美国国家公共电台 NPR Queue Up Your Preschool Playlist, 'Peppa Pig' Has Just Dropped 'My First Album'

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Preschoolers and their parents may know this voice.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "PEPPA PIG")

HARLEY BIRD: (As Peppa Pig) I'm Peppa Pig. (Snorting) This is my little brother, George.

OLIVER MAY: (As George Pig, snorting)

BIRD: (As Peppa Pig) This is Mommy Pig.

MORWENNA BANKS: (As Mommy Pig, snorting).

CORNISH: The award-winning British cartoon about Peppa Pig, her family and her animal friends airs in more than 180 countries. She's starred in movies and stage shows and has her own YouTube channel. There are Peppa Pig games and toys, even a theme park in England. And now Peppa's released her first album. NPR's Mandalit del Barco caught up with her.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE¹: Harley bird, the voice of Peppa Pig for almost 13 years, sits poolside at a Santa Monica hotel as children splash about.

BIRD: Hello.

DEL BARCO: The peppy, redheaded 17-year-old is here with her mom, her little sister Olivia and little brother Roscoe on holiday.

BIRD: Ooh (laughter).

DEL BARCO: Bird's also here to promote Peppa Pig's first album, in which she sings about friendship, balloon rides and her favorite pastime.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUMPING IN MUDDY PUDDLES²")

BIRD: (As Peppa Pig, singing) Jumping up and down in muddy puddles - splish (ph), splash, splosh (ph), splish, splash.

DEL BARCO: "Peppa Pig" debuted³ in the U.K. and Australia in 2004 and has been on Nick Jr. in this country for the past eight years. The cartoon was voiced by two other actresses before the producers found Harley Bird.

BIRD: Peppa is a 4-year-old pig. She is very cheeky and funny. She's quite bossy⁴. She's quite a bossy piggy.

DEL BARCO: Harley Bird - that's her stage name - was just 5 years old when she landed the role. Here's her mother, Gill Riley.

GILL RILEY: She was just a little quirky, little bit different, and she definitely had something about her.

BIRD: My mom just realized that I was quite a dramatic girl, and I just sounded like a pig. That's it. I couldn't really read at all. All I knew, I was just speaking because, I mean, it was my real voice at the time. I mean, it's still my real voice, but I have to, like, change my voice to, like, sound younger and a bit higher and more kid-like.

Hello. I'm Peppa Pig.

DEL BARCO: Along the way, Harley Bird did learn to read and to snort.

(SOUNDBITE OF SNORTING)

DEL BARCO: Here are some other fun facts about Harley bird. She has a black belt in kickboxing. She works at the village pub. And Prince William once waved to her. She's studying for her A levels to get into university and would like to become a casting director. She and her family live on a farm in a small village called Tring. She travels to London to record "Peppa Pig," then returns home to feed the chickens.

BIRD: I have two pigs called Peppa and George. They're very cheeky. There was one time when I went in to go feed them in the morning, and they started eating my wellies whilst I was still wearing them.

DEL BARCO: Bird acted in the 2013 movie "How I Live Now," had a small part on TV's "Doctor Who" and starred in the Disney series "So Sammy." As Peppa Pig, she won a prestigious⁵ BAFTA award when she was 9.

Bird seems surprised to learn that some critics call out the show for fat-shaming Daddy Pig and that Peppa Pig is considered a subversive⁶ symbol in China.

BIRD: I don't really have anything to say about it. It's such an innocent thing that to be made into anything more is, like, a tiny bit ridiculous.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BING BONG ZOO")

BIRD: (As Peppa Pig, singing) Bong (ph) bing (ph) boo (ph), bing bong bing, bing bong bingly (ph) bungly (ph) boo.

DEL BARCO: Harley Bird doesn't take her singing too seriously and jokes about performing at Coachella.

BIRD: Lil Nas, who did "Old Town Road," he was tweeting something about doing a collab (ph). I am so in with that, definitely. I mean, I'm in America. Find me. Let's collab.

DEL BARCO: Peppa Pig's album dropped the same day as Iggy Azalea's, prompting the rapper to tweet, it's over for me now. The piggy tweeted back, Peppa's so fancy. You already know.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IT'S PEPPA PIG")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) She's Peppa Pig. She's Peppa Pig.

BIRD: (As Peppa Pig) I am Peppa Pig.

DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BING BONG ZOO")

BIRD: (As Peppa Pig, singing) Bing bong bing, bong bing boo, we're all animals at the zoo.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 puddles   

n.水坑， （尤指道路上的）雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The puddles had coalesced into a small stream. 地面上水洼子里的水汇流成了一条小溪。
• The road was filled with puddles from the rain. 雨后路面到处是一坑坑的积水。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 debuted   

初次表演，初次登台（debut的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• In late 2003 a full-size SUV, the Pathfinder Armada, debuted. 2003年末，全尺寸SUV的探路者无敌舰队，推出。
• The album debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. 专辑一亮相就荣登排行榜第二名，很快就取得了白金销量。

4 bossy   

adj.爱发号施令的，作威作福的

参考例句：

• She turned me off with her bossy manner.她态度专橫很讨我嫌。
• She moved out because her mother-in-law is too bossy.她的婆婆爱指使人,所以她搬出去住了。

5 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

6 subversive   

adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子

参考例句：

• She was seen as a potentially subversive within the party.她被看成党内潜在的颠覆分子。
• The police is investigating subversive group in the student organization.警方正调查学生组织中的搞颠覆阴谋的集团。