The Case of the Inconsistent Accents

[vovat]

Okay, here's something kind of random that I was thinking of recently. I forget who said it, but I remember seeing the remark that, in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, only Lumiere has a French accent. That seems to be fairly common in Disney films, though. Only a few unsympathetic characters in Aladdin were portrayed as particularly Arabian. And even as far back as Pinocchio, Geppetto had an Italian accent, but the title character didn't. It's weird, when you think about it, because in these movies that take place in foreign countries, they're presumably all speaking in the appropriate language, only we hear it as English to make it easier on everyone. So you'd think the other characters in Beauty and the Beast, being native French speakers (well, except maybe Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts, who were probably originally from England) would also have French accents. So why play this up with one character and ignore it with the others? And I know Disney isn't the only culprit in this respect. It's not like it's a huge deal, but isn't it rather inconsistent? And don't forget that, with Disney especially, villains and highfalutin characters often have to have British accents no matter what the setting.

Comments

[alicornmoon.livejournal.com]

With Pinocchio he might not have had time to pick up an accent, being wood before. But even my favorite dub of a native nation version of Pinocchio http://www.kiddiematinee.com/a-apin72.html doesn't give them accents. I just think, the story matchers more than having everyone 'match'.

Un-dubbed:

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think it would make more sense if either everyone had an accent, or else no one did.

[odontv.livejournal.com]

This has always bothered me. It makes no sense. The only movie I can think of that kind of got most of it right was The Aristocats, but that still had a few problems.

Actually maybe that was the worst of all.

[onesto-hotel.livejournal.com]

It's not just Disney, it seems to be a running trend everywhere(in most American versions of anything, at least).

I mean, Metal Gear Solid 3 takes place in Russia, where all the characters are apparently speaking Russian. None of them have accents...except for a drunk weapons designer, who speaks with a heavy fake Russian accent. Is it because he's an angry drunk guy that they feel he needs to have an accent when no one else does? (Interesting side note on that though...originally, the plan was to do voiceovers for the entire game in Russian. Most of the Japanese cast balked at the idea, so it was scrapped for the English dub too.)

I guess it's just cinematic shorthand for trying to express a certain stereotype? British characters just sound more intelligent and/or evil than their general American counterparts, sort of like how Southerners sound like morons, New Englanders sound like assholes, French sound snooty, etc.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I have also on occasion wondered about this. I don't have anything to add, but I have been in on the wondering.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Babette had a French accent! And she and Lumiere used to have a thing going, it seems.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they were relieved once they returned to their human forms, and she was no longer so flammable. {g}

[revme.livejournal.com]

They probably do that, just because it might get annoying to have everyone with an accent, but just having one or two characters allows them to go "SEE!!! FRANCE!!! FRANCE~!!!!!"

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