Article on the start of the German Buffy season 8 on a major website.
For those of you interested and capable of reading german, one of the major german papers gave this article on the start of the german version of Buffy season 8. Quite a shiny review.
[ edited by Snugels on 2008-04-04 09:13 ]
April 03 2008
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* Though you guys did get the OMWF DVD first (which I bought little realising the spoken words (not the singing) was in German).
Simon | April 03, 15:22 CET
Okay, that's my favourite gratuitous-English-line-in-a-German-article ever.
bigsofty | April 03, 15:32 CET
Sunfire | April 03, 15:33 CET
Dana5140 | April 03, 15:35 CET
cleveland | April 03, 15:36 CET
Oh wow, it really is pimpen. That's hilarious. Actually what I can make out of the article seems to be the best popular press piece on Season 8 to date.
[ edited by Sunfire on 2008-04-03 21:41 ]
Sunfire | April 03, 15:36 CET
That's indeed strange, I can buy the comics in Holland since last year..
But yay for our neighbours though :)
Krusher | April 03, 15:36 CET
Perseo | April 03, 15:52 CET
We can buy the US comics here too Krusher, direct from comics shops but I assume Simon's talking about a dedicated UK reprint (though I don't really see the need since the US editions are quite widely available so maybe i've got the wrong end of the stick there).
Saje | April 03, 16:10 CET
Simon | April 03, 16:19 CET
Or do you think more people that have never heard of Buffy or Joss would buy it if they could get it in the paper shop ? Guess I could maybe see that.
Saje | April 03, 16:27 CET
Simon | April 03, 16:31 CET
Kessie | April 03, 16:38 CET
Oh and yes, I bought the USA version of the comics, a Dutch one is AFAIK not in the planning (and I'm not interested in them anyway, I don't even buy translated books)
Krusher | April 03, 17:44 CET
I sent the link to my friends in Munich (who saw Christian Kane when he played there, and got to meet him after the gig.)
Chris inVirginia | April 03, 17:55 CET
"macht mimt die Partylöwin": One verb per sentence please and not two who actually mean the same, only with a few different connotations.
Otherwise, well, the translation is actually not too bad, even though xander comes across much less funny than in the english version. hmmmm, must be that Whedon touch, it's just not imitable in a different language. And the translation "Jägerin" for slayer always bugged the hell out of me, but there is sadly no alternatve in the german language.
As to why the Spiegel is so complementary about Buffy (and that's an understatement judging by this article, the journalist just about blasted the page with the superlatives and positive adjectives), well it's a bit left on the political spectrum and very into emancipation and woman power for one thing (even though it's usually not as noticeable) but the biggest reason is that they pride themselves in being creative with the language (in a very journalistic way, of course) and love playing with words. The Spiegel is responsible for a lot of developement in the german language, they're usually witty even when seriously reporting. It is singlehandedly responsible for the dwindling of the genetiv-s, and very proud of its style too. So there would be definite Whedon admiration just because of Joss' way with words. (I think the journalist even said as much in the article, translated it would mean something like Joss' superior dialogue wittiness and caring empathy)
and regarding "ureigenes Bildungsromanniveau pimpen" that is of course also very complimentary of Joss' - in a witty way. very witty. I'm still smiling.
Harpy | April 03, 20:30 CET
That certainly was the case with the translations of the TV series as well (that Xander's funny was off). It's sad, especially in the early seasons. So often it seems that the translator just didn't get it. I get the impression in so many DVDs, that translations are done either by Germans, or Americans, not both (I could be wrong, of course). I think that translations should be worked by a team of both a German and an American in order to get it right. That would be better for so many DVDs & other media though, not just Buffy.
[ edited by Anna von Ovonov on 2008-04-04 05:20 ]
Anna von Ovonov | April 03, 23:19 CET
This reminds me of seeing Pimp My Ride on Bosnian television, dubbed in German. I wish I could remember what they called it in German. Anyway, the homeboys speaking German was quite surreal. And this is, too.
dreamlogic | April 04, 00:27 CET
At the minute Buffy can only be bought in comic book shops here in the UK. If there was a UK reprint it would be sold in newsagents up and down the land and would get a far wider audience.
Simon | April 04, 03:22 CET
I saw the german season 8 a couple of days ago and again the words don't have half of the strength they have in english.
So yay for ebay and internet-comic-distribution!!!
mmm cookies | April 04, 05:35 CET
DaddyCatALSO | April 04, 11:59 CET
Simon | April 04, 12:30 CET
shambleau | April 04, 13:02 CET
Too bad the old LAurel and Hardy days are gone; they said the French, Spanish,a nd German versions of their lines phonetically and only the rest of t he cast was different.
DaddyCatALSO | April 04, 16:04 CET
Chances are they just didn't have the budget on the early seasons of "Buffy" to spend enough time on it to figure it all out and make it as good as they'd like. I love the German voices for the scooby gang, though the vamps and demon voices are distractingly goofy sometimes. My German students say they prefer the German voices after they watch some "Buffy" at home in English, and same thing with my Spanish students and the Spanish voices in "Firefly".
But why is French-Xander's name Alex???
Does the name Xander sound like some vulgar word in French, or something? I don't get that one.
By the way, you German speakers have probably all seen this site (but since it took me forever to find it, I'll mention it here). There is a great German script site for most "Buffy" episodes. I use it all the time in putting together discussion guides or worksheets for my students (...to maximize the fun, :) of course). Here 'tis: http://www.tv-scripte.de/buffy/index.html
Anna von Ovonov | April 04, 18:13 CET