Indeed. Either it is the same recording, or one seems to purposely imitate the other. What is strange is that the sound quality on the game, which came out later, is better. Therefore the game designers couldn’t just have innocently recorded the doll to get some generic baby sounds. Here is some info I dug up on the manufacturers (ok ok I just googled and checked wikipedia, don’t ruin my Fletch moment).
“Crave Entertainment is an American video game company. It was founded in 1997 by Nima Taghavi. Its headquarters is in Newport Beach, California. It is a division of Handleman Corporation, which acquired the company in 2005. It publishes games for Sega Dreamcast, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64 Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PSP and Xbox. It focuses on budget titles, and imported games such as Kaido Battle.” - Wikipedia
“Handleman moved into video games through its purchase of game and accessory distributor Crave Entertainment in late 2005. It also operates a national in-store merchandising business called REPS LLC. Handleman, which was founded in 1934 by Philip Handleman, announced in mid-2008 that it plans to liquidate.
Key People
• SVP and CFO: Rozanne Kokko
• President and CEO: Albert A. (Al) Koch
• Chairman: James B. (Jim) Nicholson” - Yahoo! Finance
“SECURITIES PURCHASE AGREEMENT
THIS SECURITIES PURCHASE AGREEMENT (” Agreement” ) is made as of October 18, 2005 among HANDLEMAN COMPANY, a Michigan corporation (” Buyer” ), and THE SHAREHOLDERS, OPTIONHOLDERS AND WARRANTHOLDERS OF CRAVE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC., a California corporation (such California corporation being defined in this Agreement as the “ Company” ), WHOSE NAMES APPEAR ON THE SIGNATURE PAGES OF THIS AGREEMENT (individually, a “ Shareholder” , and collectively, the “ Shareholders” ). Nima Taghavi, Hossein Taghavi, Reza Taghavi, Michael Maas and the Reza Taghavi Living Trust are collectively referred to in this Agreement as the “ Major Shareholders.”” - techagreements.com
Seems to me Handleman is probably not the problem here, they just bought the interest in the company to get into video games, while I think Taghavi is still the controlling executive of Crave. He is Iranian, as evidenced by this snippet about Nima Taghavi, his relative I presume and fellow shareholder, from http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states-california-metro-areas/582004-1.html:
“Nima Taghavi has been in business for more than 20 years — and he’s not yet 30. A native of Iran, Taghavi’s American dream ignited his entrepreneurial spirit and he went into business almost as soon as he landed in the States.”
Possibly completely unrelated, but you never know: according to Opensecrets.org, a Fariba Taghavi disclosed $4,600 to Hillary Clinton in March 2007, which apparently was returned to her(?) 6 months later, and $500 to Barack Obama in March 2007, which was not returned. Farimah Taghavi donated $1000 to Hillary Clinton in May 2007, which was also returned to her(?) in September 2007. Both of these Taghavi’s are located in California. Fariba is listed as president of Mitchra Lights, and is a Political Science professor with California State University, Long Beach. Farimah is listed as Sales Director of Bluecut.
Fariba has published a journal article, the title of which I found at http://www.international.ucla.edu/cnes/jusur/ :
“The Contentious Twins: Religion and State in Medieval Persian Political Thought
Fariba Taghavi”
Another article from this website, at: http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=14949
states this interesting fact:
“the seminar entitled “Islam and the Middle East: A Journey from the Past to the Present” engaged 33 Orange County teachers in a six-day workshop. CNES’ affiliate Fariba Taghavi served as the lead scholar”
Her company, listed on OpenSecrets as MitchraLights is apparently a typo for MithraLights, a signage company in Anaheim. Mithra is of course the primary deity of Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Persia. Strange for an Islamic scholar to name her company after an idol, but whatever.
According to this site, http://www.lls.edu/media/publications/PublicRecordSummer2005.pdf, Farimah Taghavi donated to Loyola Law School for an “Iranian Scholarship”.
This site: http://www.montebubbles.net/green_fashion_news.htm details a Los Angeles “Green Gallery” for showcasing new “Eco Trends”. One of the products showcased is:
“Panbeh Yoga Bags
Panbeh, translating to “cotton” in Persian, is a line of eco-friendly yoga bags created from organic cotton canvas. Designer Farimah Taghavi seeks to promote the idea of “living in a sustainable society”.”
The website, panbeh.net, has a nice Islamic-looking logo on the top left corner.
The only likely info I can find about the “Bluecut” that Farimah said she was Sales Director of is from http://www.findownersearch.com/category/COMPUTER%2BSOFTWARE/
It lists a Bluecut System, with an owner named Saeed R. Azadipour, address P.O.Box 3458 Santa Monica CALIFORNIA 90408. They make: “Software modules, namely, computer software for financial management and credit card processing and financial collections and inventory control; Computer software for the purpose of printing custom merchandise catalogs and computer software for merchandise order taking”
Boy oh boy, this little childrens game is leading me down a veritable Iranian rabbit’s hole! If I wasn’t suspicious before, I sure as heck am now.
“Boy oh boy, this little childrens game is leading me down a veritable Iranian rabbit’s hole! If I wasn’t suspicious before, I sure as heck am now.”
Somebody needs to check out every product Crave has produced for this kind of stuff.