The production team that was assembled to produce the dubbed version of Princess Mononoke met for its first script meeting in New York. They thought their films would be more widely distributed and more widely viewed if there were well-made dubbed versions of them, not just the subtitled versions favored by arthouse audiences. Miramax was then the main importer of the very best foreign-language films into the U.S.
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I had heard that Miramax was very interested in learning how to dub foreign films into English. The process of making the English-language dubbed version of Princess Mononoke began in New York with a meeting at Miramax. The first English-language version of a Ghibli film that was made under the new guidelines was Princess Mononoke. Guidelines were established and made contractual. The discussions included the participation of lawyers. Heated discussions took place on how the translations of Ghibli’s films would be made. Alpert, Seiji Okuda, Toshio Suzuki, Hayao Miyazaki, Haruyo Moriyoshi Photo: Stonebridge Press And they made the kind of translation mistakes that review by a native speaker would have corrected. They changed names to make them sound more American. They added plot points to fill out storylines they found unclear. They filled silences with dialogue that wasn’t in the original script. To Disney, translation meant an opportunity to change all of the things that they didn’t think would appeal to a commercial audience in America. One problem we hadn’t anticipated was that Disney would use the translations to “correct” perceived problems with the films themselves. But what about the things Japanese people say that nobody else says and that there just aren’t equivalents for in other languages? Or the Japanese words that even Japanese people have trouble defining that Hayao Miyazaki likes to use in the titles of his films?ĭisney was our distributor in the U.S. That’s doable, though native speakers don’t all agree on what sounds natural. Beyond that, you want the translated dialogue to sound natural to a native speaker who doesn’t know Japanese. But then the question arises, what exactly is a proper translation?Īt a minimum of course you want to avoid outright mistakes. Also, the language in the scripts of Ghibli’s films has the kind of depths of meaning and artistic beauty that deserve a proper translation. Seeing it done right was a matter of personal pride. I have an academic background and always wanted to be a translator (of poetry and novels). I was determined that the translations of the films of Studio Ghibli would be done properly. They are far more tolerant of linguistic errors than a native speaker would be. Another problem is that Japanese people love English and are too comfortable with their version of it. The main problem in the film industry is that no one checks the translations. Books have been written illustrating the biggest bloopers.
In this excerpt from the book, he writes about the challenges of translation, and the hurdles that author Neil Gaiman faced while writing the English-language screenplay for Princess Mononoke. In his new memoir, Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghibli, Alpert details his experiences working with Miyazaki, dealing with Hollywood executives (including the notorious Harvey Weinstein), and bridging his own cultural gaps in order to properly preserve the films. Working closely with founders Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, and Yasuyoshi Tokuma, the “resident foreigner” played a key role in making the studio a known entity around the globe. In 1996, Studio Ghibli and its parent company Tokuma Shoten hired an American, Steve Alpert, as the head of the animation company’s international division. For more, head to our Studio Ghibli guide page. To celebrate the arrival of Studio Ghibli’s library on digital and streaming services, we’ve surveyed the studio’s history, impact, and biggest themes.
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