Accents?

[Mugs-n-such]

Well, I'm from Kansas, not from the UK, so my vote doesn't count I reckon but just to put in my .00000000002 cents worth, it sounded Scottish to ME.

[ethelthefrog]

I was born and brought up in England. My dad is Scottish, and I have always had a foot in both countries. My heart is Scottish, through and through. But anyway...

Shrek's accent sounds a lot like a foreigner's attempt at a Scottish accent. It's not particularly convincingly Scottish, but it's obviously someone trying to sound Scottish. Whatever Mr Myers says on the matter, it does not sound remotely English. I think Skip has it with "pure Shrekkian".

No idea why Scots are the bad boys, though. That said, there's been much movie-mileage in dapper English rogues, too.

[Big and Bashful]

It's a good accent for a Shrek to have, who cares where he was 'born'
Oh dear, 2 stroke the cat is helping my type now!

[Since1982]

Shrek was "born" in the mind of William Steig, then drawn and displayed. Perhaps quartered later. At the age of 95, Steig died from natural causes on October 3, 2003. The closing credits for Shrek 2 noted: "In memory of William Steig, 1907-2003." ...

[ethelthefrog]

Ps. I do swear sometimes, normally in my own company, at some dozy other drivers on the road. I will not cuss in front of women, even if they cuss at me. Not brought up that way.

That's one of the marks of a gentleman.

A true gentleman is never unintentionally rude. Oscar Wilde

I like that (although I find myself falling short of the definition on many occasions).

[Gmerc]

Shrek's accent has changed through the films - haven't seen 'Shrek Forever' yet so can't comment on that one. To me, Mike Myers sounds like he's doing what everyone else thinks a Scottish accent is - much like James Doohan in Star Trek - although neither of them sound like any genuine Scot I've ever encountered. There's such a breadth of accents in Scotland, much as you'd get anywhere; Highland, Lowland, Islands, town or country. What Shrek's got is an amalgam of the lot, but something that no one actually speaks.

Just a stray thought - in all those new worlds in Star Trek, was there ever one one where the blokes wore skirts or dresses & scared the pooh out of the Federation?

Graham

[Mugs-n-such]

Shrek's accent has changed through the films - haven't seen 'Shrek Forever' yet so can't comment on that one. To me, Mike Myers sounds like he's doing what everyone else thinks a Scottish accent is - much like James Doohan in Star Trek - although neither of them sound like any genuine Scot I've ever encountered. There's such a breadth of accents in Scotland, much as you'd get anywhere; Highland, Lowland, Islands, town or country. What Shrek's got is an amalgam of the lot, but something that no one actually speaks.

Just a stray thought - in all those new worlds in Star Trek, was there ever one one where the blokes wore skirts or dresses & scared the pooh out of the Federation?

Graham

There was one episode I recall in the original Star Trek with William Shatner where if I recall they were on a starship disguised as a planet (I may have that bit wrong) but the men (maybe the women too don't remember) were wearing tights-sheer or opaque, couldn't tell- and what looked like a straight-hemmed nightshirt or maybe even a *gasp* DRESS!
Again, I could be wrong, but I think there was another episode where everyone was living on this insanely crowded planet and the men were wearing (essentially) dresses. OK, OK, maybe they were robes!

[kingfish]

I'm guessing it is 10 years UK expatriate Canadian.

This from IMDB.COM
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126029/trivia?tr0641976

Mike Myers recorded Shrek's voice in a natural accentless voice before the film was test-screened. After watching it, he decided that the voice didn't sound right and had all of his lines re-recorded with a Scottish accent, based on the voice his mother used when reading him bedtime stories as a child.

This article lists his folks as emigrating from the UK in 1958
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film ... ccent.html
This would put him getting bed time stories from his mum about 10 years after they landed in Canada.

[Since1982]

Gregg said: You would think that there would be a window in the front of the sub, so they could see where they were going. . Thundering down the Aleution Trench( I think that was what it was called ) blind at a good rate of knots, seems somewhat suicidal

Actually, a submarine moving at 20 knots underwater, needs the technical display of what's ahead as that trench where they were is SALT WATER and you can only SEE about 100 feet in the clearest salt water in the world Plus the ripples of water crossing the "window" at even 10 knots would cause an effect no human could see more than 30 feet thru. I spent the first 40 years of my life as a professional diver in salt water and know more than most about salt water's particular attributes. The clearest salt water in the world is in the Red Sea and is still only about 100 feet laterally and 150 feet vertically before it clouds up..I dove on the Air Craft Carrier Saratoga, in WW2 the pride of the American Navy. It's sitting on it's keel in 200 feet of salt water and you can barely make out the top deck from the surface and that's about 60 feet down. I also dove on Admiral Yamamoto's flag vessel the Nagato Battleship. Both these great war ships were sunk in the A-bomb tests in 1946 when over a hundred ships were sunk. The ONLY ship that didn't sink at all from 3 A-bomb tests was the pride of Nazi Africa and sister ship to the Bismarck named the Prinz Eugen. Both of these were German vessels.

Anyway, I have some background in salt water clarity.

[Gregg1100]

You would think that there would be a window in the front of the sub, so they could see where they were going.

This was written in a light hearted way,- hence the smilie at the end

[Ray]

Shrek has a definite Scottish lilt to his voice. He even wears tartan leggings!

Re Red October, the Soviet diplomat was played by Joss Ackland who I thought was a Brit.

[Since1982]

You're right, Ray, I stand corrected. Must be some other older white haired actor that is Germanic, that I am thinking of...Thank you for adding that.

Gregg said: The light has now switched on. Of course it was a Russian sub--thats what the defection was all about. You would think that there would be a window in the front of the sub, so they could see where they were going. . Thundering down the Aleution Trench( I think that was what it was called ) blind at a good rate of knots, seems somewhat suicidal

I mistakenly thought Gregg was serious in this, he's corrected my thinking and has told me that this was all a joke, even the part about "thundering down the Aleutian Trench being suicidal". For general information, "trenches" in the floor of the oceans and seas are like paved streets for submarines, and since they really do transverse the planet, the sub fleets probably spend as much "time in the trenches" as they do moving on the surface like a normal boat.

[Big and Bashful]

Gregg said: You would think that there would be a window in the front of the sub, so they could see where they were going. . Thundering down the Aleution Trench( I think that was what it was called ) blind at a good rate of knots, seems somewhat suicidal

Actually, a submarine moving at 20 knots underwater, needs the technical display of what's ahead as that trench where they were is SALT WATER and you can only SEE about 100 feet in the clearest salt water in the world Plus the ripples of water crossing the "window" at even 10 knots would cause an effect no human could see more than 30 feet thru. I spent the first 40 years of my life as a professional diver in salt water and know more than most about salt water's particular attributes. The clearest salt water in the world is in the Red Sea and is still only about 100 feet laterally and 150 feet vertically before it clouds up..I dove on the Air Craft Carrier Saratoga, in WW2 the pride of the American Navy. It's sitting on it's keel in 200 feet of salt water and you can barely make out the top deck from the surface and that's about 60 feet down. I also dove on Admiral Yamamoto's flag vessel the Nagato Battleship. Both these great war ships were sunk in the A-bomb tests in 1946 when over a hundred ships were sunk. The ONLY ship that didn't sink at all from 3 A-bomb tests was the pride of Nazi Africa and sister ship to the Bismarck named the Prinz Eugen. Both of these were German vessels.

Anyway, I have some background in salt water clarity.

Haha!

Skip, I got you!
Prinz Eugen was not a sister to the Bismarck, she was an enlarged Hipper class heavy cruiser, which did cruise with the Bismarck. Bismarck had one sister ship, the Tirpitz.

Anyway, it is surprising that she survived the blast, being a much lighter ship than ships like bismarck (Bismark 45,000 tons approx, Prinz Eugen 17,000 tons approx).

Sorry, I couldn't resist it!

[Kirbstone]

I'm fascinated by books on Naval warfare. I've just finished re-reading the 'Battle of the North Cape', in which Admiral Frazer enticed the Sharnhorst out to engage a Northbound convoy, laid a trap for her and outgunned her, sinking her before she could regain the Norway coast

One of my German Shanty-choir friends never knew his father, who was lost on the Tirpitz when he was eighteen months old. In Laboe, a Baltic coastal town near Keil there is an amazing memorial to those ships and personnel lost at sea in both world wars. In the main building there are two opposing white-plastered walls, one with the black sillhouettes of every navy ship lost in WW1, the other with those of all navy ships lost in WW2, all under type headings. One could easily spend several days there.

[DALederle]

In the opening program of Star Trek the Next Generation, there is an action sequence when all hands are called to battle stations and they show the crew getting to their battle stations. Several men are shown wearing a dress like uniform, about the same as the women. But it was the only time I can remember when that was attempted.
After that everyone, except counsilor Troy, wore pants. And in later shows they did away with her skirts and dresses too.
Does anyone else think there's a conspiracy in the media to get everyone into pants all the time?
Is it the gay fashion designers (who maybe don't like women) or is it the woman's movement, who resents being "held back" by wearing skirts or dresses?
Actually, after all this time I no longer care, either way.
We have a certain inirtia in our society and it has settled in on the idea of gender and fashions. It doesn't want to change and it wants everyone to look the same at all times.
Come to think of it, Captain Picard did have to wear something like a dress in one episode, for diplomatic reasons.

Dennis A. Lederle
Grok?