Robin Hood/Robin des Bois
(Robin of the Woods)
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| Matthew, I likes you :D |
Anyway, I am taking the opportunity with the release of this film to tackle one of the longest standing bad translation example: Robin Hood aka Robin des Bois. Or Robin of the Woods. Or Robin Wood.
Yeah, it is pretty easy to see why Robin Hood was misheard as Robin Wood, and then translated to Robin des Bois (although they should have kept Wood as the family name and not extrapolated).
It was quite visionnary also to make his name Robin des bois as opposed to Robin a la capuche, as Robin would have been banned from most shopping centres nowadays, although that would translate back to Robin of the Hood and I am not sure Little John ever introduced Robin as being from his 'hood, but I am no historian.)
As a result, a lot of little Frenchies, including myself, grew up with this misconception, which was probably reinforced by the fact that some of the story takes place in some Sherwood Forest.
What is disappointing is that no one, ever, not even when the Walt Disney version came out in 1973, nor with this version in 2010 (Yes, they still are calling it Robin des Bois in France) bothered setting things right.
It was quite visionnary also to make his name Robin des bois as opposed to Robin a la capuche, as Robin would have been banned from most shopping centres nowadays, although that would translate back to Robin of the Hood and I am not sure Little John ever introduced Robin as being from his 'hood, but I am no historian.)
As a result, a lot of little Frenchies, including myself, grew up with this misconception, which was probably reinforced by the fact that some of the story takes place in some Sherwood Forest.
What is disappointing is that no one, ever, not even when the Walt Disney version came out in 1973, nor with this version in 2010 (Yes, they still are calling it Robin des Bois in France) bothered setting things right.
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| The most famous Hoods of the past century: funny, hot, camp, butch, cute and camp :) |
Update 17 May 2010:
Crowe apparently had a little tantrum when told he could not do a Nottingham (or Yorkie, for that matter) accent to save his life. Read here, listen here.
I can't either, but then again, that's not what I do for a living.
I saw the film at the week end and quite liked it. Admitedly, it's a good 20 minutes too long, Crowe could have done with smiling a bit more, there wasn't enough MacFadyen at all, and Cate stole the scene every time (but then again, she could be sat there reading the phone book that I'd think she's marvellous).
And yeah, the beach fight scene does look like Saving Private Ryan a bit and Marian is reminiscent of Eowyn in LOTR but so what? We like a good strong female character, and it doesn't happen often enough.
I also wonder if it's a coincidence that a film where the hero takes from the rich to gives to give to the poor comes out shortly after a Tory government is appointed.
Crowe apparently had a little tantrum when told he could not do a Nottingham (or Yorkie, for that matter) accent to save his life. Read here, listen here.
I can't either, but then again, that's not what I do for a living.
I saw the film at the week end and quite liked it. Admitedly, it's a good 20 minutes too long, Crowe could have done with smiling a bit more, there wasn't enough MacFadyen at all, and Cate stole the scene every time (but then again, she could be sat there reading the phone book that I'd think she's marvellous).
And yeah, the beach fight scene does look like Saving Private Ryan a bit and Marian is reminiscent of Eowyn in LOTR but so what? We like a good strong female character, and it doesn't happen often enough.
I also wonder if it's a coincidence that a film where the hero takes from the rich to gives to give to the poor comes out shortly after a Tory government is appointed.
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| He he he :) |
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