How Disney uses Language

If you're interested in a more detailed explanation as to why song translations suck, then you should check out PlayTheMind's video called "Why Song Translations Usually Suck"!
And honestly, looking back at this video, I really regret not giving him a shoutout at the very least.
I made this video back when I was tiny and I never thought I'd go anywhere on YouTube, so when I saw bigger channels talking about concepts I was familiar with, I never thought that one day our videos might have any kind of overlap.
And in a way, even though I specifically remember my professor telling me to "not bother with something that isn't in English or that you'll have to translate because of these problems," I look back on this video and feel bad that I didn't include PlayTheMind's video in at least some capacity.

"An Aesthetic of Ambiguity: Musical Representation of Indigenous Peoples in Disney's Brother Bear" by Janice Esther Tulk
I only found this source after going through my music library after going to grad school, well after I'd made this video. Had I had access to it while making this video I naturally would have cited it because it's such an amazing source on the production for this film.
Sorry to Ian Janice Esther Tulk, and I wish finding academic sources while outside of academia was easier and not behind a paywall
"An Aesthetic of Ambiguity: Musical Representation of Indigenous Peoples in Disney's Brother Bear" by Janice Esther Tulk

NOTE:
So it looks like I didn't convey what I meant with the "Deilig er Jorden/Fairest Lord Jesus" very well.
"Deilig er Jorden" does not directly translate to "Fairest Lord Jesus."
BUT, if you look these two hymns up you'll find that they are the same piece of music.
This is a perfect example of how you have to change the meaning of a text when translating it into another language if you want to maintain the integrity of the piece in question.
Sorry for all of the confusion!

[antp]

I love how the music in Coco is either bilingual or completely in Spanish. It feels so authentic and I love it.

[marinruelas]

One of the reasons that Disney hired Lin-Manuel Miranda for Moana was explicitly because of his skills with writing bilingual songs. His work on his award winning Broadway show "In the Heights" seamlessly combined English and Spanish lyrics without isolating the audience while simultaneously maintaining the integrity of the cultures being represented.

[zmanrockz]

That made it even more satisfying when it got to “Aue aue/Away Away.”

[junglekiity]

When I first saw Lilo and Stitch, I had no idea of the cultural significance of "Aloha 'Oe", and just thought it was a beautiful, touching scene. Years later, I learned exactly what that song meant to native Hawaiians, and now that scene makes my bawl every time. Truly a perfect example of how understanding the cultural history of music can deepen the impact of art.

[misseli]

As a bilingual person who grew up watching Disney movies in two languages, I feel that whole... thing in my soul

[s.g.i]

"And each of their sidekicks gets a song..."
Me: wait... Heihei has a song???

[agonybabie]

The beginning of “we know the way” actually is sung in Samoan, then in Tokelau. There are multiple Polynesian languages before it is sung in English

[elizabethmcfly]

They didn’t even care for Hercules did they.

[crestfallensunbro]

the. "what ARE you doin'?" vs "what are YOU doing?" conveys that idea (if you know what they each are saying and the difference) so well. it shows how two seemingly identical questions can have different feel and implications.

[aylintatar]

in other words : Lin-Manuel Miranda is a fricking genius

[alexfraze]

i didn't say he stole five dollars.
I didn't say he stole five dollars.
i DIDN'T say he stole five dollars.
i didn't SAY he stole five dollars.
i didn't say HE stole five dollars.
i didn't say he STOLE five dollars.
i didn't say he stole FIVE dollars.
i didn't say he stole five DOLLARS.

[mattpbarry]

So the Lion King definitely fulfils the “Africa is a country” trope because it’s clearly meant to be set somewhere in the Serengeti and the characters have mostly Swahili names, but used Zulu for the opening scene because it was easier to hire and record artists in South Africa than in Kenya

[officialmaxrebo]

That’s why you shouldn’t translate Besame Mucho into English. In Spanish, it’s beautiful but then you just have English which is just—

*”kiss me. kiss me a lot”*

[tqnohe]

I learned something.

I was once at a Native American PowWow and I was listening to the young men playing drums and chanting. To my ear it sound like “Hey ya ha ha hey ya ha ha.”
Curious, I asked on of the singers what the lyrics meant. He said, “Hey ya ha ha hey ya ha ha.”

I thought he was simply blowing me off as an ignorant white man. I was a little hurt, because I genuinely wanted to know.

Then in this video, I am told that the words to Native American songs have no linguistic values.

So the young man’s answer was the real answer and not an insulting blow off.

[therhythmictale]

“Throughout history Disney had a tendency to set their movies in a variety of different countries and cultures”
Also Disney: *avoid the Slavs at all costs*

[OrtegaSauce]

me before the Dipper clip: nah he dont really sound like Dipper
me after the Dipper clip: oh god now i cant unhear it

[Skye_Writer]

I take NOTHING away from Lin-Manuel Miranda, but the man responsible for the Tokeluan music in this film is singer-songwriter Opetaia Foa'i. The songs feature Foa'i's New Zealand-based vocal group Te Vaka, as well as a choir from Fiji, and if you look at the track listings, you can see that Foa'i is responsible for **the music and the lyrics** for "We Know the Way, " and it is performed by him and Miranda. Foa'i also the wrote the music and the lyrics for "Tulou Tagaloa", "An Innocent Warrior", and "Logo Te Pate"...that is 4 out of the 6 songs that use Tokeluan (not counting the finale version of "We Know The Way, " which included Miranda, but is basically a reprise of the earlier version).
I am passionate about pointing this out, because Mr. Foa'i does not get the recognition he deserves for his work in the film next to the more widely known Miranda, but he was working on these songs in 2013 while Miranda was not hired until March 2014.
I'm not saying they didn't collaborate together beautifully, because they did and Foa'i says so, and the film's showstopping number "How Far I'll Go" is Miranda's doing for sure and a song I love. It's right up there with "Let It Go" as a thematic girl-power song, and SO well written!
But when it comes to the more ethnic sounding pieces, that is Foa'i's doing, and he wrote them specifically with the idea of being able to transition to English with the same kind of melodic system presented in this video...something he has been doing for more than 20 years.
The film is GREAT, all the music is truly moving (How Far I'll Go still gives me goosebumps), and the score Mancina wrote ties it all together beautifully. But all the comments saying it is because of Miranda without acknowledging the others who contributed bothers me. I am just as much Native American (one-quarter) as anything else and I, too, get annoyed when a native culture either gets misrepresented or their contributions get ignored. Miranda is fortunate to be famous among white people (instead of just among his own ethnic group) as he completely deserves to be because he wrote a hit Broadway show.
Opetaia Foa'i is nearly as famous among Polynesian people (maybe a little more so) and has been touring consistently and selling out places for 20 years. But, because he is not someone known outside of Polynesian circles, he gets overlooked when it comes to getting credit in the making of this film's music. This film SHOULD have helped to make him a star with a broader audience, but he is not being given the credit because it is all being attributed to Miranda, whose name is better known, even though that is only a recent accomplishment.

[SwordTune]

Who was like "so they're neolithic native Alaskans?"
"Yes."
"Mhm. I'm thinking Bulgarian music. How about you?"

[maxaustin]

I heard that ‘Mr. Hamilton’ was hired for Moana before Hamilton was even a thing that people knew about. Which means they hired him because of his first award winning musical, In The Heights. And now I’m wondering if they hired him for this because of his experience working on a bilingual score 🤔

[mzezsjn]

Why did I expect Moana’s side kick to be the pig or the chicken? 😂