey or
predator” (2017, p. 30).
Most of the characters in Zootopia speak English natively with General
American being the prevailing variety. The main characters are Judy
Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and the sly fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman)
who both speak General American. Nevertheless, a few characters speak
social and ethnic varieties of American English or non-standard English.
Despite (or perhaps because of ) the film’s message against stereotypes,
linguistic characterisation contributes to reinforcing specific social stereo-
types. An example is the portrayal of a mafia mobster (a tiny arctic
shrew ironically called Mr Big) speaking Italian American English with a
broad Italian accent. Mr Big’s behaviour and speech clearly allude to Vito
Corleone’s character in the 1972 Godfather film (some dialogue lines are
actually quotations from that film). His daughter Fru Fru (voiced by
Leah Latham) speaks with a less marked Italian American accent. Further
examples of American stereotypes are the countryside fox Gideon Grey
and the thief Duke Weaselton. Gideon Grey (voiced by Phil Johnston)
is a fox who bullied Judy when she was a child but who then becomes
a pastry chef in Judy’s village. He is represented as a southern, rustic
farmer who speaks a variety that can be identified as rural Southern
American English both at the phonetic and lexical level (see Soares 2017,
p. 29). The weasel Duke Weaselton (Alan Tudyk) is negatively portrayed
through his behaviour and language. He is a thief, has a New York
City/Brooklyn accent and speaks a non-standard variety of English with
stigmatised grammatical features such as ain’t and double negation. The
tiny but aggressive Finnick utters a few words using AAVE.
By somehow connoting such secondary characters in a negative way
and having them speak non-standard varieties of American English
(Gideon and Duke) or an ethnolect (Italian American for Mr Big) this
contributes to reinforcing stereotypical representations. The language
spoken by further minor roles is also marked such as that of Yax the
yak (voiced by Tommy Chong) who is the hippie receptionist at the yoga
centre for naturists/naked animals and speaks an idiolect characterised by
a very colloquial register and the frequent use of vocatives such as dude
and bro. This conforms with the comic stereotype of the surfer dude or
dopehead. Another native variety of English spoken in the film is British
4 Linguistic Variation … 173
English. The head of the police department, the buffalo Chief Bogo, is
voiced by London-born Idris Elba with a standard British English accent
and a formal register.4 Table 4.25 summarises the Language varieties
spoken in Zootopia/Zootropolis.
The film Sing is presumably set in a US city and tells the story of the
koala Buster Moon, owner of the Moon Theatre, who decides to organise
a singing contest in the hope of saving his theatre from being closed
down. Since he is facing bankruptcy he asks for the financial support of
rich elderly sheep Miss Nana Noodleman (an opera celebrity) and starts
auditioning several animals. The finalists are the gorilla Johnny (voiced
by British actor Taron Egerton), the white mouse Mike (Seth MacFar-
lane), the porcupine Ash (Scarlett Johansson), the pigs Gunter and Rosita
(Nick Kroll and Reese Witherspoon) and the elephant Meena (Tori
Kelly). They are coached by Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) who
is helped by his secretary, the chameleon Miss Crawly (voiced by the film
director Garth Jennings) and Moon’s friend the sheep Eddie (John C.
Reilly). Several famous songs are performed by the voice actors.
When it comes to linguistic variation, the anthropomorphic animals
in the film speak both native and non-native varieties of English. Most
of the characters naturally speak General American, while some speak
British English with specific accents signalling their social provenance.
For instance and as will be discussed in Chapter 5, the rich diva Nana
(voiced by British actress Jennifer Saunders) speaks an upper-class British
English (RP); while the gorilla Johnny, his father and his gang of thieves
have a working-class Cockney accent. In terms of linguistic character-
isation the mouse Mike has a slight East Coast/New York accent and
may be said to speak with a cool New York street flavour to sound like a
4 Eightnative speakers of British English and one native speaker of American English identified
the language variety spoken by Chief Bogo as British English. Four British English speakers
also detected an East London accent (see also Dore 2019), while two detected an accent that
was a mixture of British and American.
174 V. Minutella
5Iwould like to thank Claudia Gvirzman Dichter, Giselle Spiteri Miggiani, Antonio Romano,
Christopher Taylor, Stuart Doherty and Shan Hirst for their comments.
4 Linguistic Variation … 175
are used for comic purposes only. These are Scottish English which is
spoken by the bull Angus (voiced by Scottish actor David Tennant) and
the German-accented English spoken by three ridiculous dancing horses
called Hans, Klaus and Greta (voiced by Flula Borg, Boris Kodjoe and
Sally Phillips). Table 4.28 summarises the Language varieties spoken in
Ferdinand .
For the most part (43.1 percent) they speak something approximating
*SAE. Another 13.9 percent speak varieties of US English which are asso-
ciated with particular geographic area [sic ], racial, ethnic or economic
groups. Less stigmatized varieties of British English are spoken by 21.8
percent. (2012, p. 115)
These data signal that within American and British varieties further
differences can be highlighted. While only around 14% of the speakers
of American English speak a “regionally or socially peripheral” variety of
AmE and only 11% speak a variety of BrE that is “regionally or socially
marked as peripheral” (Lippi-Green 2012, p. 115), the most frequently
adopted variety in the Disney films analysed by Lippi-Green is General
American (*SAE) followed by Standard British English. Regional and
social varieties of BrE and AmE are used for fewer characters and
therefore it is plausible to think that they are exploited to provide char-
acterisation and differentiation to mark the characters as ‘different’ or
‘other’.
Regarding our corpus of animated films, just over two-thirds (68%)
of the characters speak native varieties of English, the remainder
(32%) speaking non-native varieties of English. The great majority of
English native speakers (69%) speak varieties of American English, one-
quarter (25%) speak varieties of British English and a small minority
(6%) speak other native varieties. General American dominates (81%)
within the varieties of American English, while other characters speak
regional or social varieties such as Southern American English, AAVE,
New York/Brooklynese. These data appear to confirm the dominance
of General American in the animated films analysed, although the
182 V. Minutella
The first important regularity found in the films is that almost all the
main/leading characters and heroes speak General American English—
not foreign-accented English, other native varieties of English or
commonly stigmatised varieties of English (socially or regionally periph-
eral varieties of American and British English). This also happens in
films that are set in countries where the main language of communi-
cation would not be English such as Ratatouille, Ferdinand and Rio.
This confirms previous studies by several scholars (see Lippi-Green 1997,
2012; Petrucci 2015; Planchenault 2015 among others) who argue that
most characters in Hollywood films and in Disney animated films speak
a standard variety of American English. Petrucci points out the presence
of “an essentialist language ideology whereby, in the eyes of mainstream
Hollywood at least, the default nationality for English speakers is Amer-
ican and the default accent for English is Standard American English”
(2015, p. 397).
6I would like to thank Stuart Doherty for providing these data, creating tables and pie charts.
4 Linguistic Variation … 183
in all respects since they use standard grammar, have an accent close to
General American but do at the same time display AAVE intonation and
rhythm. These characters seem to be aligned with mainstream American
English and their linguistic identity as AAVE is only conveyed through
their intonation.
On the other hand, other characters who speak AAVE use several non-
standard grammatical features typical of this variety of English. Such
characters share some personality/behaviour features and are all male.
The typical non-standard linguistic markers of AAVE thus appear to
be associated with negative or at least ambiguous male characters. The
non-standard grammatical features of AAVE used in the films in the
corpus and the way in which these characters speak will be discussed
in Chapter 5, which will also analyse how the specificities of AAVE
are tackled by dubbing professionals. As previously observed, AAVE is
another stigmatised variety of American English which appears to be
largely used in the films analysed to provide negative stereotypical repre-
sentations of African Americans. Characters speaking AAVE in the films
tend to be funny, lazy and/or uneducated and are often comic sidekicks
or con artists. Moreover, they are often in animal form. Several non-
standard features typical of AAVE can be found in the speech of comic
characters who represent specific stereotypes of African Americans and
are mostly voiced by African American (male) voice talents. Examples
are Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) in Shrek; the hippo Moto Moto
in Madagascar 2 (voiced by will.i.am); the canary Pedro, the red cardinal
Nico and the bulldog Luiz (voiced by will.i.am, Jamie Foxx and Tracy
Morgan, respectively) in Rio; the fish Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) in
Shark Tale; and Finnick in Zootopia. It is worth pointing out that Oscar
is the only character speaking AAVE who is also the protagonist of a film
in our corpus. However, he is not a proper hero since his behaviour is not
entirely positive. It is also worth mentioning that characters portrayed as
speakers of AAVE appear in non-Disney films and all appear in animal
form. This suggests that the findings by Lippi-Green on AAVE in Disney
films also apply to films by other US production companies and there-
fore such characterisations are likely to be due to a prevailing casting
trend. This is in line with the stereotypical negative representations of
African Americans as jokesters and as having animal form, as discussed
186 V. Minutella
The films in the corpus also contain characters who speak with a
working-class New York/Brooklyn accent. These are the funny alliga-
tors Stan and Carmine living in New York’s sewers in Disney’s The Wild
and the thief Duke Weaselton in Zootopia. Such characters take the
form of animals, are rough and might be associated with underworld
activity and/or criminality. Their speech displays stereotypical phonetic
features (e.g., dropped /r/, ‘th’ pronounced as ‘d’) and some non-standard
grammar. The mouse Mike in Sing also speaks with a New York accent,
although his linguistic characterisation is less marked and he does not
use any non-standard features. Nevertheless, he is also associated with
negative behaviour in that he is quite aggressive and cheats at cards.
4 Linguistic Variation … 187
British English
Another regularity that can be found in the films is that British English
is often used to connote a character as different from speakers of Amer-
ican English. Assigning a British accent, whether regionally or socially
marked, to a specific character indexes specific tropes and is an important
means of character construction (see also Planchenault 2015, p. 122 for a
similar point related to Frenchness). Moreover, although Planchenault’s
comment refers to Frenchness, it can be applied to any non-American
accent such as British or Australian accents: “what is indexed […] is plain
otherness” (Planchenault 2015, p. 122, emphasis in the original ).
Several scholars and critics have noticed that villains in Hollywood
films including animations often speak British English (Lippi-Green,
1997, p. 122; Chiaro 2008, p. 16; Rojek 2008, pp. 131–134; Corrius
and Zabalbeascoa 2011, p. 121; Minutella 2014, p. 70; Minutella
2016; Ranzato 2018b, p. 223 among others). As argued by Rojek:
“Surely, Hollywood’s predilection for using British actors to play villains
reflects wider Western cultural perceptions of the British as pathologi-
cally reserved and unfeeling.” Rojek also added that “the British model
of reserve is well suited for representations of villainy because it smacks
of innate superiority” (Rojek 2008, pp. 131, 133). Other “villainous
traits that Hollywood associates with the British” include supercilious-
ness, conviction of innate superiority, emotional frigidity, indifference
and extreme self-control by constricting their emotions (Rojek 2008,
pp. 131–132). Examples of ‘superior’ villains speaking Standard British
English (RP) in our corpus of animated films are Pitch Black in Rise of
the Guardians, Prince Charming and the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2
and Sir Miles Axlerod in Cars 2.
Lippi-Green (1997, 2012) has also observed that “rich people and
aristocrats, in France or elsewhere, speak with British accents no matter
what their logical language” (1997, p. 100). In the films analysed several
characters speaking British English are represented as upper-class British
speakers and portrayed as rich, aristocratic, refined and posh. Examples
of such characters are King Harold and Queen Lillian in Shrek 2, the
food critic Anton Ego in Ratatouille, the statue of Shakespeare and Lady
Bluebury in Gnomeo & Juliet, the Queen in Cars 2 and Nana in Sing.
188 V. Minutella
The actors voicing these characters are all British. The films analysed thus
confirm the association between the socially prestigious British English
variety and two character types: the evil and the posh/refined.
A further pattern in linguistic characterisation that emerges in the
films making up the corpus is that a non-posh British English variety
or a more working-class London accent appears to be frequently used for
rougher characters. Regional and social varieties of English may signal
that the character is working class or less cultured, thus confirming the
frequent association made between working-class British English, typi-
cally spoken with a Cockney accent, and rough or ambiguous characters.
Linguistic stereotypes linked to stigmatised varieties of British English are
thus also present in the animated films analysed (on social and regional
British dialects of English in films see Ranzato 2010, 2018a, b; Hodson
2014). Ranzato (2018a, p. 241) argues that “Cockney is […] used in
telecinematic narratives to represent the working class type as opposed
to more refined individuals.” She provides several examples of “how the
Cockney character is often narratively contrasted to others of a superior
social class, and of how the voice of the Cockney is used to portray char-
acters of dubious moral standing” (Ranzato 2018a, p. 242). Examples of
characters having such features in the animated films analysed are Tybalt
and Lord Redbrick in Gnomeo & Juliet; Dr Nefario in Despicable Me 2;
the alligator Bad Bill in Rango; the gorilla Johnny, his father and a gang
of thieves in Sing; and the lazy sea lions Fluke and Rudder in Finding
Dory.
Although the function of these British English varieties is usually to
provide characterisation (evil, posh, rough or uneducated), it may also be
to trigger humour, to establish the setting or to provide a contrast with
speakers of other varieties (General American, in particular).
Scottish English
Other native varieties of English are also exploited in the films to connote
otherness (i.e., to differentiate them from the majority of American
English speakers, to provide characterisation and sometimes to signal
the setting of the story). Unlike other British English varieties such as
4 Linguistic Variation … 189
Australian English
the setting (Sydney and the Ocean) and is spoken by a few secondary
characters voiced by Australian actors. In Rise of the Guardians the Easter
Bunny is represented both visually and verbally as being Australian. In
the case of the three vegetarian sharks in Finding Nemo and the Easter
Bunny Australian English seems to be emphasised and exaggerated to
connote Australianness and broadness. Their Australian identity is also
highighted by the frequent use of specific typical (arguably stereotypical)
Australian words such as Crikey, G’day and mate and a broad accent.
Such Australian characters have a number of features in common: they
are funny, they are animals, they are all male and they are big, strong,
tough and slightly aggressive, though good. They appear to exemplify
certain Australian male stereotypes such as toughness, physical strength
and being natural, unassuming and direct. Another Australian stereotype
that is hinted at by such characters is the ‘larrikin’ (i.e., an unculti-
vated, rowdy but good-hearted, playful trickster). As pointed out by
Goldsmith, Australian characters on screen are often defined by having
a broad Australian accent. Moreover, several characters display “the traits
that Australians [consider] emblematic of a ‘larrikin’ or ‘ocker’ persona
– unorthodox, profane, prone to using inventive slang, abrasive, compet-
itive, disrespectful of authority” (Goldsmith 2017, p. 84). The Easter
Bunny and his broad Australian accent combined with his behaviour
comply with the stereotype (on media and screen representations of
Australians see Crawford 2010; Goldsmith 2017; Marshall 2019).7
7I would like to thank Tessa Dwyer for her comments about Australian accents and film
stereotypes of Australians.
4 Linguistic Variation … 191
– Puss in Boots in the Shrek films and in Puss in Boots (the Span-
ishness of the cat is highlighted through verbal and visual elements;
his Spanish-accented English and some Spanish words are aimed at
characterisation and comedy).
– Ramone in the Cars films (his slight Spanish accent is aimed at
character portrayal and enhancing comedy).
– Featherstone in Gnomeo & Juliet (his broad Spanish accent and some
Spanish words are aimed at comic characterisation and at enhancing
humour; this is a stylised representation provided by a US actor).
– the Mariachi Owls in Rango (their broad Spanish-accented English
interspersed with Spanish words through code-mixing provides
setting, triggers humour and creates a Latino-Mexican characterisa-
tion).
– Tito and Angelo in Turbo (they are portrayed as Mexican through
verbal and visual means such as selling tacos, being slightly over-
weight and being funny; the way they speak is aimed at providing
characterisation, stereotypes and humour).
– Eduardo Perez/El Macho and his son Antonio in Despicable Me 2 (El
Macho is clearly identified as being Mexican through a series of visual
and verbal stereotypes; he is the baddy in the film and embodies the
stereotype of the Latino villain found in Hollywood films). As argued
by Ramírez Berg, there is a “long line of Latino movie antagonists
… el bandido […] we expect him to be villainous and to act in
predictably despicable, criminal, and inhumane ways” (2002, pp. 18–
19). El Macho is represented as overweight, has a goatie, is associated
with food and salsa dance and is a Latin lover. Moreover, he is a despi-
cable and cruel person. The visual and verbal portrayal of El Macho
is aimed at creating character, conveying stereotypes and triggering
humour.
– Manolo and other minor characters in The Book of Life (Spanish-
accented English and some Spanish words used as spectacular frag-
ments are meant to provide setting (Mexico) and authenticity; the
characters are mostly positive, though some of them are ridiculed).
– Miguel and all the characters in Coco (Spanish-accented English and
Spanish words/expressions used as spectacular fragments are meant to
4 Linguistic Variation … 197
define the Mexican setting of the film and employed for character
portrayal in a search for authenticity).
– Some minor characters in Ferdinand (some Spanish-accented English
and Spanish words uttered by secondary characters – not the main
ones; this is aimed at establishing the Spanish setting, portraying
characters and enhancing comedy, with a few stereotypes such as
the Spanish bullfighter El Primero, who is visually and verbally
represented in a comic way).
– El Chupacabra in Planes (the plane is identified as being Mexican
through his heavily Spanish-accented English; this is aimed at
providing characterisation, reaffirming the stereotype of the male
buffoon (Ramírez Berg 2002) and triggering humour).
As can be seen from the above list, many of the characters are Mexicans
or Latinos. Moreover, the most comic and caricatural are Mexican. This
might not be by chance since relations between Mexico and the United
States have a long history.
German-Accented English
The films analysed also contain some characters who speak English with
a broad Russian accent and sometimes utter ungrammaticalities. They
are the mad scientist Dr Jumba Jookiba (Lilo & Stitch), the aggressive
tiger Vitaly (Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted ) and the big guardian of
childhood Nicholas St North (Rise of the Guardians). They are all voiced
by US actors. The function of this often exaggerated and contrived
Russian-accented English is to provide humour and to contrast with
other characters. There is a tendency to convey an overtly negative,
but supposedly comical and funny representation of Russians who are
crazy evil geniuses, sometimes aggressive, always big figures and often
criminals. The only positive character is North, who is visually repre-
sented as having a big build. Such an association between characters
speaking English with a Russian accent and being negative (which may
hark back to the Cold War) is also found in Pets 2 (2019), a recently
released animated film by Illumination Entertainment. Here the villain
is the circus owner Sergei, voiced by US comedian Nick Kroll who uses
a Russian accent. This may be the result of cinema’s exploitation of
tropes regarding Russians that are used for quick characterisation, even in
animated films aimed at children. As will be discussed in Chapter 7, it is
worth pointing out that the stylised representations of Russians provided
by US actors in the animated films discussed above include the use of
ungrammaticalities. Russians in such films are portrayed as not only
having an accent, but also making mistakes when they speak English.
200 V. Minutella
This enhances their otherness and distance from the American heroes.
Characters portrayed as Russians also seem to have negative connotations
associated with them. Their visual representation and their aggressive
behaviour combine with their accent to convey the negative stereotype
of Russians. A further negative visual element perhaps needs attention.
Russians are depicted as bears in both Sing and Zootopia. Although they
utter very few lines, the brown bears in Sing seem to be Russian8 since
they have a slight Russian accent. They are portrayed as thugs who drive
fast sports cars; wear fancy clothes, suits, necklaces and sunglasses; play
cards in a nightclub and get angry and violent once they discover that
they have been cheated by Mike. In Zootopia, Mr Big’s bodyguards are
polar bears wearing black suits, thus associating them with the mafia
(presumably an allusion to the Russian mafia).
8The dubbing director of the Italian version confirms that the bears are Russian (Mete, p.c. 9
June 2020) and that the client asked them to make them speak with a slight Russian accent
in the dubbed version.
4 Linguistic Variation … 201
favelas, football matches and the Amazon forest. The presence of visual
stereotypes of Brazilians in Rio has been pointed out by De Rosa (2014)
and Petrucci (2015). As will be discussed in Chapter 6, the minimal use
of this variety of English and Brazilian Portuguese has a “postcarding
function” (Wahl 2005, 2008).
Indian-Accented English
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Filmography
Atlantis (2001). Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Walt Disney Feature Animation,
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Bend It Like Beckham (2002). Gurinder Chadha, Kintop Pictures, Film
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20th Century Fox Animation.
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Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
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Walt Disney Pictures.
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Hotel Transylvania (2012). Genndy Tartakovsky, Columbia Pictures, Sony
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4 Linguistic Variation … 215
TV Series
The Nanny (1993–1999). Fran Drescher et al. (creators), Dorothy Lyman, Lee
Shallat Chemel, Peter Marc Jacobson et al. (directors), CBS.
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Gracie Films, 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century Fox.
The Sopranos (1999–2007). David Chase, HBO.
5
Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native
Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing
5.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on how native varieties of English are used in
animated films and how they are dubbed into Italian. As previously high-
lighted, since the productions are American, the most frequently used
and therefore ‘unmarked’, default variety of English in the films making
up the corpus is General American. Particular emphasis will be placed
on native varieties that signal otherness than the unmarked variety:
British English, some of its regional and social dialects and accents
(upper-class BrE or RP, Cockney/a London accent, Scottish English),
Australian English, and non-standard varieties of American English such
as Southern American English and AAVE.
The chapter will investigate how these native varieties are transferred
to the Italian context from a translational perspective. What are the
strategies adopted in dubbing? Does dubbing convey the nuances in
characterisation provided by geographical and social varieties of English
or does it neutralise, level out and standardise variation, homogenising
regional and social differences? Is standard Italian that is devoid of
any regional accent the preferred choice in Italian dubbing? Chapter 3
© The Author(s) 2021 217
V. Minutella, (Re)Creating Language Identities in Animated Films,
Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56638-8_5
218 V. Minutella
The above comments highlight the careful study of character and the
importance of voice casting, type of voice and interpretation to create
characterisation when making the film.
When it came to attributing an Italian voice to this charming but scary
character, dubbing director Mete explained that the different geograph-
ical varieties of English spoken by the Guardians could not be conveyed
in Italian (Mete, p.c. 20 September 2018). He felt it was impossible
to retain the regional connotation of the Eastern Bunny (played by
Australian Hugh Jackman) or the elegance and charm of the British
accent displayed by the evil Pitch Black. Since there could be no clear
Italian equivalents to the connotations attached to geographical and
social varieties of English, the dubbing director attempted to work on
other features of the performance. In particular, when considering the
role of Pitch, Mete and Riccardo Niseem Onorato (the official dubber of
Jude Law) carefully studied the character’s personality and his voice. In
the Italian version Pitch Black had to have a charming, seductive voice
since evil and fear can be fascinating and attractive. Pitch’s distinctive
RP English was thus neutralised in the dubbed version where dubber
222 V. Minutella
In the films under analysis the same variety of British English is used
by several characters who are not evil, but represented as rich, aristo-
cratic or refined. Such characters tend to be portrayed as upper class:
they speak standard British English marked by an RP or U-RP accent
(on the features of U-RP and its use in films and TV series, see Bruti
and Vignozzi 2016; Sandrelli 2016; Ranzato 2018b). RP or U-RP is
224 V. Minutella
The King uses an indirect, very polite question a more direct version of
which would be “Can we pretend it never happened?” The use of formu-
laic politeness is a sociopragmatic feature that is popularly associated with
interactions in spoken British English.
Example 5.3
Carter took the idea of the Ego character we gave him, the angel of
death in the cooking world, the “Grim Eater” who never finishes a meal,
and came back with his delicious, cadaverous, funereal character. Ego is
such a hypercritical kind of vulture that he hardly eats at all. So he’s
thin and gaunt – really the undertaker’s undertaker, there to pass death
sentences to unfortunate eating establishments. The slight stoop, rounded
back, and muffler are all reminiscent of a vulture. And, of course, at
the same time he’s very intelligent and sophisticated and impressed with
his own erudition; he has the ennui of the decadent elite. (Jan Pinkava,
co-director, in Paik 2007, p. 142)
chose a less common, more authentic and more refined expression which
better matches the elegance of Ego.
In Sing (2016) the sheep Miss Nana (voiced by Jennifer Saunders)
is a retired diva, actress and opera singer living in a big villa. She is
represented visually through costumes and gestures as superior, elegant,
rich and posh—and, predictably, she drinks tea. Moreover, she has a
butler. These are all characteristics stereotypically associated with upper-
class British characters. The visual representation is combined with the
linguistic one. In fact, although the film seems to be set in a ficti-
tious American city on the West Coast, Miss Nana is definitely British
and speaks with an upper-class accent. On the other hand, her ‘spine-
less’ grandson Eddie (a sheep voiced by John C. Reilly) and his friend
Buster Moon (a koala voiced by Matthew McConaughey) are American.
Eddie comments on his grandmother by saying that “She’s one mean
sheep.” Moon always looks on the bright side and his motto is: “When
you’ve reached rock bottom, there’s only one way to go, and that’s up!”
This contrast is emphasised by the language varieties they speak. The
following exchange takes place between Miss Nana, her grandson Eddie
and Buster Moon when they visit Nana because Moon wants to persuade
her to fund his singing contest.
Example 5.5
(continued)
Original version Dubbed version
EDDIE Don’t listen to him, Nana. EDDIE Non starlo a sentire.
NANA I’m not listening to either of NANA Non sto a sentire nessuno dei
you. Lapsang souchong. No sugar. due. Lapsang souchong e senza
And be quick about it (she gives zucchero. Una cosa rapida.
Eddie a cup and orders him to EDDIE Nana, io … hmm, non so
make tea…) preparare il tè, hmm.
EDDIE Oh, Nana. I I don’t know how […]
to make tea. NANA La prego. Queste lusinghe
[…] sono vane. Non intendo tirarla fuori
NANA Please. This flattery is futile. I dai guai. Ah. È per i suoi patetici
have no intention of bailing you show che il teatro non ha più un
out. Haha. Your pathetic shows are pubblico. […]
the reason that theatre no longer Non erano ‘bei vecchi tempi’, signor
has an audience. Moon. Erano semplicemente
[…] magnifici.
They were not good old days, Mr […] Ricordo ancora […] il sipario che
Moon. They were magnificent. si alzava su quel glorioso
[…] I can recall […] the curtain rising palcoscenico.
over that glorious stage. […]
[…] NANA Ma qualunque cosa pur di non
But anything’s better than spending giocare a dama un’altra sera con
another evening playing checkers quel vecchio babbione.
with this sad old fart. BACK TRANSLATION
NANA How lucky I am. A visit from
my useless grandson with his
horrid little theatre friend.
BUSTER MOON Did you see? She
remembers me. Okay, Nana. What
would you say about becoming the
sponsor of a very prestigious prize?
NANA That won’t be that singing
contest I saw on the news?
BUSTER MOON That’s the one.
NANA Oh, I understand. You don’t
have a single cent, am I right?
[…] Well, you’ll not get a cent out of
me!
BUSTER MOON Nana, please, listen to
me for just a second.
NANA No, absolutely not.
EDDIE Don’t listen to him.
NANA I’m not listening to either of
you. Lapsang souchong and no
sugar. Be quick about it.
EDDIE Nana, I … hmm, I don’t know
how to make tea, hmm.
(continued)
230 V. Minutella
(continued)
Original version Dubbed version
[...]
NANA Please. This flattery is futile.
I’m not going to get you out of
trouble. It’s because of your
pathetic shows that the theatre no
longer has an audience. […]
They were not the ‘good old days’,
Mr. Moon. They were simply
magnificent.
[…] I still remember […] the curtain
rising over that glorious stage.
[...] But I’d do anything to avoid
playing checkers yet another
evening with that old idiot.
Even without hearing the spoken dialogue the above exchange shows
the imperious tone of the rich and refined elderly diva Nana. The
social difference between the broke but always positive-thinking Buster
Moon, his lazy laid-back friend Eddie and the overbearing Nana is
reflected in the different varieties of English spoken by each: General
American (Buster and Eddie) and British English (Nana) with a posh,
upper-class accent—an example of the American vs British cinematic
trope (see Ranzato 2018b). Nana’s British essence is conveyed through
Jennifer Saunders’ cold, unemotional comments and orally in her accent
and delivery. Note the intrusive /r/ in ‘I saw on the news’ (/aI sO rAn
/gA stli/, ‘futile’ pronounced as /fju taIl/, the lengthening of the vowel
1I would like to thank Antonio Romano for his help with the phonetic transcriptions.
5 Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties … 231
syntactically and lexically by the use of a question tag (“You don’t have
the money, do you?”), adjectives such as ‘ghastly’, ‘futile’, ‘pathetic’,
‘magnificent’ and ‘glorious’ and by her ordering a speciality tea (what
else would a British person drink in a Hollywood film?). Furthermore,
Nana’s comment on her butler is once again offensive and demonstrates
her unpleasant superiority, while she uses a vulgar British expression “old
fart” (a boring or annoying person), showing what some would regard as
an upper-class disregard of social embarrassment when swearing.
In the Italian dubbed version the connotations attached to each char-
acter’s accent are lost. According to dubbing director Mete (p.c. 9 June
2020), no specific accent was given to Nana, but since she was a diva
they chose an experienced dubbing actress (Rita Savagnone) capable
of providing such a connotation through her voice. Voice modulation,
pitch, rhythm and vocal performance (as well as register and lexical
choices in the dubbing script) help dubbing actors in characterisation,
but no specific accents are used. In fact, Nana oscillates between a highly
formal and more colloquial register since she uses some informal expres-
sions such as the idiom non avere il becco di un quattrino (“to have no
money”) and non caverà un centesimo da me (“you won’t get a cent from
me”) where the verb cavare is more colloquial than the more neutral avere
or ricevere as well as the derogatory expression vecchio babbione that is
used to refer to an uninteresting, silly or stupid older man (similar to
the British “old fart”). It is worth pointing out that the Italian dubbed
version seems to lower the register of Nana’s language since more collo-
quial expressions are used than in the English version. The dubbed
version thus eliminates any trace of regional and class accent, running
the risk of losing the haughty attitude conveyed by the RP spoken by
Nana. Nevertheless, the voice performance of the dubbing actress acted
as the means to bring about characterisation.
terms of accent. The formality of the Queen is also not conveyed in the
dubbed version which uses the informal vocative tu rather than the more
formal Lei. However, the Queen’s Britishness in the dubbed version is
expressed through her English-accented Italian. Some degree of infor-
mality is conveyed in the expression “Lasciamo stare la storia del ‘sir’”
(“let’s forget about this ‘sir’ business”). However, Mater uses the formal
voi pronoun to address the Queen and no other colloquial expressions
are adopted except for the humorous fischia. Nevertheless, later analysis
of other scenes will show that Mater’s characterisation in Italian matches
that of the original film well since informal and colloquial expressions
are inserted in his lines.
The above example of the Queen is a rare case in which a British
variety of English is transferred in dubbing into Italian with an English
accent rather than using standard Italian with a neutral accent. This may
be justified by the fact that the character actually portrays a living person
and a symbol of Britishness. Moreover, the fact that the same British
actress dubs herself in the Italian version lends a sense of naturalness
and authenticity to the voice, which does not make her a caricature or a
parody.
The American vs British trope mentioned earlier can again be found
in the exchanges between Mater and the British characters: the tow
truck’s behaviour and American speech is humorously contrasted with
that of all the British speakers from Sir Miles Axlerod, the Queen, Lewis
Hamilton through to the intelligence agents Finn McMissile and Holley
Shiftwell (all voiced by British actors). Mater emerges as a comic char-
acter. In Ranzato’s words, here we see “characters from the British upper
middle class in their interactions with socially lower (but also ‘warmer’)
Americans” (Ranzato 2018b, p. 220).
The exchange in Example 5.7 between Mater and Finn McMissile,
who mistakes Mater for an American secret agent, illustrates this point
and the irony and self-irony of Mater. The exchange plays on the charac-
ters’ accents. There is a series of misunderstandings as a result of Finn and
Holly believing that Mater is a secret agent who is deliberately pretending
to be naive and dull since he is undercover, whereas he is actually simply
being himself.
234 V. Minutella
Example 5.7
(continued)
Original version Dubbed version
MATER You might not be happy, but I MATER Forse tu non sarai felice,
bet this feller is. See how he’s had ma scommetto che lui lo è. Si è
most of his parts replaced? And see all fatto sostituire un sacco di pezzi.
them boxes over there? Them’s all Vedi quelle scatole laggiù? Sono
original parts. They ain’t easy to come ricambi originali. Non sono facili
by. da trovare.
BACK TRANSLATION
FINN This seems like a dead end. If
there were something in the
photo that could narrow this
down a bit I’d be a lot happier.
MATER You might not be happy,
but I bet he is. He’s had most of
his parts replaced. And you see
all those boxes over there?
They’re all original parts. They
aren’t easy to find.
While Finn’s sentences are quite formal, Mater’s utterances are filled
with non-standard grammar. The Italian dubbed version does not repro-
duce these non-standard features nor the two different accents, thus
reducing and neutralising the negative stereotypical characterisation
conveyed in the English version. Compensation is achieved only through
the use of an informal expression such as un sacco di (a bunch of ) and
through the vocal performance of the dubbing actor. The only charac-
terisation provided in the dubbed version is a very slight Tuscan accent
(the natural accent of actor Marco Messeri). A stigmatised, non-standard
variety of American English is turned into largely standard Italian, but
non-standard grammar is not used even though it is signalled in the
Dialogue List. In fact, creative director Morville believed that Mater
should not speak broken Italian and should not sound uneducated and
silly (p.c. 4 June 2019). The humorous contrast between the British
secret agent and the rustic American from the south is neutralised in
dubbing.
236 V. Minutella
There are other characters who usually speak British English, but do so
in a more regionally or socially marked way. They tend to fall in the
category of lovable rogues or rough diamonds. In the films analysed we
can find several examples of this type of character. Those speaking with
a London/Cockney accent share some features: they are working class
(or portrayed as not being middle or upper class); they are rough, less
refined, less educated; they may be lazy, thieves or criminals; and may be
involved in dubious business dealings. Cutler points out that “a person’s
accent can potentially index a very specific place identity, entailing that
he or she is a veritable representative of that place” and adds that “stig-
matized or undesirable accents like Cockney or Brooklynese […] are also
linked to specific places and groups of people (e.g. East London, working
class, or Brooklyn, immigrant background, etc.)” (2016, p. 75). Ellender
similarly observes that “[s]peakers of Cockney are stereotypically associ-
ated with dubious business dealings and other criminal activity” (2015,
p. 77).
In Sing (2016) the gorilla Johnny, his father (Big Daddy) and his gang
of gorilla thieves are characterised as having a London/Cockney accent.
Their language contains instances of stigmatised Cockney features such
as h-dropping, t-glottaling, l-vocalisation, th-fronting and vowel shifts
that can be heard in the following words and expressions uttered by
Big Daddy: right pronounced as /rAI/, fine pronounced as [fAIn], time
pronounced as [thAIm], and “stay here” pronounced as stay ’ere (h
dropping). They can also be heard in words uttered by Johnny: “late”
pronounced as [leI], “date” pronounced as [deI], “not yet” pronounced as
[no?je] or [nA?je], “wait” pronounced as [weI] and “father” pronounced
as [fa:vђ]. Moreover, several non-standard grammatical features can be
heard in their speech. Some utterances by Johnny’s father in Example 5.9
illustrate that he speaks a London, working-class variety of English that is
conveyed not only through accent and specific phonetic features in the
5 Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties … 237
Winstone who was born a Cockney. According to the IMDb his trade-
mark characteristics are his “hard, gritty voice” and his “working class
Cockney accent” (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0935653/bio?ref_=
nm_ov_bio_sm). Bad Bill’s Cockney accent marks him as different from
the rustic but peaceful townspeople. Example 5.10 is uttered with a
marked Cockney pronunciation with instances of t-glottalisation and l-
vocalisation. He also uses informal British English words such as “gawp”
(i.e., to stare in a rude, stupid or unthinking way—Collins English Dictio-
nary or CED) and the colloquial vocative “mate” (pronounced as /meI/)
typical of British and Australian English—though not used in North
America according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Example 5.10
In the Italian dubbed version Bad Bill does not have any specific
regional accent and speaks standard Italian. However, the word ‘mate’
is translated as compare, which is a vocative (a familiariser that
connotes closeness) used in southern Italy arguably suggesting a southern
Italian identity for the criminal. Voice quality and performance further
contribute to characterisation. The linguistic differentiation and contrast
between Bad Bill, Rango and the townspeople, which are clearly distin-
guishable in the original version, are neutralised and homogenised into
standard Italian. When I asked dubbing director Izzo why they did not
5 Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties … 239
2The Telegraph (2007), “Mike Myers: How I Nailed Shrek’s Accent”, https://www.telegraph.co.
uk/culture/film/starsandstories/3665827/Mike-Myers-how-I-nailedShreks-accent.html.
5 Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties … 241
idiolect for the green plastic frog Nanette (a surrogate for Juliet’s Nurse).
She is a comic character and her accent and behaviour contribute signifi-
cantly to her characterisation. As a result of the general dubbing policy to
localise the whole film and make all the characters Italian, Nanette speaks
Neapolitan in the Italian dubbed version. She does so with a marked
accent, using dialect words and cultural references such as babà (a typical
Neapolitan pastry) (on Nanette in the original version and in dubbing
see Minutella 2016, p. 238).
Scottish English is also used in other films where it has the function
of immediately and unmistakably identifying the characters, providing
setting and conveying humour. However, the Scottish identity of the
characters is always neutralised in the dubbed versions since standard
Italian is used. In Brave (2012) Scottish English is conveyed through
broad Scottish accents and several lexical features (Scotticisms) and Scot-
tish cultural references. It is used to identify the characters, provide
setting, convey humour (King Fergus, the three Lords and their sons
not only look funny but they also behave and speak in a comic way) and
result in miscommunication when Young McGuffin speaks the Doric
dialect. As noted in Chapter 4, in the How to Train Your Dragon films
Scottish English is used not only to provide characterisation but also to
highlight generational contrast. In Ferdinand (2017) Scottish English
serves the purpose of comically characterising the bull Angus who not
only has a Scottish name but also represents a Scottish breed (Highland
Cattle). Stereotypical lexical and phonological Scottish features and an
exaggerated, strong accent together with Angus’ behaviour render the
character extremely comic.
In these films the characters are voiced by Scottish actors/voice talents
with four notable exceptions: Shrek, voiced by Canadian Mike Myers;
Hiccup’s mother Valka, voiced by Australian actress Cate Blanchett in
How to Train Your Dragon 2; and Merida’s mother Elinor, voiced by
London-born actress Emma Thompson and the witch voiced by Julie
Walters in Brave. Queen Elinor’s Scottish pronunciation is less marked
than that of her daughter and that of the male characters. Cutler
describes Merida and her mother Queen Elinor as follows:
242 V. Minutella
I agree with this view. Emma Thompson’s accent sets her apart from the
male characters and from her own daughter whose behaviour is rebellious
and distant from her. The contrast between mother and daughter, which
is the central theme of the film, is conveyed through both their behaviour
and language: Merida is more authentic and wilder and speaks with a full
Scottish accent, while her mother is more controlled and strict and her
speech fluctuates between Scottish English and Standard English. Such
linguistic characterisation matches the personalities, roles and ages of the
women. This contrast is not conveyed in the dubbed version since all the
characters in the film speak standard Italian with its neutral accent, thus
confirming the argument put forward by dubbing professionals that the
main language of animated films is always dubbed into standard Italian.
Kevin McKidd, who voices both father and son (Lord MacGuffin and
Young MacGuffin), decided to resort to a Scottish dialect—his grand-
father’s Doric dialect—in order to characterise the speech of Young
MacGuffin. He explained in an interview that he decided to choose a
real Scottish dialect he knew since the directors wanted him to speak in
a way that was incomprehensible to other characters.3 As a result nobody
understands Young MacGuffin and there are no subtitles when he speaks.
This is somehow conveyed in the dubbed version by making the dubbing
actor speak a nonsensical sentence (Se fosse nel mentre io lui sul groppizio
ci va—If it were in the while I he on his groppizio goes)—not through
a specific Italian dialect or an English accent. Since the function of the
Doric dialect was to be unintelligible, the dubbing team invented mean-
ingless words rather than resorting to an Italian dialect, which would
have domesticated and Italianised the character and would have clashed
3 Seeinterview with the voice actors and film directors: “Brave | It’s English Sort Of | Disney
Pixar”, online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdBKJLzlxSA.
5 Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties … 243
with the Scottish setting of the film and nationality of the character.
An alternative strategy could have been to keep the lines in the original
dialect and use the original audio track and voice of the original actor.
It is also worth pointing out that in Brave and other films using Scot-
tish English several Scotticisms are used. Examples are the words aye,
lass/lassie, wee, och, loch and haggis. Other less common Scottish words
found in Brave are gammy, scaffy, tatty, glen (a narrow valley, especially
in Scotland or Ireland) and tumshie (Scottish informal and humorous
term for a turnip). Tumshie is used by Lord Dingwall as a humorous
insult. Fergus, Merida, Elinor and other characters use several of these
words that are enregistered as typical of Scottish English: they are marked
as dialectal (Scottish) in dictionaries of the English language such as
the Collins English Dictionary, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and the
Oxford English Dictionary (online versions). A few examples of dialogues
from Brave and Ferdinand will illustrate the large presence of Scottish
lexical features in English dialogues and how their dialectal character
disappears in the Italian dubbed versions.
Example 5.11
Example 5.12
Example 5.13
unique Scottish accent and Scottish words are neutralised, making Italian
Angus less funny. What is lost in the dubbed version is the interplay
and the combination of visual and phonetic elements that creates char-
acterisation and humour. Although an adult audience may well catch on,
it might not be perceived by children. The example of Angus confirms
and corroborates our opinion that differences between native varieties of
English despite their function within the original films are not conveyed
in Italian dubbing. The Scottish identity of the characters in the films
analysed is never maintained in the dubbed versions except where the
screen image indicates this.
The only Scottish character dubbed into Italian with a marked
regional accent is the comic Nanette in Gnomeo & Juliet. Her linguistic
characterisation in the original and dubbed version will be discussed in
Sect. 5.6, which deals with exceptions to the homogenising and neutral-
ising strategy. Nanette and to a certain extent the three lords in Brave
constitute an exception to the dominant strategy of neutralising Scottish
English in that a regional variety of Italian can be detected in the vocal
performance of the dubbers.
Once Hugh Jackman was cast, though, things fell into place. Bunny became
an Australian ranger who uses magical boomerangs as weapons. […] “We
gave him an Australian Outback slicker and pants, but they really didn’t
fit him well”, says Gabe Hordos, head of character animation. […] Bunny
248 V. Minutella
became this awesome warrior figure, which is a great contrast to the usual
notion of a bunny as a cute, super soft animal. (Zahed 2012, pp. 48–50)
fish that Nemo, Marlin and Dory meet in addition to the dentist and
other characters have an Australian accent. In particular, the three sharks
that Marlin and Dory meet (Bruce, Anchor and Chum) speak with an
Australian and New Zealand accent. They are voiced by Australian actors
Barry Humphries and Eric Bana and New Zealand actor Bruce Spence.
Australian actor Geoffrey Rush voiced the friendly pelican Nigel. This
once again seems to suggest that Pixar attempted to cast native speakers
of specific varieties in order to provide authentic characterisation and
believable accents. In the dubbed version of the film the Australian iden-
tity of the characters is neutralised by making them all speak standard
Italian, although a colloquial register is used. It is worth noting that
the cockatoo Nigel in the Rio films also speaks New Zealand English
that is neutralised in dubbing and turned into standard Italian. The
homogenising and standardising norm thus also applies to Australian and
New Zealand English.
Example 5.17
Example 5.18
Example 5.19
Black Eyed Peas will.i.am voiced Moto Moto in the original version. His
comments on his vocal performance for Moto Moto confirm that it was
deemed important to emphasise the coolness of the character: he calls
Moto Moto’s voice his “dark chocolate voice” explaining that “it’s like
Barry White but uhm, cooler” (Madagascar 2, DVD extras). However,
the visual and verbal representation of Moto Moto is definitely nega-
tive and caricatural. Although he is handsome and attractive, he is also
too self-confident and too focused on physical appearance. Moreover,
his lines suggest that he is not very smart. For instance, when we first
meet Moto Moto he swaggers out of the water to the lyrics of the song
Big and Chunky sung by will.i.am. Gloria says “So you must be Moto
Moto” and he replies “The name so nice you say it twice.” However,
while saying this line he sticks up three fingers showing he cannot count
and making himself look ridiculous. Moto Moto is portrayed as being
shallow and definitely having limited verbal dexterity. This is especially
the case when he courts Gloria since he keeps repeating the same concept
(that he likes her because she is chunky, plumpy and huge) and cannot
find other words or other ways of expressing his feelings. The following is
the exchange between Gloria and Moto Moto in which the female hippo
tries to find a reason—other than physical attraction and the fact that
they belong to the same species—for choosing Moto Moto as her mate.
Gloria asks Moto Moto why he likes her and what he finds special about
her.
Example 5.22
(continued)
Original version Dubbed version
GLORIA You said that. GLORIA L’hai, l’hai già detto.
MOTO MOTO Oh, yes right … hmm MOTO MOTO Oh! Sì, è vero. Hm,
we don’t have to talk no more. ehm, mi basta questo a me.
BACK TRANSLATION
GLORIA Okay, so what do you find in
me that is so interesting?
MOTO MOTO Well, You are the
plumpest girl I’ve ever met.
GLORIA Okay. Other than that.
MOTO MOTO Let’s see … Yeah, well,
you know … you are chunky. Ha.
GLORIA Of course.
MOTO MOTO Ehm … My gosh, girl,
you are huge.
GLORIA You, you’ve already said
that.
MOTO MOTO Oh, yes right … hmm
that’s enough for me.
dubbese (on the translation of ‘man’ in dubbing see Pavesi 2005; Forchini
2013; Formentelli 2014; Minutella 2015 among others). In the dubbed
version Moto Moto says “Sì, bravo, abbiamo un po’ da fare qui, amico.”
The presence of amico in Italian can be interpreted as an attempt by
the dialogue writer/dubbing director to convey, at least at the lexical
level and in terms of register, the characterisation of the hippo. While
non-standard syntactic features are not conveyed, we witness a certain
lowering of the register in order to match the linguistic characterisa-
tion of the cool but not very clever hippo. In the original film Moto
Moto’s portrayal is thus a negative, stereotypical representation of the
coolness of African Americans through common non-standard linguistic
forms and stock lexical and syntactic structures typically used to repre-
sent non-standard varieties such as double negation, auxiliary deletion,
use of ‘ain’t’ and the vocative ‘man’. Moto Moto’s portrayal seems similar
to “racist representational practices of the past” (Zanotti 2012, p. 167)
since the hippo’s behaviour and language contribute to creating a nega-
tive image. The fact that Gloria realises in the end that she actually loves
the shy and sensitive Melman, the giraffe, voiced by white actor David
Schwimmer (Ross in Friends), who speaks Standard American English
(General American) and expresses his deep feelings in a romantic and
clear way, may not be coincidental.
Moto Moto is not the only character in the corpus of films who
displays the non-standard grammar and morphosyntactic features asso-
ciated with AAVE. Donkey from the Shrek films and Oscar from Shark
Tale also share similar linguistic qualities. Double negation, copula dele-
tion and the use of ‘ain’t’ can be found in the lines uttered by Oscar. The
sentence in Example 5.23 from Shark Tale illustrates what happens to
such non-standard traits in the Italian dubbed version.
Example 5.23
The two alligators Stan and Carmine in the film The Wild/Uno zoo in
fuga speak with a New York/Brooklyn accent with some Italian Amer-
ican features. In the English version these loud and funny alligators
are voiced by actors Lenny Venito and Joseph Siravo who often play
Italian American characters and star in The Sopranos. In the Italian
dubbed version the funny alligators are given a southern accent with
some dialect features. The New York accent is turned in dubbing
into regional Italian since dubbing actors Stefano de Sando (Stan) and
Pasquale Anselmo (Carmine) (both from Calabria) use their own accent
and dialect, intertwining Calabrese and Sicilian-accented Italian and
260 V. Minutella
Example 5.25
Example 5.26
4I would like to thank Claudia Gvirtzman Dichter for her comments on Mike’s voice.
262 V. Minutella
Mete in the original version Mike has a slight Italian accent, so it was
decided to render his lines “with a Neapolitan cadence, in order to
add a touch of colour, that Neapolitan speech melody, rather than an
accent” (Mete, p.c. 9 June 2020). Whether Mike has a specific Italian
or New York accent in the original version of the film may be subject
to debate but is irrelevant here. What is important is that his cool street
flavour, gangster speech style and East Coast accent5 made him stand
out somewhat from the other characters. The dubbing team decided to
use a southern Italian accent to bring this about.
Examples 5.24–5.26 confirm that southern regional varieties of Italian
tend to be used for characters sporting a New York/Brooklyn accent. As
pointed out in Chapter 3, the use of a Sicilian or a southern regional
variety for characters speaking with a Brooklyn accent was mentioned by
dubbing professionals as a common strategy in dubbing.
In our corpus of films very few characters are given an English accent in
Italian dubbing. Analysis of the films reveals that such exceptions are due
5Iwould like to thank Giselle Spiteri Miggiani, Christopher Taylor, Shan Hirst, Stuart Doherty
and Antonio Romano for providing comments on this character.
5 Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties … 263
6I would like to thank Chris Taylor for his comment on Bulldog’s accent and on his precious
feedback on several characters.
5 Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties … 265
since his pronunciation is funny. Moreover, the craziness and the child-
like aspect of the character is emphasised by the English accent (p.c. 4
March 2019).
Other exceptions to the norm of using standard Italian for native
varieties of English are the lines delivered by the three lords (Lord
MacIntosh, Lord MacGuffin and Lord Dingwall) in Disney-Pixar’s Brave
(2012). The three lords are dubbed by star talents (i.e., non-professional
dubbers) from various areas whose diction is not neutral and whose
origin can be detected from their voice. Giobbe Covatta (Lord Ding-
wall) is from Puglia in the south, Enzo Iacchetti (Lord MacIntosh) is
from Lombardia in the north, while Shel Shapiro (Lord MacGuffin) is an
English musician and actor who has lived in Italy for many years. In the
Italian dubbed version some sporcatura (colouring) signals the geograph-
ical origin of the character, thus enabling a southern (Pugliese) accent,
a northern (Lombardo) accent and an English accent, respectively, to
just be detected. This is perhaps due to the fact that the lords and their
sons are comic characters. Their looks, behaviour and speech style are
supposed to trigger humour. In any event they are not main characters
and do not speak many lines.
As observed before, the film corpus contains very few cases of minor
characters who are portrayed as British or American in the original
version, yet who undergo adaptation, localisation and transformation
in the dubbed version. Such characters, including Lord Dingwall and
Lord MacIntosh in Brave, several characters in Gnomeo & Juliet and
minor characters speaking with a New York accent in Zootopia, The
Wild and Sing (Duke, Stan and Carmine, Mike) are dubbed with a
regional accent in Italian. As previously observed, the whole dubbed
version of Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) is an exception to the homogenising
and neutralising norm that applies to native varieties of English. In fact,
although several British dialects are portrayed in this film (see Bruti and
Vignozzi 2016; Minutella 2016), they are completely domesticated and
268 V. Minutella
turned into regional Italian in the Italian dubbed version. Further exam-
ples include the statue of Shakespeare speaking Italian with an English
accent, while all the other characters speak Italian with a regional accent;
Lord Redbrick’s Cockney accent becoming Sicilian; Lady Bluebury’s RP
being turned into a northern accent/dialect; Nanette’s Standard Scottish
English becoming Neapolitan and Tybalt’s Cockney becoming Calabrese.
As discussed in Minutella (2016), in the Italian version of Gnomeo &
Juliet the dubbing professionals decided that all the characters should
speak Italian with a regional accent. This is a rare example of trans-
forming and localising the story very creatively and transposing it to the
Italian context. It is the result of a dubbing strategy undertaken at the
macro-level in which the decision is taken by the dubbing supervisor and
the distributor (for a detailed analysis of this film see Minutella 2016).
The cases of Gnomeo & Juliet and to a lesser extent of Brave (for Lord
Dingwall and Lord MacIntosh) testify to the fact that dubbing profes-
sionals do resort to using regional Italian rather than standard Italian in
rare cases, for comic purposes. This is again in line with dubbing profes-
sionals’ statements that a regional or foreign accent conveys humour,
has a comic function, and should be used with caution in dubbing (see
Chapter 3).
References
Bruti, Silvia. 2014. Accent and Dialect as a Source of Humour: The Case
of Rio. In Translating Humour in Audiovisual Texts, ed. G.L. De Rosa, F.
Bianchi, A. De Laurentiis, and E. Perego, 89–103. Bern: Peter Lang.
Bruti, Silvia, and Gianmarco Vignozzi. 2016. Voices from the Anglo-Saxon
World: Accents and Dialects Across Film Genres. In North and South: British
Dialects in Fictional Dialogue, ed. Irene Ranzato. Status Quaestionis 11: 42–
74.
Bucholtz, Mary, and Qiana Lopez. 2011. Performing Blackness, Forming
Whiteness: Linguistic Minstrelsy in Hollywood Film. Journal of Sociolin-
guistics 15 (5): 680–706.
Chiaro, Delia. 2008. Where Have All the Varieties Gone? The Vicious Circle
of the disappearance Act in Screen Translations. In Dialect for all Seasons,
ed. I. Helin, 9–25. Münster: Nodus Publikationen.
Chiaro, Delia. 2009. Issues in Audiovisual Translation. In The Routledge
Companion to Translation Studies, ed. J. Munday, 141–165. London: Rout-
ledge.
Coupland, Nikolas. 2001. Dialect Stylization in Radio Talk. Language in Society
30 (3): 345–375.
Cutler, Cecelia. 2016. “Ets jast ma boooooooo” Social Meanings of Scottish
Accents on Youtube. In English in Computer-Mediated-Communication. Vari-
ation, Representation and Change, ed. Lauren Squires, 69–100. London and
Berlin: De Gruyter.
272 V. Minutella
Dore, Margherita. 2019. Revoicing Otherness and Stereotypes via Dialects and
Accents in Disney’s Zootopia and its Italian Dubbed Version, InTRAlinea
Special Issue: The Translation of Dialects in Multimedia IV. ed. Klaus Geyer,
and Margherita Dore. Online at: http://www.intralinea.org/specials/article/
2465. Last accessed 5 February 2020.
Ellender, Claire. 2015. Dealing with Difference in Audiovisual Translation.
Subtitling Linguistic Variation in Films. Bern: Peter Lang.
Forchini, P. 2013. A Diachronic Study of Familiarizers (‘Man’, ‘Guys’, ‘Buddy’,
‘Dude’) in Movie Language. In Corpus linguistics and AVT: In Search of an
Integrated Approach, ed. R. Baños, S. Bruti, and S. Zanotti, 504–525. Special
issue of Perspectives: Studies in Translatology.
Formentelli, M. 2014. Vocatives Galore in Audiovisual Dialogue: Evidence
from a Corpus of American and British Films. English Text Construction 7
(1): 53–83.
Green, Lisa. 2002. African American English: A Linguistic Introduction.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kozloff, Sarah. 2000. Overhearing Film Dialogue. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and
London: University of California Press.
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 1997. English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and
Discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge.
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 2012. English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and
Discrimination in the United States, 2nd ed. Abingdon and New York:
Routledge.
Minutella, Vincenza. 2014. Translating Verbally Expressed Humour in
Dubbing and Subtitling: The Italian Versions of Shrek. In Translating
Humour in Audiovisual Texts, ed. Gian Luigi De Rosa, Francesca Bianchi,
Antonella De Laurentiis, and Elisa Perego, 67–87. Bern: Peter Lang.
Minutella, Vincenza. 2015. ‘Dacci un taglio, vuoi?’ Anglicisms in Dubbed
TV Series, Then and Now. RiCOGNIZIONI, Rivista di lingue, letterature
e culture moderne 4 (II): 261–282.
Minutella, Vincenza. 2016. British Dialects in Animated Films: The Case of
Gnomeo and Juliet and Its Creative Italian Dubbing. In Status Quaestionis,
11, Special Issue “North and South. British Dialects in Fictional Dialogue”,
ed. I. Ranzato. Online at: http://statusquaestionis.uniroma1.it/index.php/sta
tusquaestionis/article/view/13838. Last accessed 20 November 2017.
Monti, Silvia. 2016. Reconstructing, Reinterpreting and Renarrating Code-
switching in the Italian Dubbed Version of British and American Multilin-
gual Films. In Ideological Manipulation in Audiovisual Translation, Numero
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Wells, John. 1982. Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Zahed, Ramin. 2012. The Art of Dreamworks Rise of the Guardians. London:
Titan Books.
Zanotti, Serenella. 2011. “You Got to Git Realistic”: The Dubbing of African
American English into Italian. In Challenges for the 21st Century: Dilemmas,
Ambiguities, Directions. Vol. II: Language Studies, ed. G. Di Martino, L.
Lombardo & S. Nuccorini, 129–139. Roma: Edizioni Q.
Zanotti, Serenella. 2012. Racial Stereotypes on Screen: Dubbing Strategies
from Past to Present. In Audiovisual Translation Across Europe: An Ever-
Changing Landscape, ed. Silvia Bruti, Elena Di Giovanni, and Pilar Orero,
153–170. London: Peter Lang.
Online References
Websites
https://www.antoniogenna.net/.
https://www.imdb.com/.
Filmography
A Fish Called Wanda (1988). Charles Crichton, John Cleese, MGM, Michael
Shamberg Productions, Prominent Features, Star Partners Limited Partner-
ship.
Brave/Ribelle (2012). Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell, Walt
Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios.
Cars (2006). John Lasseter, Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
Cars 2 (2011). John Lasseter, Brad Lewis, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Anima-
tion Studios.
Cars 3 (2017). Brian Fee, Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
Despicable Me 2 (2013). Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, Universal Pictures,
Illumination Entertainment.
Ferdinand (2017). Carlos Saldanha, Blue Sky Studios, Davis Entertainment,
20th Century Fox Animation.
Finding Dory (2016). Andrew Stanton, Angus MacLane, Pixar Animation
Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
Finding Nemo (2003). Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, Pixar Animation Studios,
Walt Disney Pictures.
Gnomeo & Juliet (2011). Kelly Asbury, Rocket Pictures, Arc Productions,
Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Starz Animation.
Gosford Park (2001). Robert Altman, USA Films, Capitol Films, Film Council,
Sandcastle 5 Production, Chicagofilms, Medusa Film.
How to Train Your Dragon (2010). Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders, DreamWorks
Animation, Mad Hatter Entertainment, Vertigo Entertainment.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014). Dean DeBlois, DreamWorks Animation,
Mad Hatter Entertainment.
276 V. Minutella
Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006). Carlos Saldanha, 20th Century Fox Animation,
Blue Sky Studios.
Mary Poppins (1964). Robert Stevenson, Walt Disney Productions.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). Gore Verbinski,
Walt Disney Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
Planes (2013). Klay Hall, Prana Studios, Disneytoon Studios.
Rango (2011). Gore Verbinski, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, Blind
Wink Productions, GK Films, Industrial Light & Magic.
Ratatouille (2007). Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar
Animation Studios.
Rise of the Guardians (2012). Peter Ramsey, DreamWorks Animation.
Shark Tale (2004). Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson, Rob Letterman, DreamWorks
Animation, DreamWorks.
Sherlock Gnomes (2018). John Stevenson, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount
Animation, Paramount Pictures, Rocket Pictures.
Shrek (2001). Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson, DreamWorks Animation,
DreamWorks, Pacific Data Images, Vanguard Films.
Shrek 2 (2004). Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon, Dream-
Works, DreamWorks Animation, Pacific Data Images.
Sing (2016). Garth Jennings, Cristophe Lourdelet, Illumination Entertain-
ment, Universal Pictures, Dentsu, Fuji Television Network.
Star Wars (1977). George Lucas, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox.
The Aristocats (1970). Wolfgang Reitherman, Walt Disney Productions.
The Lion King (1994). Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, Walt Disney Pictures, Walt
Disney Feature Animation.
The Lorax (2012). Chris Renaud, Kyle Balda, Universal Pictures, Illumination
Entertainment.
The Wild (2006). Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams, C.O.R.E. Feature Animation,
Contrafilm, Freewill Entertainment, Hoytyboy Pictures, Nigel Productions,
Sir Zip Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
TV Series
6.1 Introduction
This chapter explores how multilingualism in the films making up the
corpus is dealt with in Italian dubbing. It illustrates films containing
dialogue in languages other than English (i.e., foreign languages or FLs)
and examines whether languages other than English are maintained,
quantitatively reduced or eliminated in the dubbed versions. In other
words, whether the multilingualism of the original film remains what we
have called ‘marked’ in the dubbed film (i.e., conveyed) or whether it is
‘unmarked’ (i.e., not conveyed). Twelve films contain lines in languages
other than English. These are Atlantis, Toy Story 3, Despicable Me 2,
Madagascar 3, Gnomeo & Juliet, Sing, Rio, Planes, Cars, Cars 2, Ferdi-
nand and Coco. The languages are Atlantean (an invented language),
French, Russian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian and Spanish. The
occurrence of only a few words or expressions is not considered in this
chapter. Analysis of the films has revealed that the most frequent trans-
lation strategy in dubbing is to mark the foreign language. When the
original English language film contains dialogue in an FL, this is almost
always retained in the dubbed version. Borrowing De Bonis’ terminology
© The Author(s) 2021 279
V. Minutella, (Re)Creating Language Identities in Animated Films,
Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56638-8_6
280 V. Minutella
Example 6.1
Note that Kida and Milo’s lines in Atlantean and the lines in French in
this scene appear to be redubbed by Italian dubbing actors Stella Musy
(Kida), Massimiliano Manfredi (Milo) and Claudio Bisio (Molière).
This method of dubbing over a foreign language using a new voice is
not very common, but “is used especially if the character involved is
heard speaking both main source language and foreign language” (Spiteri
Miggiani 2019, p. 173). This enables the characters to have the same type
and quality of voice rather than having the original actors’ voices when
they speak the foreign language (Atlantean in this case) and the dubbing
actors’ voices when they speak Italian, thus avoiding a disruptive effect
(2019, p. 167).
Once the explorers realise that the Atlantean people do speak their
language, communication switches to English (the language of the
colonisers/invaders). However, when Kida later introduces the US
explorers to her father (the King of Atlantis), she speaks Atlantean with
him since it is their native language and the newcomers cannot under-
stand it except for Milo. As the exchange is quite long and it is important
for the audience to understand the meaning of the conversation, the
Atlantean dialogue is subtitled in English in the original version of the
film. The Italian dubbed version marks this foreign language by main-
taining spoken Atlantean and adding Italian subtitles placed on the upper
part of the screen. Moreover, the lines in Atlantean are redubbed by
the Italian dubbing actors in order to maintain the same voice in the
dialogues throughout. Although it is possible to detect a slight difference
284 V. Minutella
in the Atlantean words used, this does not hinder comprehension or the
quality of the dubbed version since Atlantean is a fictional language. The
English and Italian subtitles of the exchange between Kida and the King
are shown in Example 6.2.
Example 6.2
English ones are added at the bottom of the screen). The beginning of
Buzz’s transformation is shown in Example 6.3.
Example 6.3
1I would like to thank my colleagues Nadia Caprioglio and Massimo Maurizio for their
comments and translation from Russian into Italian.
288 V. Minutella
2I would like to thank Miwa Gofuku and Keiko Rokutanzono-Gofuku for the transcription
and translation from Japanese into English.
6 Languages Other Than English/Foreign Languages … 289
going to tell your father that you’re taking a bath.” The few spoken
and written Japanese lines have a comedic function. They are aimed
at playing with languages, with the audience’s expectations, with inter-
textuality (allusion to Japanese films) and with multilingualism and
translation itself. The Japanese spoken, the subtitles, the soundtrack
and the visual elements (Juliet’s ninja warrior disguise and movements)
are combined in such a way as to make the sequence humorous. The
formality of Japanese movements and language contrast with Nanette’s
loudness and informal Scottish-accented English. In the Italian dubbed
version the Japanese sentences and the English subtitles are retained so
that the Italian viewers of the DVD version hear the Japanese line but
read the English subtitle (i.e., “You look hot!”), which further compli-
cates the language/translation issue. Only if we select Italian subtitles
from the DVD menu does an Italian subtitle appear on the upper part
of the screen: “Sei uno schianto!” translates “You’re hot!” This brief but
comic exchange in Gnomeo & Juliet adds to the number of languages an
Italian audience has to process when watching the film, makes the scene
more comedic and at the same time confusing. The film Sing provides
a further example of the use of Japanese and the tendency to replicate
choices made in the original version of the film. A quintet of red pandas
auditioning for the show sing a Japanese song and only speak Japanese.
This results in miscommunication with the owner of the theatre Buster
Moon. The lines in Japanese are left untranslated, leaving the audience
to wonder what the animals mean. During the rehearsals Moon tries to
speak Japanese, reading from a book. His Japanese utterances are left
untranslated as in the original version, but the audience realises that
Moon has said something inappropriate since one of the red pandas
slaps him and then they all leave offended.3 Getting characters to speak
Japanese thus has a comedic purpose.
The Rio films also have a few lines in a language other than English. As
previously pointed out, despite its Brazilian setting, Rio (2011) contains
very few Brazilian Portuguese words since the main characters, even the
3I would like to thank Miwa Gofuku for translating the Japanese in the film. The red pandas
tell Buster Moon “We feel very fortunate to be taking part in this show” and “We will sing
once more for you”. When Buster Moon speaks Japanese, intending to be nice to them and
telling them that they are good, he actually says “You guys smell really bad, especially your
toenails.”
290 V. Minutella
4I would like to thank Susan Souza for her comments on Brazilian Portuguese.
292 V. Minutella
female plane with a sharp wit and icy heart is courted by Mexican plane
El Chupacabra and usually speaks French-accented English interspersed
with French words. However, when her heart is won by El Chupacabra’s
romantic serenade, she switches to her own language and addresses him
in French. El Chu does not understand her words and asks his friend
Dusty what Rochelle means. Dusty comments that he does not under-
stand French either, but Rochelle’s words must mean something nice
since “French Canadian is the language of love … in Québec.” Using
a language other than English makes it stand out from the surrounding
dialogue and emphasises the obscurity of its meaning for other characters
and for the audience. Moreover, the comment about Québec makes it all
the more intriguing. No subtitles are provided for the French sentence
so that the audience is in the same situation as the characters in the
film (unless they can understand French). The function of French in this
scene is to provide character portrayal, highlight otherness/difference and
convey contrast and confusion. It is worth pointing out that despite the
reference to Canada, the sentence uttered by Rochelle does not have any
specific Canadian/Québécoise element or accent.5
In the dubbed version no foreign language is used in this scene as a
result of the localisation strategy adopted to distribute the film in various
countries. The filmmakers decided to give Rochelle the same nationality
as the country in which the film was dubbed (Miller-Zarneke 2014,
p. 76). As a result, in the Italian version Rochelle becomes Italian and
her name is Azzurra. She is dubbed by Italian actress Micaela Ramazzotti
who is a star talent—not a professional dubber. Although Rochelle speaks
with a French accent and uses French words in the original version, in the
dubbed version Azzurra loses her French ethnicity and linguistic identity.
She speaks standard Italian with no specific accent and is given a kind of
‘sexy’ voice. However, this creates a translation challenge when Dusty
makes a reference to the French Canadian language. Since L3 in the
source text (i.e., French) becomes Italian in the target text, L3 coincides
with L2 (i.e., the language of the dubbed version). The fact that in the
film El Chu does not understand Azzurra’s words constitutes a translation
5Iwould like to thank Rainier Grutman for his comments on this scene and on French
Canadian.
6 Languages Other Than English/Foreign Languages … 293
problem. The dubbing team therefore had to change El Chu’s line and
Dusty’s comment about French Canadian and Québec. They could have
opted to make her speak an Italian dialect (in order to convey the incom-
prehensibility of her utterance), but they did not resort to this solution.
The reason could be linked to casting a star talent whose voice needed
to be recognisable or to the fact that no Italian dialect is really associ-
ated with romanticism and sensuality. Another reason could be that the
dubbing professionals did not want to add comicality to this character.
The English and Italian dialogues are shown in Example 6.5.
Example 6.5
The Italianness of the characters and their otherness was therefore main-
tained (Morville, p.c. 20 April 2018) by conveying L3 of the source text
(i.e., Italian) as L3 (i.e., an Italian dialect) in the target version: L1 +
L3 (Italian) ST = L2 + L3 (dialect) TT. Example 6.6 is an extract from
Cars 2.
Example 6.6
Example 6.7
In the dubbed version the foreign language retains its ‘otherness’ and
Italian identity since it is turned into an Italian dialect. This is an
instance of what Corrius and Zabalbeascoa (2011, p. 120) call ‘adap-
tation’. However, while the original audience had access to the meaning
of the line through interlingual subtitles in English, the Italian dubbed
version provides English subtitles instead of Italian unless Italian subtitles
are activated on the DVD.
Michael Schumacher voices a cameo role as a Ferrari in the final
sequences of Cars. The ex-Formula One Ferrari driver voices a Ferrari
in both the original film and the Italian dubbed version. In the English
version the Ferrari first introduces himself to Guido and Luigi in English,
“Hi. Lightning McQueen told me this was the best place to get tyres.
How about setting me and my friends up with three or four sets each?” In
the dubbed version this becomes German-accented Italian. When Luigi
faints with excitement, the Ferrari then switches to Italian in the orig-
inal version of the film and no translation into English is provided. As
can be seen in Example 6.8, the Italian utterances of the original version
are rendered in two different ways in the dubbed version: Schumacher
starts speaking Italian (using exactly the same words as in the English
original version) and then switches to an incomprehensible dialect (the
parenthetic italicised note in the example is not intended to refer back
6 Languages Other Than English/Foreign Languages … 297
to the previous sentence, but indicates another utterance that follows it,
explaining whether it is spoken with a specific accent or in dialect).
Example 6.8
The two different strategies work as follows. The first sentence (“Spero
che il tuo amico si riprenda”—“I hope your friend gets better”) is main-
tained unaltered. It remains in Italian and can thus be understood by the
Italian target audience. The foreign language in the source text is thus
neutralised in the target text (L3 in the ST becomes L2 in the TT, coin-
ciding with the language of the other characters). On the other hand, the
second sentence (“Mi dicono che siete fantastici”—“I’ve been told you’re
fantastic”) is conveyed in the dubbed version as an L3 since it is turned
into an Italian dialect that is equally obscure to the average Italian audi-
ence. Neutralising and adapting the linguistic identity of the character
are strategies that are applied within a single turn of the speaker, thus
recreating the effect of incomprehensibility by using an Italian dialect in
dubbing.
In Cars 2 Italian is also spoken by the minor characters Uncle
Topolino and Mamma Topolino who welcome Lightning McQueen and
his friends to the fictional Italian town of Porto Corsa. They speak Italian
and Italian-accented English and are portrayed as typical Italian cars with
typical Italian habits. Examples 6.9 and 6.10 illustrate the various solu-
tions adopted in both the original film and the dubbed version to convey
the Italianness of the couple who are voiced in the original version by a
couple in real life (actors Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave).
When Uncle Topolino welcomes Luigi and Guido, he speaks Italian
(untranslated in the original version): “Luigi, Guido, che bello rivedervi.
298 V. Minutella
Nero who used his own native accent and dialect from Emilia Romagna
(Napolitano, p.c. 20 May 2020).
The same strategy is adopted in the following exchange (Example
6.10) in which Uncle Topolino speaks Italian in the original version
and the female car translates (interprets) his words. In the dubbed
version the original Italian utterances are turned into Italian dialect,
thus adopting an adaptation solution. Uncle Topolino speaks Emiliano
dialect and Mamma Topolino speaks Neapolitan mixed with a strong
Neapolitan-accented Italian.
Example 6.10
famous actors who speak their own regional accent and dialect results in
a credible and entertaining dialogue.
References
Bruti, Silvia. 2014. Accent and Dialect as a Source of Humour: The Case
of Rio. In Translating Humour in Audiovisual Texts, ed. G.L. De Rosa, F.
Bianchi, A. De Laurentiis, and E. Perego, 89–103. Bern: Peter Lang.
Corrius, Montse, and Patrick Zabalbeascoa. 2011. Language Variation in
Source Texts and Their Translations. The Case of L3 in Film Translation.
Target 23 (1): 113–130.
De Bonis, Giuseppe. 2014. Dubbing Multilingual Films Between Neutralisa-
tion and Preservation of Lingua-Cultural Identities: A Critical Review of the
6 Languages Other Than English/Foreign Languages … 301
Websites
https://www.antoniogenna.net/.
https://www.imdb.com/.
Filmography
Atlantis (2001). Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Walt Disney Feature Animation,
Walt Disney Pictures.
Cars (2006). John Lasseter, Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
Cars 2 (2011). John Lasseter, Brad Lewis, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Anima-
tion Studios.
Cars 3 (2017). Brian Fee, Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
Despicable Me (2010). Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, Universal Pictures, Illumi-
nation Entertainment.
Gnomeo & Juliet (2011). Kelly Asbury, Rocket Pictures, Arc Productions,
Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Starz Animation.
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012). Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath,
Conrad Vernon, DreamWorks Animation, Pacific Data Images.
Planes (2013). Klay Hall, Prana Studios, Disneytoon Studios.
Rio (2011). Carlos Saldanha, 20th Century Fox Animation, Blue Sky Studios.
Rio 2 (2014). Carlos Saldanha, 20th Century Fox Animation, Blue Sky
Studios, FortyFour Studios.
Toy Story 3 (2010). Lee Unkrich, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation
Studios.
TV Series
7.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on non-native varieties of English or foreign-
accented English. It examines how characters who speak English with
a non-native accent are represented in animated films and how their
linguistic identity is dealt with in dubbed versions. Recall that one
hypothesis of this book based on previous research is that when it
comes to characters who are represented as being non-native speakers
of English and who speak English with a foreign accent, their linguistic
identity tends to be maintained in the dubbed version. The conversa-
tions with dubbing practitioners summarised in Chapter 3 also suggested
that foreign characters usually maintain their characteristics in dubbing
either by casting foreign dubbing actors or by casting Italian dubbers
who contrive foreign accents usually with the help of dialect coaches or
language consultants. By summarising the translation strategies adopted
in the films of the corpus the chapter will attempt to ascertain whether
non-native varieties of English are indeed mostly retained in some way
(as suggested by dubbing practitioners) and whether we can therefore talk
and exaggerated in order to sound ridiculous and make fun of the char-
acter. Several examples of added Spanish or Spanish-sounding words can
be found in the Italian dubbed version of Planes. In Example 7.2 El Chu
addresses the US plane Dusty Crophopper. In the dubbed version the
Spanish verb soy (I am) is added.
Example 7.2
The similarity between the Spanish and Italian languages and the fact
that the Italian audience might be familiar with some Spanish words
could be the reason the Italian dubbed version uses Spanish rather than
Italian for “I am,” hence not only maintaining the linguistic otherness of
El Chu, but also exaggerating it and providing what Parini (2009) calls
‘hypercharacterisation’ in dubbing.
In Rango (2011) some characters are represented as Latinos. Spanish-
accented English interspersed with Spanish words is spoken and sung
by the narrators (four mariachi owls playing guitars and singing, telling
the story of Rango and making ironic comments) and another character,
the desert toad Rock-Eye (voiced by Joe Nuñez). Code-switching and
code-mixing permeate the lines of these characters who speak a broad
Spanish-accented English. Examples of typically Spanish words/phrases
are mojito, huevos, Adiòs, amigo! , Ay, madre de Dios! and Cojones. The
Italian dubbed version was produced by the dubbing studio Pumais
Due and Fiamma Izzo was both dialogue writer and dubbing director.
In the Italian version the mariachis are dubbed in Italian by native
speakers of Spanish (or bilinguals) thus ensuring authenticity: Saverio
Moriones (bilingual), Diego Suarez (a Spanish dubber living in Italy)
and Salvatore Gabriel Valerio (from Ecuador, not a professional dubber).
Rock-Eye is dubbed by Italian dubbing actor Renzo Stacchi. A further
character, Roadkill (voiced by Alfred Molina in the original version) is
also dubbed by Saverio Moriones. Moreover, in response to requests from
308 V. Minutella
the client, the presence of Spanish in the dubbed version was emphasised.
As explained by Izzo, the international supervisor and the distributor’s
dubbing and localisation office asked her to emphasise the Spanish
language in the dubbed version and told her that no attempt should be
made at using non-standard incorrect Italian (Izzo, p.c. 4 March 2019).
Analysis of the mariachi owls’ lines demonstrates that the linguistic
otherness of the mariachi owls and Rock-Eye in the Italian dubbed
version is maintained and emphasised through hypercharacterisation.
The dubbing actors achieve this by exaggerating their pronunciation
of Spanish and adding Spanish words and expressions to the Italian.
Example 7.3 demonstrates this strategy in the prologue uttered by one
of the owls (Spanish words and pronunciation shown in italics).
Example 7.3
Note that whereas the owl speaks English with a slight Spanish
accent and intonation and no Spanish lexis in the original version, his
foreignness in the dubbed version is emphasised since the ethnolect is
highlighted by the insertion of several Spanish (or Spanish-sounding)
7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing … 309
words that were not present in the English source text. Further examples
of added emphasis of the ethnolect in dubbing are the song the mari-
achi owls sing while Rango walks through the desert (Example 7.4) and
another comment the owls make about him (Example 7.5).
Example 7.4
Example 7.5
Examples 7.4 and 7.5 show that the English original text contains
very few, if any, Spanish words and that the dubbed version is filled
with Spanish vocabulary. Izzo explains this was a deliberate choice of
the client. Spanish-accented Italian and the accurate pronunciation of
Spanish words was achieved by employing Spanish-speaking dubbers.
310 V. Minutella
The desert rain frog Rock-Eye that Rango meets in the desert speaks
with a marked Spanish accent and uses several Spanish words, including
vulgar ones. This characterisation is retained and exaggerated in the
dubbed version, as can be seen in Example 7.6 in which the desert frog
is warning Rango that a hawk that wants to eat them is arriving.
Example 7.6
use of this approach in dubbing are the films The Book of Life and Coco
(both set in Mexico).
In the dubbed version of The Book of Life, whose dialogue writer
and dubbing director was Guadagno, almost all the characters speak
standard Italian and use a few Spanish words without exaggerating
the Spanish pronunciation. A few characters speak a broader Spanish-
accented Italian, but they are minor characters who have a predominantly
comedic function (a group of nuns and Maria’s father).
In the dubbed version of Disney-Pixar’s Coco, whose dialogue writer
and dubbing director was Manfredi, the same strategy was adopted.
Almost all the characters in the original film are voiced by Latino or
Latin American characters who speak English with their own natural
accent. The dubbed version cast Italian professional dubbing actors (as
was also the case for The Book of Life) who spoke standard Italian without
a foreign accent and interspersed their speech with Spanish words. The
Mexican characters use the same Spanish words and the same number of
them (never more) as those in the original version. All the Spanish words
and all the instances of code-mixing and code-switching are retained in
the Italian version. The multilingual nature of the source text is there-
fore reproduced in the dubbed version by retaining the Spanish words.
However, the characters do not speak Spanish-accented Italian. Spanish
accents, intonation and other prosodic patterns are eliminated. This
was done for a couple of reasons. First, since the story takes place in
Mexico and the characters are all supposed to speak the same language,
there is no reason for them to speak with a foreign accent (they are all
supposed to be native speakers of the language spoken in that country).
Second, the dubbing actors are all (but one) Italian and are not native
speakers of Spanish. Therefore, it would not be natural for them to speak
Italian with an accent. Although the dubbing team worked for about
a month with voice coaches (i.e., language consultants who advised on
the pronunciation of Spanish words and expressions; Manfredi, p.c. 19
December 2019), having consultants for all the utterances in the film
not only would have been too expensive but would also have made no
sense since pronunciation would never have been native-like. Moreover,
the characters are not meant to be comic and adding a foreign accent
when speaking Italian tends to add humour. Although the dubbers
7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing … 315
pronounced the Spanish words like natives, they used standard Italian
for the lines in Italian. Example 7.8 of an exchange between Abuelita
(Miguel’s grandmother), a mariachi in the main square of the village,
Miguel’s uncle (Tío Berto) and Miguel shows the number of Spanish
words contained in the English dialogue (in italics) and illustrates how
the Italian dubbed version deals with Spanish in the dialogue.
Example 7.8
The dubbed version retains almost all the Spanish words contained in
the original version. All the characters code-switch and code-mix English
and Spanish, which becomes Italian–Spanish code-switching and code-
mixing in the dubbed version. This happens throughout the film in order
to maintain and convey the Mexican identity of the characters and the
Mexican setting. The loss of the Spanish accent in the dubbed version
316 V. Minutella
allows the Italian version to be true to the original film locale and to
the characters without making them comic since their ethnic character-
isation is not humorous. Thus, although L3 (the foreign language and
foreign-accented English) is maintained unchanged, the foreign accent
is neutralised. Coco is particularly interesting for its extensive use of
Mexican words and informal expressions in the original dialogues, which
are retained in the dubbed version even though the meaning of some
words might not be transparent to the average Italian audience. Exam-
ples are “¡Espérame chamaco! ” uttered by Hector to Miguel, “Hey tío!
¡Qué onda! ” and the word chorizo, which are all kept untranslated in the
dubbed version. Dubbing director Manfredi explained that the decision
to retain all the Spanish words was agreed with the client and that a test
screening of the dubbed version took place in order to verify whether the
extensive use of Spanish words hindered comprehension by the Italian
audience (Manfredi, p.c. 27 September 2018).
In Puss in Boots, which is entirely set in a Spanish-speaking country
(supposedly Spain, but it looks more like a South American region),
Italian dubbing follows a strategy in which the Spanish accent is reduced.
In the Italian version the number of Spanish words is reduced and, as
previously pointed out, the only character who has a marked Spanish
accent is the protagonist dubbed by Banderas, whereas the Spanish
accent of the other characters in the film is softened or neutralised. An
interesting case in which it was decided to neutralise an accent due to the
choice of dubbing actors and the context of production is that of Kitty
Softpaws, the female protagonist (voiced by Salma Hayek in the original
version). Dubbing director Mete (p.c. 7 February 2016) explains that
they had to decide whether to give her an accent as well. The problem
with the dubbed version was that the only Spanish or Spanish-speaking
dubbing actor in the dubbing cast was Banderas, whereas all the other
characters were dubbed by Italians. As a result, the audience would notice
the difference between Puss’ natural and real Spanish accent (that of
Banderas dubbing himself speaking Italian) and the non-natural, fake
or contrived Spanish accents of other characters such as Kitty, Imelda
and the Comandante. Dubbing director Mete (p.c. 7 February 2016)
thus provides a practical and artistic reason for Puss to have a Spanish
accent, for Kitty to speak neutral standard Italian and for the linguistic
7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing … 317
The corpus of animated films analysed contains only one character whose
Spanish-accented English is transformed and localised to a significant
318 V. Minutella
extent in the Italian version where the character does not speak Spanish-
accented Italian or standard Italian, but rather Italian with a broad
regional accent. This is the comedic plastic flamingo Featherstone in
Gnomeo & Juliet whose identity is dramatically transformed in dubbing.
Featherstone (voiced by US voice actor Jim Cummings) is represented as
Latin American in the original English version since he speaks a kind of
exaggerated foreign-accented and broken English (he has a broad Spanish
accent, uses some Spanish words and some ungrammaticalities). Feath-
erstone’s broad Spanish-accented English and frequent mistakes portray
him as not being a native speaker of English, thus distancing him from
the two British feuding families and the other characters in the story
(Minutella 2016, p. 230). His linguistic characterisation, however, is
mainly aimed at conveying humour. In the Italian dubbed version the
plastic flamingo’s name becomes Piumarosa (pink feather) and he speaks
with a marked regional Romanesco accent. This came about because
of the dubbing team’s approach to the whole film. The team decided
to domesticate and localise the film by making all the characters use
Italian regional accents and dialects according to a north–south divide
that symbolises the feud between the families. Example 7.9 is taken
from the film dialogue in which Featherstone thanks Gnomeo and Juliet
for having freed him. It illustrates the complete transformation that this
comic character undergoes in the Italian dubbed version (Spanish words
and ungrammaticalities in italics). Several regional words and expres-
sions (in italics) convey a different, local Italian identity for the plastic
flamingo.
7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing … 319
Example 7.9
Example 7.10
In the above sequence the French “Mais oui! ” uttered by the Queen is
not understood by American boy Sherman who thinks that the Queen is
correcting him and telling him that a more appropriate and polite form
of request would be to use the verb ‘may’ rather than ‘can’ since Mais
oui! and may we are homophones. This translation challenge was solved
by the dialogue writer by replacing the French expression with another
7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing … 323
with a marked French /r/. Jerome pronounces the French words “pardon”
and “madrina” with a marked French /r/ and uses /Ѐ/ rather than /tЀ/
in the word “spiacente” (“I’m sorry”) resulting in it being pronounced
as “spiasc ente.” Hypercharacterisation is brought about as a result of
the ethnolect being conveyed and foreign characterisation being recre-
ated and emphasized. However, these are minor roles where the accent is
aimed at eliciting laughter.
In the Italian dubbed version of Atlantis (2001) Paris-born geolo-
gist Gaetan Molière (Mole) (voiced by US actor Corey Burton) speaks
with a contrived French accent and intonation. He also uses French
words and expressions. In keeping with the original depiction of the
character as comic, the French accent in the Italian dubbed version is
retained but exaggerated by comedian Claudio Bisio (a star talent). The
Italian dubbed version keeps the French linguistic representation and
compensates for losses in one utterance by adding French traits to Mole’s
lines elsewhere such as “Forgive me! I could not resist” which in Italian
becomes “Excusez-moi! Non ho saputo resistere.”
In Turbo the villain is French Canadian Indianapolis 500 champion
Guy Gagné (voiced by Canadian comedian Bill Hader) who speaks with
a broad French accent. The aim of his performance was clearly not to
provide an authentic and realistic representation, but a comic, stylised
one. The same approach is adopted in the dubbed version directed
by Guadagno where Guy Gagné is dubbed by dubbing actor Franco
Mannella who gives him a French accent. The Frenchness of the driver
is maintained and reproduced in dubbing. A few recognisable French
words are used in both the original and dubbed versions. An example
is Guy’s question to Tito “Can I help you, monsieur ?” which becomes
“Ha bisogno d’aiuto, monsieur ?” The vocal performance in the dubbed
version maintains the French identity of the character without exagger-
ating it and French words are retained. Preserving the linguistic identity
of the Canadian character is clearly the strategy.
In Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted the French linguistic features
of the evil animal control officer Chantel DuBois (voiced by American
actress Frances McDormand) are highlighted to provide a caricature and
instances of ethnolect or foreign-accented English are combined with
her behaviour to convey humour with no pretense of authenticity. The
7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing … 325
French, both visually and verbally, were used to characterise the French
characters in the original film. Despite the protagonists being French,
they speak General American, while most of the other characters have
a broad French accent. Furthermore, the portrayal of Colette, the only
female chef in Gusteau’s restaurant and the only female main character
in the film, is also highly parodic.
Interestingly, in the Italian dubbed version the French pronunciation
of many of the characters almost disappears despite and contrary to the
Italian tendency to convey ethnolects or foreign-accented speech when
present in the original film. In fact, only one character retains a marked
French accent. This is Chef Gusteau (the owner of the famous restau-
rant) whose motto is “anyone can cook” and who inspires the rat Remy.
Gusteau appears as a ghost and as a figment of Remy’s imagination. All
the other French-accented characters lose the French accent that defined
them in the original version and speak standard Italian. As previously
observed, this was a deliberate stylistic and editorial choice made by
Creative Director Morville and Dubbing Director Alto who believed that
it made no sense to have characters living in their own country speak
with a French accent (Morville, p.c. 25 May 2016; Alto, p.c. 25 January
2016). Moreover, according to Morville and Alto, a film in which all
the characters speak with a fake French-accented Italian would be taxing
for the audience and would distract them, making them focus on the
language and foreign accent rather than on the story itself, while the aim
of good dubbing is to remain invisible and pass unnoticed (Morville,
p.c. 28 January 2016; Alto, p.c. 25 January 2016). Dubbing should not
disrupt the audience’s suspension of linguistic disbelief (Romero Fresco
2012).
Morville explains that the creative letter accompanying the film
provided comments on the broad French accent of Gusteau, Colette
and Skinner and added some suggestions on how to treat their accents
in the dubbed version. The filmmakers asked the dubbing teams in
different territories “to keep the French flavour of the film” and advised
them to handle accents in a way they deemed appropriate and accept-
able in their respective countries (Morville, p.c. 27 May 2020). The
dubbing team therefore had some degree of freedom on how to deal with
the linguistic representation of the French characters, deciding whether
7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing … 327
Example 7.12
The comic ‘otherness’ and evilness of chef Skinner, that are linguis-
tically conveyed through an affected French accent mixed with some
British English phonetic features, are completely neutralised in the
dubbed version where dubbing actor Riccardo Peroni speaks standard
Italian (as shown in Example 7.13).
Example 7.13
We do not know whether the actress was actually asked to insert grammar
mistakes when she voiced Colette, but the fact remains that her character
is the only one in the film who makes such mistakes. For the Anglo-
American audience watching the film the French male characters speak
French-accented but grammatically correct English, whereas Colette may
be perceived as being less educated. An example from Colette is the
line “I memorise all his recipe” which contains an ungrammaticality. In
the dubbed version Colette speaks correct standard Italian: “Conosco
a memoria tutte le sue ricette” (I know by heart all his recipes). In
the Italian dubbed version Colette speaks correct Italian like everyone
else. Therefore, her identity and characterisation differ from the orig-
inal. She has a more positive image/characterisation (she is no longer
‘less educated’ than the male characters).
Colette’s explanation of how to recognise good bread and her descrip-
tion of her fellow chefs contains several ungrammaticalities, while some
of her other sentences contain fewer grammatical inaccuracies. The
dubbed version neutralises the French-accented English and French
pronunciation of the original version (‘th’ pronounced as /z/ and French
/r/) and the ungrammaticalities (marked in italics), while it retains the
two French words (in italics).
7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing … 331
Example 7.14
Original version Dubbed version
COLETTE How do you tell how good COLETTE Come si riconosce il pane
bread is without tasting it? Not the buono senza assaggiarlo? Non dal
smell, not the look, but the sound profumo, non dall’aspetto, ma dal
… of the crust. Listen. Oh! A suono della crosta. Ascolta. Aaah,
symphony of crackle! Only great una sinfonia di scrocchi. Solo il pane
bread sound this way. The only way migliore fa questo suono. L’unico
to get the best produce is to have modo per avere gli ingredienti
first pick of the day, and there are migliori è assicurarsi la prima scelta,
only two way to get first pick: e ci sono due modi per avere la
grow it yourself or bribe a grower. prima scelta: produrre in proprio o
GROWER Bonjour. dare la mancia all’ortolano.
COLETTE Voilà! The best restaurant GROWER Bonjour.
get first pick. COLETTE Voilà! Il ristorante migliore
ha la prima scelta.
BACK TRANSLATION
COLETTE How do you tell how good
bread is without tasting it? Not
from the smell, not from the look,
but from the sound … of the crust.
Listen. Oh! A symphony of crackles!
Only great bread sounds this way.
The only way to get the best
ingredients is to have the first pick
of the day, and there are only two
ways to get the first pick: grow it
yourself or tip the grower.
GROWER Bonjour.
COLETTE Voilà! The best restaurant
gets the first pick.
1I would like to thank Julio De Los Reyes Lozano for his comments on the Spanish dubbed
version of this film.
332 V. Minutella
In Sing (2016) the overly energetic pig Gunter (voiced in the orig-
inal version by US comedian Nick Kroll) has a broad German accent
and intonation. His German pronunciation of certain sounds in English
(especially the German /r/) is accompanied by a number of ungrammat-
icalities and German words. This is reproduced in the dubbed version
where Gunter is perhaps made even more comical by stressing the foreign
pronunciation and inserting grammar mistakes (in italics in Example
7.15).
Example 7.15
Example 7.16
Analysis of the lines from various animated films in our corpus has illus-
trated that the strategy of hypercharacterisation is always adopted in
dubbing for characters represented as German: elements that are typical
features of the German ethnolect are overemphasised and comedy is
thereby increased.
La Penna (p.c. 20 December 2019) points out that the creative letter
accompanying the film explained that the scientist is foreign, speaks with
a foreign accent and the dubbed version had to convey this. Creative
Director Morville adds that the creative letter sent to the dubbing team
stated that Dr. Jumba Jookiba was Russian and spoke with a broad
Russian accent. However, the dubbing teams in various countries “had
the option to replicate, reproduce or not this Russian accent performed
in the original version, according to Territory customs and sensitivities”
(Morville, p.c. 8 January 2020). In other words, the dubbing teams in
various countries did not necessarily have to match this Russian linguistic
characterisation. They could use a Russian accent (as in the original
version) or opt for some type of accent or a target language regional
dialect (Morville, p.c. 8 January 2020). Dr. Jookiba’s representation as
a non-native speaker with limited knowledge of English grammar and
a broad Russian accent is maintained in the dubbed Italian version and
arguably emphasised. His accent is typical of Russian characters in Holly-
wood films and has comic overtones. Such a dubbing strategy could be
described as one of preservation and perhaps mild hypercharacterisation.
Examples 7.18–7.20 illustrate the strategies adopted (ungrammaticalities
and foreign accent in bold).
Example 7.18
Example 7.20
Example 7.21
Example 7.22
Here Vitaly is addressing Alex the lion and telling him that they
cannot get on the train to escape from the French police. Vitaly’s
dialogic turn contains puns on Russian cultural references and English
phrasal verbs: “Absolut” may refer to a brand of vodka (Absolut Vodka),
the homophony-paronymy between “smirk off ” and Smirnoff (another
brand of vodka) and another homophony between “pop off ” and Popov
(a common Russian surname and a possible reference to a famous physi-
cian). Although the Italian version cannot retain and reproduce the
cultural references and puns, it does convey humour by recreating Vitaly’s
Eastern European linguistic identity, reproducing a contrived Russian
pronunciation and using non-standard grammar. In particular, Vitaly’s
Italian displays syntactic errors such as the omission of articles or prepo-
sitions plus articles. Examples are: “leva tuo sorrisetto” rather than leva
il tuo sorrisetto and “da faccia” rather than dalla faccia. In Example
7.23 Vitaly utters the Russian word nyet, uses an incorrect negative
construction and omits the determiner for “Circus owner.” In the Italian
dubbed version nyet is retained (it is a loanword from Russian that has
become part of the Italian language) and definite articles are omitted (il
proprietario del circo becomes “proprietario di circo”).
Example 7.23
Example 7.24
2 ‘Steve
Carell on How He Created His Despicable Me 2 Character’s “Terrible Accent”’: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-e72bwapPk (accessed on 23 December 2019).
344 V. Minutella
dubbed version, dialogue writer Izzo had to modify the content of the
lines (see Example 7.26).
Example 7.26
References
Coupland, Nikolas. 2001. Dialect Stylization in Radio Talk. Language in Society
30 (3): 345–375.
Di Giovanni, Elena. 2007. Disney Films: Reflections of the Other and the
Self. Cultura, Lenguage y Representaciòn/Culture, Language and Representation
4: 191–209.
Ferrari, Chiara Francesca. 2010. Since When Is Fran Drescher Jewish? Dubbing
Stereotypes in the Nanny, the Simpsons and the Sopranos. Austin: University of
Texas Press.
Kachru, Braj. 1983. The Indianization of English: The English language in India.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Minutella, Vincenza. 2012. ‘You Fancying Your Gora Coach Is Okay with Me’:
Translating Multilingual Films for an Italian Audience. In Audiovisual Trans-
lation and Media Accessibility at the Crossroads. Media for all 3, ed. Pilar
Orero, Aline Remael, and Mary Carroll, 313–334. Amsterdam, NY: Rodopi.
Minutella, Vincenza. 2014. Translating Verbally Expressed Humour in
Dubbing and Subtitling: the Italian Versions of Shrek. In Translating
Humour in Audiovisual Texts, ed. Gian Luigi De Rosa, Francesca Bianchi,
Antonella De Laurentiis, and Elisa Perego, 67–87. Bern: Peter Lang.
Minutella, Vincenza. 2015. ‘It ain’t ogre til it’s ogre’: The Dubbing of Shrek
into Italian. In Audiovisual Translation: Taking Stock, ed. J. Díaz Cintas and
J. Neves, 140–158. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing … 347
Online References
Websites
https://www.antoniogenna.net/.
https://www.imdb.com/.
Filmography
Atlantis (2001). Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Walt Disney Feature Animation,
Walt Disney Pictures.
Bend It Like Beckham (2002). Gurinder Chadha, Kintop Pictures, Film
Council, Filmförderung Hamburg, British Sky Broadcasting (BskyB),
British Screen Productions, Bend It Films.
Cars 2 (2011). John Lasseter, Brad Lewis, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Anima-
tion Studios.
Coco (2017). Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar
Animation Studios.
Despicable Me 2 (2013). Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, Universal Pictures,
Illumination Entertainment.
Ferdinand (2017). Carlos Saldanha, Blue Sky Studios, Davis Entertainment,
20th Century Fox Animation.
Gnomeo & Juliet (2011). Kelly Asbury, Rocket Pictures, Arc Productions,
Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Starz Animation.
Hotel Transylvania (2012). Genndy Tartakovsky, Columbia Pictures, Sony
Pictures Animation.
Lilo and Stitch (2002). Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders, Walt Disney Pictures.
7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian Dubbing … 349
8.1 Introduction
This chapter explores what happens when the third language in the orig-
inal film (L3) coincides with the second language or the language of the
dubbed version (L2) (i.e., when the characters are represented as being
Italian or of Italian origin and speak English with an Italian accent, an
Italian-American ethnolect and use Italian words and expressions). As
previous chapters have pointed out, both scholarly research and dubbing
practitioners agree that when the original films contain characters who
are represented as being Italian and who are linguistically characterised
by making them speak Italian-accented English that is contrived and
comic, such a linguistic differentiation and identity is maintained and
conveyed in the dubbed version by making them speak Italian with a
regional accent or foreign-accented English. This chapter provides exam-
ples illustrating the various strategies adopted in the animated films in
our corpus to recreate characters who speak Italian-accented English in
the original film within Italian dubbing.
Such features are also found in the animated films analysed where
they are often exaggerated. Furthermore, Parini’s comments about mafia
comedies equally apply to animated films: “these peculiar phonological
traits are over-emphasized if compared to dramatic mafia films. This,
once again, is related to the purposes of comedies, as a heavy and exag-
gerated use of accents adds to the comicality of the character” (2017,
p. 105).
A phonological element that appears to be overused in the speech
of characters represented as Italian in our corpus of animated films
should be added to the above characteristics: the stereotypical addition
of an extra schwa (i.e., ‘uh’) sound pronounced between words. This is
sometimes described by non-linguists as a kind of vowel sound that is
8 (Re)Positioning Italianness in Animated Films … 353
Herman and Herman also warn actors that “the aspirate ‘uh’ is the most
important identification tag in the Italian dialect and one which is easily
overdone because of its simplicity” (1997, p. 151). This phonological
feature appears to be extensively used when non-Italian actors put on
an Italian accent in order to portray Italian or Italian American char-
acters and thus signal their Italian identity. In his Accents: A Manual for
Actors, Blumenfeld points out that “[t]he most well-known phenomenon
in a standard Italian accent […] is the insertion of a schwa in between
consonants” (2002, p. 216).
Our analysis of representations of Italianness in the animated films of
the corpus confirms that this is one of the most evident features of the
speech of characters. Moreover, it adds a certain caricatural comicality
to them since this pronunciation is often exaggerated in the perfor-
mance of non-native speakers of Italian compared with Italian speakers
of English. Moreover, the English Dialogue Lists of animated films sent
to the translator and dialogue writer sometimes transcribe the lines of
Italian characters by adding ‘-a-’ between words and explain in a note
that ‘-a-’ is the stereotypical addition of an extra vowel sound at the end
354 V. Minutella
of some words when Italians speak English. Examples 8.1, 8.5 and 8.8
demonstrate this. Certain characters represented as being Italian or of
Italian origin are discussed in what follows. Their linguistic characterisa-
tion and the dubbing strategies adopted in the Italian dubbed versions
will be pointed out.
8.3 Italian
-Accented English: Foreign-Accented
Italian in Madagascar 3
In the original version of Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted the
sea lion Stefano and the leopard Gia present features of this type of
contrived Italian American variety. This mock Italian-accented English,
which evokes stereotypes of Italians and Italian Americans speaking
English, is turned into an equally mock Spanish-accented Italian in the
dubbed version, thus retaining the foreignness and European identity
of the speakers. Such a translation strategy enables the dubbed version
to highlight Stefano and Gia’s linguistic otherness from the American
zoo animals (who speak General American in the original version and
standard Italian in the dubbed version) and from the French-accented
Chantel Dubois and the Russian tiger Vitaly. Nevertheless, such a stylised
representation plays a part in enhancing the film’s comedy. As a result,
“the unlikely Italian accent or Italian-American spoken by Stefano is
thus turned in the dubbed version into an equally unlikely and exagger-
ated Italian with a Spanish accent, interspersed with some Spanish and
Spanish-sounding words (escappò, escussame, el, no le guste)” (Minutella
2018, p. 151). Dubbing director Alto felt that a fake, mock Spanish-
accented Italian was chosen because it replicated the function of the fake
Italian-accented English of the original version and because the func-
tion of such a characterisation was to show that they were foreign and
make the audience laugh—not to provide a realistic portrayal of Italian
speakers of English. No attempt was thus made to aim at realism (Alto,
p.c. 26 January 2016). Stefano’s lines in Example 8.1 illustrate this point
and show how the strategy of hypercharacterisation was applied in the
8 (Re)Positioning Italianness in Animated Films … 355
Example 8.3
Example 8.4
Example 8.6
Example 8.7
Furthermore, the pufferfish Sykes who works for Don Lino and speaks
Italian American in the original version is dubbed by dubbing director
and actor Marco Mete using a Neapolitan accent. He also uses several
Neapolitan words such as guagliò and guaglioni (guy/guys). The Italian
dubbed version of the film maintains the American gangsterspeak and
retains the stereotype, adopting the Sicilian and Neapolitan regiolects
to connote the negative yet comic characters. Although such transla-
tion strategies render the characters and the dialogues more comical, they
still exploit Italian stereotypes of the South and reaffirm the connection
Sicilian and Neapolitan have with organised crime. As pointed out by
Parini:
In Italy no protests whatsoever have been made against the use of specific
regiolects or dialects (such as Sicilian or Neapolitan) in its dubbed version
– although the same concern expressed by Italian Americans regarding
the potential danger of exposing children to the message that people of
Italian descent are criminals may apply to a corresponding association
with Southern Italians for Italian viewers. (2019, p. 260)
In the original version of the 2016 Disney film Zootopia an Italian Amer-
ican accent is given to the tiny arctic shrew Mr Big whose behaviour and
speech are again clearly inspired by The Godfather films. The stereotyp-
ical and caricatural representation of Mr Big is conveyed through visual
and verbal elements. The visual elements in the scene provide intertextual
links to previous representations of mobsters and add a layer of humour
to the scene. Despite his name, Mr Big is minuscule, but he is powerful
(he has huge polar bears as bodyguards) and scary (he threatens to kill
Nick and Judy by “icing them”; i.e., throwing them into iced water).
Moreover, Nick must kiss his hand as a sign of respect. In the English
version Mr Big is voiced by Maurice LaMarche, who contrives an Italian
accent, using lexis and syntactic structures typical of this ethnolect. In the
Italian dubbed version Mr Big is given a Sicilian accent and is voiced by
Sicilian actor Leo Gullotta who emphasises his original Sicilian accent.
This confirms the stereotype and the dubbing professionals’ common
practice/convention: if the character is a thug or alludes to The Godfather,
then he must have a Sicilian accent. Note, however, that an attempt at
realism and naturalness was made since a dubbing actor from Sicily was
chosen. Gullotta and Teresa Mannino (cast to dub Mr Big’s daughter Fru
Fru) are in fact comedians known for their Sicilian identity. Linguistic
features typically associated with the Italian American ethnolect in the
original performance are transferred to the Sicilian variety of Mr Big,
while Fru Fru speaks with a less marked accent both in the original
and dubbed version. The linguistic characterisation of Mr Big in the
362 V. Minutella
To recap, in the Cars films the character Luigi is an Italian Fiat 500 car
who owns the Casa della Tires and is a huge fan of Ferraris. Due to his
Italianness he is linguistically characterised by speaking English with a
broad Italian accent. Luigi is voiced by American actor Tony Shalhoub
who affects an Italian American ethnolect: his lines display phonological
and syntactic features typically found in this variety such as the schwa
(‘-a-’, /ђ/ or ‘uh’) sound between words and other elements (as described
above after Parini 2019). His utterances are often ungrammatical and
he sometimes uses Italian words. In the Italian dubbed version Luigi is
voiced by stand-up comedian Marco Della Noce who gave him a marked
8 (Re)Positioning Italianness in Animated Films … 363
regional accent without using dialect words and improvised some comic
gags and lines while dubbing in the studio. The Italian-accented variety
of the original version (filled with several ungrammaticalities) is turned
into grammatically correct Italian whose markedness and funniness is
conveyed by the dubbing actor’s modulation of his voice and his use
of the Emiliano accent (which is typical of the region where Ferrari is
located). In Example 8.8 (from Cars) the Italian identity of Luigi and
thus his being a non-native speaker of English is exaggerated in the
original version by inserting ungrammaticalities (“he fix”, “Luigi take,”
“you not”) and using a marked Italian accent. In the dubbed version
the comic identity of Luigi is conveyed only through the regional Emil-
iano accent (non-standard syntactic features, marked pronunciation and
Italian words in English are all in italics).
Example 8.8
Example 8.11
In Mr. Peabody and Sherman the WABAC takes the protagonists back in
time to Renaissance Florence where they meet Leonardo and Mona Lisa
exactly when the Italian painter was working on the famous painting. In
the original version Leonardo and Mona Lisa are voiced by US actors
Stanley Tucci and Lake Bell, whereas in the Italian dubbed version they
are voiced by Italian actors from Tuscany Luca Biagini and Lisa Poccardo.
When Leonardo and Mona Lisa speak, their English displays a series of
peculiarities at the phonetic, lexical and syntactic level that are typical
of the variety spoken by Italians and Italian Americans described above.
Their language contributes to creating a comic, caricatural portrayal of
the stereotype of Italians speaking English. Their speech also contains
some Italian words (“abbondanza,” “perfetto”) and some ungrammati-
calities (Leonardo: “Believe-a-you me,” “No move, no move!”), which
connote them as being Italian non-native speakers of English living in
Italy rather than Italian Americans living in the United States. The comic
effect of the exchange between Leonardo and Mona Lisa is enhanced by
their physical appearance and their actions and movements: Leonardo’s
exaggerated gesticulations (hand and arm movements), their loud voices
and Leonardo’s cries when Mona Lisa asks him to say something funny.
The visual and verbal representations of the historical characters seem
to adopt the stereotypical characteristics of Italians. The film provides
a caricatural, stereotypical verbal and visual portrayal for humorous
purposes. It is a case of complex humour since the filmmakers play with
the audience’s world knowledge and provide a comic, absurd explana-
tion of the origin of the painting, combining cultural references with
aural and visual comedy. In the Italian dubbed version the (Tuscan)
dubbing actors speak a Tuscan regional variety/regiolect that has its own
specific pronunciation and intonation and colloquial words pertaining
8 (Re)Positioning Italianness in Animated Films … 367
1A small reception study carried out with 10 Italian students from different regions taking a
master’s degree (April–May 2020) showed that the use of regional Italian and dialects in this
film was not well received. The students were quite critical of the choices made in the dubbed
version that they considered exaggerated, parodic and fake, and too distant from the original
film.
8 (Re)Positioning Italianness in Animated Films … 369
References
Blumenfeld, Robert. 2002. Accents. A Manual for Actors. New York: Limelight
Editions.
372 V. Minutella
Bruti, Silvia, and Gianmarco Vignozzi. 2016. Voices from the Anglo-Saxon
World: Accents and Dialects Across film Genres. In North and South. British
Dialects in Fictional Dialogue, ed. I. Ranzato. Special Issue Status Quaes-
tionis 11. Retrieved from http://statusquaestionis.uniroma1.it/index.php/sta
tusquaestionis/article/view/13838. 20 November 2017.
Chiaro, Delia. 2008. Where Have All the Varieties Gone? The Vicious Circle
of the Disappearance Act in Screen Translations. In Dialect for All Seasons,
ed. I. Helin, 9–25. Münster: Nodus Publikationen.
Chiaro, Delia. 2009. Issues in Audiovisual Translation. In The Routledge
Companion to Translation Studies, ed. J. Munday, 141–165. London: Rout-
ledge.
Dore, Margherita. 2019. Revoicing Otherness and Stereotypes via Dialects and
Accents in Disney’s Zootopia and Its Italian Dubbed Version. In InTRA-
linea, ed. Klaus Geyer and Margherita Dore. Special Issue The Translation of
Dialects in Multimedia IV . Online at: http://www.intralinea.org/specials/art
icle/2465. Last accessed 5 February 2020.
Ferrari, Chiara Francesca. 2010. Since When Is Fran Drescher Jewish? Dubbing
Stereotypes in The Nanny, The Simpsons and The Sopranos. Austin: University
of Texas Press.
Grochowska-Reiter, Anna. 2017. Gnomeo, Gnomeo, perché parli dialetto,
Gnomeo? Uso del dialetto nei film d’animazione. Annales Universitatis
Paedagogicae Cracoviensis Studia de Cultura 9 (3): 24–32.
Herman, Lewis, and Marguerite Shalett Herman. 1997. Foreign Dialects. A
Manual for Actors, Directors, and Writers. New York: Routledge.
Iaia, Pietro Luigi. 2015. The Dubbing Translation of Humorous Audiovisual
Texts. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
La Polla, Franco. 1994. Quel che si fa dopo mangiato: doppiaggio e contesto
culturale. In Il doppiaggio. Trasposizioni linguistiche e culturali, ed. R. Baccoli,
R.M. Bollettieri Bosinelli, and L. Davoli, 51–60. Bologna: CLUEB.
Minutella, Vincenza. 2016. British Dialects in Animated Films: The Case of
Gnomeo and Juliet and Its Creative Italian Dubbing. In North and South.
British Dialects in Fictional Dialogue, ed. I. Ranzato. Special Issue Status
Quaestionis 11. Retrieved from http://statusquaestionis.uniroma1.it/index.
php/statusquaestionis/article/view/13838. 20 November 2017.
Minutella, Vincenza. 2018. Translating Non-native Varieties of English in
Animated Films: The Italian Dubbing of Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most
Wanted . Cultus Journal 11: 144–157. Retrieved from https://www.cultusjou
rnal.com/files/Archives/Vincenza-Minutella.pdf. 20 May 2020.
8 (Re)Positioning Italianness in Animated Films … 373
Websites
https://www.antoniogenna.net/.
https://www.imdb.com/.
Filmography
Atlantis. 2001. Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Walt Disney Feature Animation,
Walt Disney Pictures.
Cars. 2006. John Lasseter, Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
374 V. Minutella
Cars 2. 2011. John Lasseter, Brad Lewis, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation
Studios.
Coco. 2017. Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Anima-
tion Studios.
Gnomeo & Juliet. 2011. Kelly Asbury, Rocket Pictures, Arc Productions,
Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Starz Animation.
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted . 2012. Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath,
Conrad Vernon, DreamWorks Animation, Pacific Data Images.
Mr Peabody and Sherman. 2014. Rob Minkoff, Bullwinkle Studios, Classic
Media Productions, DreamWorks Animation, Pacific Data Images.
Ratatouille. 2007. Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Anima-
tion Studios.
Shark Tale. 2004. Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson, Rob Letterman, DreamWorks
Animation, DreamWorks.
The Godfather. 1972. Francis Ford Coppola, Paramount Pictures, Alfran
Productions.
The Godfather: Part III . 1990. Francis Ford Coppola, Paramount Pictures,
Zoetrope Studios.
The Wild . 2006. Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams, C.O.R.E. Feature Animation,
Contrafilm, Freewill Entertainment, Hoytyboy Pictures, Nigel Productions,
Sir Zip Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
Zootopia/Zootropolis. 2016. Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush, Walt
Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios.
while still fulfilling the function of the foreign language such as making
characters incomprehensible to one another, showing the diversity of
characters (contrary to the homogenisation norm established for native
varieties of English) and conveying humour. The strategy of preservation
(De Bonis 2014) is thus applied to languages other than English.
Another important pattern and thus a norm found in the dubbed
animated films analysed is that foreign-accented speech (i.e., non-native
English) is retained in dubbing by making use of foreign-accented
Italian. A preservation strategy is often adopted. Such varieties of English
are retained and often strengthened in dubbing. The many examples
examined in the present study have shown that foreign-accented English
or “ethnolects” (Salmon Kovarski 2000) tend to be recreated by using
the same foreign accent in the dubbed language as in the original
language, by replicating the same quantity of words and expressions from
the foreign language or even by hypercharacterising (exaggerating the
accent/foreign-sounding character and adding other foreign words). The
cases of “hypercharacterisation” (Parini 2009) discussed show how this
strategy is adopted, especially when the characters in the original films
are represented through a combination of verbal and visual stereotypes
(since they are meant to be caricatures). Stylised representations in the
animated films of the corpus do indeed abound when the function of the
accent is to enhance comedy. The linguistic identity of Mexican, Spanish,
Italian, Russian and German characters is almost always recreated in
Italian dubbing often by means of hypercharacterisation. Neutralisation
of a foreign linguistic identity seldom occurs in our corpus, although it
is sometimes adopted for specific reasons such as for Gru in Despicable
Me and Rochelle in Planes. Note that characters who are represented as
being Russian, German and Indian speak Italian laced with ungrammat-
icalities in the dubbed versions (replicating and amplifying the choices
made in the original versions). This highlights their poor command of
the language or, in the case of Indian characters, a stylised non-standard
variety, thereby apparently making them appear somehow ‘inferior’ and
funnier compared with characters from other countries.
Note also that the analysis conducted on characters speaking foreign-
accented English has shown that dubbing strategies can vary according
to the function of the language and accent in the original film. In fact,
9 Conclusion 379
accent and foreign words are amplified in the dubbed version and
additional foreign words are often inserted in the dubbed dialogue.
Although this is especially the case with Spanish-speaking characters,
it is also often the case with Russian, German and Indian characters.
– Non-native varieties of English preservation. In many cases the
strategy of preservation is used in which the foreignness of the char-
acter is kept, the same number of foreign words is used and the same
accent is maintained.
– Non-native varieties of English quantitative reduc-
tion/neutralisation. In some cases the strategies of quantitative
reduction or neutralisation may occur, especially when the foreign-
accented English has the function of establishing the setting. This
happens in the dubbed versions of Coco in which Spanish words are
preserved but there is quantitative reduction/neutralisation of the
Spanish accent to avoid caricatures and The Book of Life in which
the accent is neutralised and some Spanish words are used. However,
it might be argued that in the original English films the presence of
Spanish-accented English was not meant to provide a caricature of
Mexicans but rather an audio-postcarding effect (The Book of Life)
and postcarding and realism (Coco). Ratatouille represents a case of its
own since the broad, clichéd French-accented English spoken by some
characters in the original version was meant not only to establish the
setting but also to convey humour. In the dubbed version the quan-
titative reduction of such foreignness and the neutralisation of the
accent for Colette and other characters (though still keeping French
words and expressions) represents the way in which the dubbing team
recreated a different, less comic linguistic characterisation for the
French characters.
Italian and there is less diversity and variety compared with the original
films, characters who are ‘foreign’ or ‘other’ are often hypercharacterised
stereotypes. It might be argued, however, that dubbing practitioners are
sensitive to the parodic function of a French accent or a Spanish accent
and try to reduce it in Italian dubbing, especially when the story is set in
a French-speaking or a Spanish-speaking country.
When it comes to the use of broad regional Italian accents and dialects,
getting criminal or negative characters to adopt Sicilian, Neapolitan and
southern varieties implies that the audience is exposed to such stereo-
types. The negative stereotypes and discrimination found in the original
versions where criminals are portrayed as Italian American or hailing
from New York is therefore transposed to an Italian cultural context.
Although the main function of animated films is to entertain the audi-
ence and make them laugh, poking fun at specific nationalities or regions
is problematic, especially when such products have children as their main
audience. How such animated films and their characters are received is
thus worth exploring (on reception studies in audiovisual translation see
in particular Di Giovanni and Gambier 2018).
References
Chiaro, Delia. 2008. Where Have All the Varieties Gone? The Vicious Circle
of the Disappearance Act in Screen Translations. In Dialect for All Seasons,
ed. I. Helin, 9–25. Münster: Nodus Publikationen.
Chiaro, Delia. 2009. Issues in Audiovisual Translation. In The Routledge
Companion to Translation Studies, ed. J. Munday, 141–165. London: Rout-
ledge.
De Bonis, Giuseppe. 2014. Dubbing Multilingual Films Between Neutralisa-
tion and Preservation of Lingua-cultural Identities: A Critical Review of the
Current Strategies in Italian Dubbing. In The Languages of Dubbing: Main-
stream Audiovisual Translation in Italy, ed. Maria Pavesi, Maicol Formentelli,
and Elisa Ghia, 243–266. Bern: Peter Lang.
De Bonis, Giuseppe. 2015a. Translating Multilingualism in Film: A Case Study
on Le concert. New Voices in Translation Studies 12: 50–71.
9 Conclusion 387
Websites
https://www.antoniogenna.net/.
https://www.imdb.com/.
388 V. Minutella
Filmography
Atlantis. 2001. Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Walt Disney Feature Animation,
Walt Disney Pictures.
Brave/Ribelle. 2012. Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell, Walt
Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios.
Cars. 2006. John Lasseter, Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
Cars 2. 2011. John Lasseter, Brad Lewis, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation
Studios.
Coco. 2017. Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Anima-
tion Studios.
Gnomeo & Juliet. 2011. Kelly Asbury, Rocket Pictures, Arc Productions,
Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Starz Animation.
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. 2012. Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath,
Conrad Vernon, DreamWorks Animation, Pacific Data Images.
Mr. Peabody and Sherman. 2014. Rob Minkoff, Bullwinkle Studios, Classic
Media Productions, DreamWorks Animation, Pacific Data Images.
Ratatouille. 2007. Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Anima-
tion Studios.
Shark Tale. 2004. Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson, Rob Letterman, DreamWorks
Animation, DreamWorks.
The Book of Life. 2014. Jorge R. Gutiérrez, 20th Century Fox Animation, 20th
Century Fox, Reel FX Creative Studios, Chatrone, Mexopolis.
The Wild. 2006. Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams, C.O.R.E. Feature Animation,
Contrafilm, Freewill Entertainment, Hoytyboy Pictures, Nigel Productions,
Sir Zip Studios, Walt Disney Pictures.
Zootopia. 2016. Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush, Walt Disney Pictures,
Walt Disney Animation Studios.
1 Informationabout the original versions of films is taken from the Internet Movie Database
(www.imdb.com) and information about the Italian dubbed versions is taken from Antonio
Genna’s website (https://www.antoniogenna.net/).
Italian
Budget and dialogue
cumulative writer and
Production worldwide dubbing
Film title Year Director company grossa director
Atlantis: The Lost 2001 Gary Disney Budget Carlo Valli
Empire/Atlantis: Trousdale, $120,000,000
L’impero perduto Kirk (estimated)
Wise Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$186,053,725
Brave/Ribelle-The 2012 Mark Disney Pixar Budget Carlo Valli
Brave Andrews, $185,000,000
Brenda (estimated)
Chapman Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$538,983,207
Cars 2006 John Disney Pixar Budget Carlo Valli
Lasseter $120,000,000
(estimated)
Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$461,983,149
Cars 2 2011 John Disney Pixar Budget Carlo Valli
Lasseter, $200,000,000
Bradford (estimated)
Lewis Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$559,852,396
Coco 2017 Lee Disney Pixar Budget Massimiliano
Unkrich, $175,000,000 Manfredi
Adrian (estimated)
Molina Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$807,082,196
Despicable Me 2013 Pierre Illumination Budget Fiamma Izzo
2/Cattivissimo me 2 Coffin, Entertainment, $76,000,000
Chris Universal (estimated)
Renaud Pictures Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$970,766,005
(continued)
Appendix 1: List of Films Analysed (in Alphabetical … 391
(continued)
Italian
Budget and dialogue
cumulative writer and
Production worldwide dubbing
Film title Year Director company grossa director
Ferdinand 2017 Carlos 20th Budget Marco
Saldanha Century $111,000,000 Guadagno
Fox, Blue (estimated)
Sky Cumulative
Studios worldwide
gross
$296,069,199
Finding Dory/Alla 2016 Andrew Disney Pixar Budget Carlo Valli
ricerca di Dory Stanton, $200,000,000
Angus (estimated)
MacLane Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$1,028,570,889
Finding Nemo/Alla 2003 Andrew Disney Pixar Budget Carlo Valli
ricerca di Nemo Stanton, $94,000,000
Lee (estimated)
Unkrich Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$940,343,261
Gnomeo & 2011 Kelly Rocket Budget Cinzia De
Juliet/Gnomeo&Giulietta Asbury Pictures, $36,000,000 Carolis,
Touchstone (estimated) Oreste
Pictures Cumulative Baldini
worldwide
gross
$193,967,670
Hotel Transylvania 2012 Genndy Sony Budget Cecilia
Tartakovsky Pictures $85,000,000 Gonnelli,
(estimated) Alessandro
Cumulative Rossi
worldwide
gross
$358,375,603
Hotel Transylvania 2 2015 Genndy Sony Budget Cecilia
Tartakovsky Pictures $80,000,000 Gonnelli,
(estimated) Alessandro
Cumulative Rossi
worldwide
gross
$474,800,000
(continued)
392 Appendix 1: List of Films Analysed (in Alphabetical …
(continued)
Italian
Budget and dialogue
cumulative writer and
Production worldwide dubbing
Film title Year Director company grossa director
How to Train Your 2010 Dean DreamWorks Budget Marco Mete
Dragon/Dragon DeBlois, $165,000,000
trainer Chris (estimated)
Sanders Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$494,878,759
Ice Age 2: The 2006 Carlos 20th Budget Marco
Meltdown/L’era Saldanha Century $80,000,000 Bardella,
glaciale 2: il disgelo Fox, Blue (estimated) Marco
Sky Cumulative Guadagno
Studios worldwide
gross
$667,036,530
Ice Age 3: Dawn of 2009 Carlos 20th Budget Marco
the Dinosaurs/L’era Saldanha, Century $90,000,000 Bardella,
glaciale 3: l’alba dei Mike Fox, Blue (estimated) Marco
dinosauri Thurmeier Sky Cumulative Guadagno
Studios worldwide
gross
$886,686,817
Lilo and Stitch 2002 Dean Disney Budget Carla
DeBlois, $80,000,000 Vangelista,
Chris (estimated) Leslie La
Sanders Cumulative Penna
worldwide
gross
$273,144,151
Madagascar 2005 Eric DreamWorks Budget Carlo Valli,
Darnell, $75,000,000 Massimiliano
Tom (estimated) Alto
McGrath Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$542,063,846
Madagascar 2: Escape 2008 Eric DreamWorks Budget Carlo Valli,
to Darnell, $150,000,000 Massimiliano
Africa/Madagascar 2 Tom (estimated) Alto
McGrath Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$603,900,354
(continued)
Appendix 1: List of Films Analysed (in Alphabetical … 393
(continued)
Italian
Budget and dialogue
cumulative writer and
Production worldwide dubbing
Film title Year Director company grossa director
Madagascar 3: 2012 Eric DreamWorks Budget Carlo Valli,
Europe’s Most Darnell, $145,000,000 Massimiliano
Wanted/Madagascar Tom (estimated) Alto
3: ricercati in McGrath, Cumulative
Europa Conrad worldwide
Vernon gross
$746,921,274
Mr. Peabody and 2014 Rob DreamWorks Budget Marco
Sherman Minkoff $145,000,000 Guadagno
(estimated)
Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$275,698,039
Planes 2013 Klay Hall Prana Budget Carlo Valli
Studios, $50,000,000
Disneytoon (estimated)
Studios Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$239,258,712
Puss in Boots/Il gatto 2011 Chris DreamWorks Budget Marco Mete
con gli stivali Miller $130,000,000
(estimated)
Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$554,987,477
Rango 2011 Gore Paramount Budget Fiamma Izzo
Verbinski Pictures $135,000,000
(estimated)
Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$245,724,603
Ratatouille 2007 Brad Disney Pixar Budget Carlo Valli,
Bird, $150,000,000 Massimiliano
Jan (estimated) Alto
Pinkava Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$623,722,818
(continued)
394 Appendix 1: List of Films Analysed (in Alphabetical …
(continued)
Italian
Budget and dialogue
cumulative writer and
Production worldwide dubbing
Film title Year Director company grossa director
Rio 2011 Carlos 20th Budget Marco
Saldanha Century $90,000,000 Guadagno
Fox, Blue (estimated)
Sky Cumulative
Studios worldwide
gross
$483,866,518
Rio 2 2014 Carlos 20th Budget Marco
Saldanha Century $103,000,000 Guadagno
Fox, Blue (estimated)
Sky Cumulative
Studios worldwide
gross
$498,781,117
Rise of the 2012 Peter DreamWorks Budget Marco Mete
Guardians/Le cinque Ramsey $145,000,000
leggende (estimated)
Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$306,941,670
Shark Tale 2004 Bibo DreamWorks Budget Ruggero
Bergeron, $75,000,000 Busetti,
Vicky (estimated) Marco Mete
Jenson, Cumulative
Rob worldwide
Letterman gross
$363,530,196
Shrek 2001 Andrew DreamWorks Budget Francesco
Adamson, $60,000,000 Vairano
Vicky (estimated)
Jenson Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$484,409,218
Shrek 2 2004 Andrew DreamWorks Budget Francesco
Adamson, $150,000,000 Vairano
Kelly (estimated)
Asbury Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$923,075,336
(continued)
Appendix 1: List of Films Analysed (in Alphabetical … 395
(continued)
Italian
Budget and dialogue
cumulative writer and
Production worldwide dubbing
Film title Year Director company grossa director
Shrek the Third/Shrek 2007 Chris DreamWorks Budget Francesco
terzo Miller, $160,000,000 Vairano
Raman (estimated)
Hui Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$804,438,141
Sing 2016 Garth Illumination Budget Marco Mete
Jennings, Entertainment $75,000,000
Christophe (estimated)
Lourdelet Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$634,151,679
The Book of Life/Il 2014 Jorge R. 20th Budget Marco
libro della vita Gutiérrez Century $50,000,000 Guadagno
Fox (estimated)
Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$99,783,556
The Wild/Uno zoo in 2006 Steve Disney Budget Simona Izzo,
fuga ’Spaz’ $180,000,000 Fiamma Izzo
Williams (estimated)
Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$102,338,515
Toy Story 3 2010 Lee Disney Pixar Budget Carlo Valli
Unkrich $200,000,000
(estimated)
Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$1,066,969,703
Turbo 2013 David DreamWorks Budget Marco
Soren $135,000,000 Guadagno
(estimated)
Cumulative
worldwide
gross
$282,570,682
(continued)
396 Appendix 1: List of Films Analysed (in Alphabetical …
(continued)
Italian
Budget and dialogue
cumulative writer and
Production worldwide dubbing
Film title Year Director company grossa director
Zootopia/Zootropolis 2016 Byron Disney Budget Massimiliano
Howard, $150,000,000 Manfredi
Rich (estimated)
Moore, Cumulative
Jared worldwide
Bush gross
$1,023,784,195
a The budget estimates and the cumulative worldwide gross of each film
throughout this appendix are taken from the Internet Movie Database (www.
imdb.com)
Appendix 2: List of Italian Dubbing Experts
Consulted About Their Professional
Practice (2015–2020)
263, 271, 300, 325, 335, 341, Diction 5, 41, 58, 60, 66, 89, 90,
345, 346, 352, 354, 356, 366, 97, 106, 109–111, 223, 252,
369, 371, 378, 380 253, 267
Consistency sheet 51 Distributor 21–28, 30, 33, 39, 45,
Constraints 9, 21, 29, 58, 385 56, 58, 64, 67, 85, 86, 96,
Contrived 81, 97, 101, 102, 106, 136, 253, 268, 308, 375
111, 112, 130, 138, 160, 161, Diversity 378, 379, 386
165, 177, 191, 198, 201, 270, Domestication 81, 261, 367
294, 306, 316, 320, 324, 327, Dubbed version 2, 8, 10, 14, 20,
337–342, 345, 351, 354, 367 22, 24, 26–29, 37, 38, 42, 49,
Creative director 8, 13, 26, 31, 38, 50, 52–58, 60–63, 65, 67, 76,
39, 44, 46, 56, 57, 60, 63, 67, 78, 79, 81–83, 85–88, 92, 93,
85, 88, 97–99, 104, 107, 108, 95–102, 105–107, 109, 111,
223, 235, 294, 300, 326, 336, 128, 200, 218, 221–224, 226,
358, 368, 398 227, 231–235, 237–247, 249,
Creative letter 46, 54–56, 67, 87, 251–254, 257–264, 266–268,
326, 336, 375 270, 279–287, 289–292,
294–299, 303, 305–312,
314–318, 320, 321, 323–333,
335–340, 342–345, 351, 354,
D 355, 357–371, 376–379, 382,
Dialect 3, 5–7, 14, 25, 36, 41, 64, 383, 385, 389
67, 75–82, 84, 85, 88, 91, 93, Dubbese 89, 249, 258
94, 99–113, 127, 128, 130, Dubbing 4, 6–10, 13, 14, 19–22,
153, 159, 182, 188, 217, 219, 24–28, 31–33, 37–39, 43, 45,
232, 239, 241–243, 252, 253, 50, 52, 53, 55, 59, 63–67, 75,
259–261, 266, 268, 270, 271, 78, 80, 81, 83, 84, 86–91,
280, 293–300, 303, 317, 318, 97, 99, 102–104, 106, 108,
336, 353, 356, 358, 361–363, 109, 111–113, 203, 217–219,
367–371, 377, 379–382, 385, 222, 223, 227, 235, 240–242,
386 249, 253–255, 259, 261–263,
Dialogue List 30, 37, 47–49, 87, 268–271, 279, 280, 283, 288,
235 293, 294, 300, 304, 307,
Dialogue writer 4, 8–10, 13, 22–26, 309, 310, 313, 316, 318,
28–39, 44–47, 49, 52, 53, 55, 320, 323–326, 329, 332, 336,
59, 86–88, 100, 103, 106, 341–343, 345, 351, 355–358,
107, 246, 249, 253, 290, 307, 360, 363, 368, 369, 371, 375,
311, 314, 322, 323, 353, 389, 377–382, 384–386, 398
397, 398
402 Index
Dubbing actor 8, 9, 13, 22, 23, 31, Dubbing script 3, 4, 9, 37, 43, 50,
32, 39–45, 55–60, 63, 66, 89, 51, 53, 231, 298
90, 93, 95, 97, 99, 100, 106, Dubbing stage 24, 26, 53
112, 113, 231, 235, 237, 239, Dubbing studio 4, 9, 10, 22, 24, 26,
242, 246, 259, 269, 270, 283, 31, 37–39, 43–46, 63, 239,
303, 308, 310, 311, 314, 317, 269, 298, 307
323, 324, 329, 335, 337, 338, Dubbing supervisor 21, 23, 25–32,
342, 345, 361–364, 366–368, 36, 38, 52, 56, 60, 67, 85, 88,
370, 371, 380, 397, 398 104, 268, 311
Dubbing agent 22
Dubbing assistant 9, 13, 22, 24, 31,
32, 39, 41, 42, 45, 54, 55, E
103, 298, 398 Eastern European accent 102, 161,
Dubbing booth 9, 30, 32, 38, 39, 166, 191, 201, 335
42, 44, 45, 59, 90 Ethnicity 95, 147, 292, 310, 343,
Dubbing director 8–10, 12, 13, 22, 345
24–30, 32, 34, 36, 38–41, Ethnolect 77, 82, 83, 136, 138,
43–45, 52, 53, 55, 56, 142, 172, 204, 304, 305, 308,
59–61, 63–65, 86–88, 90, 96, 310–312, 319, 324, 326, 335,
99–101, 104, 105, 107, 110, 337, 340, 345, 346, 351, 352,
111, 113, 200, 221, 231, 238, 355, 357–362, 367, 370, 378
253, 258, 261, 288, 307, 311,
312, 314, 316, 326, 335, 337,
340, 354, 355, 360, 368, 389, F
397, 398 Fake accent 98, 100, 102
Dubbing process 3, 7–9, 13, 19, Foreign accent 5, 77, 79, 82–87, 92,
21–27, 30–34, 43, 52, 55, 58, 95–100, 102, 108, 111–113,
60, 66, 67, 85, 99, 319, 375, 123, 165, 167, 169, 190, 191,
379, 384, 397 200, 201, 266, 268, 270, 284,
Dubbing professional 8, 9, 13–15, 290, 303, 304, 313, 314, 316,
20–26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 43, 317, 323, 326–328, 335, 336,
45, 49, 50, 53–55, 58, 84–86, 342–346, 378, 379, 383, 385
89–92, 94, 95, 103–106, 108, Foreign-accented English 5, 14, 15,
109, 112, 113, 185, 218, 77, 82–84, 112, 124, 127,
226, 242, 254, 255, 262, 263, 129, 132, 134, 138, 161,
268–270, 320, 356, 360, 361, 164–167, 177, 183, 190, 191,
370, 371, 376, 379, 381, 384, 203, 303, 304, 316, 324, 342,
385, 397 345, 346, 351, 378, 379, 382,
383
Index 403
365–367, 370, 376, 377, 379, 259, 261, 262, 268, 271, 300,
383, 386, 389 343, 366–369, 371, 379, 380,
Otherness 87, 92, 93, 95, 101, 103, 385, 386
123, 136, 188–192, 200, 202, Register 35, 36, 94, 130, 132, 172,
203, 217, 281, 282, 288, 290, 173, 218, 222, 231, 234, 237,
295, 296, 298, 304, 305, 308, 249, 251, 254, 257–259, 269,
310, 312, 320, 325, 329, 342, 284, 377
343, 354 Revision 26, 46
Rewriting 20, 36–38, 153
Rough translation 22, 32, 33, 35, 64
P Russian 64, 96, 97, 127, 138, 140,
Performance 7, 40, 42, 53, 57, 59, 165, 166, 174, 177, 199, 200,
60, 93, 99–101, 110, 191, 202, 287, 335–340, 346, 378,
221, 222, 231, 235, 237, 245, 385
246, 252, 254, 269, 270, 288, Russian-accented English 133, 140,
306, 310, 311, 320, 324, 342, 177, 199, 337
361, 362, 367, 381 Russian-accented Italian 338
Preservation 78, 79, 84, 280, 284,
291, 300, 304, 305, 335, 336,
338, 342, 345, 346, 378, 382, S
383 Scottish English (ScE) 127, 154,
159, 179, 182, 189, 218,
240–243, 245–247, 268, 368
Q Setting 2, 7, 10, 91, 92, 104, 123,
Quantitative reduction 78, 79, 300, 127, 128, 137, 143, 145, 149,
304, 317, 345, 382, 383 153, 155, 164, 175, 177, 182,
188, 190, 192, 193, 196–198,
202, 203, 226, 241, 243, 249,
R 287, 289, 291, 305, 310, 315,
Received pronunciation (RP) 79, 317, 319, 323, 325, 332, 345,
127, 130, 131, 144, 154, 161, 346, 383
173, 187, 217, 220–226, 231, Sociolinguistics of performance 7
240, 268 Sound technician 22, 23, 32, 39–41,
Reduction 84 45
Regiolect 356–362, 364, 366, 367, Source text (ST) 3, 22, 29, 34, 45,
369–371, 382 51, 67, 76, 79, 204, 219, 292,
Regionalisation 367 295, 297, 309, 314, 381, 385
Regional Italian (RI) 5, 6, 67, 75, Southern American English 94, 127,
82, 85, 93, 105, 109, 111, 129, 142, 144, 152, 157, 158,
Index 407
172, 181, 183, 184, 217, 232, 192–198, 200, 201, 219, 226,
250, 253, 271, 377, 384 234, 239, 250, 255, 260,
Spanish 21, 58, 61, 64, 79, 88, 90, 261, 264, 265, 269, 304, 305,
91, 96, 99, 106, 127, 129, 310, 313, 320, 323, 325, 327,
130, 138, 141, 143, 147–149, 345, 354, 356, 360, 361, 364,
151, 152, 157, 164, 165, 169, 368–371, 376, 378, 380, 382,
170, 177–179, 191, 194–196, 384, 385
279, 285, 291, 294, 304–308, Stylisation 7
310–317, 319, 331, 354, 355, Subtitling/Subtitles 2, 7, 46, 78, 96,
378, 379, 383, 385 97, 101, 203, 218, 280–286,
Spanish-accented English 129–131, 288, 289, 295, 296, 377, 382
143, 145, 148, 151–158, Supervisor 25, 27–31, 39, 56, 86,
162–166, 169–171, 177–179, 96, 294, 308
193, 195–197, 304, 305, 307, Syntax 6, 81–83, 234, 251, 254,
310, 313, 317, 318, 379, 383 329, 333
Spanish-accented Italian 309, 311,
312, 314, 318, 354, 355, 379
Spectacular fragments 134, 143, T
145, 151, 155, 167, 195, 196, Target text (TT) 20, 45, 46, 219,
287, 291, 305, 317, 321 292, 295, 297, 337, 381, 382
Sporcatura 97, 253, 267 Test screening 88, 316
Standard Italian 5, 6, 41, 58–60, 62, Time code 64
75, 79–81, 83, 85, 89–93, 96, Transformation 261, 267, 286, 318,
104, 105, 109–111, 217–219, 319, 382
222, 223, 225, 226, 233, Translation strategies 14, 36, 77,
235, 237, 238, 240–246, 250, 112, 124, 204, 226, 245, 255,
252, 254, 266, 267, 269, 279, 303–305, 312, 354, 360,
271, 280, 292, 295, 298, 299, 367
304, 314–318, 326–331, 343, Translator 4, 7–9, 13, 22, 32–36,
344, 346, 353, 354, 362, 370, 47, 49, 52, 76, 78, 87, 311,
375–377, 380, 381, 385, 386 323, 353, 397, 398
Star talent 31, 58–64, 66, 75,
108–111, 261, 264–267, 270,
292, 293, 300, 306, 311, 324, U
342, 343, 369, 384 Undefined 101, 102, 111, 158, 165,
Stereotypes 1–3, 8, 81, 82, 93, 94, 166, 341, 342
102, 108, 109, 123, 124, Ungrammaticalities 47, 142, 143,
136, 142, 152, 153, 163, 171, 146, 153, 191, 199, 253,
172, 175, 182–185, 188–190, 266, 294, 295, 318, 329–333,
408 Index