The Influence of Performance Type on Song Translation: A Disney Musical Case Study

Abstract

This thesis investigated whether and how specific performance types affected translators’ choices in song translation for Disney’s musical The Little Mermaid. This was done by examining the restrictions of song translation and of dubbing, which indicated that the criteria of singability, rhythm, rhyme, naturalness and sense (as well as audiovisual cohesion and lip synchronization in dubbing) all need to be balanced to achieve a singable translation. Based on these criteria a comparative analysis of translated songs from the dubbed film and stage musical of The Little Mermaid was performed. The analysis indicated that the need for audiovisual cohesion in dubbing affected the rendering of sense in comparison to the musical translation, but that the other criteria were similarly dealt with in both translations.