Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2016 April 1

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April 1

Looking for a film

I don't know if anyone can help with this. I saw this in a film about a bus that had to speed around the city, keeping its speed over fifty, and if its speed dropped, the bus would explode. Any ideas what it was called? Thanks. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 06:44, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Is this April 1st? The movie is Speed (1994), with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. 93.92.153.10 (talk) 07:18, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Pretty obvious, isn't it... and yes, it is April first. OXYGENE 7-13 (TALKPAGE) 10:33, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Also, when the OP quotes the Simpsons, they should explicitly cite them. To not do so is plagiarism. --Jayron32 12:02, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

The Simpsons, eh? Excellent. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 13:05, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

It was called "Keanu Reeves finally finds the right vehicle". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:38, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

That is excellent Bugs. Thanks for the chuckle. Lugnuts are there any pics of the bus you are talking about here? :-) MarnetteD|Talk 15:16, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

That film was parodied in the Irish/British sitcom Father Ted (episode Speed 3), in which a disgruntled milkman traps one of the priests on a booby-trapped electric milk float, rigged to explode if it goes less than 4 mph. Alansplodge (talk) 15:44, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Wasn't it called The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down? —Tamfang (talk) 22:18, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

Thanks everyone - I knew I could count on the WP community to help me. I'm now trying to track down another film, set on a Airplane! about an Airplane! where the crew become sick on the Airplane! Surely someone will know that one too... Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 17:34, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Well Lugnuts I am not sure that question will be answerable since no one here is named Surely :-) MarnetteD|Talk 17:59, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Or someone for that matter... OXYGENE 7-13 (TALKPAGE) 11:11, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

What does a "stand in" mean for a voice actor in an animated film?

I was reading the following Wikipedia article: Who Framed Roger Rabbit#Cast. It states as follows. Kathleen Turner provides the uncredited voice of Jessica Rabbit, Roger Rabbit's beautiful and flirtatious Toon wife. She loves Roger because, as she says, "he makes me laugh". Amy Irving supplied the singing voice, while Betsy Brantley served as the stand-in. In this context -- that is, the context of a voice actor in an animated film -- what does the term "stand-in" mean? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:42, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

I believe they typically first record with other people supplying the voices. This allows them to work out the timing and such. Then they do the animation, then the actual voice actors record their part. Why not record with the actual voice actors first ? Well, their time is expensive, so you don't want them to record until you are somewhat sure what scenes will be kept in, what the final dialog will be, etc. Also, if one of the actual voice actors is not available, you might want to use a stand-in then, to allow the rest to record their lines, then later fill in the missing voice. They can even have two voice actors have a conversation, in the film, when neither was ever actually in the same room. StuRat (talk) 17:47, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

As StuRat notes, a Stand-in is a person, in a production, who takes the place of the main actor for the purposes of staging a scene. Wikipedia has an article on the role, click the blue link to learn more about it. --Jayron32 17:53, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

As I understand it, the animators draw to the voice, not the other way around. But there could be "stand-ins" within the live scene. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:00, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Well, it's an iterative process. They may make some rather crude drawings first, then record some rather crude audio to go with it, then improve the animation, then improve the voices, and continue until done. StuRat (talk) 18:04, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? had a mixture of live-action and animation. The Wikipedia article I linked above explains the role of stand-ins for exactly those situations. --Jayron32 18:10, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Arrrrgh! NO QUESTION MARK! Wars have been started over less (see Filioque). Tevildo (talk) 23:08, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

I never saw it, but I always assumed it had a question mark in the title, otherwise it seems to be an incomplete clause. I imagine most of the world (those who care about such things, that is, which is a smaller sub-population) makes the same assumption, and need to be constantly disabused. I therefore expected to see some mention of the apparently missing question mark, in the article or at least on the talk page. But there has been exactly 1 mention of it, in 2006, with no discussion, @ Talk:Who Framed Roger Rabbit/Archive 1. I am very surprised about this. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 04:29, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

I think that complaint may be about Special:WhatLinksHere/Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, which shouldn't have any mainspace links: perhaps something to work on if anyone has a free half-hour. The article itself has always had the correct title. Tevildo (talk) 08:07, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

Done. Mainspace links corrected. -- ToE 04:46, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Are we looking at the same thing? I'm looking at Trivia section, where User:Modemac posted "The actual name of this movie is Who Framed Roger Rabbit -- without the question mark. It should be put under a separate entry and a redirect used for the entry with the question mark...though I'm reluctant to do that, because it would erase the history of the previous contributors to the article". It was undated and it does not seem to appear in his Contributions. It had zero response. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 01:19, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Ah, I see what you mean. That comment would have been valid if (a) the article had the question mark, and (b) Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a redirect, but this has never been the case, so no action was needed. If Modemac is still active, perhaps they'll consider this an acceptable reply. Tevildo (talk) 07:29, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

If you've got a free hour, I recommend watching this documentary about Mel Blanc.[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:15, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

When you have a lot of "big name" famous actors -- with demanding schedules and limited availability -- do they generally all get in one room together and record the dialogue? Or does each actor record his individual part separately from the rest, and some editor later "splices" it all together? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 18:55, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

That would depend on how they decide to do the production. Mel Blanc, from the old days, worked with a number of other (usually uncredited) voice actors. Of course he did a lot of the voices all by himself. I'm not totally sure, but I think he recorded all of one character's lines before moving on to the next. And I recall for sure he said that Daffy was done last, "because it's sped", in other words they would do the playback faster than the original recording speed. Then there's Peggy Lee, doing the Siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp, in which she recorded the melody and then recorded the harmony. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:03, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 18:32, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Popular or common phrases in music

In English-language music, musicians seem to love phrases like "baby" or "yeah". Why? 140.254.70.25 (talk) 19:17, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Because they convey feelings of, on the one hand, intimacy, and, on the other hand, excitement. Of course, in many cases it's because songwriters do not try hard to be inventive - they use themes and styles that have been successful previously. There is quite an interesting series of guides on pop music lyrics here. Ghmyrtle (talk) 19:28, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

I suppose it's progress from "Hey nonny nonny", but not much. Alansplodge (talk) 00:42, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

It can also be a quick and easy way to make the lyrics match the beat. If you need a extra syllable or two, adding fairly meaningless words can be easier than looking for a better way to express your idea with the right number of syllables. 217.44.50.87 (talk) 15:07, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

And it's an old trick. From the G&S operetta The Yeomen of the Guard, "I have a song to sing oh" "Sing me your song oh", for example. Or an owl in a 1930s WB cartoon, "I love to sing-a / About the Moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:18, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

For those who doubt Wikipedia has an article on everything, see Acatalexis (in opposition to Catalexis). Matt Deres (talk) 16:32, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

The constant RFD's ensure that we don't literally have an article on everything. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:57, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Here's a 1609 sighting from Pammelia. I'm sure it goes back much farther than that. -- BenRG (talk) 06:43, 5 April 2016 (UTC)