What is the... No. 1 animated film of all time, grossing
$1 billion, with
41 languages,
25 languages (in the "Let it go" song),
22 female singers...
Disney's Frozen of course!
Despite my other Frozen posts such as this one, I never posted a link to the video of the song sung in 25 different languages. I have, however, already learnt not only "Let it go" but most of the other major songs in the film off by heart in both English and French and I am almost there learning "Let it go" (off by heart) in Spanish as well. What can I say? It's such a great film and such an addictive song. My favourite is "Do you want to build a snowman?" or "Je voudrais un bonhomme de neige" in French. I always wondered why they didn't translate it as "Tu veux faire un bonhomme de neige?" which has the same number of syllables.
Well I just came across this great article on Yahoo about the film's main song into 25 different languages. You could never imagine how different this was. It's not simply a matter of translating the song lyrics into other languages, you need to get the same meaning across (but not necessarily use the same words) but this part I didn't know.. they also had to choose words that mimicked the mouth movements of Elsa in the film.
Translating "Frozen" into so many different languages is exceptionally challenging, says Rick Dempsey, a senior exec at Disney's Character Voices International unit. "It's a difficult juggling act to get the right intent of the lyrics and also have it match rhythmically to the music," he told Yahoo in a recent email exchange. "And then you have to go back and adjust for lip sync! [It]… requires a lot of patience and precision."
It's such a joy for me to see the talented faces behind this multilingual version of this song. I almost think it's not fair. How can they all be so talented AND beautiful? ;)
and what is the conclusion of all this? By translating the film and songs into multiple languages they could target a much wider audience.. therefore foreign languages benefit everyone! ;)
and if you still haven't seen the film or watched this song yet, what are you waiting for?
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Edited (21 April):
In case you came here looking for the song here it is:
and with lyrics! (from UniLang here)
Bié ràng tāmen jìnlái kànjiàn, zuohǎo nǚhái jiù xiàng nǐ de cóngqián
Arinomama no sugata miseru no yo
naemamdaelo jayulobge sallae
Sad je kraj, sad je kraj Na krilima vetra sam
(pinyin for Mandarin) Shuí yì yào suíxīn jiǎng, wàngdiào zuótiān bēigē
Podvlastny mne moroz i lod, nu chto za divnyy dar
Shte spra da bŭda az na minaloto plen
Pl̀xy xxk mā leik s̀xn rên dĕk dī mị̀ h̄ĕn mī kh̀ā
4 comments:
What would 'je voudrais un bonhomme de neige' translate to -
When you say that in french is the 'to build ' part implied ?
Does ' Je voudrais un bonhomme de neige' translate to I would like to build a snowman ?
Thanks
Hi Gabrielle,
Well literally, it mean "I would like" or "I would like to have" a snowman.
To 'make' or 'build' (a snowman) is 'faire' in French.
Since I'm not a native speaker nor an expert, maybe you are right... maybe in the context of the film it means "I would like to build (with you) a snowman".. :)
Any native French speakers who are reading this please reply, Thanks! :)
Disney has translated a lot of songs in a lot of idioms/languages through the time. The thing is that Internet and social media help a lot in a global world like the 21th century. What is your favorite version?
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