Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents?

The Atlantic ^ | January 4, 2018 | Isabel Fattal

[C19fan]

When the sociolinguist Calvin Gidney saw The Lion King in theaters two decades ago, he was struck by the differences between Mufasa and Scar. The characters don’t have much in common: Mufasa is heroic and steadfast, while Scar is cynical and power-hungry. But what Gidney noticed most was how they each spoke: Mufasa has an American accent, while Scar, the lion of the dark side, roars in British English. In a climactic scene in which Scar accuses Simba of being the “murderer!” responsible for Mufasa’s death, the final “r” in his declaration floats up into a sky bursting with lightning, and it’s hard to imagine it sounding quite as monstrous in another tone.

[stylin19a]

to trick moose and squirrel ?

[Red Badger]

In Japanese cartoons, EVERYBODY speaks with a foreign accent!.................

[Stevenc131]

[WayneS]

In many of the cases studied, villains were given foreign accents. A modern-day example is Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, the bad guy in Phineas and Ferb who speaks in a German(ish) accent and hails from the fictional European country Drusselstein.

Maybe this "socio-linguist" can explain why it would be more appropriate for a character who is ostensibly from eastern Europe to speak English with an American accent.

By the way, that same cartoon has a "good guy" fictional character who is from India. Guess what - he speaks English with an Indian accent.

[WayneS]

This seems to me like a (terrible) solution in search of a[n] (imaginary) problem.

[Alas Babylon!]

Movie villains are ALWAYS British!

Hasn’t anyone seen those Jaguar commercials?

[bagster]

Because foreigners are the devil.

Duh.

[Alas Babylon!]

Ha! In the 80s, 90s, 00's and Teens, non-movie, ACTUAL TERRORISTS are ALL Muslims.

[WayneS]

Also, the fictional characters Boris and Natashia Badenov are from Russia -a fact which is central to the plots of the Bullwinkle cartoons.

I wonder what kind of accent this idiot thinks they should have when speaking English.

[RckyRaCoCo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcvrX-w1S6g

[freedumb2003]

In the case of Boris Badenov (Rocky and Bullwinkle) and Zigfried (Get Smart), it is because they are funny.

(After double agent shows himself to be a CHAOS agent)

Max: You have an ACCENT!!

Agent No, before I have accent. Now I talk right.

[Dixie Yooper]

Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents?

Because they're drawn that way. Like Jessica Rabbit.

[WayneS]

Linguists have also found that not only do people make judgements (sic)about their peers’ intelligence and education levels based on language characteristics (with those who speak standard dialects usually being viewed as smarter and better-looking), but also that those judgments often shape how a person or group of people is treated.

And the same judgments occur in other countries when foreigners speak those countries' languages with a "non-standard" (i.e. "foreign") dialect/accent. It's human nature.

I seems everyone on earth is allowed to be human except Americans who speak standard English.

[RayChuang88]

This writer doesn't know about Japanese anime, where the Osaka-ben (Kansai region) dialect is used show characters that are "different" than the regular characters.

[raccoonradio]

Audiobook of Pierre Boule’s Planet of the Apes is narrated by a Britisher.At the start and the end, we meet a married couple aboard a spaceship who discover a manuscript by the astronaut who was the human Taylor (Heston in the film).At the end the couple dismisses the manuscript as fiction.

The British narrator speaks the dialogue of the married couple in an American accent.

The couple, we find at the end, are apes.(Villains in the story, in most cases...)

You know what they day, human see, human do.

[raccoonradio]

What they SAY

[drjimmy]

Also, the fictional characters Boris and Natashia Badenov are from Russia -a fact which is central to the plots of the Bullwinkle cartoons.

Pottsylvania, not Russia.

Hail, Pottsylvania
Hail to the black and the blue!
Hail, Pottsylvania
Sneaky and crooked through and through,
Down with the good guys, up with the boss
Under the sign of the triple cross, hey!
Hail, Pottsylvania,
Hail, hail, hail!

[RitchieAprile]

characters as in Kanji/Kana or as in cartoon characters?

[Da Coyote]

You know how far psychology is from real science?
Triple that, and you’re approaching the acute idiocy of sociologists.
And those that fail sociology write for the press.

[Grampa Dave]

This happens because the elite liberal and racist owners of cartoon studios hire evil liberal and racist liberals to do the voice overs for their toons.