Oh how the tables have turned!
Somehow “And they slapped his face on every vase” has turned into “I want him all to myself” and “on every VAA~S” has turned into “NO! HE’S EVERYONE’S!” 
JP and I spent the bulk of our evening last night laughing our asses off. More “winners” after the jump.
“D-d-ddanger lurks behind you” has turned into “ww-w-wwait a minute” >_> “Not pony tails or cotton tails” has turned into “An endless adventure”
Under the Sea has become Subarashii! ヾ(●ﾟ∀ﾟ●)ﾉ アハハッ
Lyrics aside, the singing is so out of tune it makes my ears bleed rofl. Also “I’ve got street savoir faire” has turned into “I’m gonna use my head” >_>
A whole new world has turned into OOOZORA. P.S. HOOORA.
There was however probably the most redeeming dubs yet:
I’ve listened to the Hakuna Matata dub so many times I think I know the Japanese lyrics now rofl.
On another note, the Russian dubs of all these songs are much better translated and actually rhyme lol.
It’s difficult to translate lyrics poetically, let alone get the content and context right. Rhyming is almost never done, but I’ve seen some amazing karaoke’d subs that match the song syllabically and yet don’t actually change the meaning at all (at the cost of maybe adding a few words).
This usually ends up being slightly localized, and worse, makes it tougher to re-translate into another language. I’m sure most subbers would prefer to avoid the hassle, since fans who don’t speak English as a first language often find overly-prosaic translations painful. It’s likely not worth the time investment for the most part.
Mang I forgot how awesome that sequence from Pocahontas was.
When I listen to anime OPs and EDs I tend to completely ignore the translations.
1. They make my head hurt
2. I can appreciate the human voice as a musical instrument (so not understanding the lyrics isn’t a deal breaker)
Having done some translations (amateur) of English to Filipino and vice-versa songs, the main problem I run into is making the translated words fit the melody. Keeping rhyme? LOL
I like almost all Disney dubs. They tend be of generally high quality. Translating songs =/= translating dialogue. I am totally okay with nearly all of these changes. Besides, shit like “street savoir faire” isn’t fucking English anyway. That line always confused the hell out of me when I was seven.
I guess I’m biased because if they can translate it to make it close to the original and STILL make it rhyme in Russian, I can’t see why it can’t be done in Japanese!
I think it’s way hard to translate a tightly-timed song from English to Japanese. A lyric with the same meaning in either language will definitely have discrepancies in the number of syllables, so they would have to improvise by either adding/subtracting notes/melody or changing words and meanings altogether.
Which leads to how awesomely funny the Aladdin clip was in the second line, “Hey Princess look at this free flower (or flower of freedom?)” LOL
Oh I’ve been well aware of how stupid dubbing goes both ways for a while thanks to being a Disney dork. One week I amused myself by checking out the songs in other languages. It was probably then that I fully understood what a weeaboo was when I saw people calling the dubs better.
Why Should I Worry definitely hurts the most out these though. That better not be a serious way of gauging how Japan thinks of Billy Joel’s talent. Until that one I hated the Belle Reprise the most and mostly because that’s always been one of my favorites and anything less than perfect is unacceptable. Certainly wasn’t helpful that Eri Itou sounds like she’s whining, not singing.
Since I don’t know Japanese, most of my complaints are along the lines of singing, voices, and sounding like an actual song. (Though when I do understand I’m finding myself laughing, I don’t think that’s good.) And that Hercules one certainly puts things in perspective. So many lines that went along with the visuals are changed, so now it just seems sort of nonsensical.
I mean I can forgive it because of how hard it is to translate things, but come on! With all the crap English dubs get (some quite deservedly), can’t we pick on Japan for doing the same thing to our stuff? XD
http://schoolgirlmilkycrisis.com/blog/?p=959
I am somehow delighted that Japan had Duck Tales. And now I need to go have a Disney movie marathon.
Yeah, I agree that disney songs translated into Japanese sound really awkward but it could be just a language thing. I’m used to disney in English and the songs were written with English in mind. I checked the russian ones tho, and yeah, they are pretty good. Mandarin ones tend to fall flat a little but A Whole New World in mandarin is BEAUTIFUL. I like the cantonese ones the best, largely cos cantonese itself is pretty sing song language.
It boils down to how used you are to a certain language (e.g. I think the polish ones sound a little too much for me), the linguistic nature of the language and how suited it is to a particular score.
I just don’t like dubs in general. XD (CRINGE)
Pocahontas is quite a winner in Japanese tho! Pleasantly surprised!
I can show you the world, shining shimmering splendid~~~
ちょッ～wwwwwww
raion kingu, anda za shiiってカタカナやないけwwwww
かっこわるいなぁ
LOLOLOLOL “ii otoko!” oh, you said it sister!
That being said, the Hebrew dub is even worse. The vase part is completely random, so if you don’t know the source, you think “why is she holding a vase and singing about museums? And why did that lady hit her and said ‘also statues’? Was it necessary to hit her to make that point?” and so on. The whole music-is-totally-not-related-to-video vibe is very lady gaga.
The Pocahontas dub probably works because it uses a bunch of pentatonic scales, which makes it sound familiar to traditional Asian music.
Eeeenteresting!