You might have noticed that there are more posts from me on weekends-  that’s because I have more time to myself.  Week days are work days, which means I usually don’t have as much time to think of things to say.  Not so with weekends.  Especially Sundays, where I have to find ways to fill the time because nothing is open.

Today I filled some of the time by going to see Disneys Der König Der Löwen, also known as The Lion King.  I’ve been thinking about seeing it for a while, but I’m glad I waited-  I found that I could actually follow more of the German now than I would have been able to a few weeks ago.

I’ve always been somewhat facsinated by the voice actors who dub over well known parts on television and in movies.  While watching television here, I found that the German version of “How I Met Your Mother” was really fun to watch because the voice actors who cover Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segel, and all the rest really do sound like their American counterparts- almost uncannily so.

That was mostly the case with the German cast of the Lion King.  They had a hard time matching someone to the timbre of James Earl Jones, but everyone else was more or less spot on.  Here’s a sample of my favorite part of the movie:

Something else that I found interesting was that despite the massive shift in language, many of the songs retained a rhyme scheme.  On those parts where I could pick out the translations, I noticed that they had changed the order of the words around to make it fit the rhyme scheme. It seems to me like that would be somewhat awkward, but I’ll have to ask a native speaker for their opinion.

Something else that I thought was interesting was that while most of the songs were English in the original were in German, Zazu’s “Nobody Knows” while he’s in the cage was in English.  And in the bit where he sings “I’ve Got A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts” in the English version, the German version changes to a little tune I’ve never heard before. I’d be willing to bet that it’s a song that is very common to people who’ve lived in Germany all their lives, though.

All in all, a very fun outing.  And one of the previews was for Die Muppets!  I can’t wait to see that one.