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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN TRANSLATING AND INTERPRETING
SERIES EDITOR: MARGARET ROGERS

(Re)Creating
Language
Identities in
Animated Films
Dubbing Linguistic Variation

Vincenza Minutella
Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting

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School of Literature and Languages
University of Surrey
Guildford, UK
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 Vincenza Minutella

(Re)Creating
Language Identities
in Animated Films
Dubbing Linguistic Variation
Vincenza Minutella
Department of Foreign Languages
and Literatures
University of Turin
Turin, Italy

Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting

ISBN 978-3-030-56637-1 ISBN 978-3-030-56638-8 (eBook)
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To Emanuele and Marianna
 Preface

The idea of this book developed out of my experience teaching a post-

graduate English language and translation course at the University of
Turin in 2016. I explored with my students the features of the English
language spoken in Anglo-American animated films and the translation
strategies adopted in Italian dubbing to tackle various elements of film
dialogue. Animated films were chosen as a subject of study because of
their popularity, the dual audience they are targeted at (children and
adults) and their playful use of the resources of language to convey char-
acterisation and humour. Reading Lippi-Green’s ground-breaking anal-
ysis of Disney films in “Teaching Children How to Discriminate (What
We Learn from the Big Bad Wolf )” (1997) and analysing various films,
students were fascinated to discover that language varieties and languages
other than English were used by animated characters to convey specific
connotations and often stereotypes. The use of language variation as
a quick way to provide characterisation and the strategies adopted by
dubbing professionals to recreate this characterisation in Italian dubbing
aroused great interest and awareness in my students. I hence decided to
investigate the issue of the translation of linguistic identities, language

vii
viii Preface

variation and multilingualism in animated films from a wider perspec-

tive—not focusing on individual case studies. Instead, I explored a large
number of films produced by different production companies—not just
Disney. By analysing a corpus of contemporary films distributed in Italy
within a 16-year time span (2001–2017), I hoped I would find regular-
ities in filmic representations of language varieties and languages other
than English in the original films and in their translation for dubbing.
As a result, I now find myself writing a book on the dubbing of language
variation and multilingualism in animated films in order to systematise
my findings.

Turin, Italy Vincenza Minutella

 Acknowledgements

My gratitude goes to all the people who have supported this project.
I would like to thank all my students at the University of Turin, espe-
cially those attending my courses in 2015–2016 and 2019–2020, those
I supervised for their final dissertations and students taking the MA
in Audiovisual Translation (MAVTO). Thank you for your enthusiasm
about the topic of this book, for sharing ideas and for helping me with
the transcriptions.
Thanks go to the publishers and the editors Cathy Scott, Alice
Green and, most of all, to Professor Margaret Rogers for challenging
my research with her feedback and wise comments and for being very
supportive. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their
insights and suggestions and Ms Zobariya Jidda for her kind help.
My deepest gratitude goes to Roberto Morville and Elena Di
Carlo who generously shared their knowledge of the dubbing world and
their vast professional experience, discussed several translation issues with
me and provided precious comments.

ix
x Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to all the dubbing professionals who have

kindly answered my questions and discussed the issues with me: Massi-
miliano Alto, Oreste Baldini, Stefano Brusa, Chiara Gioncardi, Marco
Guadagno, Fiamma Izzo, Leslie La Penna, Massimiliano Manfredi,
Marco Mete, Maria Grazia Napolitano, Serena Paccagnella, Alessandro
Rossi, Francesco Vairano and Carlo Valli. I would also like to thank
Claudia Gvirtzman Dichter for sharing her thoughts and experiences
regarding the dubbing world and for her comments on accents.
I would also like to thank my colleagues and friends who have helped
me in many ways. First, I am grateful to Frederic Chaume and Jorge Díaz
Cintas for being the first to believe in this project, for their precious
advice and for their constant, enthusiastic support; to Maria Pavesi for
her insights into my research, for being supportive and for helping me
find ‘patterns’; to Silvia Bruti for her feedback and support; to Giselle
Spiteri Miggiani for her encouragement and for help with translations,
issues of professional practice and comments on accents; to Christo-
pher Taylor for his help and comments about accents; to Tessa Dwyer
for her comments about Australian accents and stereotypes; to Rainier
Grutman for sharing references and for his comments on French Cana-
dian; to Julio de los Reyes Lozano for comments on Spanish accents
and Spanish versions of the films; and to Irene de Higes Andino, Irene
Ranzato, Serenella Zanotti, Ilaria Parini, Rosina Lippi-Green and Fabio
Rossi for sharing references. I would also like to thank Stefania Taviano
for her ruthless revision and Elisa Perego for her support.
I am grateful to my colleagues from the MA in AVT at the University
of Turin teaching for their encouragement and feedback on various issues:
Matteo Milani, Chiara Simonigh, Teresa Biondi and Luca Bellone; to
Antonio Romano for his precious comments on phonetic features; and
to Lydia Corbelli for her help with translations.
A special thank-you goes to my friends and colleagues: to Gerardo
Mazzaferro for being a living library and great advisor; to Aurelia Martelli
and Esterino Adami for welcoming me into their office and providing
warmth and advice; and to Pietro Deandrea for his encouragment and
sharing references. I would also like to thank Shan Hirst, Gerard Dorrity,
Guy Watts, Chris Owen, Nadia Caprioglio, Massimo Maurizio and
Susan Souza for their feedback on accents and languages.
 Acknowledgements xi

I am grateful to Hilary Siddons for her language revision and trans-

lations. A special thank-you goes to Stuart Doherty for his dedication
to this project and his precious help with revisions, editing, comments,
tables and pie charts.
I would also like to thank Ape and Micol, Isabella, Miwa, Keiko,
Valeria, Cinzia, Bianca, Barbara, Debbie, Alessandra, Anna and Chiara
for the various ways in which they have helped me.
Last but not least, my immense gratitude goes to my family: to my
parents for their constant support; to my husband Fabio (my wisest coun-
sellor); and to my children Emanuele and Marianna. You have helped me
immensely with your love and patience. Thanks for watching the films
over and over with me, for encouraging me during such an exhausting
project which has taken my mind away from you, for cheering me up
and for keeping me sane. This book would not exist without you. Thank
you.
I am grateful to the editors of the following publications for permis-
sion to reproduce previously published material: Minutella, Vincenza
(2016) “British dialects in animated films: The case of Gnomeo and Juliet
and its creative Italian dubbing,” Status Quaestionis, 11, Special Issue
“North and South: British dialects in fictional dialogue,” edited by Irene
Ranzato; and Minutella, Vincenza (2018) “Translating non-native vari-
eties of English in animated films: The Italian dubbing of Madagascar 3:
Europe’s Most Wanted ,” Cultus, 144–157.
 Contents

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Methodology 8
1.2 Outline of the Book 13
References 15

2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative

Process 19
2.1 Introduction 19
2.2 The Dubbing Process: Main Agents, Stages
and Texts 21
2.2.1 The Distributor and Its Dubbing
and Localization Department 23
2.2.2 A Key Agent in the Dubbing Process: The
Creative Dubbing Supervisor 25
2.2.3 Translation, Adaptation and Recording
Phases 31
The Translation and the Translator 32

xiii
xiv Contents

The Italian Adaptation/Italian Dialogues

and the Dialogue Writer 37
Recording the Dubbed Version
in the Dubbing Booth: Dubbing Director,
Dubbing Assistant, Dubbing Actors
and Sound Technician 39
Dubbing Actors 42
What Happens to the Italian Dialogues
in the Dubbing Booth? 43
2.3 One Film, Many Texts 45
2.3.1 English Dialogue List 47
2.3.2 Key Names and Phrases (KNP) File 50
2.3.3 Creative Letter 54
2.4 Choosing the Voices in Dubbing 55
2.4.1 Voice Tests and Standard Procedures 55
2.4.2 Star Talents 58
2.5 Concluding Remarks 66
References 67

3 Translating Language Varieties and Multilingualism

in Audiovisual Texts: Research and Conversations
with Dubbing Practitioners 75
3.1 Introduction 75
3.1.1 Translating Linguistic Variation
and Multilingualism in Audiovisual Texts 76
3.2 In Conversation with Dubbing Professionals About
the Language of Dubbing, Accents and Dialects 84
3.2.1 The Client Decides 85
3.2.2 The Language of Dubbing: A Language
that Nobody Speaks 89
3.2.3 Dubbing Strategies for Dealing
with Linguistic Variation 91
Main Language of the Film: Standard
Italian 91
 Contents xv

Foreign-Accented English or Foreign

Language: Foreign-Accented Italian
or Foreign Language 95
Use of Italian Regional Accents and Italian
Dialects in Dubbing 103
Italian and Italian American 106
Star Talents With an Accent 109
3.3 Concluding Remarks 112
References 113

4 Linguistic Variation in Animated Films from 2001

to 2017 123
4.1 Introduction 123
4.2 The Corpus of Animated Films 124
4.3 Language Variation and Linguistic Characterisation
in the Films Making up the Corpus 126
4.3.1 Language Variation in Atlantis: The Lost
Empire/Atlantis: L’impero perduto (2001) 128
4.3.2 Language Variation in the Shrek Films 130
4.3.3 Language Variation in Lilo and Stitch/Lilo
e Stitch (2002) 131
4.3.4 Language Variation in Finding Nemo/Alla
ricerca di Nemo (2003) and in Finding
Dory/Alla ricerca di Dory (2016) 133
4.3.5 Language Variation in Shark Tale (2004) 134
4.3.6 Language Variation in the Madagascar
Trilogy (2005, 2008, 2012) 137
4.3.7 Language Variation in the Wild/Uno zoo
in fuga (2006) 139
4.3.8 Language Variation in the Cars Films
(2006, 2011) 141
4.3.9 Language Variation in Ratatouille (2007) 145
4.3.10 Language Variation in Ice Age 2: The
Meltdown (2006) and Ice Age 3: Dawn
of the Dinosaurs (2009) 146
4.3.11 Language Variation in Toy Story 3 (2010) 148
xvi Contents

4.3.12 Language Variation in How to Train Your

Dragon/Dragon Trainer (2010) 150
4.3.13 Language Variation in Puss in Boots/Il gatto
con gli stivali (2011) 151
4.3.14 Language Variation in Gnomeo &
Juliet/Gnomeo & Giulietta (2011) 153
4.3.15 Language Variation in Rio (2011) and Rio
2 (2014) 154
4.3.16 Language Variation in Rango (2011) 157
4.3.17 Language Variation in Brave/Ribelle-The
Brave (2012) 158
4.3.18 Language Variation in Rise
of the Guardians/Le cinque leggende
(2012) 160
4.3.19 Language Variation in Hotel Transylvania
(2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) 160
4.3.20 Language Variation in Turbo (2013) 161
4.3.21 Language Variation in Planes (2013) 162
4.3.22 Language Variation in Despicable Me
2/Cattivissimo me 2 (2013) 165
4.3.23 Language Variation in Mr. Peabody
and Sherman (2014) 167
4.3.24 Language Variation in The Book of Life/Il
libro della vita (2014) 168
4.3.25 Language Variation in Zootopia/Zootropolis
(2016) 171
4.3.26 Language Variation in Sing (2016) 173
4.3.27 Language Variation in Coco (2017) 175
4.3.28 Language Variation in Ferdinand (2017) 177
4.4 Trends in Linguistic Characterisation in the Films:
A Summary of Characters by Language Groups 180
4.4.1 Regularities in Native Varieties of English 180
General American English Heroes 182
Other Varieties of American English 183
British English 187
Scottish English 188
 Contents xvii

Australian English 189

4.4.2 Foreign-Accented English or Non-Native
Varieties of English 190
French-Accented English: French
and Canadian Characters 192
Spanish-Accented English: Spanish
and Latino Characters 193
Italian-Accented English and Italian
American: Representations of Italianness 197
German-Accented English 198
Russian-Accented English and Russian
Characters 199
Brazilian Portuguese-Accented English
and Brazilian Portuguese 200
Indian-Accented English 201
Undefined Eastern European-Accented
English 201
4.5 Foreign Languages/Languages Other Than English 202
4.6 Concluding Remarks 203
References 204

5 Americans, Brits, Aussies, Etc.: Native Varieties

of English in Italian Dubbing 217
5.1 Introduction 217
5.2 British English Varieties: Is British English Always
Neutralised? 219
5.2.1 Evil Characters: British Upper-Class
Villains Speaking RP (Received
Pronunciation) 220
5.2.2 Refined, Posh, Rich or Aristocratic
Characters 223
5.2.3 British vs American Characters 231
5.2.4 The Lovable
Rogue/Thieves/Criminals/Ambiguous
Characters 236
5.3 Scottish English 240
xviii Contents

5.4 Australian English 247

5.5 Social and Regional Varieties of American English 250
5.5.1 Southern American English 250
5.5.2 African American Vernacular English
(AAVE) 254
5.5.3 New York/Brooklyn Accent 259
5.6 Exceptions or When Dubbing Uses Italian
with an Accent 262
5.6.1 English-Accented Italian in Dubbing 262
Historical and Literary Figures,
Well-Known Living People and British
Symbols 263
Britishness Referred
to in the Dialogues/Plot 263
English Accent Due to the Marketing
Strategy of Using Star Talents 266
5.6.2 Italian Regional Accents
for British/American Characters 267
5.7 Concluding Remarks 268
References 271

6 Languages Other Than English/Foreign Languages

in Italian Dubbing: Preservation, Neutralisation,
Reduction or Adaptation? 279
6.1 Introduction 279
6.2 Atlantean and French in Atlantis: The Lost Empire
(2001) 281
6.3 Spanish in Toy Story 3 (2010) 285
6.4 Preservation Strategy for Russian, French, Japanese,
Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish 287
6.5 Neutralising Foreign Identities: French in Planes 291
6.6 Dealing with Italian in the Cars Films 294
6.7 Concluding Remarks 300
References 300
 Contents xix

7 Non-native Varieties of English in Italian

Dubbing: Does Foreign-Accented English Become
Foreign-Accented Italian? 303
7.1 Introduction 303
7.2 Characters Speaking Spanish-Accented English 304
7.2.1 Hypercharacterisation of Spanish-Accented
English (Spanish/Latino/Mexican
Characters) 305
7.2.2 Reduction and Neutralisation
of the Spanish Accent in Dubbing 313
7.2.3 A Different Approach: From
Spanish-Accented English to Romanesco 317
7.3 Characters Speaking French-Accented English
(French and Canadian Characters) 319
7.3.1 Preservation and Hypercharacterisation
of a French/Canadian Identity 320
7.3.2 Reduction and Neutralisation: The Case
of Ratatouille 325
7.4 German-Accented English Characters:
Hypercharacterisation in Dubbing 332
7.5 Russian-Accented English Characters: Preservation
and Hypercharacterisation in Dubbing 335
7.6 Other Foreign Accents 340
7.7 When Dubbing Erases Difference: The Case of Gru
in Despicable Me 2 and Rochelle in Planes 342
7.8 Concluding Remarks 345
References 346

8 (Re)Positioning Italianness in Animated Films: No

Accent, Foreign Accent, Regional Italian or Dialect? 351
8.1 Introduction 351
8.2 Italian American English and Italian-Accented
English in Animated Films 352
8.3 Italian-Accented English: Foreign-Accented Italian
in Madagascar 3 354
xx Contents

8.4 Italian-Accented English and Italian American:

Regional Italian or Italian Dialect 356
8.4.1 Vinny in Atlantis 357
8.4.2 Don Lino and Sykes in Shark Tale 359
8.4.3 Mr Big in Zootopia/Zootropolis 361
8.4.4 Luigi in the Cars Films 362
8.4.5 Francesco Bernouilli in Cars 2 363
8.4.6 Leonardo and Mona Lisa in Mr. Peabody
and Sherman 366
8.4.7 Creative Transformations, or When
Dubbing Adds Italian Regional Dialects 367
8.5 Concluding Remarks 370
References 371

9 Conclusion 375
References 386

Appendix 1: List of Films Analysed (in Alphabetical

Order) 389

Appendix 2: List of Italian Dubbing Experts Consulted

About Their Professional Practice
(2015–2020) 397

Index 399
 List of Tables

Table 2.1 English Dialogue List 47

Table 2.2 Mock-up KNP file with English terms and comments 51
Table 2.3 Mock-up KNP file with English text, comments
and target language translation 51
Table 2.4 Mock-up KNP file with back translation of the target
language translation in the dubbed version required 51
Table 4.1 Language varieties spoken in Atlantis 129
Table 4.2 Language varieties spoken in the Shrek films 131
Table 4.3 Language varieties spoken in Lilo and Stitch 133
Table 4.4 Language varieties spoken in Finding Nemo
and Finding Dory 135
Table 4.5 Language varieties spoken in Shark Tale (2004) 137
Table 4.6 Language varieties spoken in the Madagascar trilogy 140
Table 4.7 Language varieties spoken in The Wild 141
Table 4.8 Language varieties spoken in the Cars films 144
Table 4.9 Language varieties spoken in Ratatouille 147
Table 4.10 Language varieties spoken in the Ice Age films 148
Table 4.11 Language varieties spoken in Toy Story 3 149
Table 4.12 Language varieties spoken in How to Train Your
Dragon/Dragon Trainer 151

xxi
xxii List of Tables

Table 4.13 Language varieties spoken in Puss in Boots/Il gatto con

gli stivali 152
Table 4.14 Language varieties spoken in Gnomeo & Juliet 154
Table 4.15 Language varieties spoken in Rio and Rio 2 156
Table 4.16 Language varieties spoken in Rango 158
Table 4.17 Language varieties spoken in Brave/Ribelle-The Brave 159
Table 4.18 Language varieties spoken in Rise of the Guardians/Le
cinque leggende 161
Table 4.19 Language varieties spoken in Hotel Transylvania
and Hotel Transylvania 2 162
Table 4.20 Language varieties spoken in Turbo 163
Table 4.21 Language varieties spoken in Planes 164
Table 4.22 Language varieties spoken in Despicable Me
2/Cattivissimo me 2 166
Table 4.23 Language varieties spoken in Mr. Peabody and Sherman 168
Table 4.24 Language varieties spoken in The Book of Life/Il libro
della vita 170
Table 4.25 Language varieties spoken in Zootopia/Zootropolis 174
Table 4.26 Language varieties spoken in Sing (2016) 176
Table 4.27 Language varieties spoken in Coco 178
Table 4.28 Language varieties spoken in Ferdinand 179
 1
Introduction

This book focuses on the issue of the portrayal and recreation of

linguistic identities in English-language animated films produced by US
majors. Language variation and varieties are a means used to represent
identities and have been employed for centuries as a characterisation
tool both in literature and cinema. The way in which characters speak
carries a wealth of information, which in multimodal texts such as films
is combined with visual elements to convey meaning. In the case of
animated films, voice actors develop the linguistic characterisation of
animated characters by working on voice quality, intonation, rhythm,
timbre, also resorting to specific accents which can immediately trigger
connotations and stereotypes in the audience’s mind. As pointed out by
Wells:

Accents constitute an important part of many stereotypes. We use index-

ical information we collect from listening to a person speak in order to
slot him into an appropriate stereotype. […] a hearer, having made a
stereotype identification of a speaker on the basis of his or her accent,
then attributes to him or her all kinds of other qualities that are popularly
associated with the stereotype in question. (1982, pp. 29–30)

© The Author(s) 2021 1

V. Minutella, (Re)Creating Language Identities in Animated Films,
Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56638-8_1
2 V. Minutella

Animated films as a genre are neither realistic nor dramatic: they focus
on comedy and humour, they exploit the interaction between verbal and
visual stereotypes, often exaggerating them in order to create comedy.
As argued by Brode, “cartoons – with their extremely (and, for anyone
who understands the medium, necessarily) broad form of portraiture –
rely more heavily on caricature than any other cinematic form” (2005,
p. 103). The meanings created by verbal/visual interaction in animated
films cannot be ignored and must indeed be analysed in order to under-
stand how filmmakers create characters. Therefore, since dialogue is the
only element which is altered when the film crosses borders to another
country, this book focuses on the verbal element and on the way charac-
ters speak in animated films and in their dubbed versions. Nevertheless,
our analysis will make some reference to visual elements combined with
verbal ones where relevant. Animated films have been chosen as the
object of study due to their popularity, their use of humour, and the
double audience they address, which makes them complex and inter-
esting audiovisual products. In fact, although they are mainly aimed at
children, they are conceived in such a way as to appeal to adults as well
and they have different layers of meaning. A further reason for choosing
animated films as the focus of this investigation is that they are dubbed
in various countries, also in traditional subtitling countries, due to the
young audience they are aimed at. As a result, the issues discussed in this
study, though focusing on the Italian context, could be relevant in several
other countries.
The translation of linguistic variation is one of the most difficult and
thorny issues in audiovisual translation. A realistic or stylised representa-
tion of language variation is usually exploited in films to create characters
and to establish a setting. Lippi-Green points out that:

Film uses language variation and accent to draw character quickly,

building on established preconceived notions associated with specific
loyalties, ethnic, racial, or economic alliances. This shortcut to charac-
terization means that certain traits need not be laboriously demonstrated
by means of a character’s actions and an examination of motive. (1997,
p. 81)
 1 Introduction 3

Similarly, Kozloff notes that “[r]ecognizable, clichéd dialects are used

on-screen to sketch in a character’s past and cultural heritage, to locate
each person in terms of his or her financial standing, education level,
geographical background, or ethnic group” (2000, p. 82) (see also Lippi-
Green 2012; Hodson 2014). This applies to animated films where
different varieties—geographical, temporal, social, ethnic and idiolects—
are used to build quick characterisation and to mould specific identities,
thus often reinforcing cultural stereotypes. The way a character speaks
conveys meaning and associations that may or may not be recognised by
the audience. If we consider that the main audience of animated films
is children, this issue is particularly important and deserves attention.
As observed by Hodson, “the fact remains that the language varieties
used in the film[s] serve to guide the audience towards making certain
assumptions about the characters, and that these varieties were the result
of choices, made consciously or otherwise, by the filmmakers” (2014,
p. 70). Animated characters are defined verbally through the type of
language they use, and voice actors learn to create characters by using
specific accents and varieties, which are called ‘dialects’ by dialect coaches
and in manuals for actors. For instance, the manual Voice-Over for
Animation explains that “dialects are another way to differentiate your
characters” and describes “the basics of twelve of the most common
dialects used in animation” (Wright and Lallo 2009, p. 57). The authors
remind aspiring voice-over actors of animated characters that “dialects
used in animation may be less about authentic realistic speech and more
about portraying a character in a way that is believable to the audience
and funny”, and advise them on playing with heavy accents or “only a
hint of an accent” (Wright and Lallo 2009, p. 60). The above comments
highlight the importance of accents and language varieties as a means for
characterisation and especially as a means for comedy. As each linguistic
variety plays an important role in the creation of character, and since
language varieties and languages can be defined in different ways, an
explanation of the terminology used in this book to discuss them is
provided below. We start, however, with the main phases of the dubbing
process before moving on to the central issue of language varieties.
Describing the components of dubbing script preparation in their
chronological order, the first is a close translation of the source text
4 V. Minutella

dialogue into the target language followed by its adaptation (or local-
isation) into a dialogue which also complies with the requirements
of synchronisation (lip and kinesic synchrony as well as isochrony),
ready for the final stage of recording the dialogue. Simply put, we
can say that there are three main phases of dubbing script preparation
and output: translation, adaptation (dialogue writing) and recording.
However, not everyone—whether professionals or academics—agrees on
this segmentation. For example, the term ‘translation’ is often used by
professionals and academics alike to refer to both the translation and
adaptation/dialogue writing. In other cases, especially among Italian
professionals, the term ‘adaptation/dialogue writing’ is used instead to
refer to both the translation and the adaptation. In Italy, and especially as
regards animated films, these two tasks are often performed by different
people, in which case the dialogue writer will normally commission a
professional translation with which he/she can then work. The resulting
translation is a kind of draft for the dialogue writer but remains unseen
to others, as does the translator. Sometimes, however, the same person
(the dialogue writer) carries out both tasks. It is wise therefore to be
aware that there is no agreed way of referring to these phases and that the
term ‘translation’ often, though not always, subsumes dialogue writing,
or it can remain hidden under the term ‘adaptation/dialogue writing’.
In the present study I propose to distinguish three main phases—trans-
lation, adaptation/dialogue writing, recording (see Sect. 2.1.3)—as this
is useful for analytical purposes, even though it was impossible to gain
access to the translations underlying the dialogues recorded for each
film. Moreover, as this study will illustrate, there are a number of other
stages between the adaptation and recording phases, as well as a number
of professional roles involved in the dubbing post-production process
leading to the final dialogue as recorded in the dubbing studio.
For the sake of clarity and the purposes of this study, the English
language spoken in the selected films will be divided into native and
non-native varieties of English, as this appears to affect the way in
which the linguistic identity of the characters is represented and then
treated in dubbing. Broad national varieties will be considered. Language
varieties from the United States will be divided into a broad General
 1 Introduction 5

American English and more specific regionally, socially marked or non-

standard US varieties (for more details see Sect. 4.1). As regards British
varieties, British English (BrE) will indicate a general standard British
variety, distinguished from class-based and regional varieties, extending
also to those spoken outside the United Kingdom (for more details see
Sect. 4.1).
On the other hand, all the instances of English spoken with a foreign
accent will be called non-native varieties of English or foreign-accented
English, and these will be distinguished according to the character’s
supposed mother tongue (the specific types are discussed in Sect. 4.1).
The films analysed are all English-language films. However, a few
instances of lines in other languages can be found. They will be called
‘foreign languages’ or ‘languages other than English’.
It is also worth clarifying a terminological issue regarding language
varieties in Italy. Cerruti points to the presence of three types of language
varieties in the Italian context: standard Italian, regional varieties of
Italian/regional Italian and dialects proper defined as ‘Italo-Romance
dialects’ (Cerruti 2011, p. 9). As explained by Cerruti:

the regional varieties of Italian are varieties of the national language that
are spoken in different geographical areas. They differ both from each
other and from standard Italian […] at all levels of the language system,
especially with regard to phonetics, phonology and prosody, and repre-
sent the Italian actually spoken in contemporary Italy. Common Italian
speakers regularly speak a regional variety of Italian, which is termed
regional Italian (henceforth RI). (2011, p. 9)

While the language spoken by most Italians in conversation is therefore

regional Italian (Italian with regional phonetic and some lexical features),
the language of dubbing usually adopts standard Italian with a neutral
pronunciation devoid of regional accents, intonation and vocabulary. As
will be discussed in the following chapters, scholars and practitioners
alike agree on the fact that the Italian language of dubbing is stan-
dard Italian with impeccable diction and neutral accent, and that it is
a language which greatly differs from spoken Italian (see Raffaelli 1996;
Rossi 2006, 2015; Ranzato 2016 among others, and Chapters 2 and 3
6 V. Minutella

of the current book). The Italian language of dubbing is different from

the Italian spoken in contemporary Italy because regional accents are
usually completely absent. Moreover, regional Italian may be more or less
marked and closer to dialects proper according to the amount of dialect
lexis, syntax and accent which is used. Dialects proper, on the other
hand, also called Italo-Romance dialects, differ from standard Italian
and regional Italian in terms of lexis, syntax and accent. This distinc-
tion is important for the analysis carried out in this study, which will
investigate whether the dominant langue variety used in dubbing is actu-
ally standard Italian and whether any departures from this more neutral
variety in terms of accent can be observed. In other words, the choice
of making a character speak Italian with a marked regional accent and
dialect words, or even Italian dialects, carries specific connotations and
provides characterisation in the Italian cultural context.
Moreover, multilingualism, understood as the coexistence of more
than one language or language variety, is frequently used in film
dialogues, as in written fiction. Indeed, several studies have been devoted
to the analysis of multilingualism—also called ‘heterolingualism’—in
films (Delabastita and Grutman 2005; Dwyer 2005; Bleichenbacher
2008; O’Sullivan 2011; Planchenault 2015, 2017; Petrucci 2012, 2015
among others). Grutman defines ‘heterolingualism’ as the phenomenon
of using and mixing foreign languages and language varieties (social,
regional and historical) in literary texts (Grutman 1996, p. 71). This
differs from real-life instances of language interaction and contact and
is not necessarily realistic (Grutman 1996, pp. 71–72). As pointed
out by O’Sullivan, this definition “invites extension to film and tele-
vision, which are in some ways freer to multiply languages than print
literature is” (2011, p. 20). The terms ‘multilingualism’ and ‘heterolin-
gualism’ can thus be considered synonyms. This phenomenon is used in
literary as well as tele-cinematic texts. Delabastita and Grutman define a
multilingual text in the following way:

the simplest possible definition of a multilingual text would be to say that

such a text is worded in different languages, but that still begs the funda-
mental question of how one should understand the concept of ‘language’.
We favour a very open and flexible concept which acknowledges not
 1 Introduction 7

only the ‘official’ taxonomy of languages but also the incredible range
of subtypes and varieties existing within the various officially recognised
languages, and indeed cutting across and challenging our neat linguistic
typologies. (Delabastita and Grutman 2005, p. 15)

If multilingualism is understood in such a wide way (co-occurrence

and juxtaposition of language varieties and different languages), then
animated films certainly contain several instances of multilingualism.
On the other hand, as this book will amply discuss, the real presence
of languages other than English is quantitatively limited in English-
language animated films compared with other genres. Nevertheless,
languages other than English (also called foreign languages) and several
different language varieties are used with specific functions, and the
identity of characters is often revealed through the use of such varieties
combined with visual elements.
Research on language varieties in audiovisual texts and in translation
can draw on a range of scholarly approaches from various fields among
which are sociolinguistics, film studies and translation studies. Several
recent studies have focused on the role played by stylised performances
of dialect in fiction, ‘fictional representations’ and the ‘sociolinguis-
tics of performance’ (see Hill 1999; Rampton 1999; Coupland 2001;
Delabastita and Grutman 2005; Bell and Gibson 2011; Hodson 2014;
Planchenault 2015, 2017 among others). Filmmakers use languages,
varieties and accents to reveal character and setting, often resorting to
conventionalised features. As argued by Planchenault, “exercises of styli-
sation are obvious in the case of comedies, which often border on
caricature and where the very act of putting on a voice is comical”
(Planchenault 2015, p. 254).
Audiovisual translators and dubbing/subtitling professionals thus have
to find strategies to approach differences in the linguistic portrayal of
characters, to signal the presence of more than one language or specific
geographical and social varieties and to convey and transfer the connota-
tions attached to particular varieties. The aim of this book is to describe
the dubbing process of English-language animated films produced in
the twenty-first century, to explore how linguistic variation and multi-
lingualism are used to create characters and identities and to examine
8 V. Minutella

how Italian dubbing professionals deal with this linguistic characterisa-

tion. The book describes dubbing strategies in Italy and seeks to identify
recurrent patterns and therefore norms, as well as stereotypes or creativity
in the way linguistic variation is tackled.

1.1 Methodology
As far as the methodology is concerned, the analysis adopts a descrip-
tive translation studies (DTS) and a corpus-based approach and relies
on a diverse range of research tools: text analysis, corpus study, personal
communications and observations of dubbing sessions. The study of a
large corpus enables us to observe patterns and regularities and provide
a quantitative analysis which may lead to identifying norms regulating
translational practice (Toury 1978/1995, 1980). This is accompanied
by a qualitative linguistic analysis of meaningful sequences and charac-
ters. Macro-textual and micro-textual examination is triangulated with
information gathered from agents involved in the audiovisual translation
process (for methodological issues in audiovisual translation research see
Chaume 2018).
Fundamental sources of information on the dubbing process of
animated films were personal communications with several dubbing
practitioners, all working in Rome and involved in the complex process
of preparation of the dubbed versions of animated films. Over a number
of years of exploring this area of research, and due to my interest in the
professionals’ point of view, I contacted the following dubbing practi-
tioners: Massimiliano Alto (dubbing director and actor), Oreste Baldini
(dubbing actor and director), Stefano Brusa (dubbing actor, dialogue
writer, dubbing director), Elena Di Carlo (translator and dialogue
writer), Chiara Gioncardi (dubbing actress), Marco Guadagno (dubbing
director and actor, dialogue writer), Fiamma Izzo (dubbing director,
dialogue writer, singer), Leslie La Penna (dubbing director and actor,
dialogue writer), Massimiliano Manfredi (dubbing director and actor,
dialogue writer), Marco Mete (dubbing director and actor, dialogue
writer), Roberto Morville (former Creative Director, Disney Char-
acter Voices International, translator and dialogue writer), Maria Grazia
 1 Introduction 9

Napolitano (dubbing assistant), Serena Paccagnella (translator, dialogue

writer, dubbing assistant), Alessandro Rossi (dubbing director and actor,
dialogue writer), Francesco Vairano (dubbing director and actor, dialogue
writer), Carlo Valli (dubbing director and actor, dialogue writer).1 Inter-
actions with dubbing practitioners took place over a period of 5 years,
from 2015 to 2020, either over the phone, face to face or via email
and were conducted in Italian. Written notes of their answers were
taken, while four cases of longer face-to-face interactions were recorded.
The questions I posed to practitioners varied depending on the type
of film and the issues that cropped up in my research. It is also worth
pointing out that not all my questions were answered by all the profes-
sionals. A second type of data gathered from dubbing practitioners
consists of open lectures given by some of these professionals at the
University of Torino. The above data will be quoted in the book as
p.c. (personal communication whether face to face, email or telephone)
or lectures, respectively, followed by the date. The dubbing practi-
tioners consulted offered insights into the dubbing process, their role
and the constraints under which they work. During the conversations
and lectures they also provided interesting details about specific animated
films or other audiovisual products they worked on. The book contains
a selection of the practitioners’ comments which are considered rele-
vant for the purposes of this study in their English translation.2 A third
type of data sometimes referred to in this book consists of observa-
tions of dubbing sessions. These took place on three occasions in two
different dubbing studios in Rome. The aim of the observations was
to understand how the dubbing team worked. I sat in the dubbing
booth next to the dubbing assistant and witnessed how the dubbing
team worked: the documents they worked with (English Dialogue List,
Italian Dialogue List), how the dubbing director, assistant and techni-
cian interacted with the dubbing actors and whether and why changes
to the Italian dubbing script (Italian dialogue) were made. Some infor-
mation gathered during these brief moments is integrated into the

1The list of dubbing professionals is also contained in Appendix 2.

2 Allthe professionals have read the parts in which I quote them and have approved them for
publication. Unless otherwise stated, all translations from Italian into English are by Hillary
Siddons.
10 V. Minutella

narrative of the book in the form of my own personal comments. It is

important to highlight that, due to reasons of extreme confidentiality
and data protection issues, real documents (original film scripts, dubbing
scripts and other documentation) cannot be seen or shown. Further-
more, no external personnel are allowed in dubbing studios during
dubbing sessions unless officially authorised. I was authorised for research
purposes.
As far as the audiovisual texts analysed are concerned, the book
focuses on a corpus of 37 English-language animated films produced
by US companies such as Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar
Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Sony Pictures Animation,
20th Century Fox Animation/Blue Sky, Universal Pictures, Paramount
Pictures and Illumination Entertainment released between 2001 and
2017. Analysis is based on repeated viewing of the films and transcrip-
tions of the film dialogues in English and in Italian.3 For each year at least
one film is examined. The films were selected for a number of reasons.
They were produced by various production companies (not just Disney),
they were big budget films and they were interesting from the point of
view of their representation of linguistic variation. They provide various
settings, portray characters belonging to different nationalities speaking
different varieties of English or coming from various geographical areas
or social classes, and some of them contain languages other than English.
It was deliberately decided to leave out Disney musical films since they
constitute a genre of their own and analysis of their dubbed versions
would need to take into account the translation of songs. The films are
listed below in chronological order. The title is followed in parentheses
by the year of production, the name of the production company and the
name of the director(s). The next set of parentheses contains the names
of the Italian dialogue writer and the dubbing director. Only one name
is provided when the dialogue writer is also the dubbing director.4

1. Atlantis: The Lost Empire/Atlantis: l’impero perduto (2001, Disney,

dir. G. Trousdale, K. Wise) (C. Valli)

3The transcriptions were carried out by the author and by her students at the University of
Torino. She would like to thank her students for transcribing many of the films discussed in
this book.
4 A table containing the films in alphabetical order is provided in Appendix 1.
 1 Introduction 11

2. Shrek (2001, DreamWorks, dir. A. Adamson, V. Jenson) (F. Vairano)

3. Lilo and Stitch (2002, Disney, dir. D. DeBlois, C. Sanders) (C.
Vangelista, L. La Penna)
4. Finding Nemo/Alla ricerca di Nemo (2003, Disney-Pixar, dir. A.
Stanton, L. Unkrich) (C. Valli)
5. Shark Tale (2004, DreamWorks, dir. E. ‘Bibo’ Bergeron, V. Jenson)
(R. Busetti, M. Mete)
6. Shrek 2 (2004, DreamWorks, dir. A. Adamson, K. Asbury) (F.
Vairano)
7. Madagascar (2005, DreamWorks, dir. E. Darnell, T. McGrath) (C.
Valli, M. Alto)
8. The Wild/Uno zoo in fuga (2006, Disney, dir. S. ‘Spaz’ Williams) (S.
Izzo, F. Izzo)
9. Cars (2006, Disney-Pixar, dir. J. Lasseter) (C. Valli)
10. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown/L’era glaciale 2: il disgelo (2006, Blue
Sky Studios/20th Century Fox, dir. C. Saldanha) (M. Bardella, M.
Guadagno)
11. Ratatouille (2007, Disney-Pixar, dir. B. Bird, J. Pinkava) (C. Valli,
M. Alto)
12. Shrek The Third/Shrek terzo (2007, DreamWorks, dir. A. Adamson)
(F. Vairano)
13. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa/Madagascar 2 (2008, DreamWorks, dir.
E. Darnell, T. McGrath) (C. Valli, M. Alto)
14. Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs/L’era glaciale 3: l’alba dei dinosauri
(2009, 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky, dir. C. Saldanha) (M. Bardella,
M. Guadagno)
15. Toy Story 3 (2010, Disney-Pixar, dir. L. Unkrich) (C. Valli)
16. How To Train Your Dragon/Dragon trainer (2010, DreamWorks, dir.
D. DeBlois, C. Sanders) (M. Mete)
17. Puss in Boots/Il gatto con gli stivali (2011, DreamWorks, dir. C.
Miller) (M. Mete)
18. Gnomeo & Juliet/Gnomeo & Giulietta (2011, Rocket Pictures,
Touchstone Pictures, dir. K. Asbury) (C. De Carolis, O. Baldini)
19. Rio (2011, Blue Sky/20th Century Fox, dir. C. Saldanha) (M.
Guadagno)
20. Cars 2 (2011, Disney-Pixar, dir. J. Lasseter, B. Lewis) (C. Valli)
12 V. Minutella

21. Rango (2011, Paramount Pictures, dir. G. Verbinski) (F. Izzo)

22. Brave/Ribelle-The Brave (2012, Disney-Pixar, dir. M. Andrews and
B. Chapman) (C. Valli)
23. Rise of the Guardians/Le cinque leggende (2012, DreamWorks, dir. P.
Ramsey) (M. Mete)
24. Hotel Transylvania (2012, Sony Pictures, dir. G. Tartakovsky) (C.
Gonnelli, A. Rossi)
25. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted/Madagascar 3: ricercati in Europa
(2012, DreamWorks, dir. E. Darnell, T. McGrath, C. Vernon) (C.
Valli, M. Alto)
26. Turbo (2013, DreamWorks, dir. D. Soren) (M. Guadagno)
27. Despicable Me 2/Cattivissimo me 2 (2013, Illumination Entertain-
ment/Universal Pictures distributor, dir. P. Coffin, C. Renaud) (F.
Izzo)
28. Planes (2013, Prana Studios, Disneytoon Studios, dir. Klay Hall) (C.
Valli)
29. Mr. Peabody and Sherman (2014, DreamWorks, dir. R. Minkoff )
(M. Guadagno)
30. Rio 2 (2014, Blue Sky, 20th Century Fox, dir. C. Saldanha) (M.
Guadagno)
31. The Book of Life/Il libro della vita (2014, 20th Century Fox, dir. J.
Gutiérrez) (M. Guadagno)
32. Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015, Sony Pictures, dir. G. Tartakovsky) (C.
Gonnelli, A. Rossi)
33. Zootopia/Zootropolis (2016, Disney, dir. B. Howard, R. Moore, J.
Bush) (M. Manfredi)
34. Finding Dory/Alla ricerca di Dory (2016, Disney-Pixar, dir. A.
Stanton, A. MacLane) (C. Valli)
35. Sing (2016, Illumination Entertainment, dir. C. Lourdelet, G.
Jennings) (M. Mete)
36. Coco (2017, Disney-Pixar, dir. L. Unkrich) (M. Manfredi)
37. Ferdinand (2017, Blue Sky, 20th Century Fox, dir. C. Saldanha)
(M. Guadagno).

As can be seen from the list above, the number of dialogue writers
and dubbing directors who work on animated films is relatively limited.
 1 Introduction 13

They are well-known professionals who usually also work on feature

films. Carlo Valli and Marco Guadagno are the most productive dialogue
writers and dubbing directors with 12 films and 9 films under their belt,
respectively. Valli is the dialogue writer and dubbing director of most
Disney and Disney-Pixar films from 2001 to 2016, and also adapted
some DreamWorks films, while Guadagno has adapted and directed
films by DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios since
2009. Another interesting feature is that most of the dubbing profes-
sionals working on these films are men. The only female dubbing
director is Fiamma Izzo, who works both as a dialogue writer and
dubbing director. She is the daughter of Renato Izzo and belongs to
a family of dubbing artists. Dialogue writers are also predominantly
men. Exceptions are Carla Vangelista, Simona Izzo, Cecilia Gonnelli and
Cinzia De Carolis. Another feature that clearly emerges is that for most
animated films in the corpus the dialogue writer is also the dubbing
director.
By drawing on discussions with the Italian dubbing professionals who
worked on the films and through an in-depth analysis of film dialogues,
the book aims to unveil the complex process that animated films undergo
before being screened in a foreign country.

1.2 Outline of the Book

Chapter 2 describes the various stages, agents and texts involved in
the dubbing process of animated films. Drawing on previous schol-
arly research, on personal communications with several Italian dubbing
professionals (translators, dialogue writers, dubbing directors, dubbing
assistants, dubbing actors and a Disney creative director), as well as on
observations of dubbing sessions, the chapter illustrates how dubbing
animated films is a complex collaborative process guided and controlled
by the US client.
Chapter 3 focuses on the issue of translating linguistic variation and
multilingualism in animated films. It summarises the thorny issue of
the difficulty of transferring linguistic identities and specific language
varieties in dubbed texts and describes the opinion of leading dubbing
professionals on the language of dubbing and on the challenges they
14 V. Minutella

encounter when they have to deal with language variation, accents of

English and languages other than English in the original films. A further
topic discussed is whether Italian regional accents or, more radically,
particular regional varieties of Italian or Italian dialects proper are used
in dubbing.
Chapter 4 explores the use of linguistic variation and languages other
than English in the corpus of animated films selected for analysis.
It presents the chosen films and identifies the language varieties and
languages spoken in them. Summary tables for each film about the char-
acters, varieties of English and languages other than English are provided.
A summary of trends in linguistic characterisation in the original films is
also provided.
Chapter 5 analyses the way in which specific native varieties of English
are represented in the animated films making up the corpus and how they
are transposed in the dubbed versions. Since most of the characters in
animated films speak American English, and General American in partic-
ular, the focus is on varieties other than General American. The chapter
explores broad, national varieties such as British English and Australian
English, as well as social, regional and non-standard varieties of English,
since they all connote characters as being ‘different’ and ‘other’ from
speakers of General American. The representation and functions of such
native varieties in the animated films are highlighted, and the strategies
adopted by dubbing professionals to deal with them are discussed, high-
lighting recurrent translation strategies and thus norms in translational
behaviour.
Chapter 6 analyses how foreign-language dialogue is dealt with by
Italian dubbing professionals. It describes the presence of languages other
than English in the animated films making up the corpus and exam-
ines how such multilingualism is treated in dubbing (i.e., whether it is
conveyed in the dubbed version and if so which modalities are adopted).
Chapter 7 analyses how non-native varieties of English or foreign-
accented English are represented in the animated films making up the
corpus and how they are transposed in the dubbed versions. Examples
of characters speaking foreign-accented English are discussed (divided by
language or ethnic group). The chapter examines and explains the main
translation strategies adopted by dubbing professionals in various films,
 1 Introduction 15

highlighting the presence of recurrent patterns and thus norms, as well as

exceptions, and identifying the reasons for resorting to specific strategies.
Chapter 8 explores a particular case of foreign-accented English and
foreign language in animated films in which the characters are portrayed
as being Italian or having Italian origins and thus speak Italian American
English or English with a marked Italian accent, sometimes interspersing
their speech with Italian words. Since their ‘foreign’ accent connotes an
Italian identity, and the language variety of the speaker coincides with the
language of dubbing, very specific solutions are required and resorted to
by Italian dubbing professionals.
Chapter 9 offers a summary and some conclusions.

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https://www.antoniogenna.net/.
https://www.imdb.com/.
 2
Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex
Collaborative Process

2.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on the process of dubbing animated films. It aims
at describing its complex nature, showing that it is a process in which
various people and various forces are involved and multiple texts are
created, transferred and rewritten for various reasons until the final
dubbed version emerges and is released in cinemas, reaching the new
target audience. The dubbing process of animated films is clearly not
only a matter of language transfer, a linguistic and cultural issue, but is
also part of an industrial process in an international market (see Chaume
2012). As pointed out by Ferrari, “complex cultural and industrial nego-
tiations are at play when individual countries import globally distributed
programs” (2010, p. 127). Moreover, as in all kinds of translation,
choices at the level of language may be due to extralinguistic factors and
be dictated by cultural, marketing and/or industrial or ideological forces
(Bassnett and Lefevere 1990). This chapter will show that the dubbing
of animated films is a creative industrial post-production process that is
strictly controlled by the US producers. It follows very clear guidelines
and steps in which several agents, to which we return below, take a part.
© The Author(s) 2021 19
V. Minutella, (Re)Creating Language Identities in Animated Films,
Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56638-8_2
20 V. Minutella

Recent research in audiovisual translation has stressed the need to unveil

this complex rewriting process, investigating what happens in between
the source and target texts (Richart Marset 2012; Zanotti 2014, 2018,
2019; Spiteri Miggiani 2019; Sánchez-Mompeán 2020). In particular,
Richart Marset (2012) has explored the caja negra (black box) that
records the various stages of text manipulation that a film script under-
goes before becoming the final dubbed dialogue and that are usually
hidden and not available to the researcher. Similarly, Spiteri Miggiani’s
recent book (2019) is an illuminating window onto the ins and outs of
the process of translation, adaptation and dubbing of audiovisual texts,
offering several examples of text manipulation. She guides the reader
through the “progressive, step-by-step text manoeuvring and moulding
process” (2019, p. 191) from the translation until the final recording
of the dubbed version, and she explains the reasons (linguistic, tech-
nical, practical, industrial, etc.) for the changes. An aspect that clearly
emerges in Spiteri Miggiani’s book is that “it all depends on the transla-
tion commission or target culture norms, which may vary according to
the country, company, period of time, and so on” (2019, p. 193).
Animated films produced by the big majors are no different, and their
global/international distribution is complex and carefully controlled.
American companies invest a lot of money in such films and they
have probably realised that ensuring a good-quality dubbed version
in different languages is important to obtain box office success. They
therefore invest resources in the translation, adaptation and dubbing
of their audiovisual products in various languages and countries and
try to guide this process, which they call ‘localisation’. Indeed, US
production companies have taken full control over it. Comments by
Italian dubbing professionals reveal that big US majors such as the Walt
Disney Company, DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, and
Universal follow and supervise the various stages of post-production,
providing the dubbing team in each country with directions on how
to ‘localise’ the film; that is, how to approach, translate and adapt the
film in an accurate way, in order to preserve and convey the film-
makers’ and the particular company’s intentions. As we shall illustrate
in this chapter, as regards animated films by US majors, the American
 2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 21

producers and their global distributors control all the localising phases up
to the final dubbed product (see also Spiteri Miggiani 2019, p. 176). For
instance, great care is taken in choosing the voices through voice tests and
in guiding the translation/adaptation/dubbing process. As this and the
following chapter will show, the majors often provide the dubbing team
with detailed English Dialogue Lists and appoint dubbing supervisors in
each territory (country or group of countries). Furthermore, the majors
sometimes organise meetings to discuss important issues regarding the
translation of key words and phrases in different languages (Alto, p.c. 27
November 2019; Izzo, p.c. 4 March 2019).
The chapter will explore how the dubbing process works in Italy,
describing its stages, the texts that are (re)created and the agents that
contribute to shaping the final dubbed text. While the chapter will focus
specifically on the Italian context, it is likely that the procedures and
agents are similar in other countries since the animated films analysed are
produced in the United States and then dubbed into various languages in
several different territories. The same material (with localisation guide-
lines) is likely to be sent by the production company to the distributors
and dubbing companies in various countries with obvious specificities
for each country.

2.2 The Dubbing Process: Main Agents,

Stages and Texts1
This section focuses on the phases of the dubbing process in Italy,
the people and the constraints involved in translating, adapting and
dubbing animated films, recreating them in a different language and
for a different audience and market. The dubbing professionals involved

1 Fora comprehensive and detailed description of the Dubbing Process, the Dubbing production
chain and the professionals involved see Whitman-Linsen (1992), Chaume (2012, pp. 27–
39), and Spiteri Miggiani (2019). On French dubbing see Bosseaux (2018), on Spanish
Dubbing see Richart Marset (2012), see also Matamala on Catalan dubbing (2010), on Voice-
over animation and dubbing of animation in Spain see Sánchez Mompeán (2015, 2020),
on the dubbing of Animated Films in French (in both France and Québec) see Montgomery
(2017) among others.
22 V. Minutella

in the dubbing/post-production process can be called ‘dubbing agents’

(Spiteri Miggiani 2019, p. 5). As pointed out in the Introduction chapter,
information is derived from personal communications with dubbing
practitioners (p.c.), lectures and a limited number of observations of
dubbing sessions. It is worth pointing out that constant interaction with
Italian dubbing professionals since 2015 has, on the one hand, thrown
light on the actual process of dubbing animated films in Italy, while,
on the other, it has revealed that the situations, procedures, practices,
source texts or documents, professional roles and factors involved in this
post-production process are so many and so varied that systematisation
into a single, uniform and simple structure is not possible. The descrip-
tion provided in this chapter is a tentative summary of roles, documents
and agents involved, which is by no means exhaustive, and may contain
inaccuracies due to the multiplicity of practices and the impossibility of
having first-hand experience of all practices.
The dubbing process, also sometimes referred to as ‘dubbing work-
flow’, consists of several phases in which the interplay between various
people or dubbing agents contributes to producing the dubbed version
of an audiovisual product. Chaume illustrates the dubbing produc-
tion chain and the agents that are responsible for various tasks (2012,
pp. 29–31): the producer or owner of the audiovisual programme, which
could be well-known big American majors; the distributor (each Amer-
ican major has its own distributors); the dubbing studio or dubbing
company, which is responsible for producing a translation brief, selecting
the dubbing actors and organising the dubbing production; a trans-
lator who usually provides a rough translation; a dialogue writer who
is responsible for creating new dialogues according to lip synchronisa-
tion, adding dubbing symbols and writing dialogues that resemble oral
discourse; a dubbing assistant who divides the script into takes and
loops; the dubbing studio/company that organises the actual recording
of the dubbed track, summoning voice talents into the dubbing studio;
and then in the dubbing studio the dubbing director, dubbing assistant
and sound technician/engineer who work with the voice talents/dubbing
actors. The dubbing company is also responsible for organising the final
editing and mixing of the film. Chaume’s overview also applies to the
dubbing process of animated films in Italy. To sum up, the main agents
 2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 23

in the dubbing process of animated films produced by big US majors

are the American production company, the distributor, the dubbing
company, the dubbing director, the dialogue writer, the translator, the
dubbing assistant, the sound technician or engineer, and the dubbing
actors. Further roles should be added to these such as people supervising
the dubbing process at the national or international level. Conversations
with Italian dubbing professionals highlight the presence of the head of
dubbing and the Dubbing and Localization Department of each distrib-
utor and of a further key role, that of the dubbing supervisor. The next
section will describe the role of the distributor and its Dubbing and
Localization Department.

2.2.1 The Distributor and Its Dubbing

and Localization Department

Chaume points out that “dubbing is an industry […] partly driven by

the need to make a profit” (2012, p. 33) and that, generally speaking,
the distributor is the “‘initiator of the dubbing commission’ [which]
sets the industrial process in motion” (2012, p. 32), also explaining that
“the big American majors” have their own distributors in various coun-
tries, each with its own Dubbing and Localization Department (2012,
p. 31). For Disney and Disney-Pixar films the localisation process is
supervised by Disney Character Voices International (DCVI), a divi-
sion of the Walt Disney Company which was developed in the late
1980s/early 1990s to provide the translation and dubbing services for
all products released under the Disney/Buena Vista banner(s) and which
has branches in several countries including Italy (Morville, p.c. 2019).
DCVI has its own Italian branch in Italy (in Milan). As regards distribu-
tors such as Universal, 20th Century Fox, and Warner, the situation may
vary, but generally speaking each distributor has its own Italian branch
with a department in charge of dubbing (known as ufficio edizioni in
Italian) and a local manager in charge of dubbing or head of dubbing
(known as the capo ufficio edizioni in Italian). They oversee the dubbing
process or localisation operations (Guadagno, p.c. 12 April 2019). The
distributor’s department in charge of dubbing may be variously called the
24 V. Minutella

Dubbing and Localization Department (since localisation, as we have

seen, is the term used by the US clients), while the local manager in
charge of dubbing may be called head of dubbing or Dubbing and Local-
ization Department manager (terminology suggested by Morville, p.c.
2019) or manager of the Servicing and Dubbing Department (termi-
nology suggested by Guadagno, p.c. 2019 and used by 20th Century
Fox Italy). Due to the variety of terms adopted, for reasons of clarity
we will use the terms Dubbing and Localization Department and head
of dubbing. Although the names of the roles and the situations are not
clear-cut and may vary, most professionals mention the key role played
by the above two agents; that is, the Dubbing and Localization Depart-
ment (ufficio edizioni) and the head of dubbing (capo ufficio edizioni)
in guiding the dubbing process or dubbing workflow (i.e., the phases
of the translation, adaptation and recording of the dubbed dialogue of
animated films) in Italy.
The dubbing practitioners interviewed confirm that dubbing compa-
nies and the dubbing team work for a client who can be the production
company itself or the distributor of the film with its own Dubbing
and Localization Department. The distributor contacts the dubbing
studio/company and the whole dubbing process starts. Dubbing profes-
sionals have to comply with the client’s requests at all stages of the
dubbing process. Dialogue writer and dubbing director Fiamma Izzo
summarises the first steps of the dubbing process, and the initiators of
the translation commission, as follows:

The client commissions the dubbed version. The client [for many
animated films] is an Italian distributor that has a Dubbing and Local-
ization Department in charge of overseeing and guiding the dubbing
process in all its phases. The dubbing department chooses the dubbing
company and the ‘creative team’ (i.e., dubbing director, dialogue writer
and dubbing assistant) and makes comments and takes decisions on every
aspect of dubbing, from voice casting to linguistic choices, also making
amendments to the Italian dialogues. (Izzo, p.c. 4 March 2019)

Sometimes, for some films the client is not only the distributor with its
own Italian branch, but the film directors themselves. Izzo provides the
 2 Dubbing Animated Films: A Complex Collaborative Process 25

example of Despicable Me 2 (2013, P. Coffin, C. Renaud) in which she

directly interacted with the French director Pierre Coffin (Izzo, p.c. 28
April 2020).
Dialogue writer and dubbing director Alessandro Rossi similarly high-
lights the fundamental role of the distributors in the dubbing process,
in particular the role of the head of dubbing. He points out that deci-
sions on voice casting, translation, adaptation and dubbing strategies are
taken by the Dubbing and Localization Department of the distributor.
According to Rossi, the key role played by these managers is neglected
in any criticism of dubbing, which tends to suggest that dubbing strate-
gies and choices are made by the dialogue writer and dubbing director
only. On the other hand, the dubbing director must abide by the distrib-
utor’s guidelines and requests. Rossi also points out that each distributor
has its own policy and that on a general level Disney is different from
Sony/Warner Bros, etc. (Rossi, p.c. 30 November 2017).
Nevertheless, conversations with dubbing professionals also suggest
that there is a further important agent in the dubbing process of
animated films. This person is the dubbing supervisor who may be vari-
ously called the international creative dubbing supervisor or the dubbing
producer/consultant/supervisor. The next section will try to explain the
role of the dubbing supervisor in more detail. It should be borne in mind
that the situation is multifarious and far from homogeneous despite the
following sections attempting to describe roles and agents in a simple
and general way.

2.2.2 A Key Agent in the Dubbing Process: The

Creative Dubbing Supervisor

As previously pointed out, an important aspect that emerges from the

conversations with dialogue writers and dubbing directors about the
dubbing of animated films is that they have to comply with the requests
of the client (Izzo, p.c. 4 March 2019; Guadagno, p.c. 4 March 2019;
Mete, p.c. 7 February 2016; Rossi, p.c. 30 November 2017; Vairano, p.c.
27 November 2018 among others). Decisions regarding linguistic char-
acterisation through accents and dialects, the use of various languages,
Another random document with
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the western part) of the plain of Esdraelon is meant; compare 1
Chronicles x. 7, note.

²³And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the

king said to his servants, Have me away; for I
am sore wounded.
23. the archers shot] Compare the death of Ahab, xviii. 33. 1
Esdras i. 29, “the princes came down against king Josias,” is an
inferior reading due probably to a misreading of the Hebrew.

for I am sore wounded] The very words ascribed to Ahab (xviii.

33), and further the verb rendered I am wounded is used only in
these two passages: a singularly strong witness to the view that the
present story has been influenced by that of Ahab’s death.

²⁴So his servants took him out of the chariot,

and put him in the second chariot that he had,
and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died,
and was buried in the sepulchres of his
fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem
mourned for Josiah.
24. the second chariot] War chariots were small, with (apparently)
only standing room for their occupants; see the illustrations of
Egyptian and Assyrian chariots given in the Encyclopedia Biblia i.
724‒730. This “second chariot” was probably of a larger kind,
suitable for travelling.

25 (= 1 Esdras i. 32; not in 2 Kings).

The Lamentations for Josiah.

²⁵And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all

the singing men and singing women spake of
 Josiah in their lamentations, unto this day; and
they made them an ordinance in Israel: and,
behold, they are written in the lamentations.
25. lamented] i.e. “composed (or uttered) an elegy.” The Hebrew
word (ķōnēn) suggests formal composition, and the actual words of
lamentation are often given, as in 2 Samuel i. 17 ff., iii. 33, 34;
Ezekiel xxvii. 33, xxxii. 2, 16. The elegy in question is not preserved
in the book of Jeremiah or elsewhere. Doubtless the Chronicler or
his source had real grounds for his statement about the popular
Songs of Lament for Josiah, and we may suppose that one of these,
rightly or wrongly, was ascribed to Jeremiah.

an ordinance] compare 2 Samuel i. 18.

in the lamentations] In some lost work, not in our canonical book

of the Lamentations, for the contents of the canonical book lend no
support whatever to the view that it is referred to here (see further
Encyclopedia Britannica¹¹, s.v. Lamentations, p. 128).

26, 27 (= 1 Esdras i. 33; 2 Kings xxiii. 25, 28).

The Epilogue to Josiah’s Reign.

²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his

good deeds, according to that which is written
in the law of the Lord, ²⁷and his acts, first and
last, behold, they are written in the book of the
kings of Israel and Judah.
26. according to that which is written] Compare the strong terms
used in 2 Kings xxiii. 25, “like unto him was there no king before him,
that turned to the Lord with all his heart ... according to all the law of
Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.”
 Chapter XXXVI.
1‒4 (= 1 Esdras i. 34‒38; 2 Kings xxiii. 30b‒34).
The Reign of Jehoahaz.

¹Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz

the son of Josiah, and made him king in his
father’s stead in Jerusalem.
1. the people of the land took] Compare xxvi. 1, xxxiii. 25.

Jehoahaz] Called “Shallum” in 1 Chronicles iii. 15; Jeremiah xxii.

11. He was younger than Jehoiakim; verse 5.

²Joahaz was twenty and three years old when

he began to reign; and he reigned three
months in Jerusalem.
2. in Jerusalem] His mother’s name is here omitted; compare
xxxiii. 1, 21, xxxiv. 1. According to 2 Kings xxiii. 32 (compare Ezekiel
xix. 3, 4) Jehoahaz “did evil.”

³And the king of Egypt deposed him at

Jerusalem, and amerced the land in an
hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
3. deposed him at Jerusalem] The clause answers to 2 Kings
xxiii. 33, “put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he
might not reign in Jerusalem.” Perhaps we should read the same
words in Chronicles The Hebrew words for “deposed” and “put in
bands” are liable to be easily confused.

amerced] Authorized Version condemned. For “amerce” in the

sense of “fine,” compare Deuteronomy xxii. 19; and for “condemn” in
the same sense see Amos ii. 8 (Authorized Version, “fined” Revised
Version).

an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold] The land was

poorer than in the days when Sennacherib had imposed a fine on
Hezekiah of “three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold”
(2 Kings xviii. 14).

⁴And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his

brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and
changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Neco
took Joahaz his brother, and carried him to
Egypt.
4. changed his name to Jehoiakim] This name is compounded
with the Divine name Jehovah. Probably Neco made the new king
swear fealty by Jehovah, and then declared his official name to be
Jehoiakim, in order that he and his people might have something to
remind them of the oath he had taken. (Eliakim = “God establishes”;
Jehoiakim = “Jehovah establishes.”) The rendering of this verse in 1
i. 38 is due to misreadings of the Hebrew.

took Joahaz ... to Egypt] He died in Egypt; 2 Kings xxiii. 34;

Jeremiah xxii. 12.

5‒8 (= 1 Esdras i. 39‒42; 2 Kings xxiii. 36‒xxiv. 6).

The Reign of Jehoiakim.

⁵Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old

when he began to reign; and he reigned
 eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that
which was evil in the sight of the Lord his
God.
5. and he reigned eleven years] So also in Kings. The statement,
however, is lacking in 1 Esdras i. 39, so that it is a highly probable
inference that the text of Chronicles has here been harmonised with
Kings; compare verse 15, and Introduction § 3, p. xxii.

in Jerusalem] The Chronicler omits his mother’s name (compare

verse 2, note) and also the statement that he raised the indemnity
imposed by Neco by means of a poll-tax (2 Kings xxiii. 35).

he did that which was evil] Compare 2 Kings xxiii. 37; Jeremiah
xxii. 13‒18, xxvi. 20‒23, xxxvi. 1‒32.

⁶Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king

of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry
him to Babylon.
6. Nebuchadnezzar] The correct form of his name is
“Nebuchadrezzar” (so generally in Jeremiah and Ezekiel); in the
inscriptions Nabu-kudurri-uṣur. The name is Assyrian and means “O
Nebo, defend the crown” (or “the boundary”), Nebo being a god who
was regarded as the son of Marduk, the chief god of Babylon
(compare Isaiah xlvi. 1). Nebuchadrezzar reigned from 604‒561
b.c., and was succeeded by Evil-Merodach (Amil-Marduk). The only
purely historical inscription relating to his reign deals with a
campaign in Egypt in 568 b.c.; compare Jeremiah xliii. 11.

came up] It seems probable that Nebuchadrezzar did not in

person come up against Jerusalem at the end of Jehoiakim’s reign,
nor in person carry off any of the sacred vessels; it is likely moreover
that Jehoiakim was not carried to Babylon. The result of Jehoiakim’s
rebellion against Nebuchadrezzar was according to 2 Kings simply
that “bands” of Chaldeans and their allies invaded Judah. Probably
Jehoiakim’s life and reign came to an end (how we do not know;
compare Jeremiah xxii. 18, 19) during this petty warfare, and then
three months later, the main Chaldean army under Nebuchadrezzar
having arrived, Jerusalem was taken, and Jehoiakim’s son and
successor Jehoiachin was carried off with the golden vessels of the
house of the Lord to Babylon. The Chronicler seems to foreshorten
the history at this point.

⁷Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels

of the house of the Lord to Babylon, and put
them in his temple ¹ at Babylon.
¹ Or, palace.

7. of the vessels] There is no mention in 2 Kings of the removal of

sacred vessels during Jehoiakim’s reign. Some were carried off
under Jehoiachin, the rest under Zedekiah; 2 Kings xxiv. 13, xxv. 13‒
17. Compare last note.

in his temple] So LXX.; 1 Esdras i. 39 [41]; Daniel i. 2. Note the

margin, “in his palace.” The Hebrew word (heykāl) is a loan-word;
the original (ikallu) is the ordinary word in Assyrio-Babylonian for
“palace.”

⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his

abominations which he did, and that which
was found in ¹ him, behold, they are written in
the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and
Jehoiachin ² his son reigned in his stead.
¹ Or, against.

² In 1 Chronicles iii. 16, Jeconiah. In Jeremiah xxii. 24, Coniah.

 8. that which was found in him] i.e. his sin (in this context);
compare 1 Kings xiv. 13.

of Israel and Judah] The LXX. (but not 1 Esdras) adds here “And
Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of
Uzza with his fathers.”

9, 10 (= 1 Esdras i. 43‒45; compare 2 Kings xxiv. 8‒17).

The Reign of Jehoiachin.

The account given in 2 Kings contains much that is not given in

Chronicles and, in particular, many details of the first captivity of
Judah.

⁹Jehoiachin was eight ¹ years old when he

began to reign; and he reigned three months
and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that
which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
¹ In 2 Kings xxiv. 8, eighteen.

9. Jehoiachin] Called “Jeconiah,” 1 Chronicles iii. 16, where see

note.

eight years] So LXX. (B) of Chronicles and Esdras (B); but the
number is probably corrupt for eighteen, so LXX. (A) of Chronicles
and Esdras (A) and Hebrew and LXX. of 2 Kings xxiv. 8. It is
possible that the words “and ten days” in the latter part of the verse
are a misplaced fragment of an original ben shĕmōneh ‘esreh
shānāh, i.e. “eighteen years old.”

in Jerusalem] The Chronicler here omits the king’s mother’s

name (compare verse 2, note), though she was a person of some
influence; compare 2 Kings xxiv. 12; Jeremiah xxii. 24‒26; and
perhaps Jeremiah xiii. 18 (Revised Version).
 he did that which was evil] Compare Jeremiah xxii. 24; Ezekiel
xix. 5‒9.

¹⁰And at the return of the year king

Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to
Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house
of the Lord, and made Zedekiah his brother
king over Judah and Jerusalem.
10. at the return of the year] Compare 2 Samuel xi. 1 = 1
Chronicles xx. 1, “at the return of the year, at the time when kings go
out to battle.” This would be in the spring.

brought him to Babylon] Not the king only, but also certain
leading men and craftsmen and smiths (in number 3023) went into
captivity—so Jeremiah lii. 28; compare Jeremiah xxiv. 1, and 2 Kings
xxiv. 14 (where the size of the deportation is magnified into “all
Jerusalem save the poorest of the land—even ten thousand
captives”).

Zedekiah] A covenant-name like “Jehoiakim”—(verse 4, note); it

seems to mean “Righteousness of Jehovah”; compare the significant
title in Jeremiah xxiii. 6, “The Lord is our Righteousness.”
Zedekiah’s original name was “Mattaniah” (i.e. “gift of Jehovah”); 2
Kings xxiv. 17.

his brother] In 2 Kings (more accurately) “his father’s brother”;

compare 1 Chronicles iii. 15, 16, notes.

11‒19 (= 1 Esdras i. 46‒56; compare 2 Kings xxiv. 18‒xxv. 21;

Jeremiah xxxvii. 1‒xxxix. 8, lii. 1‒27).
Reign of Zedekiah. Destruction of Jerusalem.

¹¹Zedekiah was twenty and one years old

when he began to reign; and he reigned
 eleven years in Jerusalem:
11. in Jerusalem] The Chronicler omits, as usual, his mother’s
name. She was “Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah” (2
Kings xxiv. 18), and was mother of Jehoahaz also (2 Kings xxiii. 31).
Jehoiakim was by a different mother (2 Kings xxiii. verse 36).

¹²and he did that which was evil in the sight of

the Lord his God; he humbled not himself
before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from
the mouth of the Lord.
12. humbled not himself] Jeremiah consistently advised Zedekiah
to submit to the Chaldeans; but the king partly through fear of his
princes, partly through illusive hopes, could never bring himself to do
so; compare Jeremiah xxi. 1‒7, xxxiv. 8‒22, xxxvii. 1‒10, 17, xxxviii.
17‒23.

¹³And he also rebelled against king

Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear
by God: but he stiffened his neck, and
hardened ¹ his heart from turning unto the
Lord, the God of Israel.
¹ Hebrew strengthened.

13. who had made him swear by God] Compare Ezekiel xvii. 11‒
19.

¹⁴Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the

people, trespassed very greatly after all the
abominations of the heathen; and they
 polluted the house of the Lord which he had
hallowed in Jerusalem.
14. polluted the house] Jeremiah vii. 9‒11, xxiii. 11‒14; Ezekiel
viii. 5‒16.

¹⁵And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent

to them by his messengers, rising up early
and sending; because he had compassion on
his people, and on his dwelling place:
15. rising up early and sending] The words are absent from 1
Esdras i. 50, and are perhaps a late addition to Chronicles derived
from Jeremiah; compare Jeremiah xxvi. 5. See note on verse 5
above.

¹⁶but they mocked the messengers of God,

and despised his words, and scoffed at his
prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose
against his people, till there was no remedy ¹.
¹ Hebrew healing.

16. mocked the messengers] Jeremiah was imprisoned, beaten,

and threatened with death, Urijah (Jeremiah xxvi. 20‒23) was put to
death. Of the fate of Habakkuk (who probably lived during the
Chaldean period, Habakkuk i. 6) nothing is known.

¹⁷Therefore he brought upon them the king of

the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with
the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and
had no compassion upon young man or
 maiden, old man or ancient: he gave them all
into his hand.
17. Chaldeans] Their name in Hebrew is Casdim and in Assyrio-
Babylonian Caldu (the change of “s” for “l” before a dental is not
uncommon in the latter language). They were a people originally
living south of Babylon on the sea, but Nabopolassar, father of
Nebuchadrezzar, conquered Babylon and established a Chaldeo-
Babylonian Empire.

in the house of their sanctuary] Compare Ezekiel’s vision of the

slaughter; Ezekiel ix. 1‒11.

¹⁸And all the vessels of the house of God,

great and small, and the treasures of the
house of the Lord, and the treasures of the
king, and of his princes; all these he brought
to Babylon.
18. all the vessels] i.e. all the vessels which remained after the
previous spoliation (verse 10). They were perhaps chiefly of brass;
compare 2 Kings xxv. 13‒15.

¹⁹And they burnt the house of God, and brake

down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the
palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the
goodly vessels thereof.
19. brake down the wall] The Hebrew verb here used (nittēç)
implies a more thorough breaking down than the pāraṣ of xxv. 23
(see note), xxvi. 6.

20, 21 (= 1 Esdras i. 57, 58).

The Captivity.
 ²⁰And them that had escaped from the sword
carried he away to Babylon; and they were
servants to him and his sons until the reign of
the kingdom of Persia:
20. to him and his sons] Compare Jeremiah xxvii. 7. There were
three kings of Babylon after Nebuchadrezzar before Cyrus
established Persian rule, viz. Evil-Merodach (Amil-Marduk) (2 Kings
xxv. 27), Neriglissar (Nergalšar-uṣur), and Nabonidus (Nabu-na’id).
The last two kings were usurpers. Neriglissar was (it seems) son-in-
law to Nebuchadrezzar (Hommel, Babylonia in Hastings’ Dictionary
of the Bible, 1. 229a, or Sayce in Encyclopedia Britannica¹¹, iii. pp.
105, 106). Whether Nabonidus was connected with the royal house
is not known.

²¹to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of

Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her
sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she
kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten
years.
21. by the mouth of Jeremiah] Compare Jeremiah xxv. 11, xxix.
10.

her sabbaths] i.e. years, occurring every seventh year, when the
land was to be allowed a respite from cultivation; compare Leviticus
xxv. 1‒7, xxvi. 34, 35.

threescore and ten years] i.e. two whole generations. It is

probable that the Chronicler intended to suggest that the Sabbatical
years had been neglected throughout the period (about 490 = 70 × 7
years) during which the kingdom lasted; but, if so, he treats the point
somewhat loosely, not troubling about the objection that the reigns of
the several God-fearing kings (David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat) would
need to be subtracted from this total, and that actually the number of
violated Sabbatical years would fall considerably below 70.

22, 23 (= Ezra i. 1‒3a] 1 Esdras ii. 1‒5a).

Cyrus Decrees the Rebuilding of the Temple.

These verses are obviously inappropriate as the conclusion of

Chronicles, and their proper place is as the opening words of the
book of Ezra, where also they are given. Their exposition properly
belongs to the commentaries on Ezra or Esdras, to which
accordingly the reader must be referred for fuller notes. These
verses were retained here when the separation of Ezra‒Nehemiah
from Chronicles was made (see Introduction, § 2), either through
mere accident, or perhaps to indicate that Chronicles had originally
formed one work with Ezra and Nehemiah, but most probably in
order to avoid a depressing termination to the book. This last point
carries no small weight in view of the fact that in the Hebrew Bible
Chronicles is the last book. It is interesting to note that to avoid
closing the book of Isaiah with the terrible verse (lxvi. 24) which is
actually its conclusion, it was customary to repeat after verse 24
some hopeful words taken from verse 23. Compare also the last
verses of 2 Kings.

²²Now in the first year of Cyrus ¹ king of

Persia, that the word of the Lord by the
mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished,
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of
Persia, that he made a proclamation
throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in
writing, saying,
¹ Hebrew Coresh.

22. Cyrus king of Persia] Cyrus, the Persian, was at first king of a
small state in Elam, to the east of Babylonia. In 549 b.c. he
conquered the king of the Medes, and so became founder of the
Medo-Persian Empire. In 546 b.c. he overthrew the famous
Croesus, king of Lydia, and advancing against Babylon entered it
after a short and easy campaign in 538 b.c.—a career of meteoric
brilliance. By his “first year” is meant 537 b.c., his first year as ruler
of the Babylonian Empire.

stirred up the spirit] Compare 1 Chronicles v. 26; Haggai i. 14.

made a proclamation] compare xxx. 5. The phrase is

characteristic of the Chronicler.

²³Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the

kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord, the God
of heaven, given me; and he hath charged me
to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in
Judah. Whosoever there is among you of all
his people, the Lord his God be with him, and
let him go up.
23. All the kingdoms of the earth] The king of Babylon bore the
title of “king of the four quarters of the world.” Cyrus succeeded to
this title on his conquest of Babylon.

let him go up] i.e. to Jerusalem; compare Ezra i. 3. Since

Chronicles is the last book according to the order of the Hebrew
Canon, these encouraging words conclude the Hebrew Bible.
 INDEX
Abiathar,
39 f., 102, 120, 142, 167
Abib,
339
Abijah,
218 ff.
Abimelech (Ahimelech),
102, 120, 142
addīrīm,
273
Adullam, the cave of,
81, 88, 211
Adversary, the, see Satan
Ahab,
240 ff.
Ahaz,
292 ff.
Ahaziah (Jehoahaz),
263 ff., 284
Akaba, the Gulf of,
202
Alamoth, set to,
104
Alexander the Great,
xv, xix, xlix, 4
Algum trees,
174, 204
Aliens in Israel,
98, 120, 134, 173, 176, 312
Altar of incense, the,
139, 162, 185, 289
Altar-pillars,
83, 224, 313
Amaziah,
279 ff.
Ambushment,
223, 254
Amen,
111, 115
Amerce,
346
Ammon, Ammonites,
121, 125 f., 249, 291 f.
Amon, King of Judah,
329
Anachronisms,
164 f., 261
Anathoth,
84
Angel,
130 f.
Antonia, the Tower of,
163
Apes,
206
Arabians,
1, 238, 287;
invasion by, 226, 262 f.
Aram (= Syria),
9, 17, 119, 122
Aramaic,
9, 321
Ariel,
83
Ark, the,
94 ff., 101 ff., 186 ff., 339
Armourbearer,
74
Asa,
223 ff.
Asaph,
42 ff., 103, 107, 112, 145, 188
Ascent of the sepulchres, the,
324
Ashdod,
287
Asherim (Ashērah, Ashērim, Ashēroth),
224, 231, 237, 247, 277, 313, 320, 325 f., 331
Ashtaroth (Ashtoreth),
49, 75
Asshur-bani-pal,
6, 317, 327
Assyria, Assyrians,
8 f., 297 ff., 316 ff., 327
Assyrian monuments,
122, 206, 317, 320, 327
Athaliah,
266 ff.
Attent (= attentive),
194
Augury,
325
‘azārāh,
184, 250 f.
Azariah, another name for Uzziah,
23, 285
Azariah the prophet,
li, 228 ff.

Baal (Baalim), use and disuse of the title,

22, 31, 59, 63, 180, 236, 275;
the house of, 272;
altars of, 325, 331
Babylon,
327;
kings of, 351
Bädeker, Palestine, referred to,
32, 34, 47, 50, 57, 96, 99, 119 f., 150, 199, 211, 231 ff.,
250, 264, 266, 287, 291, 297 f., 318, 320, 323
Balsam trees,
100
bāmōth,
231, 320
bānāh,
211
Barnes, W. E., referred to,
lx;
(in Expositor), 78, 81;
(in Expository Times), 118;
(on Kings), 172, 185, 240, 285, 293, 322;
(in Journal of Theological Studies), 180
Bashan,
35
Bath (a measure for liquids),
175, 182
Bearers,
173, 176
Beauty of holiness,
110, 254
Beer-sheba to Dan,
128, 308
bĕgādim,
335
Belial, sons of,
219
Ben-hadad,
233
Benzinger, I., referred to,
xxxiii, 238, 307
Beracah, valley of,
255
Beth-Dagon,
75
Beth-el,
57, 222
Beth-horon,
 49, 199
Beth-shean (Beth-shan),
58, 75
Beth-shemesh,
47, 283, 298
Bezalel,
17, 170
bīrāh, bīrāniyyōth,
163, 238
Bliss, Dr, Excavations at Jerusalem,
318 f.
Boaz,
180
Book of the law, see Law
Brasen altar, the,
180 f., 196, 201
Brasen sea, the, see Sea
Brass,
118
Brook of Egypt,
196
Brother (= fellow-tribesman),
88
Burning for the dead,
235, 263
Burning of the dead,
76
Burnt offerings,
106, 141, 195, 306, 313