Dubbing Differences: The Little Mermaid

 

I found the following notable changes in the Brazilian Portuguese dub of Disney's The Little Mermaid:

• The seahorse names Sebastian as “Horacio Felício Ignácio Crustáceo Sebastian.”
• Flounder’s name is Linguado, the literal translation of “flounder.”
• Scuttle’s name is Sabidão, which means “wisdom.”
• Scuttle’s word for the “dinglehopper” is “brungumzumba.” A similarly nonsensical word.
• Scuttle’s word for the “banded, bulbous snarfblatt” is “beautiful, rare chimbaco.” This word seems to be created by rearranging the syllables for the Portuguese word for pipe, cachimbo.
• Flotsam and Jetsam are named Pedro and Juca.
• Sebastian: “Adolescences. You give them a finger, and they want the entire arm.”
• Sebastian calls Ariel a “crazy little girl” instead of a “headstrong teenager.”
• Ariel: “Look at these things here. Precious.” Instead of “You want thingamabobs? I’ve got twenty.”
• Grimsby omits the phrase “very expensive” when presenting Eric’s birthday gift.
• Instead of saying "you old bean-pole!" Eric says "You sneaky devil!"
• Eric: “It’s a beautiful present” instead of “It’s really something.”
• Eric says “The princess of Redport” instead of “The princess of Glowerhaven.”
• The sailor is silent for his first line “Hurricane’s a-comin’!”
• “Under the Sea”’s chorus phrase ranges from saying “here in the sea” to “where I was born” (the phrase, “onde eu nasci,” rhymes with the English phrase “under the sea”)  and “where I grew up.”
• The section on “Under the Sea” about all the different fish puns is very different, except for “the carp plays the harp” (carpa and harpa are fortunate translations). Among the differences are:
• “The fruit of my neighbor looks better than mine” (instead of “the seaweed is always greener…”)
• “The plaice below I don’t think has the best sound”
• “No one plays badly, not even the cod.”
• “Even the salmon goes to the salon.”
• “Each little mollusk that I look for knows how to play.”
• “Even the slug comes out of its shell to dance.”
• “The little snail takes a little nap.”
• Ariel, to the Eric statue: “You want to go out with me?” instead of “run away with me.”
• Triton: “I consider myself a reasonable king. I make certain laws, and I expect them to be obeyed!” This is much more politically official than the father figure approach in English.
• Triton: “I’m going to end this” instead of “I’m going to get through to you.”
• Ursula: “Don’t lurk in the doorways. It’s ugly” instead of “It’s rude.” Possibly a lipsyncing change because the word for ugly is feio.
• Ursula: “A girl who doesn’t talk is what he loves” instead of “They think a girl who gossips is a bore.” I like these positive/negative switches.
• Carlotta says that’s the first time she’s seen Eric laugh in months instead of weeks.
• Most of Chef Louis’s exclamations when he is chasing Sebastian are undubbed.
• Chef Louis says “Pardon, madame” in French instead of Portuguese.
• Triton says “no stone unturned” instead of “no coral unexplored.”
• Sebastian: “First, we must create the climate” instead of “the mood.” This does not lipsync well.
• The lines of the song “Kiss the Girl” are surprisingly close to exact translations.
• Instead of saying “You silly side-walker,” Scuttle says “Did you hear what I said?”
• The priest says “Let’s begin the ceremony” instead of “Dearly beloved…”
• Instead of saying “You pitiful, insignificant fools!” Ursula says “You fools think you can defy me?”