And yes, I’m still on the topic of dubbing. I’m pleased to say that at least “Sleeping Beauty” escaped the policy of redubbing in Germany. “Cinderella” has mostly still the original dub, but for the DVD release some “marketing genius” decided that they had to change the opening scene. Who cares about the back story of Cinderella, let’s explain the audience that “Cinderella” is the American version of “Aschenputtel”. The explanation is not even correct, since the movie is based on the French version of the fairy-tale, which is much different from the German one. And for some reason they decided to replace the songs at the beginning and end of the movie with orchestral versions.

Thinking about it, the changes on “Cinderella” are the ones, which make the angriest, because they seem to be so senseless, and they insult the intelligence of the audience. I could watch the movie as a child without the information. But the movie which got the worst redubbing overall is “The little Mermaid”. The first one was not even ten years old when they did a new one – and really, the only way I can explain this one is that this one is somehow related to rights on the original dub Disney sold, because they changed really everything, although they say that they wanted it to be modern and “closer” at the original. Right, every single sentence is somehow different (do they really try to tell me that nothing from the first dub was “original” or “modern” enough?), and if anything, it’s further away from the English version. And the voice acting, especially for Triton, is just not as convincing overall. But you can compare for yourself:

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Thankfully, “The little Mermaid” was the last movie which got this treatment, although I am peeved that Disney changed some lines in the English version of “Aladdin” and “Pocahontas”, and I dislike the additional scenes for “Beauty and the Beast” and “Lion King”. NEVER TOUCH THE CLASSICS!

But concerning the theme of “being close to the English dubbing” – well, the new Disney movies are very close, it makes barely a difference which version you watch. The older ones – not so much. With “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty” it’s a little bit like watching two different movies, and I personally like the German versions better. The dialogues in both movies are a little bit wittier – those are only small changes, but they make a difference. I.e. when the mice are fetching the key, Gus (who is called Karli in the German version), constantly says “Karli kann nicht mehr!” (Karli can’t go on!) with more and more desperation in his voice. One change I don’t like about the German version is that in this one Cinderella sings “I have seen him in my dreams”, which might be the explanation why so many people seem to think that she is waiting for her prince.

In “Sleeping Beauty” the dialogues in the English version are mostly spoken like everyone is constantly reciting a poem, which makes them a little bit draggy. In the German version the voice acting is more natural, and especially the three fairies are funnier as a result. If I had to choose my favorite side-character, they would win hands down, but I’m not sure if I would like them that much if I only knew the English dubbing.