Emilee McCubbins, Marcel Elkouri, Hannah Sullivan, Gerald Dryden
Disney’s Treatment of Accent
- In Zootopia, there is typically just stereotypical, general American accents reminiscent of the northeastern United States whereas the character Gideon Gray and his family—childhood bullies of Judy Hopps—have a regional American accent. The character Gideon Gray, played by Phil Johnston, does not reflect his actual speaking voice in a normal, everyday manner, whereas the rest of the cast use their own manner of speaking.
- The film is about the importance of respecting each other’s cultures and diversity, making the urban setting an important aspect of the movie. That being said, it is a little inaccurate to make each character speak in a general American accent over anything else as it builds more prejudice along the way against people who speak differently.
- In Gideon Gray’s case, he is the only character with a regional accent that is used to highlight his idiocy and his status as a villain. In the case of the Italian mice, this builds their character in a stereotypical way as a beacon of Italian mafia villainy. There are a few other representations—a Caribbean yak, an Indian elephant—but none of these do anything more than to further stereotypes about their idea of people who speak the way they do. Meanwhile, the heroes maintain their “standard” general American accent.
- This film has more subtle, subliminal choices compared to the pre-2000 Disney films that Lippi-Green cites in her analysis, making the treatment of one’s accents something you may not notice unless you are explicitly searching for it. While it is nice that there is not as overt racism or stereotyping in Disney films, it does make subtle stereotype building even more insidious in our children’s television and movies.