Going to the Movies - Turning Tuscan: A Step-by-Step Guide to Going Native - page 162

be easy. Eventually you become convinced that “Someday My Prince Will Come” was ori-
ginally an Italian tune written for Bianca Neve, Snow White's Italian twin.
While we're in toon-town, I should mention that I'm also a great fan of Mattel's early Bar-
bie movies like Rapunzel and The Princess and the Pauper . The series, unfortunately, de-
teriorated rapidly and later titles are formulaic schlock designed only to push product. But
the early releases are masterpieces of children's entertainment, and I've watched them with
my daughters more times than I can count.
In The Princess and the Pauper thevillain,Preminger,revealshimselftotheaudienceearly
in the story in all his diabolical cleverness. He delivers a confession of villainy in a so-
liloquy worthy of Shakespearian bad-guys like Iago or Richard III. Even better, Premin-
ger sings and dances his way through the soliloquy with elaborate, high-kick choreography
and orchestral accompaniment by the London Symphony. It's a tour de force in its original
English. But when you see Preminger singing in Italian in accompaniment with his dance
steps, all without the slightest loss of quality, you can only marvel at the level of achieve-
ment.
Since we've come this far together, I need to tell you one more thing—even though you
probably won't believe it. I've seen certain movies in their original English version and
also in the dubbed Italian version. On more than one occasion the dubbed Italian version
has been better than the original.
I can see you jumping up and shouting, “Impossible!” But please sit down and let me ex-
plain. The Italian actors who are standing in for the American actors actually have a certain
advantage. They can analyze the performance of the original actors or actresses and see
where it fell short. Sometimes there are lines that weren't delivered to full effect; in the
dubbing process the line can be repeated and re-recorded until the nuance and emphasis are
perfect.
With more ambitious interventions the portrayal of the various characters in a film can be
subtly changed. For example, in the Italian version of the Disney film, The Lion, The Witch
and The Wardrobe , the children are less cloyingly cutesy when they deliver their lines in
Italian. It seems as if the American director felt obliged to dumb things down, to aim for
a lower common denominator. In the Italian version the children are less cuddly and en-
dearing, and they have a quiet dignity that's more faithful to the C.S. Lewis novel. It seems
almost sacrilegious to say so, but once you've seen the film in Italian, you just can't go
back to the real thing.