Brazilian accent?

[B.BarNavi]

I notice that too many people complain that Blanka sounds less like a Brazilian and more like a Mexican Cholo. I would like to help explain/dispute this.

Of course, Spanish and Portuguese sound VERY different even though they are closely related. This, however, doesn't explain how their accents should differ when speaking English. For example, I know an Argentinian man (Buenos Aires) and a Brazilian man (Rio de Janeiro) who sound very similar speaking English despite their different backgrounds.

Also, vocal quality is a major component of accent. There's a reason that a PhD from the Deep South still sounds like a complete moron. My aforementioned men ended up sounding that way because Rio Portuguese and Argentinian Spanish have similar "soft" vocal qualities. Blank is supposed to sound nothing like this, as he is the fierce wild man. Indeed, I have not heard a dialect of Brazilian Portuguese that sounds as harsh as Blanka should - not even Amazonian Portuguese!

If one were to transfer "Latin American" phonemes into a harsh tone, you'd end up with something like a Mexican Cholo! At least the actor tried to put in nasal vowels (found in Portuguese and NOT Spanish.) Despite what Brazilians might try to convince you otherwise, Spanish "Si" and Portuguese "Sim" DO really sound pretty close. (The latter is nasal. I'm not sure if it was vocalized or even written on the script that way.)

So there you have it - this is why Blanka sounds more Mexican than Brazilian. If he said "Brazeew Nutch", that would have been a better effort at sounding Brazilian. But I'm curious - with two Brazilians on the cast (Sagat and Balrog), couldn't he have gotten some extra training from them?

BTW, I've also heard that TJ's Vega sounds more Cuban than Peninsular. Which is nonsense, because that was a pretty dead on characteristic of the (stereotypical) Castilian accent in English (cf Shrek's Puss-in-Boots...) Contrary to the opinion of most Latin Americans, Spanish people do NOT have a lisp.

And no offense Mike, but I hear your Russian accent slipping from time to time.

[Zangief]

You couldn't be more correct, BB.

TJ Glenn has, in fact, pointed out that Vega, because of his background of privilege and social status in Spain, ought to have a more Castilian Spanish accent, a la Ricardo Montalban. I always thought that approach worked best for the character.

As for Zangief's wandering Russian accent, as explained much earlier somewhere in this forum, because I had only a day and a half to learn a Russian accent for that horror movie I tested for just prior to "Later Years", I had only the barest of rudimentary knowledge and skill when we shot the pilot episode in September of 2006. Once we were given a whole month off (ostensibly to decide, based on our show's performance, whether or not we'd be back as a series), I took that opportunity of time to finally nail the accent. From Episode 2 onward I had it down although there were times when I was directed to re-insert pronouns even though I'd explained that Russians speaking English (heck, even Russians speaking Russian) don't use pronouns unless they absolutely have to. So watching Zangief say things like "They said the fire was an accident", with all the un-Russian-like pronouns, makes me cringe as much as hearing him called Zang-GEEF (he's Russian, not German; the proper pronunciation is Zang-GYEF). You won't hear any of that in the new series.

Now onto Blanka.

I find your explanation for Blanka's Mexican-sounding accent most plausible given the particulars you pointed out which, frankly, I would never have known. Certainly works for me, LOL! That said, we know almost nothing of Jimmy's nationality or background although, according to official canon, which I have in my possession and consult for research on the new "Reunion" series", he's probably from Thailand although the canon guide makes no attempt to explain that probability. All we do know is that the plane carrying Jimmy and his mom crashed in the Brazilian jungle where he was raised by wolves and electric eels (yeah, yeah, I know but just follow me anyway). We can surmise that his mutation had something to do with the bioelectricity he learned from the eels combined with his daily smearing of chlorophyll all over his body in his attempt to maximize the effect of what little direct sunlight he received in the rain forests through some form of human photosynthesis. He managed to reach adulthood in the wild, and with only observational human contact over the years, when Dan and Sakura discovered him, brought him into civilization and taught him his first human language which was... Japanese, of course. Now, it's not stated just WHICH civilization that is, if I remember correctly, so I suppose that frees us to guess that, perhaps, Blanka was brought to Mexico first.

Our series is HUGE in Brazil as well as in Japan and so many Brazilian fans have tried to set this matter straight but even most of THEM are unaware that Blanka may not be native to Brazil.

Good point about our two Brazilian stars, Claudio Mascarenhas (Sagat) and Raw Le'Jba (Balrog). There's no doubt that they could, indeed, have trained Alex Finch with Blanka's accent but it just so happens that neither of them had ever shared a scene together with Alex, let alone the same set, until the big tournament at which time Alex's portrayal of Blanka had already been set in stone.