Translating mistakes

Mumbling · **on:** January 31, 2009, 03:25:00 PM

I've had this a couple of times while listening to the dutch version of LBT.

Land before time XII: At the very start when Guido introduces himself and tells about him not knowing himself he says: "Know what? I'm the only flyer like me I have ever seen before!"

Later on the movie they're like

you're a flyer!(like it should be)

Still it's a little silly they translated it like that.

Also in land before time XIII we hear everyone talking about the bluebellies(instead of yellowbellies) which makes no sense since it wouldn't make a difference calling it blue or yellow in dutch.

So do other non-native speakers found any mistakes in their language?

MurMur · **Reply #1 on:** May 29, 2013, 01:40:40 PM

The Russian translation of the LBT is relatively good, but there are some oddities:

Littlefoot mentions the word "human" in the LBT VI.
In the same movie, Cera mentions "God".
Ducky becomes male in LBT XI. Yes, DUCKY. They use masculine pronouns to refer to her. Even Ducky herself thinks she's a boy. There is probably another LBT movie where this happens too, but I don't remember which one.
"The Great Day of the Flyers" is now "The Great Day of Birds".
The Lone Dinosaur is now the Tall Dinosaur (or the Long Dinosaur, possibly because the words "Long" and "Lone" sound too similar).

DarkHououmon · **Reply #2 on:** May 29, 2013, 03:42:14 PM

Quote from: MurMur,May 29 2013 on 12:40 PM

The Russian translation of the LBT is relatively good, but there are some oddities:
Littlefoot mentions the word "human" in the LBT VI.
In the same movie, Cera mentions "God".
Ducky becomes male in LBT XI. Yes, DUCKY. They use masculine pronouns to refer to her. Even Ducky herself thinks she's a boy. There is probably another LBT movie where this happens too, but I don't remember which one.
"The Great Day of the Flyers" is now "The Great Day of Birds".
The Lone Dinosaur is now the Tall Dinosaur (or the Long Dinosaur, possibly because the words "Long" and "Lone" sound too similar).

What? I don't know which of those I find most confusing. Well except the Lone Dinosaur being called the Tall Dinosaur. That seems relatively minor compared to the other stuff.

jansenov · **Reply #3 on:** May 29, 2013, 04:32:10 PM

In the Croatian version of the original movie Ducky is refered to as a male and voiced by a boy.

Mumbling · **Reply #4 on:** May 29, 2013, 04:46:49 PM

Dil from LBT 4 is also seen as male in the Dutch version.

Ducky123 · **Reply #5 on:** May 29, 2013, 05:05:39 PM

I know there are many of them though they mostly aren't bad mistakes...
Can't remember one atm... will post here if I find some

MurMur · **Reply #6 on:** May 29, 2013, 05:30:37 PM

Quote

What? I don't know which of those I find most confusing. Well except the Lone Dinosaur being called the Tall Dinosaur. That seems relatively minor compared to the other stuff.

Cera screams "Thank God" at one point, and that is really strange. What religion does she adhere to? Another weird thing is that, during his song, Littlefoot tells us that the story of the Lone Dinosaur happened "before the time of Man".

Bruton the Iguanodon · **Reply #7 on:** May 29, 2013, 06:11:57 PM

Quote

Cera screams "Thank God" at one point, and that is really strange. What religion does she adhere to? Another weird thing is that, during his song, Littlefoot tells us that the story of the Lone Dinosaur happened "before the time of Man".

WTF?!!

MurMur · **Reply #8 on:** May 30, 2013, 01:59:11 AM

This is called "anthropocentrism". Some people simply can't understand that the Land Before Time characters are dinosaurs, not humans in funny suits.

Malte279 · **Reply #9 on:** May 31, 2013, 03:45:18 AM

In one German audio play addaptation of the original movie Ducky is also referred to as a male.
There is also sort of a translation mistake in the German version of LBT 6, though it is not so much mistranslation as it is no translation at all. After the gang is hurled across the canyon inside the log there is a dialogue in which they are speculating whether or not they have been eaten. That dialogue is missing entirely in the German version. I'm pretty sure there are several other actual translation mistakes in the German adaptations of the sequels, I just can't think of the examples right now. I'll post when I remember.

Ducky123 · **Reply #10 on:** May 31, 2013, 08:30:48 AM

I remember that one, Malte

I think Petrie's Mother referred to Pterano as a 'cousin' instead of a brother

Malte279 · **Reply #11 on:** May 31, 2013, 04:21:00 PM

Aye, indeed that was one case that I didn't manage to remember before. Notably, however he is not referred to as "brother" by Petrie's mother in the movie either. In the respective scene she says:
"Yes, let's!" where the German version would translate to "Yes, cousin!" (with the word cousin sounding spat out like it was an offense).
Only in a later scene (after the kidnapping of Ducky) Petrie's mother refers to him as brother when in the German version again he is refered to as cousin.

MurMur · **Reply #12 on:** June 01, 2013, 01:53:41 AM

But what's the purpose of turning Ducky into a male? Why did they do that?

jansenov · **Reply #13 on:** June 01, 2013, 04:46:49 AM

Perhaps because "Ducky" sounds like a male name in many languages, or perhaps because Ducky is voiced by really young girls in the early movies, and doesn't sound as clearly female as Cera does. Good old sloppiness among the translators.

Malte279 · **Reply #14 on:** June 01, 2013, 06:20:01 AM

Ducky doesn't sound particularly male in German either. My best guess is that because the English original movie (unless I'm very mistaken) never refered to her as she and neither did the German translation some people involved in the making of the audio book didn't think about it. It is only the narrator of that audio book (not in any way related to the actual movie translation) who refers to Ducky as "er" (he).

Translating mistakes

Bruton the Iguanodon