It is very likely that you have always seen The Simpsons dubbed into Spanish and therefore you are not going to notice this big change, but from now on in the US, the voice of the Dr. Hibbert, one of the best-known characters in the series, will sound different. The reason? Well, after 30 years, the new politics of fiction have caused the replacing your bender by another of black skin (according to the ethnicity of the cartoon).
New policies in The Simpsons
The guidelines were announced in the middle of last year by those responsible for the mythical animated TV series. Through an official statement, the fiction confirmed that there would be changes soon in the dubbing of some of its characters, to show solidarity and fight with the racial discrimination that is still so evident in the US.
This implied, therefore, to stop choosing white-skinned actors to give life to characters that are of other races or ethnic groups, as is the case of Apu, Carlton Carlson or Dr. Hibbert, all played up to now by white benders.
The new policy did nothing more than align with the announcements of other successful series such as Parent, Big Mouth o Central Park, who also decided to take matters into their own hands on this sensitive issue and dispense with their white voice actors to bring non-animated characters to life.
See offer on AmazonDr. Hibbert: following in the wake of Apu
Already in January of this year, the actor in charge of giving life to Apu announced that he was saying goodbye to the character forever. The choice of Hank Azaria as his voice was always surrounded by controversy: the Indian community complained on several occasions that with this character -below these lines-, owner of the town's badulaque, a racist and caricatured image of Indian people was created .
Is now Harry shearer, who has been doubling Dr. Julius M. Hibbert for 30 years, who follows in his footsteps, stepping aside to respect the new guidelines imposed. Shearer at least will not leave the series: as you know, voice actors usually give life to more than one character with their voice modulations and in this case, the actor also gives life to Ned Flanders in his original English version, the director Seymour Skinner and Mr. Burns himself.
From now on, Dr. Hibbert will be given life by the veteran voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson, professional with a lot of recognition also within the industry. In 2019, without going any further, she received the Emmy for her characterization of Rosie in F is for Family (another adult animated series available on Netflix by the way), in addition to having previously worked dubbing characters in Family Guy, American Dad!, Guardians of the Galaxy (Guardians of the Galaxy), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Ninja Turtles) y Bless The Harts, among others.
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