Unlike many cinematic exports,
the Disney canon of films distinguishes itself with an impressive dedication to
dubbing.
Through an in-house service called
Disney Character Voices International, not just dialogue but songs, too, are
skillfully re-recorded, echoing the voice acting, rhythm, and rhyme scheme of the original work to
an uncanny degree (while still leaving plenty of room for
lyrical reinvention).
The breadth of the effort is surprising, as well -- everything from
Arabic to
Icelandic to
Zulu gets its own dub, and their latest project,
The Princess and the Frog, debuted in
more than forty tongues.
Luckily for polyglots everywhere, the exhaustiveness of Disney's translations is thoroughly documented online in
multilanguage mixes and
one-line comparisons, linguistic kaleidoscopes that cast new light on old standards.
Highlights:
"One Jump Ahead," "Prince Ali," and
"A Whole New World" (
Aladdin) -
"Circle of Life," "Hakuna Matata," and
"Luau!" (
The Lion King) -
"Under the Sea" and
"Poor Unfortunate Souls" (
The Little Mermaid) -
"Belle" and
"Be Our Guest" (
Beauty and the Beast) -
"Just Around the Riverbend" (
Pocahontas) -
"One Song" and
"Heigh-Ho" (
Snow White) -
"Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" (
Cinderella) -
Medley (
Pinocchio) -
"When She Loved Me" (
Toy Story 2) -
Intro (
Monsters, Inc.)
posted by Rhaomi
on Nov 12, 2010 -
31 comments
Everybody knows that gangsta rap promotes sexism, homophobia... and fascism. Take
Bushido, for instance - the Berlin rapper of Tunisian descent that all the neo-Nazis love.
Confused?
(nyt) Well,
so are the Germans. And then we're not even talking about
Fler, whose
"This is black-red-gold, hard and proud!" nationalist lyrics never fail to piss off the
German papers (in German), and who likes to pose in his videos with a nice symbolic eagle. (Then again,
Helmut Kohl didn't mind.)
Still, Fler's flag-waving, eagle-loving rhymes are no match for Bushido's
"Salute, stand to attention, I am the leader like 'A'". The A stands for Adolf, you know.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Jan 12, 2006 -
28 comments
Heiterkeit (12 meg quicktime movie) is an utterly charming German music video about all the
other fun things you can do lying down. (Yes, it's entirely safe for work, unless your workplace forbids quirky charm.) If you enjoy it, check out
Transsylvanische Verwandte(12 meg quicktime movie), another work by
the same director. For a look behind the scenes of both films, there's this
making-of video. (The making of video is a realplayer file, and it's in German--but I don't speak German, and I got the general idea.) Via
Antville.
posted by yankeefog
on Oct 28, 2005 -
12 comments
Schnappi! Contrary to popular belief in the rest of the world, the German pop charts are not dominated by
over-the-hill American TV stars. In fact, the current #1 single, outselling even the
usual imported subjects is a silly little ditty about a baby crocodile. (Think of it as the German version of SpongeBob Squarepants, kindasorta.)
I'm passing on the earworm to all of you via the four versions listed
here. You're quite welcome.
posted by chicobangs
on Jan 11, 2005 -
30 comments
"Kriminalz?" Appears to be two German guys attempting to rap while wearing construction hats. German or not, how can this be for real?
posted by asbates2
on Dec 9, 2004 -
22 comments
