Question for Aussies/Kiwis: Are the clone accents as bad as they sound to me?

This has been bothering me since the movie came out, and I just realized that there are plenty of Aussie/Kiwi posters here who could help.

To my ear, the accent of the guy who does the clone voices on this show is HORRIBLE! Just so many words and syllables that sound...wrong.

Is it just me, or do you guys hear an American doing a sometimes half-decent, usually laughable attempt at a Kiwi accent too?

 

I'm from Australia and LOVE the series, but let me tell you their accents are horible! Morrison, who played Jango Fett in AOTC is a KIWI, not an American trying an Australian accent. They really should have got in a Kiwi actor (for those geographically challenged, a Kiwi is someown from New Zealand near Australia - where Lord of the Rings was filmed). Some of the words sound American mixed in with bad Australian, but not much Kiwi in there at all. A real shame, considering there are hundreds and thousands of clones - so I guess we're stuck with it!

In saying all that, it is forgivable given the strength of the series. I love it - and the clones!

 

I think Dee Bradley Baker does a wonderful job with the clone voices. The accent may not be perfect, but it's a tough job playing sometimes half (or more) of the different characters in an episode and making them sound distinct, and he's great at that.

I also assume that the clones pick up variations on their accents as they travel the galaxy, just like regular folks do when they move around. I sort of see DBB's voice as primarily Rex's (since Rex is the main non-movie clone) and all the others are variations on that one.

 

I don't understand why he's bothering to attempt Morrison's accent; in the old cartoon, a generic Midwestern accent worked fine. Most of the video games, too, if I remember correctly.

 

In the RC game, 38 is voiced by Morrison but the others sound American for some reason.

 

I'm too busy marvelling at the actor's amazing ability to give different character to mostly identical looking and sounding clones. This is especially evident in Rookies.

 

Bret McKenzie, Jemaine Clement and Rhys Darby voicing clones is a concept made of win!

'Moisture farmers are like: "Where's tha sta-ship?" whilst Clones are like: "Where's tha sta-ship?"

 

What I don't understand is why the clones have accents at all. It's not as if Jango would have been the only English-speaking person that the young clones interacted with as they grew up. The Kaminoans likely had far more day to day contact with them and their English wasn't heavily accented at all to my ears, so why the clones didn't pick up how they spoke English from their Kaminoan caretakers over that of their less seldom seen gene donor is beyond me. It's not as if accents are genetically passed on, they're learned, sheesh! At least amoung humans.

I have the same problem with human and near-human Jedi winding up with weird accents even though Jedi are supposedly ideally taken from their parents when they're just little infants...but hey, whatever...

 

Well, Taun We (Rena Owen) was also Kiwi, even if her accent wasn't noticable in the movie. Maybe she had an influence.

 

Maybe the Kaminoans had Jango narrate the flash-learning or something and/or make a lot of material so that Jango's way of thinking would be part of the Clones' upbringing. The accent is just a by-product then.


But as for the voice-actor... He bugged me a lot in the movie (and I'm German), but I guess I've simply gotten used to him. Though the CW clones certainly seem to have a heavier accent than Tem's - probably because Morrison's is natural. I had to look up where DBB was from, just because I immediately thought someone was pretending to be Australian/Kiwi (and some words almost sound Scottish/Irish sometimes )

 

I think that's the best explanation, too. Especially for the first wave of clones, there really weren't any other humans around, and Jango did apparently live on Kamino... I imagine he recorded demos for their education, maybe even did some training himself. Makes sense. More sense than the differently-accented Jedi, in fact!

 

The Obi-wan accent is pretty bad too, but the Clone one is awful. Shame as there are plenty of talented British and Kiwi actors out there looking for work!

 

None of this really matters to me because I feel it's all up in the air as far as clones are concerned.

Something to keep in mind is how often we can develop our own version of accents when we have many different influences present during our developmental years.

So when you factor that in with the accelerated growth of clones and the varied training...well, who could predict how they'd sound?

 

In the clone wars micro-series, the clones didn't have accents at all.....

 

Yeah, but that sillt Genndy guy was probably just trying to make it make sense when the clones become the stormtroopers of the OT who have American accents. He obviously didn't get the memo that matching the OT has nothing to do with what Lucas has been trying to do with the last ten years of Star Wars.

 

Pretty bad? It's downright painful to hear the accent mangled so badly.

 

Gentlemen and ladies, frankly, I cannot think a single bad thing about Dee Baker's acting abilities after seeing him do animal voices live at SDCC. Not to mention all my voice imitation hate is reserved for the guy who played Nixon in Nxon/Frost. Worst Nixon accent ever.

Personally, the accents don't bother me. They clearly aren't Jango, but it is better than most star wars productions where they don't even try. Then again, I am not Australian either. My grandmother was, but she didn't have a accent.