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vrahno · 7 years

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Most dubs in my country are rubbish, cartoon dubs especially, and that goes for the four Bionicle movies too. I went through them to see how many translation screw-ups I can find, just to share my (and probably other Hungarian fans’) long-held frustration with an international audience. You may need a few years to spare cause it’s a lengthy list.

Mask of Light

The title, ”A fényálarc” (The light-mask) is already iffy, as in the movie the artifact is called “a fény maszkja” (the mask of light). They also had some trouble with character titles like Toa or Turaga -- in this language, titles usually come after a person’s name, but the dub kept the English word order. Interestingly, the local release of the books (written by one of the movies’ translators) did mostly pay attention to this.

Unity, Duty and Destiny are correctly rendered as Egység, Kötelesség, Végzet, yet in the sequels and the books, they become Egység, Felelősség, Kötelesség (Unity, Responsibility, Duty). As a side-note, the G2 webisode dubs went back to the original translation.

Not technically a translation issue, but Pewku’s name is always pronounced as “Pevku”.

For specific examples in the dialogue, I’ll quote the original lines first, then translate the dub’s lines back into English as accurately as possible, with their errors intact.

Hold your Rahi, I'm coming! Hold the Rahi, I’m going! - “Hold your horses” is not a meaningful expression here, but they kept it in the dub despite there being other animal-related idioms they could have used.

Your own Captain of the Guard... The new Bodyguard Captain... New?

Must I unleash those who should never see the light of day? Must I unleash those who must never see light? - Another expression taken literally.

Their unity can be poisoned, their duty will be broken, and their destiny I must shatter. Their unity I can poison, their duty I can break, and their destiny I can prevent. - Terry’s talking about the Rahkshi powers here, so the last should have been kept as “shatter”.

Shadows that cower in the depths. Exactly as foretold. The shadows cover the depths, just as the prophecy said. - Mishearings and mondegreens are a staple of this translator couple’s work (yes, there were two people working on this shit). Did they even have the original script?

“But you wander off every chance you get looking for stories. What about your story?” “I don't have a story.” “Only 'cause you won't stand still long enough to make one.” “But if you have the chance, you wander off looking for stories. What kind of story do you long for?” “I’m not longing for a story.” “Only because you can’s stay in one place for long enough.” - So Takua’s looking for stories, but he’s not, because he’s too busy looking for stories?

“Keep 'em busy. I'm…” “Running away and leaving me!” "Keep him busy. And I’ll...” “I’d rather run away.” - Maybe not a mistake, there’s room for artistic freedom after all (and I think Takua’s line is kinda funny), but given the other examples, it’s just as likely they simply misheard the line.

Lewa in this dub doesn’t use treespeak. Instead... Word is deep-wood that you seek the Seventh Toa. The world is a deep forest if one’s seeking the Seventh Toa.

If Toa Lewa helped on your search, might he be a... spirit-lift? Say, if Toa Lewa helps you search, will he also become an... elevated spirit? - I know he’s kind of an Indian-hippy mix in this movie, but the fuck is that supposed to mean? He’s only asking if his company would lift Jaller and Taku’s spirit, as in cheer them up.

Er, I've been a second! But, er, I've never flown one myself. Um, I’ve seen such a thing, but I’ve never flown on one. - MNOG is not canon in the dub. (Or perhaps Takua means the Gukko he rode didn’t look like the movie design?)

Your village has fallen to… Rahkshi! The Makuta's sons. Your town has recently been... attacked! By Makuta’s sons. - So how do T&J know what a Rahkshi is if they don’t hear the name?

Frozen? What could do this to them? They’re frozen, how could they harm us? - This is another habit this translator couple has, reordering the original words and inserting some new ones to get a different meaning out of them. At least in this case, the line still fit the situation.

Takua’s grumpy “Tunnels.” line is missing.

Makuta originally says “They will not disturb you.” to Mata Nui, but the dub reinterpreted the line to refer to the three new Rahkshi. Some other dubs also did this.

Do you think the Turaga were right about us? What do you think, was Turaga right? - “Turaga” is not the name of a single character.

But, united, our power defeated the Rahkshi! But if we unite, we will defeat the Rahkshi! - Beyond mixing up plural and singular words, these translators also have a hard time interpreting past, present and future tenses.

I have but one destiny. Yours lie with the Matoran and the Turaga. We don’t share our destiny. Yours is tied to Matoran and Turaga. - The intended meaning is somewhat there, but sounds hella awkward.

Summon the Matoran! Conjure up the Matoran! or Subpoena the Matoran! - Yes, “summon” can mean those too, but the relevant meaning here is “gather”.

My duty is to the Mask of Shadows! My doom is the Mask of Shadow! - Eh. Both lines sound random, but I guess they sort of make sense if you consider Makuta’s originally intended characterization as a well-meaning guy who has been corrupted by his mask. To be fair, the ending scene of the movie is a mess even in English, so whatever. But it’s still not a correct translation

The city of the Great Spirit, my island home, refound. The city of the Great Spirit, my island home, has recovered. - I think the translators didn’t get Vakama was talking about Metru Nui here. Seems they thought he was referring to the villages on Mata Nui being rebuilt.

Legends of Metru Nui

The translated title has “legend” in singular. Not a big deal. What is a bigger deal is that titles like Toa and Turaga are now correctly placed after the character names... but they went overboard with it, as even the Toa Suva becomes “Suva Toa”, which makes no sense. It’s not a Toa named Suva, it’s a shrine dedicated to the Toa.

Pronunciation-wise, Dume is not only spoken aloud as “Duma”, he’s even called that in the subtitles. Nuju became “Nuyu”.

Prove yourselves worthy Toa. Prove that you are worthy for the Toa. - Again, it makes some sense but sounds awkward like that. Why not “for the title of Toa”?

Mask maker, you saw Toa Lhikan last, right? Mask pourer, you saw Lhikan Toa last, right? - But Vakama carves masks, he doesn’t pour them into molds.

... we sought out, found and recovered these Great Disks. ... to find and discover the Great Disks. - Great redundancy.

Cross the sea of protodermis, and be honored as Toa. Cross the protodermis, so we may greet you as Toa. - Since the word “sea” is missing here, Makuta’s callback at the end loses some of its context.

“Do you thing they went this way?” “Why do I bother?” “Ah, do you think they went this way?” “What does it matter?” - A joke died here. Nidhiki’s supposed to be lamenting Krekka’s stupidity (the Toa hopped into a one-way transport chute, so they couldn’t have gone any other way), not responding to him with a nonsensical answer.

Matau’s “Check out these wings.” line becomes plural in the dub, even though he’s only talking to Nokama.

“Stock boy” is translated as “numbskull” (I guess Onewa would say such a thing, but it’s still incorrect) and “record keeper” as “record holder”. The word “record” of course refers to “records of the past”, what with Whenua being an archivist, not “record achievement”, which is what the translators thought.

Look beyond your history, and see what is. Look beyond your past, and see what it is. - The exact opposite of what Lhikan meant.

You (singular) shall help both your brothers (plural). You both (plural) shall help your brother (singular). - Onewa is a single person and there’s two of his brothers there, you fucking shits.

I believe it is time to depart. I think it is time to split up. - But they don’t split up. They just leave the cell. He said “depart”, not “part”. This is another line multiple dubs misinterpreted.

"Follow me!” (in singular, since Krekka’s talking to Nidhiki only) “Hmm. No. Get down!” “Follow me!” (plural) “Hmm. Fools!” - The fuck happened here? Why are both Krekka and Nidhiki suddenly multiple persons each?

It's amazing what you can learn when you're not always speak-teaching. It’s amazing how much you can learn when you’re not being taught. - Nokama’s a teacher. She is the one doing the teaching, not the one being taught. Again the line completely changed its meaning.

Maybe he sneak-passed! Maybe he snake-sneaked! - Can’t decide if it’s “snake” or “sneak”, so just go with both?

“Hey, Nokama, I see us taking a romantic ride-drive.” “And you believe Vakama has odd visions!” “You, Nokama, do you feel-see what a romantic journey we’re on?” “And do you still think that Vakama’s visions are weird?” - Another joke lost. Matau’s fantasizing about a future ride that only he sees. Not only that, Nokama’s retort is worded wrong, as the emphasis is placed on “do you still think” instead of Vakama’s visions.

As mentioned, Dume doesn’t say “sea of protodermis”, so Makuta’s callback becomes the following: Perish in the real sea of protodermis. Die in the protodermis’ really-big sea!

Without the Mask of Time, it will take a lifetime's journey to find both our destinies! Without the Mask of Time, both of us can spend a lifetime searching for our lost destinies! - But their destinies aren’t lost. It will just take a long time to find them.

In MoL, the line “This is they way of the Bionicle” was translated as “This is the rule of Bionicle”. Here, it becomes “This is the law of Bionicle”. The third movie will have a third variation because another thing this translator couple hates is consistency.

Web of Shadows

The title on the DVD cover, “Árnyak hálója” (Web of Shadows) differs from the one they actually use in the movie, “Árnyak hálójában” (In the Web of Shadows). That’s a warning sign right there.

I gotta say this is one of the worst dubs of anything I’ve ever heard. Sure, there are dubs that are far worse on a technical level, and this one at least has passable casting and the dialogue mostly matches up to when the mouths are moving (or flashing). But there’s a thick aura of uneasiness, the line delivery sounds awfully stilted and forced throughout, and you can tell none of the people involved wanted to be anywhere near the recording booth. The translation is an even bigger mess than ever, and the VAs under and overact at all the wrong spots. There’s a few moments where the dub actually sounds great, but as a whole it’s a cringeworthy experience. I guess they were really fed up with these movies by this point.

Titles are again arranged in the English word order. As for pronunciations, Sidorak is for some reason called “Sidoraak” and Keetongu becomes “Keeetongooo”. And as if to make up for ditching Lewa’s treespeak in MoL, Matau’s chutespeak is cranked up to eleven, to the point where he ends up sounding like a fucking Gungan.

The Toa united in a dutiful pledge. They made a pledge to the Toa Metru vow of obedience. - The what? It’s also of note that the dub actually calls them Toa Metru, which never comes up in the original. In fact there’s lines not only in this dub but other as well that can’t be heard in the English version, so I wonder if the translations were based on some preliminary script.

“Well, that stunk.” “It would appear there was an error in our transport. Pilot error.” “Wow, this is smelly.” “It seems that an error has slipped into our transportation. A grave error.” - Fuck you.

Well, there goes the old neighborhood! That there is an old acquaintance! - Another expression interpreted too literally.

The Onu-Metru Archive houses a specimen of every Rahi beast ever discovered. At least… it used to. The Onu-Metru Container is chock full of the widest varieties of Rahi monsters. At least... the discovered ones. - Yet again they remove the main point of a sentence.

We go to the Coliseum, we rescue the Matoran, we leave. We go into the hall, finish our work, leave. - They said Coliseum in LoMN, so why not here?

I assume your telling me this without twitching uncontrollably means the Toa have already been captured. I assume when you talk about this event you have already trapped the Toa. - Leaving out chunks of sentences that can be tricky to translate is another forte of this couple.

“Well, fire-spitter, we can't say you didn't show us the city. 'Course, we can say that you got us captured, poisoned, and, seeing as I don't think we've been brought up here for the view, imminently smash-dashed.” Onewa barely audibly muffles „not Vakama's fault”. “He agrees!” “We can’t complain-say you didn’t show us the city. And perhaps nor that it’s your fault we got catch-caught, poisoned, and because we haven’t been brought here for the view, it’s your fault we die." “Baloney.” (clearly audible) “I agree!” - I agree too, but this is more than baloney, this is bullshit. How did “of course we can say” become “perhaps nor can we say”? Well, at least they got “we” and “say” right.

When Vakama starts mutating, the dub has the others react with: Whenua: “Hey, ho, ho, be careful already!” Matau: “Wow, that’s so dangerous!” Ruining what was meant to be a serious, disturbing scene.

Even now their broken bodies are being brought to me. And their broken bodies have been brought here to me. - “Even now” and “are being” are not past tense.

What do you say, mask smelter? What do you say, mask pourer? - Again with this pouring. Maybe they misheard “smelt” and thought it was “melt”?

Unity, duty, destiny. It starts with unity. Unity, responsibility, duty. Starting with duty. - Reminder that two translators got credited for this.

I'm sure it could have helped our old Toa selves, but… now? It obviously helps us reacquire our Toa selves, but...now? - The meaning is yet again changed to complete nonsense. So the Temple helps them change back, but it doesn’t because they’d have to change back for that first? And why is “it could have helped” translated as “it obviously can help”?

“You're not worried they're going to tell him you said that?” “They are loyal to me.” ”Right. Like you are to Sidorak!” “… Yes.” “Aren’t you afraid these are going to tell him what we’re talking about?” “They are loyal to me.” “Of course. Like you are to Sidorak!” “... No.” - The subtitles actually do say “yes”. So watching the dub with those turned on is an experience onto itself.

“I wonder what's taking the Rahaga so long, I mean how hard is it to get directions?” “Well, when they're to a creature that has not been seen since the time before time… hard.” “How hard can it be for Rahaga to discover-find the direction?” “As in the case of creatures that hasn’t been seen since before the beginning of time... hard.” - This doesn’t even make grammatical sense. However, maybe I’ve misheard a particular word (amit - amik), so just in case, here’s a different interpretation: “As in the case of creatures that haven’t seen since before the beginning of time... hard.” - Does this make more sense perhaps? It’s grammatically more correct, but it suggests that these supposed “creatures” are blind. In either case, the sentence is totally wrong, since the word “creature” in the original line is singular, not plural. Unless they meant that there’s more than one Keetongu, which is just as wrong. Or maybe they meant the Rahaga? That’s even more wrong.

Because of you, the Rahaga will be put where they belong: in a cage. Thanks to you, the Rahaga have been put where they belong: behind bars. - On one hand, I applaud the translators for taking advantage of Sidorak’s extra lip movements and fitting the words to them. On the other, the line still isn’t accurate.

What I applaud them even less for is their wrecking of Matau’s speech to Vakama at the end. In the original, the writers wisely held back his chutespeak to make the speech that much more convincing and serious. But in the dub, they stuff it full of these stupid made-up words that just make it laughable. I won’t attempt to type them all here. Just imagine it’s Jar Jar in Matau’s place or something.

Still, there are yet more things wrong with that scene. In English, Matau brings up the three virtues woven into his speech in succession, reminding Vakama of his life as a Toa. In the dub, both duty and destiny are translated as duty, meaning there’s only two virtues. Also, there’s this: You're our leader, Vakama. You're my leader. You’re our direction-leader, Vakama. Our leader.

Not strictly an error, but throughout the film, the terms “defeat”, “strike down” and “destined to fail” are all translated as “destroy”. Also, “elemental powers” never come up. Instead, they’re “special powers”.

In light of all you've given, you owe us nothing. Despite that I know you’ve given so much, you owe us nothing. - Again they turn part of the line completely around. Keetongu owes them nothing because he’s done so much, not in spite of it.

He wants to know why you'd want that. Seeing as you've made peace with the beast within. He wants to know why you wish that. Have you made peace with the beasts within you? - And yet again. The second sentence is not a question, it’s a statement.

The Makuta! He is gone. Makuta! He’s gone from here. - As usual, the wrong part of the sentence is given emphasis. The point is that he truly has escaped, like Norik claimed. Not that he’s gone “from this specific place”.

As for this line, the delivery is just as bad as the translation. I’ll attempt to convey it through writing: We'll find a way to defeat him. Because that's what Toa do. We find a method to defeat him! That’sthee... Toowah’s... faith. - And no, they didn’t choose the Hungarian word for “faith” because it fit better to Vakama’s mouth movements. Translating the line literally (”Mert ez a Toa dolga”, instead of “Ez a Toa hite”) would, on the other hand, have perfectly fit. But they didn’t. So they got both the translation and the lip sync wrong, and as a result the delivery is shit too because the VA had to make these silly pauses and needlessly extend the words where necessary.

“This is the way of the Bionicle” is rendered here as “This is the way of life in the world of Bionicle.”

So the couple who localized these movies are actually some of the most prolific translators working in the country’s industry, with decades of experience and thousands of scripts, books and comics to their name. Yet their grasp on both the English and Hungarian languages just keeps deteriorating further, and to this day they continue to wreck every almost dub they touch. I’m gonna stop fucking around and name them: László Katona and Zita Csányi. The former also translated the few Bionicle books we got in this country, and while they have plenty of issues, the translation is much more competent. Most people mainly have a beef with Csányi, whose dubbing scripts for animated productions are consistently some of the worst in the industry, and she’s especially infamous for the wretched translation work she submitted for the Ben 10 and Steven Universe franchises. I’m a fan of neither, but as a mere casual cartoon watcher, I’m appalled by the sheer stilted-sounding nonsense I keep hearing whenever I come across any of those shows on tv. Mishearings, taking foreign idioms literally, constantly confusing past-present-future and singular-plural, or just straight-up rewriting the dialogue into something completely detached for their original meaning.

But moving on to everyone’s favorite Bionicle movie (note: this sentence was translated by Zita Csányi)...

The Legend Reborn

Now, at the time Lego’s Hungarian website advertised this as “A legenda újjáéled”, until the web team got notified that the DVD is actually called “A legenda újjászületik”. A red flag already. The dub was produced by a different company and a different translator who was somehow just as bad. With this film, they didn’t even try to sync the dialogue to the mouth movements, so that’s the level of quality we’re dealing with here.

You never hear the word Glatorian in the dub. They’re just called gladiators, which gives me vibes of all the European DBZ dubs that avoided saying the word Saiyan at all costs. Also, the Skopio is merely a scorpion. Yet they kept everything else. The Great Beings are inconsistently called “Giant Beings” or just “Giants”. I take it the translator thought the Great Spirit Robots were supposed to be GBs? Not that the movie makes it clear.

Its name echoed my rebirth – the Mask of Life. My rebirth can thus be summarized as such: the life born from the mask. - That’s one way to overwrite a simple sentence.

You just won me a lot of bets. You won me heaps of money. - Bets in this case referred to Kiina’s conviction that there’s life on other planets. Maybe there was money involved (does Bara Magna even have currency?), but the translator probably just thought Kiina made a bet on Mata Nui’s arena fight. Which would make little sense as he wasn’t even scheduled to fight.

The Glatorian are headed for Tajun. The gladiator is headed for Tajun. - Ah, good ol’ singular-plural confusion.

Those Bone Hunters are gonna be eating Skopio belly for weeks. The scorpion’s stomach is gonna be digesting Bone Hunters for weeks. - This is the fucking opposite.

Not an error, I just think it’s amusing that instead of calling him a “filthy thief”, Kiina calls Berix a “goddamn thief”. I call him worse.

I like fixing things, and I'm good at it, too. I mean, c'mon, who do you think got the lights working, huh? I like tinkering with things, and I’m pretty good at it. Who’d have thought the lights here work? - Maybe it’s just me, but this doesn’t give me the impression that he was the one who patched them up.

Wait, what you did with the Vorox tail and Click, could it work with these? Wait, what have you done Click and with the Vorox tail, could you do it with this? - Did this translator speak either of the two languages required for his job, I ask?

Of course! Fire is your elemental power. The Mask of Life has simply ignited it. Of course! Fire is your elementary element. The Mask of Life simply recognized this fact. - This just sounds stupid.

Guess it's a stand-off. I think this is a dead-end. - I guess technically. But there’s more suitable expressions he could have used.

I told you, Raanu, pitting Vastus against Tarix would pack 'em in! I told you, Raanu, it’s a mistake to pit Vastus against Tarix. - That means the opposite you dumb fuck.

I saw them being dragged away. Through the hot springs. I saw that they dragged them away to the hot springs.

Did you ever think maybe you weren't the only one that needed to believe there was something more? Did you ever think that you were the only one who wanted to see more with it? -Huh? With what?

I am closer to becoming the warrior I must be if I am to reclaim my empire and free my people. If I reclaim my empire and save my people, I will become the warrior I wanted to be. - No. He has to become a warrior because he wants to save them. It’s not that he has to save them because he wants to become a warrior, you mongrel piece of fuck translator. To be fair to him, TLR sucks. Technically, the others do too but the dubs suck more.

If anyone’s wondering, or I should say if anyone even made it to this part of the post, there’s only one major translation goof I recall from the 2015 webisode dub: they called Skull Basher Skull Grinder. Oh, and the introduction episode just plain wasn’t dubbed at all, if you count that as a goof. The Journey to One wasn’t dubbed or subbed either cause Netflix’s online content still hasn’t been localized here.

#Bionicle #translation #Hungarian dub #Mask of Light #Legends of Metru Nui #Web of Shadows #The Legend Reborn #errata #mistakes #long post #Bonkle #Pevku and Nuyu #dubs

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