Posted on 01/10/2018 7:58:38 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Same guy, Alan Rickman, played the villain Marston in Quigley Down Under, using his native British swag. Some actors are ingenious that way. I think the writer from The Atlantic would like all villains to have redneck accents.
Some really major villains in recent movies have had very american accents:
Thanos (Avengers); and many of the heroes have “foreign accents”
Cobra Commander (GI Joe)
Megatron (Transformers)
Ego (Guardians of the Galaxy 2)
The villain from Zootopia (identity is a spoiler; leaving it out since it’s a good movie that some may not yet have seen)
Col. Quaritch (Avatar)
Carter Burke (Aliens)
As to the original OP contention, at least some of the foreign villainous characters are justified: The “Evil Brit” in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is a high-ranking officer in the British East India Company. Plenty of evil Europeans are leftovers from the Cold War, where they were the go-to villain of movie series that had huge impacts on the culture such as the James Bond films (and even several of his villains were American).
AND.....................
why do they have morons doing the closed captions on tv/cable/wtf????????????????????????
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Jus thot dis voot be a goot time 2 brink it oop!
Dick @ Planet VTF!
;)
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They speak in foreign accents because the writers don’t have to spend time explaining to the audience the setup. Similar to why a minister is always presented as a Catholic wearing a collar — everyone immediately recognizes him for what he is. It would take time to establish that with a Protestant minister who dresses like everyone else.
The list goes on and on.
Boris and Natasha
You are correct.
Still, Pottsylvania was clearly a satirical analog for Russia, so my point is still valid.
So was Higgins really a villain? Or was he really Robin Masters?
Yosemite Sam is foreign?
. . . Back To The Future . . . (but that was 1985)
-PJ
More likely East Germany.
“AND.....................
why do they have morons doing the closed captions on tv/cable/wtf????????????????????????
***************************
Jus thot dis voot be a goot time 2 brink it oop!
Dick @ Planet VTF!
;)
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%”
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Don’t be afraid to just say ya don’t know the answer! That’s OK!
PO’d a jasper @ HomDep the other day,,,,he denied they were mgmt-programmed NEVER to say “I Dunno!”.......
Denied the whole thing!
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Gidney has a point.
From this moment on - all villains and bad guys will now speak with an ebonics accent.
Or a Mexican accent.
That will surely solve all problems and issues, right?
There is actually a writer’s manual on writing characters. It say Americans are suspicious of educated people. To make a good villian give him a high class, educated British accent. I think it’s by Writer’s Digest and the title is something like “Creating memorable characters.”
Should have a New York accent.
Their names are too Russian.
Boris Badenov is a play on the name Boris Godunov, who held power in Russia following the death of Ivan IV (Terrible). Godunov first served as regent for the feeble-minded Feodor I, and then as the first non-Rurikid Tsar of Russia.
Feuding between his and other Boyar families regarding the line of succession to the throne led to an interregnum known as “The Time of Troubles” and to the subsequent establishment of the Romanaov dynasty.
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