Dubbing Differences: Peter Pan

 

 I found the following notable changes in the Brazilian Portuguese dub of Disney's Peter Pan:

• The narrator calls Peter Pan “Pedro,” but everyone else just calls him Peter.

• Instead of saying “It happened on a quiet street in Bloomsbury,” the narrator just says “It happened on a very peaceful street in the city.”

• John, George, and Michael have Portuguese names (João, Jorge, and Miguel), but Wendy and Mary’s are the same.

• When Wendy corrects John on which hand of Captain Hook’s had been cut off, he apologizes instead of thanking her for the correction.

• The narrator remarks that Wendy told the boys Peter Pan’s “prodigious” adventures instead of “marvelous.”

• Wendy: “Aw Nana, must we take that medicine?”

• Instead of saying “I’m sorry, John,” Michael says “It was without meaning to.”

• Michael’s young voice actor is very difficult to understand.

• George: “Oh, Nana, get out of the way!”

• George: “You’re not really a nurse, you’re an animal.”

• Mary says that George was just “nervous” instead of “upset.” In Portuguese, this encompasses a wider range of emotions involving your “nerves,” including irritation.

• Wendy: “I found something that he lost.”

• I can’t understand why, but everywhere online and the Portuguese subtitles say that Tinkerbell’s name is unchanged in Brazilian Portuguese, but in in the dub they clearly call her something like Dilendim (pronounced “jee-lang-jing”), which I’m guessing is imitative of the tinkling sound of a bell.

• Never Land is called “Enchanted Island.”

• John says “Impossible!” instead of “Jiminy!”

• Instead of saying “All you gotta do is to… is to… is… to…” Peter Pan says “You just have to do this: …this: …this…” Which is somewhat awkward, but coincidentally, the word for “this” in Portuguese is “isto,” so maybe they couldn’t help matching up the lip syncing for it.

• Instead of saying he never thought about it before, Peter Pan says “I always did it without thinking.”

• Instead of “think of a wonderful thought,” Peter says to “think of something very beautiful.”

• Michael’s “He flewed!” is just replaced with “He left!”

• Pixie dust is just called “magic dust.”

• The Portuguese word for “fly” has two syllables, making “You Can Fly” a bit clunky.

• “Second star to the right and straight on till morning” is replaced with “Follow that star and we’ll arrive in the morning.”

• Some of the big, tough pirates have younger voice actors that don’t sound threatening at all, and it’s kind of funny.

• Captain Hook’s name isn’t translated, so it’s pronounced “Hookee.” If it were translated, his name would be Capitão Gancho.

• “Tee dum,” “tee dee,” “teedly dum,” and all similar phrases all change to “La la” during the “Following the Leader” song.

• Tiger Lily’s name is changed to Little Tiger.

• Red Man: “If Little Tiger not back by sunset, there will be a barbecue!”

• Instead of Captain Hook telling Tiger Lily about her not being able to reach the Happy Hunting Ground, he just says she’ll never return to her “cabin.”

• Peter Pan (as Captain Hook): “Tell the whole crew to help themselves to my best wine.”

• All the pirate phrases like “Cleave him to the briskets” are generalized into more literal meanings.

• Several yelps and screams during the part where Captain Hook is being chased by the crocodile through Skull Rock are left silent, which is a disservice to the scene.

• Instead of Chief “Flying Eagle,” Peter Pan is called “Eagle of the Areas.”

• The “What Made the Red Man Red” musical sequence is terrible. They use the English drum chanting beat, and they switch between low and high octaves from verse to verse when singing in Portuguese.

• The “why does he ask you ‘how’?” pun is lost, so instead the verse just says “The Indian was very silly, and he was very bad, but the Indian soon learned to just say ‘ow.’”

• The final note of the song ends with the Portuguese phrase “Assim todo índio é,” which means “That is how every Indian is.” Cleverly, they play a small part of the English chief’s final note singing “red,” but cut out the beginning and end so it works as “é.”

• Instead of “That’s no mother!” the Lost Boy says “What nonsense!”
  During the pirates’ recruitment song when Mr. Smee says “Crickety crockety crook, the croc is after Captain—” in the original English voice and then is cut off awkwardly.
  Instead of “Blast this hook!” Captain Hook says “Curses!”
  Captain Hook’s final hilarious yell as he’s skipping across the water on his belly is taken out. He just says “Smee!” once and then is silent for the rest. A shame.