Do you guys think you need to be danish or the very least be able to speak danish, in order to truely appreciate this cartoon as the little masterpiece it is?
Iv'e watch "Terkel i knibe" in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and English and in my opinion the best version is the Danish one. When it gets translated into the other languages, there are many lines that changes fundementally, which kind of takes some of the fun out of it...
What do u think?
Yeah, the danish humour is of such a nature that a lot is lost in translation. It probably did not help that most of the foreign actors did not seem to understand it.
At the top of the mountain, we are all Snow Leopards. -Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Well, I can't say that I've seen the danish version. But I've seen the swedish one and I *beep* loved that movie, it was so funny all the time. All the voices, all the horrible events that you recognized in your own life, though twisted in a sick and funny way. :P
I'm just wondering.. is it really that big difference in danish and swedish so that much of the humour disappears? Norwegian too of course, English I can understand if that would happen, but swedish and norwegian, I doubt it. It sounds a bit weird. Perhaps very few lines of jokes disappears in the translation, but not many I would think?
It is not just the language, it is the humour and the mindset. For example, Arne, the hippie teacher/narrator, he was completely lost on the british. I don't know if the norwegians and swedish have a similar charactertype. I could imagine that he would be rather specific to Denmark, and the childrens television of the seventies.
At the top of the mountain, we are all Snow Leopards. -Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
I think taht, one of the things that makes the movie funny is the fact that Anders Matthesen did all the voicing (in the DK version). And It just isn't the same.
sharePersonally, I noticed something interesting with this film (made by my studio).
Of course, a large amount of the language had already been used on radio and on the CD that the film is based on. ALL dialogue was spoken by Anders Matthesen, the stand-up comedian who originally had written the story. Still, when we made it, we considered the language VERY carefully, knowing we were walking on a razor's edge. We ended up with a film that we felt was precisely fitted to the Danish market.
Then marketing took over, and dubbing in different languages was organized by the diverse distributors. In many countries it was decided not to find one person to speak all parts. More interestingly, now in every single instance the next person wanted to top the previous in the non-pc-ness of the content.
Every dub and every set of subtitles I have seen is more crude-for-the-sake-of-crudeness than the original Danish version. Even the Danish posters have been made more crude by the designers who took images created at our studio and drew fake graffiti on top. Again speaking personally, I think this does not help the film - especially not internationally. I do think this says something about people, though, and I would think this should be suitable material for somebody's Ph.D.
Our next film, Journey to Saturn, which will see its Danish premiere on September 26th of 2008, again has strong language and quite a bit of suggestive imagery, which *I* do not agree with , but the younger members of our staff are crazy about. And yes, it is also funny, "if you can take it." It is quite a bit more Danish, though, specifically about this group of Danes flying to Saturn to tap this planet for its resources, only to find its inhabitants wanting to do the same with Earth. It is based on a 1977 graphic novel that for years has been one of my personal favorites. I think I will like the film, as I liked Terkel in Trouble. I actually liked Terkel a lot, language notwithstanding (not only because it tells a story well for the price of a minute and a half of any Pixar film.) I hope you'll like it, too. Just remember that the version you see may have lost something in the translation.
All this talk about how the translation doesn't work and the danish version is the best. It's like that most of the time and in this case, Danes are very protective of their successful movies. It's the same way many foreign movies get a poor translation or subtitles in Denmark, so in the end, it probably doesn't matter that much.
I have an eight year old son and I would like to show him this movie one day.
It's still too early now I think.
I saw a music clip on Youtube with the F-word in the title. That might work in Denmark because they don't view the word the same way as people do in America.
I wait a couple of years more with this one, if the language is better (cleaner) in Journey to Saturn, I will show that to him.
You are right on the money where the Danish view of the F-word is concerned. I was standing at a bus stop and a little kid, four or five years old was using it, and his dad did not react: he has no idea of the underlying meaning. It is interchangeable with darn and drat...
As to translations, to us it matters, as we make our money from making these movies. Remember, the only reason we were able to make this was because we could make it at a cost of about two minutes of a Pixar movie (1.8 million USD for the film plus 20 extra minutes for the DVD!) Journey to Saturn is not going to be much more expensive - just adjust for inflation. In the end it is all about the storytelling!
I agree that the translations are very important, as are cultural references. Many movies that takes place in large cities like L.A. or New York, might be familiar situations to non Americans, but there are still slang and up to date topics, that can't be translated. If a movie is from the Mid west, it might as well be from Mars to many Europeans, it's hard for Europeans to relate to Mid westerns.
Then again, it's the same way when foreign movies plays in the US. Subtle references, slang and the like are often not understood completely by Americans.
I'm Danish, but I have lived in L.A. for 15 years. I often have to "explain" why characters or situations happen the way the do in Danish movies. Try to explain Dogme to confused Americans.
As you say, in the end it's all about a great story, great script and great film making.
Good luck with Journey to Saturn! I hope we get to see it in the US?
Held og Lykke!
Yes the f-word is not such a big deal in any of the Scandinavian countries I think. By the way I love that song fack up and die. I wish I knew it in Danish. Only know it in Swedish.
"Oh, scuzi, mi scuzi"
We just recently have checked the Hungarian version and man, the translation was incredible. We almost pissed our ankles, it was freaking hilarious.
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