Gibberish Vocal Performances

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MikeQuell
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Gibberish Vocal Performances

Post by MikeQuell » January 13th, 2014, 7:19 pm

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Hey everyone,

I'm looking for examples of unintelligible (or gibberish) vocal performances that were intentional. Specifically something cartoony and/or playful. What are some of your favorites and have you heard this technique being used in film? I have to imagine some cartoons have some really good examples although I can't think of any at the moment.

Here are a couple examples of what I'm thinking of. It's more or less just gibberish that helps sell the emotions of the characters on screen.

[center]The Sims (Simlish):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW4nfveKW5s[/youtube]

Rayman: Legends (starts around 1:35):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI6fyaJSsjg[/youtube]
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Giant Bomb has a great list of games that use gibberish in their vocal performances: http://www.giantbomb.com/gibberish/3015-2177/games/

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joe_griffin
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Re: Gibberish Vocal Performances

Post by joe_griffin » January 19th, 2014, 6:25 pm

The classic example is the offscreen adults in Peanuts. The wah-mute trombone sounds they made instead of actually talking did a marvelous job of communicating that while there were certainly adults present, the world we were watching was really the kids' world, and the adults didn't really matter.

The Thermian language in "Galaxy Quest" was just a bunch of screeching. The fact that there is an entire commentary track in the Thermian language on the "Galaxy Quest" DVD is evidence of how fantastic that film is.

Outside of film, I just saw a stage production of HP Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" where the residents of the town of Innsmouth would occasionally speak to each other in a fishy gibberish. It was pretty effective.

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Re: Gibberish Vocal Performances

Post by MikeQuell » January 20th, 2014, 1:11 pm

Great examples, Joe! Peanuts is definitely an iconic example. Thanks!

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Re: Gibberish Vocal Performances

Post by schapps » January 25th, 2014, 10:09 pm

I thought the performances in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons were really great. It's a good example of gibberish that isn't too over the top or cartoony and really effectively communicates the language and emotion.

For cartoony gibberish, I love the minions in Despicable Me.

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Re: Gibberish Vocal Performances

Post by MikeQuell » January 26th, 2014, 12:31 am

schapps wrote:I thought the performances in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons were really great. It's a good example of gibberish that isn't too over the top or cartoony and really effectively communicates the language and emotion.

For cartoony gibberish, I love the minions in Despicable Me.
I love those minions too! I have Brothers but haven't played it yet. Didn't even think they would be doing that in that game. Now I'm more excited to check it out! Thanks.

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Re: Gibberish Vocal Performances

Post by deskinscraig » January 27th, 2014, 5:17 pm

For a direction not to head in: I know a lot of people despise the gibberish in Okami. I didn't mind it so much, but its the only game that comes to mind that the gibberish did not have much audience approval.

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