Dubbing Timon & Pumbaa Cartoon into Egyptian Arabic

Abstract

As boundaries among cultures diminish the need for really comprehending them is arising simultaneously. Although children's cartoons are considered a form of entertainment for people of different ages, they also contain a cultural message that translation cannot ignore. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the Egyptian-specific cultural and linguistic references in the Arabic version of the Timon & Pumbaa cartoon film, and the strategies adopted in the dubbing into Egyptian dialect. Since the Egyptian dialect is widely understood in the Arab world for reasons discussed in this thesis, many cartoons are dubbed into Egyptian in an attempt to win a large audience in the Arab world. In the case of Timon & Pumbaa, the Arabic dubbed version seems to have broken customary translation boundaries and aims at audience not intended by the source version resulting in an experience that is greatly different in many aspects in terms of the language used, and target reception.