Why were the songs not translated/dubbed into German?
When watching Brave in German I noticed that the songs actually haven't been translated (and redubbed accordingly). Rather than that, they were just left in the original English while the rest of the film was dubbed into German.
While this is not necessarily an uncommon thing to do in musical films in general nowadays, it marks a stark departure from previous Disney practice, which always used to translate and redub the songs along with the rest of the film. This has not only been done in the past, for the more classically animated films, but also in recent times on quite similar things like Tangled or Frozen (which was released after Brave). Brave thus seems to quite stick out among the musical Disney films and I wonder why that is.
Is there any information why they chose not to translate/dub the songs in Brave along with the rest of the film in apparent contrast to Disney tradition? Does this even mark a move towards that practice for later films maybe?
Best Answer
The Wikipedia article about the Brave soundtrack says
Differently from songs from Disney musical movies, in movies where the songs are only used as a background, Disney Character Voices International does not require for them to be dubbed. So, in the Arabic, Cantonese, Croatian, Estonian, German, Icelandic, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Taiwanese Mandarin, Romanian, Serbian and Slovak dubs, the songs were left in English.
(highlights by me)
This suggests that Disney Character Voices International Inc - which is responsible for dubbing and translation - has a (more or less) strict ruleset
musical songs get translated
background songs stay in original language
However, despite the linked Wikipedia article, I could not find further resources for this rule set (yet).
Pictures about "Why were the songs not translated/dubbed into German?"
Why are movies dubbed in Germany?
The Allied forces saw that the best way to reach and re-educate the local audience was by hiding the \u201cforeignness\u201d of their films by dubbing them into German. From 1949 onward German dubbing grew in popularity, but it also became a form of historical censorship.Are films in Germany dubbed?
Unlike in many other European countries, English movies are not subtitled in Germany, they're dubbed. Voice artists are often contracted for life, so Germans know stars like George Clooney and Brad Pitt with completely different voices.Where can I watch German dubbed movies?
Contents- Maxdome.
- Amazon Germany Instant Video.
- iTunes Germany video.
- Watchever.
- Netflix Germany.
- Videobuster.
- Videoload.
How German Dubbing Changes American TV and Movies
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