Lisa Simpson

Vorlage:Simpsons character Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and is voiced by Yeardley Smith. Matt Groening, the creator of the series, named her after his sister. She is the oldest daughter and middle child of Homer and Marge Simpson, and the sister of Bart and Maggie.

Lisa is an extremely intelligent 8-year-old girl, one of the most intelligent characters on the show, with an I.Q. of either 156 or 159. She also plays the baritone saxophone. Another notable quality about her is that she is a vegetarian; she became one in the episode "Lisa the Vegetarian" in the seventh season.

Personality

Vorlage:Quote box2 Lisa's knowledge covers a wide range of subjects, from astronomy to medicine, and she is notably more concerned with world affairs than her life in Springfield. Lisa occasionally worries her family's dull habits will rub off on her, though "Lisa the Simpson" suggests intellect and over-achievement is actually common among female members of the Simpson family. Lisa also deeply values her integrity, as demonstrated when she cheats on a test on The Wind in the Willows to attain her highest grade of A+++, but later admits her dishonesty to an unreceptive Principal Skinner, and later self-grades her test as an F. In "The President Wore Pearls", Lisa's dedication to being Student Council President makes her troublesome with the teaching staff, so Principal Skinner temporarily transfers her to a school for the academically gifted, much to her delight (although Homer refuses to allow her to attend). She was also able to talk at a very young age, as seen in "Lisa's First Word".

Although her rebellion against social normalities is usually depicted as constructive and heroic, Lisa can be self-righteous at times. Notably, in "Lisa the Vegetarian", her increasing sense of moral righteousness regarding her vegetarianism leads her to proselytize, culminating in her disruption of a "meat-based" barbecue prepared by Homer, an act she comes to rue. In "Bart Star", she triumphantly declares that she, a girl, would like to join the football team. When it is revealed that there are already girls on the team, she declares her distaste for a sport that would use a pig's skin to make its ball. When it is revealed that the ball is actually synthetic, she is at a loss for words and runs off visibly upset. She is often embarrassed and disapproving of her eccentric family: of her father's poor parenting skills and buffoonish personality; her mother's stereotyped image and inability to recognize social abnormalities; and her brother's delinquent and low-brow nature. She is also concerned that Maggie may grow up to be like the rest of the family, and is seen trying to teach her complex ideas. However, in the end she is very loyal to her family, most clearly seen in "Lisa's Wedding", which deals with her concerns with introducing them to her cultured future fiancé.

Despite her high intelligence, Lisa does have typical childhood issues, sometimes requiring adult intervention. In "Lost Our Lisa", she tricks Homer into allowing her to ride the bus alone, only to become hopelessly lost. After his coworkers Lenny and Carl point out that he allowed his 8-year-old daughter to ride a bus by herself, Homer comes to her rescue. In one episode, Lisa has a Jewish imaginary friend named Rachel who "just got into Brandeis." In the earlier seasons, Lisa displayed more personality traits of a young girl, including obsessing over getting a pony, addiction to TV and fighting with Bart many times throughout the series. She also finds Bart's joke-calls to Moe's Tavern funny (although she never does it personally). It is slightly less prevalent in the later seasons. She, along with her brother, enjoys "The Itchy and Scratchy Show" despite its extreme violence and general lowbrow nature.

In "Homer's Enemy", it is mentioned that Lisa has an IQ of 156. She is a member of Mensa Springfield. Lisa demonstrates an early intelligence by changing her own diaper as an infant and completing a puzzle in Dr. Pryor's office at 3 years old. When unable to attend school due to a teachers' strike in "The PTA Disbands", she suffered a sort of "school withdrawal" and invents a perpetual motion machine that Homer describes as going "faster and faster". He goes on to chastise her, saying "In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

Lisa's political convictions are generally socially liberal. She is a vegetarian, and a supporter of the Free Tibet movement. While still supportive of the Christian church in which she was raised, Lisa became a practicing Buddhist following her decision to follow the Noble Eightfold Path. She also supports the theory of Darwinism and evolution, calling Darwin "one of the greatest minds" of all time, as seen in the episode, "The Monkey Suit." Though apparently not an adherent, she mentions in one episode that she considers Wicca "very empowering." She has also expressed tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality in a number of different episodes, including "Three Gays of the Condo". There have been several instances where Lisa has used extreme measures to get her point across (such as throwing paint on the Keebler elves and on Krusty the Clown for wearing a fur coat).

Lisa's quintessentially good nature, even compared to her family members, is symbolized in the episode "Simpsons Bible Stories", when she is the only family member to be raised up to Heaven during the Rapture (although Homer pulls her back down so she can go to Hell with the rest of them).

Lisa has had relationships with several boys, including Ralph Wiggum ("I Love Lisa"), Nelson Muntz ("Lisa's Date with Density" and "Love, Springfieldian Style") and Colin (The Simpsons Movie). She has revealed that the boy in school that she likes the most is a never-seen boy called Langdon Alger. Milhouse Van Houten also has a crush on her, and tries to get her to kiss or date him frequently, and as yet has been unsuccessful. Although, it is hinted that he might become her future boyfriend/husband. In Lisa's Wedding she is shown by a gypsy at a carnival that she will become engaged to a man named Hugh Parkfield. However, she leaves him on their wedding day as he doesn't care for her family and doesn't want them to be a part of their lives.

Lisa is a great music fan, best evidenced by her proficiency with the saxophone and her relationship with musician Bleeding Gums Murphy, whom she regards as both a friend and an idol. Murphy was the only one able to pull Lisa out of her depression in "Moaning Lisa", and she was deeply saddened by his death in "'Round Springfield". Lisa is a great fan of jazz and the blues. She claims that she, unlike white rap fans, is not hypocritical being a white girl who is such a fan of black music because "the blues is unpopular". She has referenced enjoying the music of John Coltrane and her favorite album is Birth of the Cool by Miles Davis.

Character

Creation

Matt Groening first conceived Lisa and the rest of the Simpson family in 1986 in the lobby of producer James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts for The Tracey Ullman Show, and had intended to present an adaptation of his Life in Hell comic strip. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights, Groening decided to go in another direction, and hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, naming the characters after members of his own family. Lisa was named after after Groening's younger sister.

Lisa made her debut with the rest of the Simpson family on April 19, 1987 in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night". In 1989, the shorts were adapted into The Simpsons, a half-hour series airing on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Lisa and the Simpson family remained the main characters on this new show.

Design

Datei:Lisasmall2.gif

This image illustrates how to draw Lisa's head and hairline using the "three-three-two arrangement".

The entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette. The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. Lisa's physical features are generally not used in other characters; for example, in the later seasons, no character other than Maggie share's her hairline. While designing Lisa, Groening "couldn't be bothered to even think about girls' hair styles". At the time, Groening was primarily drawing in black and white and when designing Lisa and Maggie, he "just gave them this kind of spiky starfish hair style, not thinking that they would eventually be drawn in color". To draw Lisa's head and hair, most of the animators use what they refer to as the "three-three-two arrangement". They draw a sphere, with intersecting curving lines (one vertical, one horizontal) in the middle to indcate her eyeline. They take the middle line running vertically, and continue the line outside of the sphere to draw one hair point, then two more going towards the back of her head. After that, they add three more points in front (in the direction Lisa is facing), then three more behind it. Several animators that have worked on the show, including Pete Michels and David Silverman, consider Lisa the most difficult character to draw. Silverman explains that it is because "her head is so abstract" due to her hair style.

Voice

Lisa's voice is provided by Yeardley Smith, and is the only recurring character voiced by her. While the roles of Homer and Marge were given to Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner because they were already a part of the Tracey Ullman Show cast, the producers decided to hold casting for the roles of Bart and Lisa. Nancy Cartwright originally auditioned for the role of Lisa. However, upon arriving at the audition, she discovered that the character was simply described as the "middle child" and did not have much personality. Cartwright instead auditioned for the role of Bart believing that the role was better for her. Cartwright recalls "with the brilliant wit of the writers and the wry, in-your-eye, honest-to-a-fault interpretation, Yeardley Smith has made Lisa a bright light of leadership, full of compassion and competence beyond her years. Lisa Simpson is the kind of child we not only want our children to be, but also the kind of child we want all children to be. But, at the time, on The Tracey Ullman Show, she was just an animated eight-year-old kid who had no personality."

Voice actress Yeardley Smith.

Yeardley Smith had initially been asked to audition for the role of Bart but casting director Bonita Pietila believed her voice was too high. Smith later recalled "I always sounded too much like a girl, I read two lines as Bart and they said, 'Thanks for coming!'" Smith was given the role of Lisa instead, although she almost turned it down. In order to perform the voice, Smith lifts her voice up a little.

Despite the fame of her character, Smith is rarely recognized in public, which she doesn't mind, saying "it's wonderful to be in the midst of all this hype about the show, and people enjoying the show so much, and to be totally a fly on the wall, people never recognise me solely from my voice." Smith has gotten very little live-action work and in 2004 performed her own one-woman show entitled More which, amongst other things, is about her mixed feelings over the success of The Simpsons. Smith received a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 but felt it wasn't worth anything, saying "there’s part of me that feels it wasn’t even a real Emmy." This is because the Emmy for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance is a Creative Arts award and is not voted on by the regular Emmy voters and not handed out during the primetime telecast. However, Smith says "if I had to be associated with one character in fiction, I will always be thrilled that it was Lisa Simpson."

Until 1998, Smith was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing for casting of new voices. However, the dispute was soon resolved and he received $125,000 per episode until 2004 when the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode. The issue was resolved a month later, and Smith earned $250,000 per episode. After salary re-negotiations in 2008, the voice actors receive approximately $400,000 per episode.

Development

In the Tracey Ullman Show shorts, Lisa was more of a "female Bart" and was equally mischievous. As the series progressed, Lisa began to develop into a more intelligent and more emotional character with "Krusty Gets Busted" being one of the first episodes where her true intelligence is fully shown. Many episodes focusing on Lisa have an emotional nature, the first one being "Moaning Lisa". The idea for the episode was pitched by James L. Brooks, who had wanted to do an emotional episode where Lisa is sad because the show had done a lot of "jokey episodes".

Reception

In 2000, Lisa, along with the rest of the Simpson family, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2001 Lisa received a special "Board of Directors Ongoing Commitment Award" at the Environmental Media Awards. "Lisa the Vegetarian", an episode from the seventh season, won both an Environmental Media Award for "Best Television Episodic Comedy" and a Genesis Award for "Best Television Comedy Series, Ongoing Commitment". Lisa was also listed at number 11 (in the same entry as Bart) in TV Guide's "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time."

Yeardley Smith has won several awards for voicing Homer, including a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance" in 1992 for "Lisa the Greek". Various episodes in which Lisa is strongly featured have won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program, including "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment" in 1991, "Lisa's Wedding" in 1995 and "HOMR" in 2001. In 2000, Lisa and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.

In Japan, the broadcasters of the series found they were able to turn the apparent viewer dislike of the series around by focusing marketing attention on Lisa. Lisa's well-intended but ill-fated struggles to be a voice of reason and a force of good in her family and city struck a chord with the Japanese.

References

• Nancy Cartwright: My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy. Hyperion, New York City 2000, ISBN 0-7868-8600-5. 
• Ray Richmond, Antonia Coffman: [[The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family]]. HarperCollins, New York City 1997, ISBN 0-00-638898-1. 
• Chris Turner: [[Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation]]. Random House Canada, Toronto 2004, ISBN 0-679-31318-4. 

External links

Wikiquote: Lisa Simpson – Zitate

• Lisa Simpson at The Simpsons.com
• Vorlage:Imdb character