#blue's bafflegabs

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

So I HAVE REALIZED that all y'all English speakers do not realize what mastery the Polish version of Zero to Hero from Disney's hit movie Hercules (1997) is and that is simply unacceptable

But do not worry as I, in a fit of sleeplessness, decided to deliver you from this misery

First of all a link to the song with the lyrics in the descryption

And now onto my incoherent swooning over Polish language

Okay so first of all they managed to keep the visual pun of “Herc was on a roll” by using “mówię wszem, wkoło to co wiem” (I tell to all, around what I know) with “wkoło” literally using the word circle and just y’know, fits

“Spoza kulis” – “from behind the stage” they refer to the theatre and you know, it’s Ancient Greece

“A dziś contra plures wyrusza w bój” WE START THE GOOD STUFF. Literally they sing “and today he goes fight contra plures” which is an obvious and delightful reference to the Latin quote “Non Hercules contra plures”

And here maybe I’m reaching bUT- They sing “nie jest mu obcy żaden znój” (“he’s not a stranger to any toil”) and the word “znój” here is the key, because it can be used as synonym to “work” so twelve works of Hercules mayhaps???

They mention Croesus! They sing that Herc could rival him in terms of riches

(Also they call Herc “this god of heroes” using the word “heros” that usually is used to mean specifically “Greek half-god hero”, so like “god of half-gods” lol)

“Taki chłop ze stali stale trafia sto na sto” THIS DEAR SIR IS MASTERY OF WORD

AND I really think that we need to all show respect to the translator for translating the lines “And this perfect package packed a pair of pretty pecs” and keeping the alliteration. Sure, he changed the sound from “p” to “b” but those are literally almost the same sound in the scientific sense, just one is voiced and the other is voiceless, so I don’t want to hear any critique is that clear 🔪 Also “bóg bohater biegły w bojach bogom prawie brat” sounds extremely cool (god hero experiences in battles almost a brother to the gods)

“Widział kto mężniejszego męża?” again, fantastic wordplay, the closest example in English I can think of is “manly man” only if “manly” meant “brave” or “daring”

Appreciation for the line “not a douche who’d slice bread with an axe” <3

“Mięśnie ma herkuliste” he sure has very herculesous those muscles

“Mister of beauty” you know, like the peagents

“Strong like a Pillar of Hercules” more references!

“The dice long time ago iacta est” obvious reference to “alea iacta est”, of course

“Who doesn’t dieeeeeeeeee… is alive!” I couldn’t sum it up better myself

Thank for reading I love this song goodnight

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The secrets of hospital bills

Today, the New York Times published an analysis of hospital pricing in the US, comparing prices charged to uninsured people, to Medicare, and to different insurers, revealing that these prices can vary up to 900%, often to the detriment of large insurers.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/22/upshot/hospital-prices.html

This represents a marked contrast to the story we are often told about health-care pricing in America — that large insurers use their might to negotiate lower rates from price-gouging hospitals. That might be true sometimes, but often, it’s not.

And as the Times points out, it’s not necessarily the insurers who pay those inflated prices — many insurance plans are actually run by large employers, and only administered by the insurance company. So when Cigna turns down a treatment, it’s actually your boss doing it.

That may be a nice fiction for your boss to maintain in order to deflect your ire the coverage you’re denied — but it also means that when Cigna allows a hospital to gouge it for your care, it’s your boss that pays for it — not Cigna’s shareholders.

Meanwhile, the variations in prices are simply wild. If you get a colonoscopy at University of Mississippi Medical Center, it costs $1463 if you’re with Cigna, $2144 if you’re with Aetna, and $782 if you’re uninsured.

$782!

The percentage differences are even more pronounced with small-dollar items, like a pregnancy test at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania:

$18 if you’re with Blue Cross PA.

$58 if you’re a Blue Cross NJ HMO customer.

$93 if you’re a Blue Cross NJ PPO customer.

$10 if you’re uninsured.

There’s so much more of this. Hospital and insurance spokespeople told Sarah Kliff, Josh Katz and Rumsey Taylor that all of this was not nearly so bad as it looks, that it was taken out of context, that there’s an innocent explanation — but were unable to provide that explanation.

The reality is that it’s much worse than it looks. The data-set they were reporting on is fragmentary, drawn from the minority of hospitals that deign to comply with a bipartisan order (started under Trump, affirmed by Biden) requiring hospitals to provide this pricing data.

These are the hospitals with the least to hide, the best of the bunch, and they’re so bad. There’s repeated stories of parents being horribly gouged on rabies shots for their children, for example.

All of this puts the lie to the story of health-care as a market. A parent whose child is in need of urgent care following a wild animal attack doesn’t shop around for a deal. There’s no “demand elasticity” in rabies shots for children.

But even if a heart-attack patient in an ambulance was interested in shopping for a bargain on their care, they would be stopped cold. Hospitals and insurers treat their pricing information as trade secrets, and refuse to disclose it, even when legally obliged to do so.

That secrecy extends to your employer, who is unable to see prices even when shopping for an insurer for thousands of your co-workers. In 2018, Larimer County, CO tried to get the insurer who covered its 3,500 employees to disclose its negotiated hospital prices.

They raised the issue up to the insurance company’s CEO, who personally told them to fuck off, pay him, and forget about ever finding out how that money was being spent. They put the contract out for rebid. Of the six insurers who bid, five refused to disclose prices.

A former Blue Cross exec told the Times that they put “gag orders in all our contracts,” ensuring that no one would ever know whether they were getting ripped off.

Six months after the order that legally required hospitals to post prices, the Times contracted the ten highest-grossing noncompliant hospitals. NYU Langone told them to fuck off (“We will not be providing a statement or comment”).

They got bafflegab from Cedars Sinai: “We do not post standard cash rates, which typically will not reflect the price of care for uninsured patients.”

Penn Medicine made a funny: “Penn Medicine is committed to transparency about potential costs.”

This is not a market. Markets have prices and shoppers (not hostages). This is a racket. If you doubt it for an instant, tune into Arm and a Leg, a podcast that reveals health care’s crooked billing practices and explains how to resist them.

https://armandalegshow.com/

When I moved to America, a number of friends counselled me to take out catastrophic injury insurance and skip regular health insurance, and show up at doctors’ offices and hospitals with cash in hand, ready to bargain.

They swore up and down that they were paying less in cash money for treatment than I would pay in deductibles and co-pays for my insured coverage. It looks like they were right in many cases. But this is no way to run a healthcare system.

For one thing, it leaves people with chronic conditions out in the cold. For another, it allows the system to continue to rot, transforming into a financial institution first and a way to treat patients as a distant second.

America doesn’t have market healthcare. It has racket healthcare. The fact that Americans defend this system is frankly bizarre. Unless you’re a shareholder in this rotten system, it has absolutely nothing to redeem it.

It is a crooked enterprise that wastes trillions and delivers precious little care.

Image: Japanexperterna.se (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/japanexperterna/15251188384/

CC BY-SA: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[trans-n-enby-stuff]

Hey Chris, I just need some cheering up, just really down and sad and lonely as hell and surrounded by people I hate and I can't leave

Okay love, that sounds sucky. BUT you can do it, you’ll get through it 💜💜 you’re far stronger than it all. Alright, so. Let’s try some cheering up, yeah? On more than one occasion I’ve fallen putting my pants on. (Like,, just right on my face) I used to have chickens!!! They were super awesome and you could hold them and they laid green and blue tinted eggs!!Some of my favorite words and their definitions:Piffle- nonsenseIchthyology- the study of fishMickle- great or largeGravid- pregnantBafflegab- nonsensePalindrome- something read the same way forwards and backwards!!Idk if this’ll help, but I’m also going to reblog this with some pictures of my cats

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

It's way too late but who cares! Here is my analysis of the Polish translation of the first song from Encanto, Family Madrigal!

Just a headsup, this song is one of the "just good" ones, so dont expect any fireworks like with WDTAB (we'll save those emotions for What Else Can I Do because boy)

*I'll start by noting that I really like how in the og version they made "drawers" rhyme with "floors" and "doors" even though it shouldn't be possible

+ Then again, Mirabel's Polish VA balances it out by having more enthusiasm in her voice when she sings this part than her English predecessor had

+ I have to say I prefer "time for the show" over "let's go", and this is also a good example of when using a macaronism/slang term works really well

-"Here's the family" I know "my family" wouldn't fit but it just sounds weird x)

+ "We're all here thanks to her" I think sounds a little better, sweeter maybe than "She led us here so many years ago"

+ "It's better (for us) with each new day" > "every year"

+ And here I'm conflicted, because "I'll tell what I know from this story" just sounds better to me, like more in character? But it's kinda far from the original "There's just a lot you've simply got to know". Though at the end of it I think I like the dubbed version better

= "And it's okay" instead of "We're on our way" I know it was made to fit the sound of the original but it's a very interesting choice I'm not convinced about

= "This is my family Madrigal" instead of "I'm part of". For me Mirabel's constant assurances that she's part of the family were quite unnatural but I mean, I guess that was the point and part of her characterization/foreshadowing of her problems so

+ Coffe got diminuted into "kawka" <3

*I just wanted to make a note that if you can follow an og line with a dubbed line and it still sounds fine, then you know the translation is good

+ I'm not going to translate the whole line but I think the internal rhymes in the line "her recipes are remedies for real" work even better in Polish

+"It's not a dream, it's something fantastical, somthing magical/It's my family Madrigal" again we loose the foreshadowing but it sounds better

+Okay here are the fireworks I just love how the part about Felix and Agustin got transalted, just, the internal rhymes in "wój mój" and "za to tato" (the use of tato in Nominative is so informal <3) and it sounds even faster than in the original despite having the same if not less syllables it's just *mwah*

*I feel like I should say something about the use of "pocisnę" which is very slang, and "time sheet" (like you have in school) but I don't know what so here

-"Camilo changes (himself)" sadly we don't have a verb to shapeshift 😔

+"Antonio will find out his gift today" instead of "get", I like it, it implies they all already have it and the ceremony only like, outs it (And if you want to go the angsty route, this might've been what made Mirabel think she's talentless, the ceremony didn't out any gift cause she never had any)

-"She makes a flower carpet in seconds" no sass for Mira here

+ "Her brain and lion heart" lion heart <333

-"Look for me in the family Madrigal" I... absolutely don't understand this line

+ I like the use of the word biographical in the og line, but Polish one is more natural, kinda like she's no longer really singing a song, but just speaking normally and fitting into the melody and rhythm simply by the laws of musical

+ English: Julieta, better, arepa; Polish: Julietę, arepę, lepiej

+ Also the town chants "talk aabout yourself, Mirabel!" so again, more direct

-We lose the meta joke about Dolores hearing the chorus

+ Instead of just "what are you doing" abuela uses a stronger word (so not "robisz" but "wyczyniasz")

+ And finally I don't know why but just, Dolores' line is much more funny to me in Polish XD Maybe it's because of the archaic/poetic word order, maybe it's the delivery, but yeah

So generally, even though I've noted out many strong points, these are the kind that I only noticed now during this analysis, so I guess they've added a lot, but still in general it's just, equally good.

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

Alright "Waiting on a miracle" let's goooo

+ Mirabel doesn’t tell herself what to do, but instead convinces herself that that’s what she feels (”I’m not sad” instead of ”don’t be sad”)

+ I wasn’t convinced to it at first, but I have to admit that ”tak mi źle” just hits harder than ”I’m not fine”

*I’d love to give it a plus but the line ”I won’t bring flower fields to life” is straight up poetry and simply leaves the og no chances. I think it also works for my theory that in translations thy just can’t allow themselves to say things literally and that’s why it’smore poetic

= I’m on a tie here, on one hand, ”hoping I could finally shine” makes Mirabel sound more selfish, but on the other I really like this line…

- I love you Ms Szczepaniak but Ms Beatriz’s voice break is simply superior to your voice tremble 😔

+ ”I don’t want to stand alone” instead of ”stand on the side”

- ”Look at me here” instead of ”open your eyes” alas

* Though I have to admit, somehow the Polish lyrics flow better here, since I feel like Ms Beatriz had a little problem with connecting ”eyes” and ”open”

+ You can hear Ms Szczepaniak smile in these next lines I’m ajekjwjkwaj

+ ”Someone just show the road to [my] dreams” is absolutely superior to ”where do I go” I’m not sorry

= And here is this interesting phenomena, where they changed the lyrics completely, but like, they work. So ”I would heal what's broken/Show this family something new” got exchanged for ”I want to give something the family/And wake the hope once more” so??? I love it??? But also???

- I really love ”na jakiś cud, na szczęścia łut” (a miracle, a lucky chance) but it’s not ”so here I go”

+ ”Enough of this waiting patiently without a word” slay queen

And that's it! Man this song is shorter than I remembered XD In conclusion, there's barely any difference, good song, 10/10 Ms Szczepaniak absolutely slayed it and the translation is Fine™

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

Hehe I'm on a roll, time for "Surface Pressure"

+Let’s start by mentioning that the title got translated to “Armor – pressure” and I mean how cool is that?

+ ”And I act naturally” it’s just even more unnatural XD

* Hm I might be wrong since I don’t have the most musical ear, but I think Ms Szymańczyk’s voice is a little softer than Ms Darrow’s?

* Except for the “woah”s those are clearly and fantastically hoarse

* WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE OKAYS AND WHY DO I PREFER THE POLISH ONE LIKE I HEAR IT BUT I CAN’T TELL WHAT IT IS

* Tutaj napomknę, że jak pierwszy raz oglądałam byłam pewna, że zrymują kaplice z bice i ciągle mnie to bawi XD

+ Kobita <3 Folk colloqialisms my beloved <3

+ She feel’s ”fear” not ”berserk” when she uses the tightrope metaphor which I think makes more sense? Because I mean, why would it make her feel berserk? Isn’t that like, anger, rage fury and all that?

+ I’m very glad they didn’t use the ”yo” this slang absolutely would bother me

- Though I’d say that “the beast of fear” for Cerberus is a little too fancy

- We completely don’t get the line “I'm pretty surе I'm worthless if I can't be of servicе” :((((

*This line does sound really good though, with a lot of internal rhymes

= We also don’t get the reference to “straw that breaks the camel’s” back, but that’s simply because we don’t really use this saying in Polish and it got really skillfully replaced

+ “kap kap kap” instead of “drip drip drip” which is the translation of this onomatopoeia, but also in the place where there was “stop” in English, there’s “w trop” in Polish *chef’s kiss*

+ “łapy”! A colloquial augmentative that works perfectly here and again “pop” turns into “stop”, talk about music to my ears

+ “And it won’t let go” got exchanged for “will I survive it?” which just hits harder

+ And here’s something I absolutely love, they kept the “tik tik tik” onomatopoeia but changed its meaning from a ticking bomb into breaking glass! Fantastic

+ Oh my beloved part, the original verses here get exchanged for a reference to the Polish saying “where devil can’t go he’ll send a woman” in “we’ll send her where the devil can’t” (I’d say this is to balance the lack of the English saying with the camel)

+ And the visual reference is kept with Luisa singing “[what will happen] when I break (off)” just as the cliff breaks of

+ She’s nervous she’s going to hurt them, baybe no 🥺

+ Hm I feel like the implication of this line is a little different in Polish than English? The whole part goes like this:

“And in my head

There are ice bergs

But I can’t change my course”

And I just feel like it makes it more tragic? Like she sees that she can sink any moment now but can’t do anything about it, instead of assuring herself she’s not going to break. Unless I understand the og line wrongly.

+ And here’s something I never understood? Why does she sing “light wind blows”??? When it’s clearly a hurricane, which is the word they use in the Polish dub.

= And… here I’m torn. Because in Polish Luisa sings clearly “Depression keep’s growing cause the pressure keeps falling on me” and I mean wow they openly mention a disorder that’s unheard of and good I suppose, but I just… wouldn’t say that depression specifically is Luisa’s problem? x) I don’t know, perhaps I’m just nitpicking

= On one hand “it doesn’t hurt” is a fantastic line, on the other “she has practice” [in handling the family burden] is one too

= Instead of “never breaks” there’s “still doesn’t break” interesting…

+ “Nie myśl se!” FOLK COLLOQUIALISM “SE” MY BELOVED

+ “Don’t think so much about if you’d stand this pressure” so she implies Mirabel is already thinking about it at least a little…

- Though we loose “Who am I if I don't have what it takes?” to “Who else could handle this here?” so less “this is the only thing I can do this is who I am” and more “I have to do this because no one else would”, still an existential crisis but a different one

+ “Without a word”

+ I am SO ASHAMED of myself that at first I didn’t realize they snuck in a pun into the second to last verse, literally meaning “for an A” (grade) but making it sound like the Polish word for “pressure”

And that's the song! Now that I analysed it, it doesn't seem much better than the original, I think this is the most equal one, but I still clearly prefer Polish dub over English ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

The time has finally come! Welcome to the analysis of the last song from Encanto – All of You

- And we’re starting on a negative note, because why did the translators think that it’d be a good idea to change the line “But we’ll get by just fine” to “Nothing [in life] comes for free”

- This is a minor nitpick, but “You’re more than just your gift” is in Polish “There are more things that count” which is the closest translation, but it’s less direct :(

= I have to say “A mistake grew from my love” is a beautiful line, but it’s still not the same as “Just so afraid I’d lose you too”

*They juggled singular and plural “you” in a very smart way here I have to say

+ All of you is so smartly translated! Since “all” is gendered in Polish, they simply take the chance that it’s repeated and use first the feminine version, then the masculine, hence “Cała ty, cały ty”

+ “Yes, does anyone want to talk about Bruno?/Then maybe I’ll go!” hsbvhjsbchs

= “wyszło” and “wszystko” is a really nice rhyme

- But other than that, Bruno’s part isn’t the best in terms if exact translation? Honestly I don’t really understand what he was trying to say, like, I have the lyrics before my eyes and I don’t get the meaning so maybe that’s a problem with me. I’m also not sure if “Mam ten gest” was supposed to be a Frozen reference like in the original or not? Though it reminds me more of “It’s hard to be a god” but this one is definitely a problem with me

+ Felix’s voice sounds extremely weird here and he’s barely audible but he says “szwagier” (brother in law) so yay

+ Bruno’s informal contractions are conveyed in him saying “siory” instead of “siostry” to his sisters :>

+ “Hey, we're just happy that you're here, okay?” turned into “You’re finally where your home is” 🥺

= No mention of them being triplets, but personally I’m glad, it would sound weird

+ “Nothing’s gonna stop us!”

+ HBHCBSHDCBSHDCB “cała wieś” hzbdhjbsc why is it so funny to me XDD

* He literally says the whole village is coming but like, Encanto was always called a town and the sheer word village is just so funny to me in this context

+ “SO MANY ROADS (SO MANY ROADS) LEAD TO THE HOME’S TRESHOLD” 😭

+ “Strength or not but I have my reason” I really like it :3

+ “Let’s plant something may it grow/ To the stars and you too/ Fly there” I like it, it’s a nice callback to Isa’s song and I think it even makes more sense than the og line of “C'mon, let's plant something new and watch it fly/ Straight up to the sky, let's go” because why would the plants fly XD

+ “Though the stars are burning, the constellations will glow” I love this line and also the implications

+ Mira uses a colloquial idiom “to be in a ditch” which has the same meaning as “to be blue” :D

+ The difference is very slight but Szczepaniak really just pronounces the line “Have you met Dolores?” with such sweet curiosity (and contrariness?? Like the tone you have during bantering I guess) in her voice :3

+ “Papa” with a strong p is such a good substitute for “g’bye”

+ Okay I’m going to translate the entirety of Dolores’ part because I just prefer it y’know, I genuinely like it better

“You have such a voice/ You take care of your mom just a perfect son/ And you write lovely poems in the evenings right before bed/ So maybe you’d wake up and maybe you’d notice me?” “Dolores… where had I had my eyes?” “Talk to me like that”

I just- It’s better

Fight me

Though I have to admit I never understood what’s the deal with “I see you/I hear you” like?? Is this a reference to something? Is this a thing people say to each other in the US?? Why is this a big deal she literally heard him all the time

+ Just “It’s our home” instead of “Home sweet home”, I suppose I like the use of sayings in the characters’ lines, but well, first of all we don’t really have this one here, second it stays as the reference to “The Family Madrigal” and three, I just think this simple line really works here

= Instead of “celebration” Alma says something similar to “chaos” though a little more affectionate XD

+ Bruno’s voice when he says “We need a doorknob”, really, you just have to hear it, it’s like “well duh” but good natured XD

+ The line “For you, please take it” itself and the way Antonio says it 🥺

+ “You have such fire [embers?] within/ Such bravery you have inside”

+ “Open the door” “And your eyes too”

- We don’t get “Abre los ojos” :(

+ “ Do you see anyone?/ Is someone there?” “Oh yes… it’s me” ijwegqijugqhu 😭

And on this note we officially finish our translation comparison journey! As for “All of you” itself, I’d say it starts pretty weakly, but it really picks up to the point that there really are some parts I like more in the dub, so really a perfect song to end this movie.

I hope you enjoyed all the analysis posts and you’ll enjoy them for other media as well!

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

Ah yes, What Else Can I Do, or, how they translated it into Polish… To Want Means To Can 🙂

A quick word of explanation, “to want is to can/be able” is a common Polish expression, to which the closest English equivalent would be “where there's a will there's a way”.

No, the translation doesn’t make any sense, let’s get it over with.

+ I have to say I like the line “it’s incredibly beautiful despite so many flaws” over “It's not symmetrical or perfect”

* And here the pain begins

- Because I just- I know why the translators chose these lyrics, they fit the melody, rhythm and movements, sure, and there really isn’t a way to translate “what else can I do” to fit all those standards and yet… I can’t say it’s a good translations, because it’s simply not! It changes the meaning of the whole song and frankly doesn’t make any sense! Because Isabela didn’t want to do it, didn’t want to change, at least not consciously and the whole point is that it came out by accident and now she’s exploring her powers and there was no “want” involved! I can only comfort myself by the thought that it hurt the translators just as much as it hurts me

- I… They just gave up now, didn’t they?

- Come on this isn’t in any way close to the original T_T

= I like the line “Go sis don’t worry (about anything)!” It doesn’t make sense in this context though

+ I like “People let me live” it’s a good line :>

- No plant metaphors for us 😔

+ “Let’s hear a completely new call of completely new days” sounds even more epic than “I wanna feel the shiver of something new”

- Yeah all the lines around it are bad tho

* I mean “Cause if not us then who? Who could rival us?” is a really cool line and “sound-wise” it flows very nicely… I just don’t know how they got that from “Careful, it's carnivorous, a little just won't do”…

- WHY

- WHY DID THEY GAVE MIRABEL “Oh well, don’t say anything, it looks like this is how it was supposed to be, a gift like that is a test from the fate” OVER “You just seem like your life's been a dream Since the moment you opened your eyes” I HATE IT HOW

+ Isa sings straight up “Maybe it’s already too late” so nice I guess

+ Okay but I can’t be completely broken, because right after that mistake they give us this masterpiece “All I know is that you no longer want to be a dream You’d want to rise much higher (Will I manage to rise?) Over sun and the stars fly!” [original: “All I know are the blossoms you grow But it's awesome to see how you rise (How far can I rise?) Through the roof, to the skies, let's go!”] which is pure poetry I love it

* Would’ve been even better if they’d mentioned the dream part in the previous verse like they should’ve but I guess I wont complain

+ I… Did they translate the song from the back to the beginning? Because here the lines “You’re capable of more if you start appreciating what life gives you (Go sis don’t worry!)” fit perfectly and I guess they wanted to keep the paraphrase that happens in the original, but this line just didn’t work when they used it the first time

+ “Let your imagination run free Throw them on their knees” is cooler than “Show 'em what you can do Show 'em what you can do”

Phew, okay so to some it up, Polish What Else Can I do, or rather To Want Means to Can is a pretty good song… as long as you don’t know the original lyrics. And ignore the whole context. And half of the song. Okay so maybe it’s not that good ejiowfewjowe I don’t know, there are a few moments I like but… that’s it. The rest is just. Bad. And I’m very sorry to the translators because I know you guys are fantastic I mean, the whole rest of the movie is amazingly translated, so I guess they had to trip somewhere…

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

Previously on Blue's Bafflegabs:

BUT as some of you may have already guessed, the Fates had a different plan for me.

Yes, I did watch the entirety of Hercules (1997) in Polish and in English, two times, scene after scene and analyzed every line, and I am going to expose you all to the consequences

But first some general info, shall we? First of all I'd like to vocalize the utter ADMIRATION I feel towards Ms Elżbieta Łopatniukowa, the Polish translator, the woman, the myth, the legend, she did absolute God's (or shall I say gods'?) work on this movie. But it probably wouldn't be what it is if not for the amazing director, Ms Joanna Wizmur, the woman who would later go on to direct Shrek, which is said to have revolutionized Polish dubbing industry, so you know we're talking about A Level™ here. They along with Mr Filip Łobodziński were truly the perfect team to create this mastery of dubbing.

I have to say that this movie was more of a problem for me than Encanto, and than I honestly expected, because, I'll admit, I didn't understand many parts of the original dialogues (thank you beautiful person who added good English subtitles, I am eternally indebted to you.) But the problem wasn't just the accents or old audio, you know? No, the reason is actually an interesting artistic technique used when writing the movie- there is a ton of slang put in the dialogue and frankly? It's genius. Usually, I'm against putting lots of slang and references in movies because it ages badly, sounds unnatural and doesn't fit into most settings (I am looking at you Raya), but here it was handled so well, it not only didn't bother me it even added to the story.

I don't know enough about American slang to say for sure but I have a few theories as to why it worked out where so many have failed before and after it. First, Hercules is first and foremost, a comedy. Yes, it's also a family movie which is why they changed the whole myth in the first place, but the narrative is comedic for like 90% of the story - this movie doesn't treat itself too seriously, therefore slang and colloquialisms are perfectly welcome. Another reason, equally if not more important, is the consistency, because the worst a story can do is throw in a slang term out of the blue. The tone and language used throughout the movie is announced in the first minute, when the muses interrupt the first narrator and from then on, almost every character uses the same level of formality in their speech, the gods, the Greeks, the Fates, everyone - so it's not jarring, this is the status quo where actually formal talk would be considered a deviation. And my third theory, the least probable and backed up by the least amount of knowledge, since I have no idea how outdated this slang was back when the movie was written, but the fact that it's not used anymore works in its favour. Just think about it, a movie set in Ancient Greece and the characters use... "ancient" slang from the 90s or earlier. It's a sort of a meta joke I'd say.

And I explained all that to note, that the Polish translator handled it perfectly... If not better than the original. Because you see, not only do the dialogues consist in a big percent of outdated Polish slang and are unique for the important characters (okay mainly Phil), but they also include a lot of more or less noticable references to the classical culture, so it combines the Ancient and the "ancient" aspect of the movie even better.

So if that's all said and you know what to look out for, let's dive right into the movie! (I suppose the most comfortable way of reading this would be if you had the movie in the background or remember it really way because I have once again, not specified a lot)

+ “No to lu, panienki” fantastic line, I love it. It’s basically what he says in English ("You go, girl") but the vibe✨

= They didn’t translate the innuendo and instead Thalia (yes, I did look up the muses’ names specifically for this post) says just “Would any of us resist him?” but I’ll let you decide if it’s for better or worse

* Just like with Encanto each song will get its own post

+ Hera says just “let’s lay down now” instead of “behave yourself” which makes her sound even more like a good mother, which I guess she is supposed to be in this movie

- Hermes calls himself “king” when he tells other gods to let him through, which is clearly only a metaphor for how cool he is but meh I don’t really like it

* I literally do not understand what he meant when he told Hera about those flowers so let’s ignore that

+ Hermes says that the party is “godly” which really is the word we use in the same way like “fabulous” but here it also acts as a pun 😁

^ Imma use this symbol for talking about non translation related stuff, because I just have to note that whatever the accent Hera has is called, it made me confused for a good while what the heck is “dee-ya” that she says, before I turned on the subtitles

^ It was "dear". I'm not even going to think about English pronunciation anymore.

+ “Herkulesik” 🥺 Using a diminutive here just makes it even better

+ And now HERE things start to get interesting, because in the og dub Hades says that he hasn’t been so choked up since he got a hunk of moussaka stuck in his throat. Moussaka is of course a traditional Greek dish, so this is a cool cultural reference. BUT. In Polish he instead talks about a tuber of asphodel and you may be asking, but what is an asphodel? Why, asphodel is a kind of flower that not only was believed to be the food of the dead, by the Ancient Greeks, but also was said to grow on the Asphodel Meadows near the Styx in the Underworld. That’s how good the references are in this dubbing.

- The pun of “a sucker for the little sucker” couldn’t been conveyed :(

^ Again I am thankful for the subtitles because I swear I’d understand “you ought to slow down” as “yo, slow down”

+ And here’s an interesting thing! As I watched the English version I was wondering how’d they translate Panic’s name, because the word “panic” is in Polish feminine “panika” and turns out they just made it a male name kinda by force, cutting off the “a” and making him just Panik (I’d also say it sounds quite cute in Polish :3)

^ I swear where do they get the words like uncouth and lugubrious from

^ I mean objectively I love it when children/not very serious media uses smart/scientific words but do you realize the amount of googling I had to do for this movie

^ I just have to say that the fact that the anglophones pronounce Zeus as Zoos, or as we’d write it, Zus, is just quite funny for Poles XD

+ “Zeus, ruler of the universe and its surroundings”

- No alliteration :(

+ I’m sorry but the line “Ja wiem, kapuję, ja to wręcz przyswajam” is just so iconic, and it uses such perfectly colloquial language I don’t think I can translate it back into English

* “Taking control of the business” I’d say it’s better, but then again once I googled what a bid is, the og is also pretty funny

^ Oh did I mention how much nostalgia will cloud my judgment

^ Because it absolutely will

* I have to say how much I love the fact they use the form “Tytany” instead of “Tytanów” because it’s the archaic form and it’s nice :>

+ Hades paraphrases Polish idiom of “question for 10 points” by saying “question for 10 obols” :D

= I don’t know, google says that “Grecian formula” might be a reference to a hair product and if it is, it’s funnier than in Polish, where Herc just gets called a firefly (which I’d say is still funny)

+ Szhchc instead of “potion” in Polish Pain says “flacha” which means specifically a bottle of alcohol :’D

+ In Polish they call him specifically “Sunday coachman” instead of just “driver”

^ Btw I had no idea this idiom is also used in this meaning in English that’s cool

- I kinda wish they conveyed the “Pop” somehow, but I suppose we really don’t have that many synonyms for “dad” in Polish

+ Demetrius says “oh gods” instead of “oh my goodness” :D

+ Wait they give him name only in the Polish dub huh

* And with Phidias that makes it two famous sculptors’ names :D

^ Hsbhbhhibda NOT only does the guy say five is an even number, he also puts out only four fingers :’D

* OKAY AND I LOVE THIS ONE

* BECAUSE

+ Instead of “maybe we should call him Jerkules” they make a direct callback to the famous translation of “Non Hercules contra plures” as “I Herkules dupa kiedy wrogów kupa” (something like “Even Hercules is an ass when going against a mass” (mass as in many people)) except since this is a kids movie they can’t say “ass” so the kids say “zupa” (soup) which is exactly how kids censor their swear words, so not only is this a fantastic reference to the Latin quote, but also it genuinely sounds like something a kid would say

+ Again the merchant exclaims “oh gods!” I feel like they generally use this more in Polish

+ Amphitryon uses the diminutive of “son”, “synek” :3

^ Jesteś bogiem, wyobraź to sobie sobie – Zeus, totalnie

- Aw I suppose it was about the length, but I wished they used the actual phrase “wstrzymaj konie” instead of the one they did, it would be a literal translation of “hold your horses” too

+ Philoctetes uses many russianisms (which is fascinating and works fantastically character wise, but there'd be much more cultural, social and linguistic knowledge required and we don't have time for that anyway, so just trust me when I say it's genius) and talks exactly like an old creepy uncle would 12/10 amazing job

+ Herc inflects Phil’s name into vocativus and I have to say it just sounds so endearing

- We don’t have “go the distance” being used and referenced so consistently through the movie :<

+ Abhcbzhscbjh “filuj Filu” :’D See, it’s a pun because “filuj” means something like “watch” but it does sound like his name too (Phil in Polish is written Fil)

+ There's this subtle difference in acting but I love how in English Phil just asks "Zeus?" whereas in Polish it's really "Zeus?!" it's about the emotions y'kno

^ AHAHCBJHB I love watching this movie after I’ve read some Greek tragedies, because Thebes

+ “Wonderboy” got translated literally but you know what, I think it’s kinda charming

+ Awww Herc diminutes Phil’s name to “Filcio/u”

* Ayyy another russianism from Phil, he calls Herc a “gieroj”, I’ve already noted it as a plus, but I have to appreciate how consistent they are with this

+ AND Phil also uses an archaic form of “żeś zobaczył” instead of “że zobaczyłeś”

- Megara’s iconic line of “(…) at least they would if I had any friends” got translated as well as it could’ve but it still doesn’t sound as good :(

+ Hhzbchz Meg says “it’s been godly” instead of “it’s been a real slice” (dw it sounds more natural in Polish) and y’know, unconscious foreshadowing

+ Btw Hercules uses the formal you for Megara for this whole interaction!

+ Instead of just theme park, Meg says straight up Disneyland XD

+ So was “I’m a bunny – and I’m his gopher” a reference to something? Because if not then Polish reference to Winnie the Pooh with “and I’m his relative and friend” (based on the Polish translation of Rabbit’s “friends-and-relations”) wins

- Asolkscoao to keep the pun with Meg’s name – the original nut-Meg – Meg gets called Meg-alomania :’D

+ “You were supposed to get the river guardian on my – and by the way the only right – side” >>>> “I thought you were going to persuade the guardian into joining my side for the uprising”

* Okay so I have to ask just because it keeps racking in my brain – is the “Peloponnesian minute” a reference to something? Is it true you guys say stuff like “New York minute” to just mean quickly???

* Bhbshbjh it’s not exactly better but “Herkulesów jak mrówków” just cracks me up

= Instead of “Britanny” the popular girls name is said to be “Izaura” as a reference to the TV show and I don’t know, I suppose they both work but in a different way, Izaura fits cause it’s a Latin name so it sounds natural in this setting, but I suppose it was part of the joke in the og dub to contrast Jason and Britanny (although with how popular modern name Jason is, at least for me, it completely doesn’t sound ancient)

This was already almost three pages of my doc so I'll divide this analysis into two parts and then, like before, make a separate post for each song.

Hope you enjoyed this one and see you soon!

Edit: second part is up!

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

And now in my series of comparisions, it's time for the big shot - We don't talk about Bruno!

* As to start I have to say, I can only imagine the absolute euforia Polish translations must’ve felt when they realized „We don’t talk about Bruno, no, no, no” can be translated literally, sinve „Bruno” in Vocativus declenses into „Brunie” and „nie” means „no” in Polish

+ „Bruno walks in with a mischevious grin” turns into „Suddenly he comes, with a little smile like a gnome” and it’s fantastic, she calls him a gnome <3

- No „mi vida” just „kochanie” :(

- ‘To flood someone’s brain’ is pretty untranslatable so instead Pepa’s brain starts to heat up

+ „Although it worked out remember that” is actually a better line than „What a joyus day but anyway” I think

= We don’t get foreshadowing of Bruno still being in the Casita (like AT ALL) but instead Dolores says that because of Bruno she can’t get rid of „this babbling” which is… a very interesting choice??? What was that supposed to mean??? I am fascinated by these implications

+ The onomatopoeia for the falling sand is the same as for shushing someone, so once again, implications

+ „The whole family considered him cursed” YES

+ „A brother to slimy rats” brother <3

* Also shotout to my sister for pointing out that it’s technically a bilingual pun since the word „brat” (brother) already has „rat” inside it

* „Feasts on your screams” is instead turned into a pun of sorts? Since the expression they use does include the word „taste” but it means just to enjoy something

+ „He profesized me a giant gut and now I’m like an elephant” hehe sucks to be you I guess

+ „He profesized me that I’ll go bald, how did he know it, just how” where’s this theory that says that half of Bruno’s visions weren’t actually visions and he’s just perceptive

+ I LOVE THIS FRAGMENT BECAUSE look, look they did such a genius thing here, the town’s part ends with „There is no rescue once something prophesizes he”, an archaic sentence structure BUT Isabela’s line starts with „He used to tell me” WHICH MAKES THE TRANSITION SO SMOOTH

+ „That my power will grow like the trunks of the trees” and she grows a tree during her song!

- No „Óye” :(

+ No „hey sis” and instead „that’s enough” and that works better for me, because I generally don’t really like slang in my movies

+ „Wujjj Bruno” WUJ BRUNO

- „Isabela someone’s here to you” no boyfriend :(

+ „Will grow like the trunks of the trees, oh no” as if she’s afraid of her power growing…

= „Let’s not talk about Bruno” less threatening but works for the interpretation that they didn’t want to talk about him because that’s a hurtful topic

+ „It’s bad that I brought up Bruno” ouch

+ Mirabel paraphrizes their last line „Not a word about Bruno” „So now not a word about Bruno”

That's it! Honestly I think this song hits even harder in Polish and the execution perfectly captures that. Now only "All of you" left to do!

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

As promised the not-awaited second part of the Hercules 1997 analysis!

Let's dive right in, we're starting at the scene where Phil and Hercules fly over to Thebes

= Since calling NY “Big Apple” isn’t really a thing in Poland, they instead made a reference to the saying “to pretend to be Greek” (something like, to play dumb) which is a nice pun but a little forced I’d say

+ Instead of “numbskull” Phil gets called “ram” which is both a way to call someone idiot in Polish, but also, well, he basically is

+ I feel like the joke with the cat is even funnier in Polish, because the guy lifts the black cat and calls it Whity :’D

* The joke abou IX-I-I gets translated literally with the Polish emergency number but it sounds so bad

+ “And fiery” Hades lights his thumbs on fire “words of appreciation”

+ “They even made a noise! ...of delight”

+ “Well that’s not going to delight you…”

+ “And watch for the teeth! His teeth!”

+ Okay so the pun with Hades saying “Game, set, match” with the “match” right as he light us his cigar, so kinda uses his thumb as a match, is fine, but I still prefer the Polish paraphrase of “I came, I saw, I conquered” (veni, vidi, vici) into “I came, I saw, I smoked” ("przybyłem, zobaczyłem, zwyciężyłem/zapaliłem")

= We don’t have the saying “to win by a landslide” in Polish, but I’d say that “a crushing victory” is good enough

- No “he was so hot, steam looked cool” :(

* Literally tho why does Meg call Hades Rex

+ You have to believe me that “And you’re wearing trash with his face on it!?” is much funnier in Polish, first because the used word “barachło” is quite rare but even if you don’t know it the meaning is obvious and second because he uses the derogative form of “face” that you apparently don’t have in English

+ (You want a) “sip?” bjhbdfhbdfv

- Aw the visual pun with curves couldn’t’ve been conveyed

+ Yeah I much prefer Polish “devils” (“czorty” folk connotations my beloved <3) than just imps for Hades’ lackeys

- No pun about manhandling :(

+ SZMACIARZ

* Y’know I feel like back in the day they could’ve gotten away with a lot more in those movies

+ “This decoration of ceramic”

+ Instead of “Buns of Bronze” they make a reference to a Polish saying “with work and persistence people get richer” but the “people” got exchanged for “heroes” (here and almost in every other instance the word “hero” they use is specifically the one meaning a half-god, it doesn’t have the exact English equivalent so just remember that cause I’m not going to explain it every time and it makes a difference)

+ “Are you walking out of here or out of yourself?” “To walk out of oneself” is a Polish idiom for getting furious

^ Though I have to say I wish they didn’t get away with certain things

+ KSELFKSELF HERCIE DOESN’T SAY JUST “I’ve missed you” HE SAYS SOMETHING MORE LIKE “I’ve been [in a state of] longing [for you]” I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SAY IT BUT IT’S THE ARCHAIC POETIC VERSION

+ I have no idea how the translator could’ve translated “the greatest thing since they put the pocket in pitta”, but she cleverly escaped that by changing this line to “more famous than Pythagoras and Paris put together”

^ Aw and here goes my headcanon that the movie happens during “King Oedipus”

+ “Enough of this chirping” said Panic while being a bird

+ Herc mentions wishing on a falling star when saying that he wanted to be like everyone else which I think is just so logical I wonder why he didn’t in the original

+ So apparently “mutton man” is a reference both to some fictional character and the fact that Phil is you know, a goat, which mean that Polish reference to “koziołek matołek” is on point (or maybe even slightly better since he’s literally a goat)

+ “I already got my lesson” > “You think a girl would learn”

+ Hades ironically calls Meg by the formal yourself

- Instead of “read my lips” there’s just “then now listen carefully”

+ Instead of “minion” Hades calls her “little soul” 👀

- But he says “you’re my servant” instead of “I own you” which we have to agree is just metal and iconic

+ Oooh instead of “your oneness” (which I by the way do not understand where it came from) Meg calls him the title translated to English as “your grace” but in Polish it sounds more like “your love”

+ Awww Herc calls Phil by the diminutive

+ Oh I definitely like “I am going to tell you either way” over just “What I’m trying to say is”

+ As well as “old man” over “little guy” when referring to Phil

^ Damn this movie goes hard

+ And after he hits him Herc calls him by diminutive again 😭

- We lost the “what got his goat” so I think the goat pun balance is at zero after all

= Here I was torn between that and ”+” because “rąsia” (“hand” (diminutive)) is just hilarious in this context but I suppose the original is pretty funny too

+ “Our hero’s a zero” is funnier in Polish, because to rhyme “zero” with “heros” She had to add an “s” at the end and made it into “zeros” which like?? I have no actual lingustic knowledge to explain why it’s fun, but it kinda changes the word from just a numeral into a term for a person

+ Instead of “There’s a whole cosmos waiting for me with, hey, my name on it” (which I don’t quite get cause like? I’m sure he’s talking about the “over”world not the underworld so what’s with the name it sounds like a pun but I don’t get it?) Hades says “The whole cosmos is waiting for me to take over and I, too, am burning to do so” which in Polish is an idiom meaning to be very enthusiastic about doing something

- I have to admit that “good answer” is funnier than just something like “and rightly so”

* I- I have no idea what Hermes’ reaction is to the Titans coming. I know it’s not the original “We’re in trouble! Big big trouble!” but I genuinely *do not understand* what the Polish actor is saying. What the heck.

* “O ładny gips! Sunie prażona pała!”?????????????????? Tak tam jest??? Pani Łopatniukowa pomocy 😭

+ Instead of “my lord and lady” Hermes titles Zeus and Hera as “your godnesses”

+ “Easy you flying nag” except like, flying isn’t even a regular adjective here it’s more derogative, anyway even when saving Hercules Meg can’t stop herself from insulting Pegasus XD

= The original pun of “Get off, blast you!” while Zeus is throwing the bolt is great and Polish translation “Get off, cause when I’ll blow…!” as a reference to the Big Bad Wolf is fantastic too :D

+ Will “we’re swimming out of here!” used literally, ever stop being funny to me? Probably not

* (It’s an actual idiom meaning quick escape)

+ Hahaha yes, instead of an ironic “friend” Meg gets called stright up “sidekick”

+ “I know what you think about me, but don’t think about me now, think about him” yeah on one hand Meg doesn’t admit to her fault here but I really like the repetition, and the purpose is the same

+ “More thunders, by thunder!” in a direct translation

+ Sorry but the voice in which Hermes says this line? ICONIC (1:14:46 for the curious ones)

+ “Herkulesiu!” AAAA-

* Hm alright, I have a little mixed feelings about the translation and use of “I’ll go the distance” as a recurring line, because on one hand, it’s been translated as best as possible since we don’t have this idiom and is used basically in all of the places it’s been used in the original dialogue – except it’s not used in the song. I’d 6/10, She had tried

- “He promise he won’t hurt me” I mean sure, technically that does fall into the “she won’t get hurt” category but it’s not what happened sooo…

- This is so stupid why doesn’t he say “Let’s go, Pegasus” why is he just shouting “hiyah” XDD

+ Another iconic line! See, Hades says “Woah, who put me out?” and in Polish it’s a slang term meaning to dampen someone’s enthusiasm, stop them when they’re bragging, deliver a sick burn, something like that

^ Zespół T(ytani) znowu błysnąąąął

- Aw, just diminutive of Hercules instead of Wonderboy :(

+ “There are some things even you can’t beat”

= Instead of using a pun (thank goodness) Hades uses Megara’s full nam-

* WAIT NO

+ HE CALLS HER “ MEGIERA” INSTEAD OF “MEGARA”

* AND MEGIERA MEANS A BAD, QUARRELSOME WOMAN

* THIS IS GENIUS

+ A N D IT COMES FROM MYTHOLOGY I AM IN LOVE

- Again no Wonderboy

+ Meg says Hercules will be one heck of a “bożyszcze” which is a word both for a pagan god and for an idol of the masses

* Btw I’m pretty sure in the og audio the gods have a kind of artificial echo to their voices that wasn’t added in the Polish dub, interesting

+ Ayyy Hermes repeats the “No to lu, panienki” that the narrator said to the muses at the beginning of the movie!! Fantastic

To sum it up! Ms Łopatniukowa did a fantastic job with this translation, both conveying the original jokes and specific manner of speaking chosen, and added many references to the ancient culture that were missing in the original. I am still delighted by Phil's way of speaking which is an example of fantastic localization and some of Hades' lines are simply iconic.

Once again, Polish dubbing is supreme 😌

Thanks for reading!

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

Okay I was supposed to take a break from the dubbing analysis so I’m going to stretch it a little and instead analise the original dubbing of a cartoon... Since it literally includes Polish. I'll still drop a few fun facts about the Polish dub tho.

I’m talking about Martha Speaks season 1 episode 10b “Bye Martha” so get ready cause this will be incomprehensible:

*And also I have to say I was so baffled when I heard about this episode just… where did the idea to use Polish come from. How. What. Why.

*I’ll start off by explaining what the episode is about since I don’t expect you people to actually watch it – in a scheme to steal Martha, two bad guys switch her regular alphabet soup (that allows her to speak English) with a Polish one. Now, since you couldn’t do this concept in Polish since, you know, they all speak Polish in the Polish dub, instead it got changed to French.

*Still, here's the links if you're really bored in life, English version and Polish dub

*Also this is the first time I watched Martha Speaks in English

*Sorry this analysis will be much sloppier than the other ones since this is really just for fun

*First change between dubs is that there is a scene where Bad Guy #1 (Otis) watches Bad Guy #2 (Pablum) take the alphabet soup cans from a Polish shop and for a moment the frame shows the Polish shop in the focus. To escape confusion this one scene simply got cut from the Polish version.

*Also I’m fascinated by the idea of Polish alphabet soup. Do they have “ą”s and “ę”s and “ż”s there? Did they make separate noodles for the digraphs? Can I write “żółć” with noodles? Does it taste like the instant tomato soup from amino???

*Okay so Otis dresses up as a “Polish lady” and goes to Martha’s owner family and at first I was like, oh okay the accent is fine, we have some hard “r”s and an “I yam” very nice… and then the “zis” and “zat” came in

*A word of explanation, yes, I know that exchanging “th” with “z” has became the standard western way to portray most European accents but when it comes to Poland, this is NOT a thing. This is an accent I’ve heard Ukrainians and Russians have, but never from a Polish person and I have heard my grandma pronounce “ticket” as “tyket”. For Polish people it’s more common to turn “this” into “dis” or in some rare cases “fis” since we don’t have the “th” sound in Polish and this is how we’re taught to pronounce it

*And then

*It happened

*”SASHA!”

*Come on this such an obvious Russian name! Please we’re already past ‘89 acknowledge we’re different countries!

*Though this spoilers the plot twist that foils Otis’ plan if you know a thing or two about Russian names, since if you do, you know that Sasha is actually a male name, specifically a diminutive of the name Aleksandr. This hints to the fact that Otis thinks Martha is a male dog and that ignorance leads to his plan failing.

*Of course I’m not Russian do Amuel if you’re reading this and I’m wrong please correct me

*Okay tho I have to say I love the word “dogling” and it’s pretty realistic since as a Pole, I can confirm that the lack of diminutives in English really bugs me and I’m tempted to do stuff like this all the time

*”Back when you were just a little puppyshka back in Poland” is a hilarious sentence, because this is a clearly Russified diminutive and yet the speaker still claims to be from Poland. Fascinating.

*And then instead of “yes” the fake Polish Lady answers “ja”

*This is were I decided to not get offended by the creators mistaking Polish for Russian because it became obvious they had no idea what they were doing

*Should I get offended that Otis/Fake Polish Lady says they are too poor to afford a camera? (Or a picture machine as he for some reason calls it)

*Honestly after that one X-men movie, no, I don’t think I will

*”Ni” does not, in fact, mean “no”, in fact this word doesn’t exist unless in some pretty specific and mostly archaic cases

*It should be “nie” just so you know

*Fun fact instead of just “dog license place” in Polish they use the actual name “Kennel Club” and this is actually common in Polish dubbings to use names of actual organizations and stuff

*They use an actual idiom “nie ujdzie im to na sucho”! It means basically “they won’t get away with that (although it doesn’t really connect fluidly with the English first part of the sentence it’s used it, but hey, at least it’s not a direct translation of the English idiom)

*Big props for Martha’s VA for learning those three sentences in Polish. It might sound ironic but that’s actually impressive so good for her

*Still, pronouncing “zupę” as “żupę” is extremely funny XD

*Sigh, I know you don’t have a hard “y” in Polish but it really sounds like they’re saying Christina instead of Krystyna, which I imagine it was supposed to be

*Absolutely bad representation. A self respecting Pole wouldn’t get the police at people

*JP100%

*Though Fake Polish Lady is supposed to be elderly so there’s 50/50 chance she’s communist and then that checks out

*Was- Was “Leczałski” supposed to be “Lechowski”????

*PLEASE remember that Polish “w” is always pronounced as “v” I’m even willing to ignore the “ch/h” problem then

*Okay but “Christina” actually has a pretty nice accent, I like the way she says “Englisz”

*And “diktionari” <3

*Also the use of “to dobrze” for “hooray” is such a funny concept because- it literally means “that’s good” this is the least enthusiastic thing they could’ve used XD

So to conclude, I like how they handled this in the Polish dubbing, I’m no French expert but I’m pretty sure they used better sentences than Americans in their dub and even if the accent is stereotypical, at least it’s stereotypical for the right country.

And in the original, they once again mixed up Polish and Russian, at which I would be more offended if I didn’t know it comes from ignorance and not malice. So I’m disappointed but not surprised. Still, there are some Watsonian ways to explain a lot of inaccuracies (for example Fake Polish Lady having wrong accent and using Russianizations because Otis doesn’t know a thing about Poland) and it’s still better than X-men Apocalypse so I can’t really complain.

That really was an Experience tho.

[blueflyingturtleontheway]

So

I was joking for a long time that I'll make the comparision of the original dub of Encanto and the Polish one

I wasn't joking, get yourself some tea cause this is one heck of a post

(+ means lines that are better in Polish

- means ones that are worse

= means they're neither but still interesting enough that I wanted to include them

* are just my thoughts)

+ Abuela says „thanks to this candle we can do things other families can only dream about” which for me shows that up to this point she wasn’t just as power focused

= Mirabel asks „why” did they get the miracle insted of „how”, just an interesting choice

* Another thing that just makes me wonder, why is Encanto a common noun in the og dub? Like they usually say it with an „a” alternatively „the”, whereas in Polish it’s used like a proper noun, which just makes nore sense in my opinion

+ (Abuela generally sounds more normal in Polish I think)

+ Like, instead of „came of age” she says „grew up a little”, so she doesn’t say that it was necessarily the right age, and she doesn’t say anything about gifts being used to help, she says just „each got their own magical gift”

+ „czary dary”

= I’m not sure if it’s better, but instead of repeating abuela’s „I know we will be proud of you” Mirabel says „I’ll try very hard, grandma”

+ „And now I’ll become wonderous too?” „You’re already wonderous, Mirabel Madrigal” on one hand the answer’s sweeter, on the other we already see that she doen’t consider herself good enough without a gift :’)

* Okay I’ll put the songs in a seperate post because this one will already be a monstrosity to read

* But @never-ending-fanfic made some good posts also about Polish dub of Encanto, for example about the songs, check them out if you have time 👌

+ „The not special special” = „Dla klientów bez talentów”, means basically the same but it rhymes

+ The dude says straight up „Since well, you can’t (do) anything!”

+ And the girl says she’d broke down in tears, bless her heart

+ But Mirabel says that she has no talents :(

+ The moment Mirabel puts these bricks(?) on the counter she uses the expression „to add a brick (to something)” which is a great visual pun

+ Agustin: And my heart aches Mirabel: More like your nose

- Since the word house is gramatically male in Polish they sometimes mix up Casita’s pronouns which is Confusing TM

+ Ah I should start my extra pun counter! To be cloudy is an expression in Polish meaning to be grumpy/angry so of course it’s used here

+ And Pepa calls Antonio „grzmot” meaning „thunder”

+ The way Mirabel says „tuż tuuuż” <3

- „I have a miraculous family, even more miraculous house” ouch Mira

+ „And you are the biggest miracle” okay worth it <3

+ „A whole jungle fit here?!” I love this kid

+ „GRANDMA THE HOUSE IS FALLING DOW” we don’t beat around the bush here

+ „pingle” instead of „okulary” for glasses, I love it when dubbing uses obscure synonyms

= Julieta says that Bruno broke away from the family this same way which is either a bad translation or an interesting implication

- Abuela says that the family is in danger, not that they’re vulnerable

+ „I’ll save [the miracle] grandma” I just like that she makes this promise directly to her

- „Well maybe someone can give me a hint on how to save the miracle?” instead of „I’ll figure out what is happening to the miracle” literally why

+ Mirabel uses the word specifically meaning „female cousin” when talking to ‘Dolores’ when she’s, you know, her only female cousin XD

+ Felix says that Camilo „goes out of himself” to get seconds, normally this expression means to be extremely angry, but y’know. Here it’s kinda literal. (Extra pun nr 3)

- „Rats under the floor” my dudes this was supposed to be foreshadowing

+ „Kochani” (= beloved) instead of „family”, which means nothing given that we use this to basically everyone but it sounds just sweeter

+ „Thy’re making sure no one takes your seat!” This is even more unnecesary Antonio :’D

= Again, Abuela sounds more normal here, she says „one day we’ll definitely find a use for your talents” instead of „today (…)”

+ Dolores says Mariano wants six babies instead of five, there was literally no reason to change that XD

+ Luisa says „I just have a lot on my head” (a Polish idiom meaning being busy) while literally having donkeys on her head (pun nr 4)

+ „Yesterday, when the walls were breaking (…)”

+ I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but I just prefer the tone in which Mirabel says her lines when she enters Bruno’s room

+ „I ocalić m-RANYMATKO” I love her exclamation as she’s falling :’D

+ „The stairs begin” is a saying meaning that hardships or problems start from this moment, but here it’s literal stairs (extra pun nr 5) plus she says literally „hello” (or rather „heloł”? XD) which is a nice way to modernize the dialogues without it being irritating cough Raya cough

+ Instead of „quitter” Mirabel calls the toucan a „boidudek” which means a scaredycat, but „dudek” is a kind of bird, so again, another pun (nr 6)

- „Who’s fault is all this?” instead of „What’s hurting the magic?”

* I KNOW they had no choice here but Mirabel calling Bruno by his first name just bugs me so much, it’s just so American aaargh

+ „Znowu jestem wzburzona” pun nr 7

+ „Zaraz będę ciskać gromy” pun nr 8

+ „Jeszcze znów kogoś spiorunuję” pun nr 9

* All of these are actual expressions referring to being angry, the translators got one (1) pun in the og dub and decided to make Pepa speak only in puns

* I can respect that

= „Clear skies” turned into „High pressure [area?] is coming” which allows for…

+ „High pressure is coming… a wide one… from Russia…” which has no right being as funny as it is XD

+ Mirabel uses the impersonal form of verbs when asking about Bruno’s visions, which makes Felix form his answer in a very weird but funny grammatical form

+ „Miraboo” turned into „Mirabelka” which is both a diminutive form of her name and a name of kind of wild plums, which is just super sweet <3

+ I also love that he uses the word „chałupa” for house here

+ Dolores says straight up „Too late”, she doesn’t even hide the fact that she’s going to tell everyone XD

- „Miercoles” got exchanged for „I’m not hungry”, also funny I guess, but not the same

* Tho with how much our translators dislike putting foreign words in our dub, it’s still a miracle we got as much as we did

+ Abuela says „Our families should’ve united long time ago, I’m sure Encanto will gain from that” which I think just works better

+ „Awokadko” diminutives <3

+ „Marianko” <3

+ „Luisa, myszko” <3

* I should start an extra diminutives counter

* 3

+ „Isabela, oh the greatest of all Isabelas” Mariano is absolutely fantastic

+ „The Madrigals say so!” ah, here’s the despot we all know and love

+ This is an extremely minor detail, but instead of just „bye” Bruno here says „well- bye” which I think just adds to that line

- We don’t get Jorge :c

+ „Have you came back long ago, wujciu?” diminutive (4), but this time it’s used more as a jab on him, I love our language

- We don’t get „Why you left but didn’t leave”, I suppose that’s the drawback of having only one past tense

+ „żarełko” the diminutive of an augmentative (5), and a great way to modernize the language

+ Bruno says he saw „the fall of our house” which is not only stronger than just breaking, but could also have metaphorical meaning

+ Instead of „good luck” Bruno says Mirabel „not to give in/give up”

+ „Duduś, nie wolno!” I LIVE for this line

* I can’t tell you how funny of a name Duduś is for a jaguar

- Instead of „we can not loose our home” we have „this is all that matters”

= And Abuela straight up says „Mirabel was in that vision because it’s her fault” and I feel like it was kinda best to leave that unsaid until the climax

+ „In every home there’s a black sheep… that tends to be the scapegoat” sure that’s the perfect way for a pun (nr 10) why not

+ „Stresik”! Which was actually also used when Mirabel gave Antonio this plushie, so that makes the number of diminutives 7

+ Instead of „I have to stop” Bruno yells „I have enough”

+ „You have to save the candle!” makes sense Mirabel was later risking so much to get it

+ „Ale wiem jak się ratuje rodzinę, się ściska siostrę.” Again, wrong word order but it works since the second part of the sentence repeats the first one

+ „W samotności gdyż odchodzę” Bruno takes on a mock serious/exalted tone here

+ Same with „twoją jest ta wizja, kobieto, nie moją” he goes full oracle, like he even calls Mirabel woman instead of by name XD

+ And Mirabel perfectly balannces it out by using slang form of „you’re afraid” = „pękasz” and calls abuela „babka” which is like „oldie”?

+ „If you saved what needs to [be saved]” the miracle is left unspoken here, so you might say at least one of them means saving the family :>

+ „Get yourself together. You walk in, you hug, you leave.” 12/10 I love this

+ „Hug it out” turned into „przytulando na zgodę” which is a fantastic way to Spanish-ize the language and is hilarious XD

+ „Odwaliło ci do końca?!” First of all „odwaliło ci” is a very, very informal way to say that someone’s gone bonkers and second she says „have you completely lost your mind”, so like, Mirabel had lost her mind before but now she did so completely XD

+ „You appear to be a little stressed” you think Mira?

+ „Ugh, I have more important things to do!” instead of „some of us have bigger problems”

+ Again, I prefer Mirabel’s Polish va’s tone when she speaks up again

- „You’ve rebelled me” instead of „you’re bad influence”

+ „I am to save the magic!” „You are to stop this instant, Mirabel!” syntax parallelism my beloved

+ „Isabela stopped being obidient” and now Abuela goes full control freak

+ „(…) but it’s no reason to rebound on the family!” She’s even more accusational here!

- „I’ll always be the worse one for you” she compares herself instead of saying that she’s generally not enough, but tbf there’s no good way to translate that

+ They add family and the house

+ „We all love each other here, all except for you”

- „The miracle is disappearing because of you!” wow you were so close to make this scene hit even harder, so close and yet you failed in the last moment

+ „Our candle!” Our!

+ „Casita, help me somehow!” She just relies on her

+ „Curóchna” this is an augmentative but Imma count it, since it’s positive (8)

* AND THIS IS A BIG ONE

* BECAUSE JULIETA ASKS

+ „Are you alright?”

* AND MIRABEL SHAKES HER HEAD

* SHE’S NOT ALRIGHT

+ „No to leżymy w gruzach” THIS IS NOT A TIME FOR A PUN GUYS (nr 11)

+ „Do you think they’ll ever find her?” instead of „They haven’t found her yet?”

+ „I wanted to be someone I’ll never be” even more painful than „someone I’m not” :(

+ „For so many years I didn’t have the courage to come back here” sure, makes less sense since she literally couldn’t, but I prefer this version either way, she not only couldn’t, she wouldn’t even if she could

+ „Forgive me, my little one, please” maleńka ToT (9)

- „It’s all because of me, because of my pride” I… wouldn’t say pride was the issue here?

+ „And generally… your whole life” „w ogóle” is a vaery good word for a teenager to use, and to say that she lost her whole life instead of vague everything

+ Bruno’s „I forced her this vision!”

- „Because she wanted to help me” she wanted to help everyoneguys

= He directs all this to some plural you, so he probably means the whole family and not just abuela

+ „This is a one seat horce???” fantastic line, very Bruno-like

= „Yeah, except the house fell down (…) what, is it standing? No! It’s lying!” It’s not better, but since they changed up the grammar it’s not worse either

- For some reason Abuela is not the one calling for the photo, it’s a male voice, there was no reason for that it’s messing me up

Okay so to summarize

Encanto is fantastic thanks for coming to my TED talk

But seriously, I absolutely adore the Polish dubbing, I focused mainly on the translation here, but the voices fit perfectly, and the cast does such a fantastic job with the acting. As for the dialogues themselves, as you can see I think most were turned into something even better than the original, though I won’t hide that I may be biased, obviously there are some things that lost their impact, a lot I think was even more impactful than in the original. I especially like that at the beginning they made abuela’s dialogues less obviously controlling and toxic, sure it takes away some foreshadowing, but when she snaps, she snaps. And we got added 11 extra puns (half of them for Pepa) and at least 9 diminutives, which was easy since English just doesn’t have them at all, so.

I really enjoyed making this analyssis, thank you if you managed to stick to the end, and let me know what you think if you watched the movie in Polish, or what you think of your country’s dub!