NIMH in foreign languages.

Anyone here speak a language other than English? If yes, here's a question.

You know how people sometimes say that English movies translated (or the other way around) don't sound right or sound corny? Well then, has anyone seen NIMH in a foreign language and understands it fluently? How do you think it was watching NIMH in another language that you understand? Did it sound corny?

I would really want to know what it's like in other languages that I don't speak.

My own answer to my own question is that in Japanese, NIMH does sound corny. And another thing is that Elizabeth Hartman is the only (and I mean only) person who could do the VA of Mrs. Brisby. The Japanese VA of her isn't really the image of Mrs. Brisby's voice. Plus in Japanese, everyone talks too hysterically (Especially Mrs. B and with some exceptions like Jeremy).

In conclusion, NIMH is better in English.

In my case I only saw it in the Spanish version and it has some details a little strange. For example the scene where the Shrew is leaving the Brisby house and Mrs. Brisby asks her that stays the Shrew answers "Ni por un millón de ratodólares" something like "Neither for a million mouse-dollars" :shock:
Does somebody know how many dollars a mouse-dollar is?

The VA is fine except for a couple of details.
The voices of Jeremy and Justin they look like each other too much, they're almost the same! :shock:
And that of the Great Owl sounds a little young, personally I had preferred a deeper tone for him.

But where definitively a great difference is noticed is in the Flying Dreams song.
I don't know how it is in Japanese but the translation in Spanish is not good, it loses great part of its meaning, it feels a little... mmh... hollow. Fortunately I have the original lyrics and is really beautiful. :)
Ah! one more thing. NIMH becomes INSM (Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental) and Nicodemus pronounces it letter by letter! I - N - S - M, doesn't sound good... :(

Apart from this the rest is fine, the VA of Mrs. Brisby is quite good although I didn't have the opportunity to listen Elizabeth Hartman yet, I'll make the possible to find the English version.

PD: "Puedes abrir cualquier puerta, si sólo tienes la llave" :wink:

I don't know how it is in Japanese but the translation in Spanish is not good, it loses great part of its meaning, it feels a little... mmh... hollow. Fortunately I have the original lyrics and is really beautiful. :)
Ah! one more thing. NIMH becomes INSM (Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental) and Nicodemus pronounces it letter by letter! I - N - S - M, doesn't sound good... :(

Well in Japanese NIMH is still NIMH (pronounced "NI-MU") since Japanese doesn't use the roman alphabet and there is no way of making it short. But "National Institute of Mental Health" would be "Kokusai-Eisei-Kenkyuujo" For translation.
"That's refreshing Jenner usually you're screaming about us." is something that could be translated into Japanese. However for some reason the changed it to "It sounded more like screaming that talking." which is actually not really funny (even though the other rats were laughing like in the original.) Flying Dreams is actually in subtitles in the movie (a random fact, so are the songs in NIMH 2.) I personally think it's impossible to translate Flying Dreams into Japanese cause one japanese letter is one syllable (the only languages that are like that are probably Japanese, Chinese and Korean...) which would add up syllables to each line...

In my case I only saw it in the Spanish version and it has some details a little strange. For example the scene where the Shrew is leaving the Brisby house and Mrs. Brisby asks her that stays the Shrew answers "Ni por un millón de ratodólares" something like "Neither for a million mouse-dollars" :shock:
Does somebody know how many dollars a mouse-dollar is?

Nope. Makes about as much sense to me as it does to you. ;) I suspect they were trying to be cute; the line reminds me of something that'd be said in NIMH2.

The VA is fine except for a couple of details.
The voices of Jeremy and Justin they look like each other too much, they're almost the same! :shock:
And that of the Great Owl sounds a little young, personally I had preferred a deeper tone for him.

Aww... That's too bad. One of the things I loved about NIMH was the voice casting they did. If you can find an English copy of NIMH, I'd recommend it. (And if you can't, let me know; I'll see what I can come up with).

But where definitively a great difference is noticed is in the Flying Dreams song.
I don't know how it is in Japanese but the translation in Spanish is not good, it loses great part of its meaning, it feels a little... mmh... hollow. Fortunately I have the original lyrics and is really beautiful. :)

Well, songs are difficult to translate, since you have to make the thing fit an existing rhythm and rhyming scheme. That said, I'm sorry they didn't make a better effort to translate it better.

Ah! one more thing. NIMH becomes INSM (Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental) and Nicodemus pronounces it letter by letter! I - N - S - M, doesn't sound good... :(

Especially in Spanish... that'd be 'ee-ene-ese-eme' for you anglophones out there. ;) I think they should've stuck with the English pronunciation/spelling.

I just have to type an answer to this topic. :)

Why? Well, I have seen SoN in the german version on my DVD, where you can change between english, german and also spanish (liwinks to Tenkenli)

But I have to admit, that I prefer the english version of the movie. - The german one is good, there are not that much translation mistakes and the voices fit, but they couldn't replace the charme of the original voice actors. ;)

Just Mrs. Brisby's voice doesn't fit that good in the german translation. - Sometimes her voice sounded a little bit too "clear" and "squeaky". - But anyway, that detail isn't important, and her character doesn't loose its charme just because of the voice.

After all, I find the english translation better than the german one ... ^^