Ekran: Adventures of a House Elf

This one was upon my wife's request. There were a few difficulties in the translation. The narrative builds on various folk-tale characters, such as Baba Yaga and the House on Chicken Legs, Leshy, and Domovoi. I had a choice to either be true to the narrative and call them by their Russian folk names, or to find close alternatives in English. In my translations I usually pick what would be most understandable for a Western/North American viewer, so I decided to go with closest approximations.

I left Baba Yaga untranslated, because she's fairly clearly an "old witch" and doesn't require explanation. For a "Leshy" I used "tree demon" -- largely because the cartoon itself departs fairly far from their traditional forms (there's an allusion to this fact in the cartoon itself). Lastly, for "Domovoi" I had a choice to either use "Brownie" or, thanks to the popularity of Harry Potter books, "House Elf." I picked the latter, though neither of the choices was completely satisfactory. Please read the Wikipedia articles linked above if you're interested in the actual Russian folk characters of Baba Yaga, Leshy, and Domovoi.

The characters also talk in a whimsical folksy language, which is very hard to express using subtitles. All I have to work with are two lines of 40 characters each and a couple of seconds of screen time. :) If I tried to use folksy "old-timey" English, it would have been too hard to read and looked weird coming from Russian folk characters.

Oh, and I should mention that "Kuzya," "Kuzka," "Kuzenka," etc, are all diminutives of the name "Kuzma" (which, I believe, stems from the Greek name "Kosmas"). In Russian, diminutives are formed by piling on suffixes onto the root of the name so a "diminutive" routinely ends up longer than the original name itself. The longer the diminutive, the more endearing it is. :)

Here's the full version, in two parts (stupid YouTube):

Part 1:


Part 2:


Original title: "Приключения Домовёнка"
English title: "Adventures of a House Elf"
Studio: Ekran
Duration: 17 minutes
Download media: arjlover.net
Download subtitles: mricon.com

Soyuzmultfilm: Vovka in the Never-Ever Tsardom

I love the style of this cartoon, and the idea is fairly original. That's all. :)

Some of it will make more sense if you're familiar with Russian fairy-tales, such as The fisherman and the Goldfish by Aleksandr Pushkin. There are no distinct other sources here -- the characters of Vasilisa the Wise and the "Two From the Chest" are borrowed randomly from here and there.

Here it is, in full.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Original title: "Вовка в тридевятом царстве"
English title: "Vovka in the Never-Ever Tsardom"
Studio: Soyuzmultfilm
Duration: 18 minutes
Download media: arjlover.net
Download subtitles: mricon.com

Armenfilm: "Think you're so clever, Marty Gra?"

Okay, it may seem like it's a bit of a stretch from Maslenitsa to Mardi Gras, but they are actually more or less the same holiday. "Fat Tuesday" and "Butter Week" both refer to the festivities before the Great Lent -- everyone pigs out on fat foods, such as buttered pancakes, before all animal fats are off the table for 40 days. I played with various versions of "Butterfest", "Butter week" and "Fat Tuesday," but I settled on "Mardi Gras," even though to most Western viewers it will be a non-sequitur (because in everyone's mind "Mardi Gras" associates with drinking and promiscuous debauchery in New Orleans.)

Nonetheless, I couldn't pass by the convenience of "Mardi" vs "Marty." You're free to flame. :)

There was another snag with the Russian expression of something "being on the tip of the nose," which simply doesn't exist in English. It indicates that "something is coming up," or "something is just around the corner," but none of these expressions quite suite the narrative where the kid makes a joke about the wart on the nose. So, I bit my tongue and went with "pimple."

And thirdly, there just isn't a convenient interjection that is as all-encompassing as the Russian "ish ty!" I mean, "Oh yeah?" sort-of fits, but doesn't quite convey the same spectrum of meaning. Hence why I went with a bunch of other expressions to fill in for "ish ty."

Anyway, here's the full version. Enjoy!



Original title: "Ишь ты, масленица!"
English title: "Think you're so clever, Marty Gra!"
Studio: Armenfilm
Duration: 7 minutes
Download media: arjlover.net
Download subtitles: mricon.com