Monsters, Synch: A Taxonomy of the Star Voice
Monsters, Synch: A Taxonomy of the Star Voice
This chapter proposes that the ascription of star speech (as a dynamic sound form) to the computer-animated film’s puppet performers contributes to the effect and impact of their many screen performances. This chapter takes the star voice to be a unique instrument of performance that lies at the cornerstone of computer-animated film acting, and begins by implicating the potency of the star voice within wider industrial discourses. These include local dubbing practices, sound technology, and the multiplication of star sound across a range of consumer and multi-media products. The formal and structural importance of the star voice to computer-animated film performance is illustrated through the work of prominent film sound theorist Michel Chion and his work on synchresis, a neologism produced out of the combination of “synchronism” and “synthesis”. By extending Chion’s account, this chapter uses descriptors derived from synchresis to outline three prominent synchretic unions operating at the level of character design. A significant innovation here is the development of a taxonomy of the star voice as it is inscribed formally into computer-animated films—anthropomorphic, autobiographic and acousmatic synchresis—which give new precision to the analysis of star voices in animation.
Keywords: Stardom, voice, performance, acting, celebrity, synchresis, film sound
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