Disney in Other Languages
froggerway
nobody cared then
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Well, I do know that "Chip and Dale" are called "Tic and Tac" in French. I don't think that's a literal translation by any means, it's just the names those characters were given in France.
Because historically, translations of Disney film titles and characters were not always literal. Nowadays, Rapunzel stays Rapunzel and Ariel stays Ariel, no matter what country the film is shown in. But in the past, names were altered to either make more sense to the non-English audience or to make them easier to pronounce. Remember, we didn't always have an Interweb or even international TV to help people become familiar with other languages, and English wasn't as widely spoken/heard/understood! (We take so much for granted these days, even though we know it wasn't always like this. This is one of those lingering indicators of the times in which these films were created.)
I have no idea where "Rox" came from, but here's an interesting blog post from an Italian Disney fan (in English) that shows you how many character names from older Disney films were changed for the Italian market:
http://mycornerofitaly.com/disney-characters-in-italian/
The Seven Dwarves are particularly interesting, since the chosen Italian names convey the same idea as the English names (mostly) but are certainly not literal translations. Edit: I totally get where the blogger is coming from. When I was in the Disney Store in Florence in, like, 2004, all the Dwarf plushes had their Italian names embroidered on their hats. Mind. Blown. Who knew that Dopey isn't just Dopey everywhere? But back in the day, he was christened Cucciolo. Nowadays, most folks familiar with the English-language version would know "Dopey" but back then, nope.
If anyone deciphers where "Rox" came from, please share. Ha.
Rox and Rouky are the French names for Tod and Copper.
Reynard is already the name of a fox from fables, so they might not have been able to use the name, or they my have wanted to change the name to keep it distinct so audiences wouldn't think this was a Reynard tale. Robin Hood was actually originally supposed to be a Reynard movie, so that may also be part of the reason.
Captain Hook is Captain Crochet in France, which I find hilarious. I get that "crochet" means "hook" there, but I just can't get the image of Hook knitting by the fire out of my mind.
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