An analysis of the translation procedures in the Spanish version of 'BoJack Horseman'

Abstract

The process of translating words from one language into another is a difficult one, and the professionals who are in charge of doing so face plenty of situations where they have to decide what would work better in the target language. Should they stay closer to the original text? Should they try to adapt the references that the target audience might miss? We will try to answer these questions, using the audiovisual field as our domain of interest, to discern if a certain translation strategy works in a particular situation or not. We will focus our interest largely in the translation of cultural references and wordplay, mainly within the framework of humor, as they suppose a difficult challenge in order to be adapted in the target language, especially because of the constraints of the audiovisual medium, much more severe than those someone can find when, for example translating a work of literature. Examples of different strategies and the possible reasons why they might have been chosen by the translator will be analyzed in order to ascertain whether they work or not for the target audience. Our source of examples will be the Spanish dubbed version of Netflix's TV show BoJack Horseman, which has been running since 2014. The show, which up until today is comprised of five different seasons with 12 episodes each, presents us the story of a famous TV star from the 90s who, twenty years later, tries to get the fame he used to have back by publishing his memoirs with the help of a ghostwriter. The story is set in our own world, but with the particularity that half of the population are anthropomorphized animals coexisting with human beings. The adaptation process of this show might suppose a real challenge to a professional translator because of its intelligent use of English, as the writers rely repeatedly on using wordplay, tongue twisters and catchphrases and character names that depend heavily on sonority or on animal-related puns, for example, as well as the constant references to American culture