Walt Disney Animation Studios fondly reminds us that the company’s films are played around the world. This poses a special problem for a musical – the studio not only has to find singers all over the world who sound credible like the original English-speaking actors, but also translate all the lyrics of the songs in such a way that not only the meaning is preserved, but also the meaning Rhythms and rhymes of the original version.
Since 2013 Frozen, Disney has released videos of some of its bigger breakout song hits showing what these songs sound like in their various incarnations around the world. The quick edits between the different voice soundtracks on songs like Frozen
The latest song to receive Disney’s official multilingual video treatment is “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Spotify top breakout hit from charmBillboard’s 100 top soundtrack. The song is a summary of the strange and frightening experiences people have had with Bruno Madrigal, the black sheep of a family in which almost everyone has magical powers. Bruno’s power looks to the future, but as the song suggests, knowing about future tragedies (even small, personal, and male baldness) doesn’t make it easier to weather them, and the madrigal community eventually feared Bruno’s terrible predictions. When he disappeared, it became taboo to talk about him – except apparently in dramatic song form, which sounds in 21 languages from versions of even more dramatic charm
Fans of this treatment who want to hear more than just an excerpt of the song in different languages - or charmFor other music numbers, be sure to check out the Disney Plus voice menu. American viewers, for example, have the opportunity to see the entire film in 19 other languages. So if you want to know what “Surface Pressure” sounds like in Italian, Dutch or Norwegian, this is also an option.
