“When it comes to lexical play [...], the joker has simply to find an environment in which to place an item which is already two-faced in its own right” (Chiaro 1992: 38). Animated films constitute a highly suitable environment for this purpose, as they are exempt from the physical laws, cinematographic limitations or pragmatic conventions which apply to most other productions. Writers and animators have a great wealth of stylistic means on several semiotic channels at their disposal and can indulge in linguistic creativity without worrying too much about authenticity, realism or an overuse of “prefabricated orality” (Baumgarten 2008: 7). This means that whole scenes can be engineered to support a particular joke or reference. This makes them very useful for research in audiovisual translation. It is also worth noting that animations are at the forefront of new trends in film-making, such as community collaboration and crowd-sourcing.
Another factor which puts animated films in a particularly interesting position is a change in their prospective audience: the genre of the ‘children’s film’ is transforming more and more into a new category named ‘family film’. Modern animations are made and marketed to appeal to a viewership consisting of both adults and children and therefore comprise more than one level of comprehensibility. While the story and the animated characters normally serve to entertain younger viewers, adults are kept interested by means of intertextual references and sophisticated use of allusions and wordplay on the visual and non-visual verbal level. This also accounts for the humorous density and wealth of stylistic devices used in animated films.
It is the challenging task of the screen translator to keep all levels of complexity available to target audience members, who require both the ability to identify them and the skill to retain as much of their humorous effect as possible. This paper will illustrate the challenges arising from this development, paying particular attention to intertextuality and wordplay on the verbal and visual level, using examples from the Wallace and Gromit adventures (Aardman Animations, UK). It will also discuss how the linguistic density of animations can be used for research on wordplay translation and audience reception, referring to an ongoing research project in this area.
References
Baumgarten, Nicole (2008) ‘Yeah, that’s it! – Verbal Reference to Visual Information in Film Texts and Film Translation’. In: Meta Vol. 54:1. Montreal: Erudit, p. 6-25.
Chiaro, Delia (1992) The Language of Jokes. London: Routledge.