The puppet voices

Original non-fiction-style practice text.

The puppet company wanted to offer its recorded show to schools in another language. At first, the producer imagined replacing each spoken line with a translation of similar meaning. A rehearsal revealed that the new words had to fit movements, music and jokes which were already fixed on film.

Some translated lines took longer to say than the space between two puppet gestures. Shortening them could remove the clue children needed to understand the next event. A character’s name sounded like an ordinary household object in the new language, causing laughter at the wrong moment. A joke depended on two similar-sounding words which no longer resembled each other. The translator had to create a different joke serving the same dramatic purpose rather than preserve the original words. A song presented another problem: natural stresses fell between the beats, and a literal version could not be sung clearly.

Voice casting was not straightforward. A performer with an ideal voice for the smallest puppet could not produce the sustained high notes in its song. Another actor voiced two characters who appeared together, so their recordings had to sound distinct without becoming unnatural. The original film included a whispered warning under music; the new warning was harder to hear. A brief instruction also used a form of address that seemed too severe for the character’s friendly manner.

Testing with children uncovered misunderstandings the adults had missed. A gesture meaning agreement to the original audience was interpreted differently. The programme’s written activity sheets still used the old names, so teachers could not easily connect them to the recording. There was little time left to revise these materials before the school term. The company could not change the puppets’ filmed movements without an expensive new shoot. It therefore revised the script and sound repeatedly, learning that translating a performance involved more than translating its sentences.

According to the text, summarise the difficulties the company encountered when recording the puppet show in another language.

Use continuous writing, not note form, and use your own words as far as possible. Your summary should not be more than 120 words. Up to 10 marks are available for reading and up to 5 marks for writing.