Alain Chabat returns to the favorite Gauls of comics (and vice versa) in a new animated series adapted from Asterix and Obelix: the fight of the chiefsavailable since Wednesday 30 April on Netflix. These five episodes, which Alain Chabat realizes, in addition to lending her voice to Asterix, gave rise to the creation of new characters and the invention of their little names, always as improbable, but in accordance with the spirit of comics, such as Metadata or lollipop at the Anix.
And then we had to translate it all. Arab, Korean, Croatian, Hebrew or Mandarin … 38 versions are offered for approximately 300 millions of subscribers in 190 country of the streaming platform. Translate while keeping humor and Chabat spirit required “a huge“translation work, in collaboration with Albert René editions.
Netflix a “do a great job“For never”not lose humor in translation“And adapt the puns and references inseparable from the saga, salutes Céleste Surugue, the director general of Albert René editions, who hold the rights of albums.
“We worked hand in hand, whether on the names of the characters (…), certain famous sentences“, the publisher having done”Reread and validate“Scripts with a specialized partner company and given access to its translators”When there were questions, difficulties“.
The streaming giant has notably relied on the existing translations of the original work, which are not lacking: with 120 languages and dialects on the clock, Asterix is the most translated comic in the world.
-In Germany, second Asterix market behind France and where expression “The spiders, the Romans!” (“They are crazy these Romans!“) has passed into everyday language, readers of Leaders should thus navigate. Similarly, in English, Idéfix is always called Dogmatix, as baptized by the historic historical translator of Asterix Anthea Bell, just as Abraracourcixe keeps the name Vitalstatistix.
What about the additions of Alain Chabat, known for his ultra-referencing humor? On “a number of places“, the director and screenwriter”is very faithful, even very close in dialogues to what we have in the album“Released in 1966, underlines Céleste Surugue.
For new characters, “Names operating in a lot of countries“have often been chosen, like Metadata, Potus (abbreviation of”President Of The United States“) or even Fastanfurious.
As for “Local cultural references“, translators”took care to try to find equivalents every time“.
However, some jokes seem impossible to transpose, like an allusion to the French duo Omar and Fred (Omar Sy and Fred Testot) involving … lobster and strawberries. A “problem” common to albums, is Céleste Surugue, citing the example of the Romans “moving” In Asterix and the transitalics.
This adaptation on Netflix should make it possible to discover Asterix to an audience wider than the films dedicated to the cinema, especially in the United States and England, where its adventures are generally confined to the art and essay rooms, in the original version, according to Céleste Surugue.
Public success in France in 2023 with 4.6 million admissions, the feature film by Guillaume Canet, The Middle Empiredoubled in “A little thirty languages“, had benefited from an exit in more than 50 countries.
