Cultural Transfer and Translation strategies in Walt Disney's animated movie the Princess and the Frog

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the notion of audio-visual translation of an animated film by Walt Disney Animation Studios, The Princess and the Frog (Clements and Musker, 2009). In particular, it analyses the various translation strategies employed in the film and attempts to determine whether specific audio-visual translation techniques are employed more regularly than others. The thesis is made up of three chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of audio-visual translation strategies. Chapter 2 discusses the role of language in everyday life and in movies and the role of the voice artists. Moreover, Chapter 2 discusses the role of the first African American Princess and the role of the city of New Orleans within the animated movie. Finally, Chapter 3 provides the multimodal transcription of different songs and dialogues.