The book is a collection of studies in applied audiovisual translation, focusing on the animated genre subtitled and dubbed into Romanian. The contributions are relevant to the current developments in audiovisual modes on the Romanian market. Fans of the animated genre as well as readers interested in linguistic research will find insightful information in each chapter. An interview with an industry leader provides details on the evolution of AVT in Romania. The theoretical frameworks are thoroughly documented and support applied research, which will, hopefully, stimulate similar studies in other languages. The primary audience are fans of the animated genre who are interested in linguistic transfer methods. Secondary audiences are students who would like to learn more about subtle approaches to audiovisual translation modes.

Textprobe: Kapitel Reboosting Screen Translation. A Prolegomenon: Amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic that confined us to limited coordinates of social interaction and narrowed down spaces thought of as safe from the threat haunting the world within and without, the audiovisual medium became also a means of infusing a sense of normality (illusionary/elusive as it has so often proved) into our (dystopian) reality, alleviating loneliness and apprehensiveness. It comes as no surprise then that, besides the boosting interest of the media-oriented society in products provided by the audiovisual industry (AV content), there has been a growing demand for translators with competencies in translating and adapting audiovisual texts (subtitlers and dubbers). In the introductory part of Fast-Forwarding with Audiovisual Translation published in 2017, Jorge Díaz Cintas and Kristijan Nikolic pinpoint the relegation of the more traditional, more conventional media (newspapers, journals, books), the very transition from the paper page to the digital page” (1) and the transformative impact” that the web and social media had on our way of interacting and communicating, mainly due to the attractiveness of the audiovisual format in which audio and visuals come together in a symbiotic whole, thus enhancing the semiotic possibilities of the composite message and its potential to improve comprehension and retention” (1). Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have witnessed a new boom in this AV symbiotic whole and its societal ramifications, added to the already increased pace of the AV industry taking hold of the market, not necessarily in morphing into subsequent typology, but primarily in terms of amount and necessity, demand and supply. The streaming consumption skyrocketed in the many months of forced isolation and it is well-known and obvious to literate viewers/end users that this also impacted the quality of numerous translated/subtitled broadcasts – which reminds us of Jennifer Bisset’s claim that (professional) subtitlers have become a dying breed” and that the art of subtitling is on the decline, all but doomed in an entertainment industry tempted by cheaper emerging artificial intelligence technologies”, dismal pay, tight deadlines, unrealistic” expectations, and competition from clunky machine translation”, an assertion that she supports with the example of Netflix’s Squid Game series and the controversy on their quality-challenged English subtitles. The shift to the online also triggered new dynamic approaches to technology and its potential to satisfy the consumers’ needs and accessibility reflected in the AVT offer as well, but also with an increased awareness of the AV subtitlers, dubbers etc. to update practices and adapt to AVT state-of-the-art software and/or cloud-based systems in order to cater for the demands of the industry they work in and the audience they translate for. The hasted stage of the ongoing (social) process of audiovisualisation-cum-internetisation” (2) as Díaz Cintas and Nikolic call it, of transitioning from paper to screen, is understood in the present volume in terms of Translation Studies. Audiovisual Translation. Subtitling and Dubbing Animated Films into Romanian is a collection of researched contributions in applied audiovisual translation, focusing on the animated genre subtitled and dubbed into Romanian, comprising different approaches that provide a challenging framing of the process from both theoretical and practical points of view, a promising addition to the generous literature on screen translation. The theoretical frameworks are carefully documented and support applied research, relevant to the current developments in audiovisual modes on the Romanian market, yet with no claim to exhaust the perspectives they further. The studies showcased bring to the fore translation problems that the intercultural and interlinguistic process triggers, with our comment that they provide a small scale research and analysis to be improved in further studies. The selected research studies (or analysis lens, as we are tempted to call them) are authored by Andreea Teodora Trîmbi?a?, Diana Brebenel, Madalina-Elena Dumangiu, Sanda Sabau, Paula-Andreea Gherca, Cristina Kiraly and Ana-Maria Mecea, and reflect the AVT research they conducted within their respective MA programme the contributions represent a segment of the practical application section of their MA research papers. The first chapter is signed by Eliza Claudia Filimon and is structured around the interview with an industry leader detailing the evolution and the current state of AVT in Romania (which is the geographical coverage of the practices discussed in the chapters of the book). Eliza Filimon shares the details of her interview with Irina Margareta Nistor, a Romanian film critic and translator who dubbed and subtitled films during the communist regime, while working for the national TV channel of those times, in a sort of frenzied rush from official tasks to underground AVT as seen in the quote below: She would do her official job from 8.30am to 3.30pm, censoring content for television broadcast, and then walk two blocks to the man’s apartment to dub films until midnight in an improvised studio in his basement. Since there wasn’t time to watch the movies first, she had to dub them in real time on first viewing. (Kit Gillet/The Guardian, 2014) The interview includes also the members of the subtitling team for The Galactic Imaginarium SFF Film Festival, students at the West University of Timisoara, Romania, and provides a first-hand perspective on the limitations that the AVT professional had to face back then, underground ‘dubbing’ being the only freedom that translators and audiences alike could enjoy, the rest bearing imposed coordinates of a totalitarian regime which kept suffocating not only individual freedom, but also collective one, depriving the individual(s) of their fundamental rights. We should take into account here Diana Georgiana Ciocan’s assertion that the translation technique used, in reality, a combination between techniques of voice-over and simultaneous interpretation, was mistakenly called ‘dubbing’” (2022:143), and the choice of such a technique was determined by its financial accessibility and the time-saving characteristic, being done in the basement of a house, using a microphone, two video recorders and a television set” (133): The alternative chosen in communist Romania, but also in all the other communist countries, was probably a unique combination between the techniques of voice-over and simultaneous interpretation. This choice was made because it was the most accessible from a financial point of view but also because the amount of time allotted to the translation of a film was extremely reduced since everything was illegal, it had to be done cheaply, quickly, and secretly. (133) Transitioning from the reality envisaged/remembered by Irina Nistor to the audiovisual reality analysed in the subsequent chapters, Andreea Teodora Trîmbi?a?’s study, Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling Versus Dubbing for Kids”, begins with re-visiting some general information on AVT: the dynamic nature of the process, main characteristics, typology, the open definition that needs to relate to technology, translation and/or adaptation. It then focuses on dubbing and briefly discusses the historical and social contexts, dubbing versus censorship, dubbing and national identity, the stages associated with this kind of audiovisual translation. Among the challenges analysed here, we find synchrony (isochrony, phonetic and kinetic synchrony), specific signifying codes of the language of dubbing, voice quality in voice acting (emotional load, naturalness, credibility, etc.), culture-bound translation, song TL rendition, translation of names, with the triggered consequences/impact. Children are the specific type of audience the chapter zooms in on, understood as a main category that dubbed productions address.

• animation

• film

• television

• cartoon

• fansubbing

• Disney

• Adventure Time

Eliza Claudia Filimon teaches Film Studies, Audiovisual Translation and Literary Translation at the West University of Timisoara, Romania. She holds a PhD in British Literature and Film, an MA degree in Anglo-American Studies and an international MA degree in Film. Her research in AVT is completed by her activity as a film assessor in international film festivals. She is a member of academic associations of audiovisual translation, a translation editor of international literary magazines and a member of the European Parliament terminology unit DG TRAD-Term Coord-YOURTERM, having supervised several translation projects. She is the organizer of a Literary Translation contest for Students, and she supervises international translation projects in the field of AVT and literary translation. Cristina Nicolae teaches British and American literature, translation studies (with a focus on AVT) at G.E. Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Târgu Mures, Romania. She holds a PhD in British and American Literature, and an MA degree in Anglo-American Studies. She is a member of several national and international professional associations and has been a team member in several national and international projects. She is a TED language supervisor for the Romanian language, institutional coordinator for an academic terminology collaboration with DG TRAD-TermCoord of the European Parliament (having supervised several terminology projects), organizer of a national translation contest for students and over 50 academic workshops.