2016考研英语阅读热点：小黄人这么蠢只能是男孩

考研英语来源：英语点津 2015-07-24　

导演:小黄人这么蠢只能是男孩

Animator reveals the surprising reason why there aren't any female Minions

For anybody who has ever questioned the lack of female Minions, filmmaker Pierre Coffin has some answers for you.

为什么小黄人(Minions)中没有女孩子呢?如果你也曾这样质疑，就来听听电影导演皮艾尔·柯芬(Pierre Coffin)的回答吧。

The gender and sexuality of the tiny yellow troublemakers who first appeared in “Despicable Me" have been debated since the animated franchise’s original film was released in 2010.

小黄人最早出现在动画片《卑鄙的我》(“Despicable Me" )中，自2010年这部系列动画最早的电影上映以来，小黄人的性别与性的问题便一直为人们所讨论。

One widespread theory was that Minions were gender neutral, since they don both traditionally male and female attire.

一种普遍的观点认为小黄人是中性的，因为它们既穿传统的男性服装也穿传统的女性服装。

Other fans viewed them as boys who occasionally cross-dress: all of the Minions have male names, such as Stuart, Kevin, and Bob.

其他的粉丝认为它们只是偶尔男扮女装的男孩子。你看它们的名字都是男孩子的：斯图尔特(Stuart)，凯文(Kevin)还有鲍勃(Bob)。

Now, as the "Despicable Me" spinoff movie "Minions" hits theaters, the filmmaker has spoken, and it’s official: all Minions are, in fact, male.

当下《卑鄙的我》衍生电影《小黄人》正在各大影院热映，其制作人开口称，这次可是官方消息：实际上所有的小黄人都是男孩子。

Why make such a choice in a time when male-dominated children’s movies are so rare?

为什么在男性主导的儿童电影如此罕见的情况下做出这样的选择呢?

“Seeing how dumb and stupid they often are, I just couldn’t imagine Minions being girls,” Coffin told The Wrap. According to the French animator, all of the title characters are voiced by male actors.

柯芬在接受The Wrap采访时说：“我无法想象这帮时常犯傻的小蠢货会是女孩子。”据这位法国动画制作人称，影片中所有小黄人角色都是由男演员配音的。

The film is not without female characters, of course: the villain, Scarlett Overkill, is voiced by Sandra Bullock.

当然，这部影片还是有女性角色的：大反派斯嘉丽·奥佛吉尔(Scarlett Overkill)，由桑德拉·布洛克(Sandra Bullock)为其献声。

But the gender imbalance has drawn criticism from some concerned parents.

但这一性别失衡的现象招致一些忧心忡忡的父母的批评。

“Why can’t we show children a fantasy world where gender equality exists? ‘Minions’ does the opposite, reproducing and in fact, managing to exaggerate sexism so that females have hardly any place or representation in the world at all,” writes one blogger, the mother of three girls. “I’m appalled and disgusted that movies like ‘Minions’ are allowed to be made in 2015 and shown to little kids, teaching a new generation to expect and accept a world where girls go missing.”

一名育有三个女儿的母亲在博客中写道：“我们为什么不能展现给孩子一个性别平等的梦幻世界呢?《小黄人》却正相反，重现(事实上是设法夸大)男性至上主义，女性在这样的世界根本没有任何地位及存在感。令我感到震惊和厌恶的是，像《小黄人》这样的电影在2015年居然还获许拍摄并放映给小孩子看，这只会教会新一代人去期待并接受一个没有女孩子的世界。”

Despite such concerns, “Minions” opened at the box office with record numbers this past weekend, garnering $115.2 million in North America and making it the second biggest animated film opening in history. The film has received mixed reviews from critics, earning a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

尽管人们有着这样那样的担忧，上周末开画，《小黄人》依然创下北美票房纪录，斩获1.152亿美元，创造动画电影开画史上第二高的好成绩。影评人对影片的评论褒贬不一，《小黄人》在烂番茄(Rotten Tomatoes)获得了54%的支持率。

Now only one question remains on the minds of movie-goers: if there are no girl Minions, how does the species propagate?

现在只有一个问题令电影观众们百思不得其解了：如果小黄人都是男孩子，那小黄人是如何传宗接代的呢?

There are currently two competing fan theories to explain where the little guys come from.

这些小家伙们到底是哪儿来的?目前粉丝间主要有两种互相矛盾的说法对其作出解释。

One is that regular humans are turned into Minions by a Minionizer machine, a ray gun-like instrument similar to the one seen on the Minions ride at Universal Studios theme park. Another is that they are cloned from a single strand of mutated DNA, as suggested by one of the short films.

一种说法是小黄人是“小黄人制造机”将普通人类转变而来的。“小黄人制造机”是一个类似射线枪的机器，跟在环球影城主题公园的小黄人过山车那里可以看到的很像。另一种说法是根据其中一部小黄人短片推测，小黄人是由一个突变的DNA单链克隆而成的。

Coffin has declined to reveal the exact origin of the tiny yellow henchmen so far, but the Minions aren’t done telling their story yet: they’ll be back soon enough in “Despicable Me 3,” slated to open in June 2017.

柯芬至今还不愿向广大影迷们透露小黄人的确切起源，但是小黄人的故事并未告一段落，我们很快将会在《卑鄙的我3》中看到它们的身影，影片暂定于2017年6月份上映。

重点词汇：

sexism: 男性至上主义

henchman：忠实的追随者