Copyright by Colleen Leigh Montgomery 2017 THE DISSERTATION COMMITTEE FOR COLLEEN LEIGH MONTGOMERY CERTIFIES THAT THIS IS THE APPROVED VERSION OF THE FOLLOWING DISSERTATION: ANIMATING THE VOICE: AN INDUSTRIAL ANALYSIS OF VOCAL PERFORMANCE IN DISNEY AND PIXAR FEATURE ANIMATION Committee: Thomas Schatz, Supervisor James Buhler, Co-Supervisor Caroline Frick Daniel Goldmark Jeff Smith Janet Staiger ANIMATING THE VOICE: AN INDUSTRIAL ANALYSIS OF VOCAL PERFORMANCE IN DISNEY AND PIXAR FEATURE ANIMATION by COLLEEN LEIGH MONTGOMERY DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN AUGUST 2017 Dedication To Dash and Magnus, who animate my life with so much joy. Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the invaluable support, patience, and guidance of my co-supervisors, Thomas Schatz and James Buhler, and my committee members, Caroline Frick, Daniel Goldmark, Jeff Smith, and Janet Staiger, who went above and beyond to see this project through to completion. I am humbled to have to had the opportunity to work with such an incredible group of academics whom I respect and admire. Thank you for so generously lending your time and expertise to this project—your whose scholarship, mentorship, and insights have immeasurably benefitted my work. I am also greatly indebted to Lisa Coulthard, who not only introduced me to the field of film sound studies and inspired me to pursue my intellectual interests but has also been an unwavering champion of my research for the past decade. Thank you for believing in me and in this project. So too am I grateful for the encouragement and support of Caetlin Benson-Allot, Emily Carman, Brian McIlroy, Robynn Stilwell, and the exceptional group of scholars under whom I trained at The University of British Columbia, La Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III, and The University of Texas at Austin. Their mentorship has been foundational to this project’s development and to my development as a scholar. To my brilliant friends and colleagues, Chelsea Birks, Eric Dienstfrey, Christine Evans, Josh Gleich, Alfred Martin, Colin Tait, and Katherine Quanz: thank you for motivating, challenging, and sustaining me throughout this process. To my MA and Ph.D. cohort members, Andrew DeWaard, Paul Gansky, Charlotte Howell, Claire Shinhea Lee, v Mike O’Brien, Swapnil Rai, Mike Rennett, Yoonmo Sang, and Brent Strang: it has been a pleasure sharing all the struggles and rewards of this experience with you. To my Flow Conference Co-Coordinators, Kayti Lausch, Morgan O’Brien, and Jessi Trimble, and my fellow Velvet Light Trap editorial board members, Tupur Chatterjee, Laura Felschow, Annie Major, and Jacqueline Pinkowitz: collaborating with you has greatly enriched my time here at The University of Texas at Austin and I am so very proud of what we achieved together. To Lokeilani Kaimana and Amanda Landa, whose friendship has been a beacon of light: heart, star, money forever. To my all my graduate student colleagues: it has been privilege navigating this journey alongside such talented and thoughtful peers. To my family, Diane, Ted, and Laura Montgomery and my partner, Paul Monticone: your unfailing love and reassurance has buoyed and anchored me throughout this endeavor. Thank you for seeing me through every challenge and for celebrating every stride toward the finish line. This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and by a Jesse H. Jones Fellowship from The University of Texas at Austin. vi ANIMATING THE VOICE: AN INDUSTRIAL ANALYSIS OF VOCAL PERFORMANCE IN DISNEY AND PIXAR FEATURE ANIMATION Colleen Leigh Montgomery, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2017 Supervisor: Thomas Schatz Co-supervisor: James Buhler Animating the Voice: An Industrial Analysis of the Vocal Performance in Disney and Pixar Animation examines the historical, industrial, transnational, and gendered dynamics of vocal performance in Disney and Pixar feature animation from the late 1920s to the late 2010s. Animated vocality represents a significant critical gap in extant sound studies, animation studies, and media studies literature. To begin to address this lacuna, this project advances an interdisciplinary model for examining the commercial, cultural, and communicative functions of vocal performance in Disney and Pixar feature animated films. Looking at the textual and paratextual form and function of animated vocality in Disney’s and Pixar’s features, this study that integrates film-historical, media industries studies, audiovisual translation studies, and feminist media studies approaches. The first two chapters of this study trace historical development of Disney’s voice casting, labor, and marketing practices from the late 1920s to early 1980s. The following chapter extends this historical-industrial analysis to a consideration of cultural and vii industrial imperatives informing the form and function of star vocal performance in Disney and Pixar feature animation from the late 1980s to the present. Chapter four extends the scope of this study to the transnational flow of animated features, examining how dubbed vocal performances in Pixar’s French language versions semantically and stylistically reconfigure and “glocalize” the source text. Focusing on the Canadian and French dubbed versions of Pixar features this chapter also parses the national and institutional policies, economic incentives, and cultural pressures undergirding Pixar’s dubbing strategies in two distinct cultural and national contexts. The final chapter in this study interrogates the meaning-making functions female vocal performance—as both speech and song—serves in Disney’s and Pixar’s features and the paratexts surrounding these films. This chapter focuses most closely on the articulation of the female voice and female subjectivity in the princess film subgenre. viii Table of Contents Introduction: Animating the Voice: An Industrial Analysis of Vocal Performance in Disney and Pixar Feature Animation ...................................1 Why Disney and Pixar? ..................................................................................7 Research Questions .......................................................................................14 Literature Review and Theoretical Framework ............................................15 Industrial Analyses of Disney and Pixar ..............................................16 Film Sound in Disney and Pixar Animation ........................................21 The Voice in Cinema ...........................................................................26 Significance of Research...............................................................................31 Methodology and Chapter Outlines ..............................................................35 Conclusion ....................................................................................................45 Chapter One: “Leased Larynxes”: An Industrial History of Vocal Performance in Disney Animation, 1928-1950. ..........................................47 Disney’s Early Sonic Strategies: Literature and Methods ............................49 From In-House Labor to “Voice Specialists” ...............................................56 With a Smile and a Song: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ......................64 Finding the ‘Perfect’ Voice: Voice Casting and Vocal ‘Suitability’ ...66 Whistle While You Work? Voice Labor(ers) ......................................71 Maintaining the Illusion of Life: Voice Marketing..............................77 The Animated Fantasmic Body ...........................................................83 “Ukulele Ike” and Vocal Performance and Disney’s 1940s Features ..........85 Conclusion ....................................................................................................90 Chapter Two: “I Wanna Be Like You”: An Industrial History of Vocal Performance in Disney Feature Animation, 1950-1984 ..............................92 Disney’s Post-war Sonic Strategies: Literature and Methods.......................95 “Oh Sing Sweet Nightingale”: Cinderella ..................................................100 “Aural Typage and Vocal Prominence”: Voice Casting....................100 “With the Talents of”: Voice Labor ...................................................106 “The Ilene Woods Show”: Voice Marketing .....................................112 ix Disneylands: Vocal Performance and Disney’s 1950s to mid-1960s Features ......................................................................120 “I Wanna Be Like You:” The Jungle Book .................................................126 “Jive-talking:” Voice Casting ............................................................127 “I Can’t Act Like a Bear”: Voice Labor ............................................134 “The V.I.P.s of the Jungle”: Voice Marketing ...................................139 Disney After Walt: “The Dark Ages” .........................................................146 Conclusion ..................................................................................................149 Chapter Three: Vocal Intertextuality: The Disney Renaissance and Pixar(ticulation).............................................................................................151 Star Voices and Sonic Strategies: Literature and Methods .........................155