TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES IN SONY PICTURES ANIMATION FEATURE FILM TITLES - A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BULGARIAN AND RUSSIAN TRANSLATIONS

Abstract

Titles are indispensable in their role of introducing a product - they create the indelible first impression and to a large extent determine the degree of interest a particular production will receive from the audiences. With regards to the reality of media distribution in the present day and the fact that global markets dictate a need to cater to international and multilingual, as well as multicultural consumers, titles need to be effective, attractive and memorable not only in the original language of the production but also in translation. These factors dictate the interest in the topic of the present article, namely the specific translation techniques employed in the translation of the original, English-language titles of animated feature films into Bulgarian and Russian. The current research focuses specifically on the titles of productions by Sony Pictures Animation.
The article works with an ad hoc corpus of all animated feature films produced by the Sony Pictures Animation studio and distributed in cinemas in Bulgaria and Russia, which is done in order to ensure the comparability of sources. Following the aforementioned criteria, the corpus has come to comprise 19 original titles and their Bulgarian and Russian translated variants, or 57 units of analysis in total. Longitudinally, the research spans the period between 2006 and 2023 - the period of operation of the studio.
In terms of methodology, the article recognizes the existing plethora of approaches to defining the term techniques, strategies and methods among as well as within the various schools and traditions of translation theory and practice. Nevertheless, the present paper does not aim to resolve the existing confusion and ambivalence, but instead focuses on applying one specific approach to the corpus - namely the one formulated by Albir and Molina. This framework places clear distinction between translation strategies, methods and techniques, viewing strategies and methods as pertaining to the process of translation itself, whereas the techniques are visible in the product of the translation. Hence, they provide ample opportunity for textual analysis of the titles included in the corpus and help draw conclusions regarding the preferences and practices of translating animated feature film titles from English into Bulgarian and Russian, respectively. The resulting observations are considered to be of interest since the process of translation of these types of products is itself quite obscure not only due to interference from potential marketing factors but also due to it very nature - the work of the translator is to a great extent hidden from direct observation until the results become available. The countless procedures and choices and the specific criteria and factors which inform them are very difficult to observe and enumerate and would require interviewing the translators themselves and having them retrace their steps, which are potentially made too quickly and not always in a fully conscious manner to be reproduced or noted. Therefore, the present research offers a look at the textual level of the micro-unit of translation - the translation techniques.