The Role of Dubbed Cartoons in Supporting Third Culture Kids: A Case Study of the Toy Story Trilogy

Abstract

Although the act of dubbing per se asserts the nationalistic identity of a given language and its traditions, it has the potential to make viewers forget the foreignness of the movie presented. Dubbing foreign material, mostly presenting the Western or American culture, can be an effective medium to crisscross the cultural barriers between what is "us" and what constitutes "them."  Therefore, it is a powerful cross-cultural venue for not only observing a great variety of cultural practices but also for developing strong cross-cultural skills. Moreover, the variety of topics presented in these dubbed movies represent an epitome of the hybrid culture or ‘‘third culture.” In this sense, dubbing provides a multi-dimensional form of support to Cross-Cultural Kids (CCKs). This paper questions the ways through which dubbed cartoons assist Cross-Cultural Kids (CCKs) in general, and Third Culture Kids (TCKs) in particular, through hypothesizing the existence of a mid-way form of global interaction and third culture reproduction. It also examines the effects these dubbed movies impart on TCKs insofar as they grant them the chance to look to the world anew through three basic approaches: liminality, liquidity and mediation. This resonates with a new form of globalization: globalization-from-within- that may usher in a new phase of global interaction. Dubbed in Egyptian Arabic, Disney's Toy Story Trilogy is a quintessential example of this approach, since it provides TCKs with two cultures: one heard and the other watched. The product is pregnant with ideas and supportive techniques which sustain TCKs through their journey to cross-cultural assimilation.