Bee Movie Analysis

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The following diploma thesis aimed to examine the translation strategies used in the subtitling and dubbing translations of the animated film Bee Movie, based on three parameters: inserts, language variety, and omissions and condensations.
Slovenian cinema-goers are able to watch animated films in the subtitled and/or dubbed version. Subtitling and dubbing are two types of audiovisual translation, whereby the linguistically diverse European countries can be divided into subtitling and dubbing countries, depending on which method is prevalent. Following this distinction, Slovenia is part of the former along with Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands. Dubbing countries include Austria, Italy and Germany, to name but the largest ones. Despite its …show more content…

Subtitles disturb the image and cover up the screen. Their content is incomplete, since they cannot always incorporate the entire dialogue. Furthermore, they constitute a shift of mode from spoken to written language, which makes it difficult to retain all means of spoken language. However, subtitling has its advantages: the viewer is able to hear the original actor’s voice, timbre and intonation. Subtitles also have education value, especially for children. They allow them to develop reading skills and to enrich their mother tongue and foreign language vocabulary. The advantages of dubbing can be observed as the disadvantages of subtitling: dubbing does not disturb the image and the dialogue can be easily understood by children who have not learned how to read yet. It is also significant that the language mode is retained. On the other hand, a dubbed translation can be subjected to sociopolitical circumstances and has to be adjusted due to lip synchronicity or matching mouth movements. The audience is not able to hear the original actor’s voice, whereby some authenticity is lost, which is one of the major disadvantages of dubbing. It is important to stress that in animated films, both in the original and the dubbed versions, animated characters are brought to life by the specific voice actors in the recording studio, so no authenticity is in fact …show more content…

The story revolves around Barry the bee who is determined to fight our exploitative capitalist society. The verbal humour is intended for adult viewers, while children laugh at Barry’s countless adventures. Due to Slovenia’s subtitling tradition, the empirical part also includes viewership ratings of subtitled and dubbed versions, which show that animated films are becoming increasing popular among Slovenian viewers. We also examined the characteristics of a detailed dialogue sheet, where different comments are added to the original in order to complement it and provide interpretation for translators and directors. This is followed by a comparative analysis of translation strategies using three parameters, which have been selected based on the theoretical comparison between subtitling and dubbing, and which best represent the differences between the two methods, their advantages and disadvantages. After thoroughly watching the Bee Movie on DVD, we selected examples that best represent the individual

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