This admirable role is necessitated by the fact that the thoughtful use of the expressive aspects of film generally enables the film maker to articulate subtleties of human experience and work against stereotypes. Furthermore, the films were found to propagate linguistic homogeneity by either ignoring or stereotypically depicting the native Dutch linguistic varieties.įilm or cinematography, has become a viable visual medium which appeals to its audience in a multifaceted manner. Flemish, regional dialects, accented-Dutch spoken by Caribbean and Mediterranean immigrant speakers) were employed in a stereotypical manner, thereby reflecting the underlying language attitudes and ideologies in the Netherlands.

Processes of linguistic discrimination similar to the original versions have been found in the Dutch dubbings of the Disney animations, where non-standard varieties of Dutch (e.g. This was found to reflect a language ideology of stigmatization of African American Vernacular English and its speakers. Whoopi Goldberg as a hyena in The Lion King), whereas only 54% of Standard American English speaking characters portrayed animals. For instance, in all cases where a character spoke African American Vernacular English, these characters had the form of animals (e.g. Lippi-Green has found significant instances of linguistic discrimination. Data on the animated characters was collected from DVD’s that are dubbed and distributed in the Netherlands. The current study focuses on the Dutch dubbed counterparts of the original works of Disney and Pixar and explores the range of foreign accents and Dutch dialects that are used in the films in connection to the character types and backgrounds. In part, it is a response to the work of Rosina Lippi-Green (1997 2012) who has examined in detail the language practices of Disney characters. This study investigates the way in which speech varieties are employed in animated films in the Netherlands.

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