Bionicle movie lines that sound better in other languages

So I watched Makuta scenes of both movies in German (I only watched the German version of MoL) and you are right, the tone in LoM sounds more deceptive and manipulative. Kinda nice they changed that, even though fairly inconsistent I think.

And I just realized that they did the same in French like in German. Only that in French, the VA is the same, but with different voice edits

3 Likes

An extra difference that comes to my mind is the legendary line from Web of Shadows: “The Key to Nongu?”
I am curious how this was dealt with in different languages, as it cannot be changed arbitrarily. It should rhyme with Keetongu for Onewa to mishear it.
In the czech dub, this was changed to: “Kid of Ongu?”

Mind you, I didn’t translate this - this english form was actually used in the final dub. It begs a question why this was changed at all, when the language was kept for this line…

Perhaps they thought that young non-english speaking audience would be more familiar with “kid” as oposed to “key”?

How is this line handled in German and French?

3 Likes

I think German: who plays bongo?
Double checked it: it’s really “What? Who plays Bongo?”

2 Likes

If I remember it correctly, in Russian it was: “a whale’s leg?”

No kidding, in Russian it rhymes with “Keetongu” really well!

6 Likes

Feel free to post any more variations on Key to Nongu!

And don’t forget to also post any dialoge that you think was improved in a certain dub. I am interested!

1 Like

In Polish dub the Keetongu line was changed to “Jaki King Kongu?”, which means “What King Kongu?”… at least that’s what it was changed to according to BS01. I always heard it as “Kiekongu”, which is just a funny misspelling of Keetongu.

As for the question in the OP, I’d say the whole Polish dub overall. Mask of Light was a big part of my childhood (and what got me into the series actually) and I always thought it holds up pretty well even to this day. That’s why I was very surprised when I heard people complaining about the dialogue or voice acting in the movie. That was until I heard the original English dub and well… I can only say I feel sorry for you guys.

This is one of the rare instances where the Polish dub is much better than the original (and that happens very rarely, almost never). Whoever was in charge of the translation did a pretty good job, the dialogues in the Polish version are filled with fancier, more literary words than what your typical translation would be, which added to the mystical feel of the movie, something I feel the original version kinda lacked. That certainly wasn’t necessary, but I welcome this change - it made the characters sound like they’re from some sort of fantasy novel, which, again, in my opinion fit the otherworldy adventure much better.

But not only that, the voice acting in general sounds much better in the dub. In the original, I thought some actors sound really stiff or just really uninterested in the movie, whereas the line delivery in the dub sounds much more emotional. At least in some scenes. I also find the choice of voice actors much more fitting - most notably, Jaller and Takua sounds like actual full-grown characters, not kids.

And the Makuta voice… Gosh, I was really surprised to hear how different and underwhelming the original voice is compared to the one I used to grow up with. Tell you what, Makuta’s voice scared the ■■■■ out of me when I was a kid - it was deep, distorted by filters, much more menacing compared to the calmer, more distant voice in the English version. It did give the character a whole different feel and some people may not be fans of that, but I personally dig it a lot.

As for the line changes… Well, as I already said, a lot of them use fancier wording compared to the original, and I don’t know the whole English version by heart so I didn’t really compare all of it, but there are some differences that stood out for me.

I really like the exchange between Tahu and Gali on the Kolhii Stadium. In the original it goes:

Gali: “I think my brother is afraid of having his fire extinguished.”
Tahu: “Sister, against me you’d be nothing but steam - hot air, as they say.”

But in the Polish dub it goes:

Gali: “My brother keeps away from me, seems like he’s afraid I’d extinguish his flame.”
Tahu: “Sister, I’m only afraid you’d evaporate near me. One moment of carelessness - and you’re done for.”

I think it conveys the whole brother-sister bickering much better. On top of that I always thought the hot-air punchline to be kinda… lame? But maybe that’s just me.

I also like Hahli’s speech near the end of the movie better in the dub. The original goes:

“This island is a great and wondrous place. Never have any been as blessed as we are to live in such paradise. I love my home, Jaller loved it too - but above all, Jaller respected his duty. Let us repay him by doing our duty. Let us remember him by fulfilling our destiny. Let us go forward together. Let us awaken the Great Spirit!”

Which is all cool and that, but I find the dub ver even more emotional and touching, especially with how the voice actress delivers the line:

“We live on a beatiful island full of wonders. The gods bestowed us with a wonderful gift - living in this paradise realm. I love my homeland, Jaller loved it too - but duty was the most important for him. Let us thank him by fulfilling our duty. Let us honor his memory by fulfilling our destiny. Let us go together into the darkness below - let us awaken the great Mata Nui!”.

I also very like Treespeak in the Polish version, although I can understand why it’s hated by so many in its English form - English Treespeak basically just connects two words with a dash, which is hardly creative and kinda lazy. But the Polish Treespeak actually takes parts of different words and meshes them together to create a new word - for example, a word “chmura” meaning “cloud” was meshed with a word “nieboskłon”, which is a very fancy and literary way of saying “sky”, to create “chmuroskłon”, which in English version would be… “cloud-sky”, I guess? Not as impressive imo.

FUN FACT: in the Legends of Metru Nui dub, Nidhiki was made female, for whatever reason. He was even being called “little sister” by Krekka. So I guess that’s the one thing Polish dub screwed up, but otherwise I find it phenomenal.

8 Likes

Wow, that is pretty extensive!
I have to say that I too didn’t understand the complains until I watched the original.

I like this change very much.

I watched the Polish version - and the line I mentioned at the begining caught my ear. Did Takanuva say: “I don’t plan on losing!” ?

I heard about that. Is there somewhere I can watch it?

I realized an interesting difference in the czech dub. Kopaka’s famous: “Rahkshi - washed and chilled.”

There, it is actually: “Rahkshi - flushed and frozen.”

3 Likes

The didn’t know that the polish version was uncensored until I clicked the video. I thought you had the same problem as we have in Germany with the movies.

The Nidhiki thing is weird. I had a friend who thought he was female and I didn’t see why. It seems he was not the only one lol.

1 Like

Many people still think Nidhiki is female.
I suspect someone thought he sounds like an old witch, or something.

1 Like

Sure:

He doesn’t sound that different from the original version, though he is referred to as female multiple times.

Yup, that’s correct!

1 Like

You are right, the polish Nidhiki doesn’t sound much different, nor like a female.

While I enjoy this approach to his voice, I always prefered the czech version.
It is very different from the throaty choking voice he has in english, polish (and I presume many others?)

The czech dub just sounds more like Nidhiki to me especially when you know his backstory - a treacherous Toa of Air.
This Nidhiki sounds like an insidious out of tune violin.
Here is what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCCw9R3LKnQ

Also Lhikan’s reaction to Vakama’s capture lines up with the animation - a gasp.

4 Likes

Wow, that is definitely a uniquely sounding Nidhiki! I see where you’re coming from - his voice does have that Toa of Air flavor in it. Also I’m getting some Joker vibes from it lol.

One thing I remembered after rewatching a little of the Polish dub of LoMN I posted - making Nidhiki female led to one amusing change. In the English dub, when he is about to capture Vakama, he simply says:

“Where do you think you’re going?”

But in the Polish dub, since he was made female, he says:

“Going somewhere, darling?”

I remember my friends and I used to laugh at it a lot in the pre-school days.

4 Likes

Yes, that Jokeresque, Toa of Air, snappy sense of humor type of voice. I can easily imagine him sounding like this during his Toa Mangai days.

Darling? interesting. So they really meant it.
I mean, if it was Nokama it wouldn’t be exactly out of character for Nidhiki to say something like that. You know: “Hi dear, I’m home!” type of stuff.

So you knew back then that Nidhiki was supposed to be male? Was it just a movie thing, or some other Polish material?

3 Likes

The movies were the only source of lore we had back then, aside from some promo comics and activity books, but those only started to appear in 2006. So no, I didn’t know he was supposed to be male, not until around 2010 when I read about it on the wiki or somewhere else.

Talk about a life-changing revelation.

5 Likes

And yet they still sound like Takua and Jaller…
Most interesting. :+1:

The voice is definitely more unsettling…

I feel for Vakama the couple of times Nidhiki sneaks up on him.

That was indeed a good gasp. :point_up: (Although, I must admit that for the most part, I still like Toa Lhikan’s English voice better. :slightly_smiling_face:)

1 Like

Just when I think that surely not another reason to learn Polish will pop up… :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s difficult to assess the quality of the voice acting without knowingwhere the emphasis is going, but the choice of voice actors definitely feels more suited on par.

Maybe these dubs are the reason why some people seem to be fonder of the original movies than I ever was, aha. The English versions have their moments, but mostly aren’t fantastic.

Out of curiosity - did anyone watch TLR in a language other than English?

2 Likes

I’m really Curious how “the shadow has arrived” line from lomn (legend of metru nui) sounds in other dubs.

1 Like

In the German dub Makuta says: “The shadow has triumphed”, what I think is a downgrade to the original, since it doesn’t fit as well with “Dume’s” mirror talk.

2 Likes

In the Polish dub he says what can be roughly translated to “the age of shadow has begun”.

4 Likes

The original is: “Too late Toa. The shadow has arrived.”

In the czech dub it goes: “Too late Toa. The shadow is already here.”

It should be noted that in the second movie, the voice filter for Makuta was changed to a much more uncanny one than the Mask of Light (again czech dub).

I would assume that anyone who watched any of these movies dubbed, has watched dubbed TLR as well. I can say for czech version that it is not much different quality wise. Maybe I’ll check it for some new stuff, though.

3 Likes