The baboon, Rafiki, speaks in a vague Swahilli accent and unintelligible gibberish. The lion villain, Scar, speaking in a feminized British accent is portrayed as intelligent and has power over the other villainous characters (hyenas) and rules over the pride for multiple years. While most of the lions are voiced by Black actors, all of Simba's actors are white anglos speaking Standard English to underscore the “whiteness” of the protagonist (Jurado, 2013). Each of the characters has an accent that indexes what the viewer should think of the character starting from the moment they open their mouth they play into common tropes and stereotypes familiar to viewers.Īt the top of the food chain are the lions, who hold positions of power as kings and speak in SAE. Specifically, I looked at the characters Simba, Mufasa, Scar, Rafiki, and the Hyenas. Hodges’ class, Language and Culture, he pushed us to examine our linguistic assumptions and helped us examine how a specific word, phrase, or accent was used what information does language convey? In the paper I wrote for his class, I focused on The Lion King, and how the accents and dialects work to recreate structures of power prevalent in American society. Consequently, viewers can imagine a wide range of roles for persons who speak SAE or BrE, and only narrowly defined roles for characters assigned other linguistic accents and dialects. While Standard American English (SAE) and British English (BrE) can be found in virtually every role from king to convict, other accents are relegated to minor characters or villians. The tropes reinforce negative stereotypes by aligning villainous characters with marginalized communities and excluding positive role models for groups who experience societal discrimination. Among viewers, the discrimination represented by these tropes can result in “negative self-concept and self-esteem” (Dobrow, and Gidney, 1998). Tropes and stock characters are used that draw from an amalgamation of negative stereotypes of marginalized groups. Often, there is “not sufficient time in children’s movies to build character through action, so stereotypical accents that are associated with particular groups and ideologies about these groups may be used instead” (Azad, 2009). In these films, accents are usually chosen based on character personality and associated stereotypes rather than characters’ geographic or cultural background. Animation often shows sugarcoated tales of heroism and romance, however, they are laced with underlying meanings that can influence and exploit our understanding of race and ethnicity. Like many American children, I grew up watching Disney movies enjoying the cheery songs, vibrant animation, and ‘happily ever afters.’ As I grew older and began learning more about anthropology and linguistics I developed a critical eye. This is how old they appear to be in human years.Course: ANTH 4800 Language and Culture, Spring 2021 I did some math to try to get close to their ages.Ĭub Vitani: either 13 or same age as Kovu ![]() I can only answer in human years because that's what I can actually count. ![]() A few lion years older than Simba, making her probably a decade or so older than he in human years. In human years he would start as 16 years old or so, and in the end be in mid-20's. His mane just didn't grow as much as it woul on a healthy lion. First about 2 years old, older version about 4. (She appears the same age as cub Simba was and the sequel production looked into the original production.) And the script refers to him as a pre-teen and his actor was 11 at the time.) Judging by the movie script stating Simba to be "now a full grown cub" and what Simba says and looks like in the movie, he was that old in lion age.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |