What's Wrong With International Dubs of Cars?

Cars is one of my all-time favorite Pixar movies. And watching it in different languages has been a real pleasure. In fact, the Cars franchise has some absolutely wild dubs. It features some of the most fascinating and surprising adaptations I've ever encountered. Without further ado, let's begin!

[redranger]

I like how genuinely frightened McQueen is when Mater says "killer"

[szybkiwojtas]

In Polish name Mater's name is "Złomek" which is driven from the word "Złom" which means "Scrap Metal". I think it fits him well since he is all rusty. Also R.I.P. Witold Pyrkosz (Mater's Polish VA)

[OllleksaUA]

Cars was the first US movie that was officially launched in cinema with Ukrainian voice-over, so actors and translators tried really hard. In retrospective maybe too much was changed, but it was great at the time. Everything from it became a meme, damn it was good and funny.

[polenov_tv]

7:02 I can explain this joke as a true russian. There's an old joke in Russia about poore drunkard who spent all their money on alcohol but still need do drink something. So they drink antifreeze, brake fluid (tormozukha in this scene), window cleaner and other non-drinkable stuff. She's talking about her gas station, but it sounds like she has a drunkard's den there. That's where the joke is!

[WojtiZapasowe]

The Polish dub for the entire Cars franchise is also amazing, with tons of Polish car jokes, referencing Polish car brands, popculture, etc. Replacing American names with Polish ones, with many being really clever car puns; Mater was also changed from an American country man to a Polish country man. The dub is partially the reason why Cars is so liked and popular in Poland compared to the United States.

[macyk]

Valera in Ukrainian dub is meme of Ukrainian dub, he often appears in funny lines of different dubs and never hurts plot, be like valera

[Daniscnb]

🇷🇺Russian dub mater says that his name comes from the word "kilometer", but without "kilo"

[Giuan]

1:20 🇮🇹 In the Italian dub he is named "Carl Attrezzi" which is similar to "Carro Attrezzi", literally "Tow Truck"

[redranger]

In Norwegian Maters name is Bill. Tow trucks are called "tauebiler", so his name is truck without tow

[sergsereb]

7:06 I think Mater laughed at this, because “тормозуха” can come from the word “бормотуха” - this is how moonshine can be called

[dhet]

As a Ukrainian, watching Cars in Ukrainian dub is a treat for me, I just like how we turned meter (American countryside enjoyer) into Ukrainian countryside enjoyer, especially in Cars 2 and 3

[Uttersteilk]

In the Greek dub mater’s name is “barbas”, which is an uncommon word for “uncle” used by some people in rural areas.
There’s also a “Your mother” joke added in this version. At the original movie, at the scene where Luigi asks McQueen if he is racing with Ferraris and he answers that he’s racing at the piston cup, the other Italian car says:”Luigi only talks with Ferraris” before leaving. However, in the Greek dub he says “Your mother should race at the piston cup”. It doesn’t translate well, but it’s actually a “your mother”

[MedliTheColorblindFurry]

7:00
in the german dub they actually have her do a joke about alcohol
and she says
"sich betrinken lassen"
wich essentially just means "get very drunk"

alcohol is a much more accepted thing over here

[lozikl]

As a Ukrainian I can clarify some of the things, and express my personal opinion on the translation of certain phrases because they are generally often related to peculiarities in the cultural and society of Ukraine at that time.
1:41 Roads in Kyiv: I actually think that was a great adaptation. In general, it is related to the fact that after the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine had fairly bad roads. And this was often discussed in society, and it was logical that Kyiv, as the capital, would have the best roads in the country. And the words ‘There are no such good roads in Kyiv itself’ were clear to all viewers, everyone understood that the road was VERY GOOD. Even when I was watching Cars at the age of 7-8 years old, I realized the meaning of this phrase. And it's hard to say whether it was my problem that at the age of 7 I knew the situation with the roads in the country, or whether the translation was just so brilliant.
2:50 THIS IS AN HALLARIOUS JOKE! When I watched Сars as a kid, I devinitely didn't get the joke, but today it made me laugh out loud!
2:28 I would also like to add here a pretty interesting moment in the Ukrainian dub. Meter said that once he knew a girl named Galya and he mentions her car brand - Lexus. But instead of pronouncing it correctly(LEKSUS), he says LESKUS. This hints that he is a kind of a simple village man without any higher education, etc. It doesn't make him stupid, it just shows that he's a simpleton
5:19 In Ukrainian, we often use the phrase ‘I can't believe my eyes/ears’, which obviously means that I can't believe what I see/hear. And here it's adapted to the world of cars, which is cool, but... in Cars universe, the eyes are not in the headlights, they're on the windscreen... so it sounds weird, maybe adaptation meant that cars used their headlights to illuminate what they see... but it still sounds strange But it's also fair to notice that at the end McQueen sayd he couldn't believe his stickers, and that's actually true, because he had stickers instead of headlights. So it's cool to see the consistency in the translation, but if you think about it for more than a second, it starts to sound weird
7:08 And now for the scene with the tractors. Here I think that the author did not quite understand the essence of dubbing (or did not explain it well enough, so it seemed to me that he did not understand). The word used by the Meter is generally just a crude calling for a woman. But it can sometimes be used to describe a man, meaning that a man is a coward. I suspect that this stems from the stereotypical idea that men do not cry and cannot be afraid. Nowadays, such stereotypes are almost a thing of the past, but you can still find a situation where a man is called a woman or a girl
I also have to mention an ambiguous thing in the Ukrainian translation - Dinoco. For some reason, in our dubbing was used very strange translation, which makes no sense at all. It can be literally translated as "DinoSomething", and it just doesn't make sense. I don't know if it was intended to mean DinoSomething or if it just sounds like that, but a simple transliteration would be 100% better.

As for the video, it's great. It was really interesting to hear other translations and opinion on how this or that variant adapted the original meaning.

[maciejadamczyk]

In Polish Mater is Złomek, which is a contamination of words "złom" (scrap) and "ziomek" (mate, countryman) :D

[GalaxyDripGaming]

I am from Ukraine and i did watch cars in Ukraine and then watched the normal cars movie and my brain melted by 20%

[myowncomputerstuff]

Since Guido only speaks Italian in the English version of the movie, they make him speak an unintelligibly strong Italian dialect in the Italian dub.

[romanyoutube]

In Slovak, Mater is Matér and they used the word "Amatér" for the joke, meaning amateur.

Btw for Mater in Czech, they used the word "Burák" which means peanut.

[SpiritDetective]

Mater was also called "Mate" in the Brazilian Portuguese dub (and I think that the European Portuguese dub did the same thing)

[maciejadamczyk]

In Polish "Rusteze" is "Zadolux" which can be translated to "Butt-chill", with "chill" as relaxing