Abstract
The aim of this paper is to explore how foreign languages (i.e., languages other than English) and non-native varieties of English are used in Anglo-American animated films and to investigate the strategies adopted in Italian dubbing to deal with such multilingual features. The paper combines insights into professional practice with a close examination of a specific case study. The film Despicable Me 2 (dir. Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, Illumination Entertainment, 2013) has been chosen for analysis since it displays more than one language and several language varieties (British English, American English and foreign-accented English). The film also exploits visual and verbal stereotypes which enhance the comedic elements of the film. This multiplicity of voices and identities through language variety represents a challenge for audiovisual translators. By analysing the representation of characters and drawing on personal communication with Italian dubbing practitioners, the article aims to unveil how linguistic variation, multilingualism and diversity are dealt with in dubbing. The article will show that, although general trends may be identified as far as foreign languages and non-native varieties are concerned, the solutions offered by dubbing professionals often depend on a variety of factors and agents.
Highlights
Language variation is often exploited in films with different functions
The purpose of this paper is to explore the presence of multilingualism in animated films, to describe how languages other than English and non-native varieties of English are used in Anglo-American animated films and to investigate and understand the strategies adopted by dubbing professionals to tackle such multilingual features, examining the constraints under which they work
It is worth noting that the conclusions and the contributions from the professionals quoted in this article relate to Despicable Me 2 and to the genre of animated films produced and distributed by Big Majors, which exert great control over form and content of their products during the post-production process
Summary
Language variation is often exploited in films with different functions. It can establish a setting, provide characterisation, construct identities and often (especially in comedies and animation) trigger humour. Despicable Me 2 has been chosen since it contains more than one language (English and Russian) and some characters speaking non-native varieties of English This film exploits visual and verbal stereotypes of Latinos (Ramírez Berg, 2002), British people and Italian-Americans to trigger humour. The homogenising norm does not appear to be at work when characters speak foreign-accented English This “foreign” characterisation seems to be reproduced in dubbing (Minutella, 2012; Monti, 2016 among others). Recent research on a corpus of 21st-century US animated films shows that both non-native varieties of English and foreign languages tend to be conveyed in Italian dubbing through strategies of “preservation” (De Bonis, 2014b) and sometimes “hypercharacterisation” (Parini, 2009), especially when the function of such varieties is comedy and parody (see Minutella, 2021). Several studies on Italian dubbing have pointed out that, especially in comedies and in animation, some characters are geographically or ethnically connoted and Italian regional accents are sometimes used in dubbing (see Barra, 2007; Bruti, 2009; Bruti and Vignozzi, 2016; Chiaro, 2008, 2009; Dore, 2020; Ferrari, 2010; Fusari, 2007; Minutella, 2016, 2018, 2021; Pavesi, 1994, 2005, 2016; Ranzato, 2010; Rossi, 2006)
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