Best language for singing?

Ariel   Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:33 am GMT
Below is a clip of the Little Mermaid in the following languages:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7lBiFFv_r4

English (Jodi Benson)
Arabic (Rula Zaki)
Brazilian 1989 (Gabriela Ferreira)
Brazilian 1999 (Kiara Sasso)
Bulgarian (Vesela Boneva)
Canadian French (Dominique Faure)
Cantonese (Cally Kwong)
Castilian (Maria Caneda)
Croatian (Renata Sabljak)
Czech (Jana Marasova)
Danish (Sissel Kyrkjebø)
Dutch (Laura Vlasblom)
Finnish 1989(Johanna Nurmimaa)
Finnish 1999(Nina Tapio)
French 1989 (Claire Guyot)
French 1999 (Marie Galey)
German 1989 (Ute Lemper)
German 1999 (Naomi van Dooren)
German Austrian (Caroline Vasicek)
Greek 1999 (Anna Rossi)
Hebrew (Shlomit Aharon)
Hungarian (Marika Oszvald)
Icelandic (Valgerðar Guðnadóttur)
Italian (Simona Patitucci)
Japanese (Mayumi Suzuki)
Korean (Sugyeong Kim)
Latin Spanish (Isela Sotelo)
Mandarin (Hsiao-Yun Liu)
Norwegian 1989 (Sissel Kyrkjebø)
Polish 1999 (Beata Jankowska)
Portuguese (Anabela Pires)
Russian (Svetlana Svetikova)
Swedish (Sissel Kyrkjebø)
Thai 1999 (Janjira Nimpitakpong)
Turkish (Şebnem Ferah)
----------------------------------------

Brazilian Portuguese, Latin Spanish, French and Slavic languages (Croatian, Russian, Czech) sound surprisingly good!

Italian is a little disappointing... Cantonese - LOL!
Commonaswhole   Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:45 am GMT
This cartoon I remember watching as a child. Back in that day we Flemish didn't have separate versions in Disney movies. Dutch from the Netherlands wasn't seen as foreign as they're trying to impose now.
Commonaswhole   Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:51 am GMT
Disney should start making 2D animated films again and stop with that 3D-crap. The Dutch version should also be a collaboration between Dutch and Flemish voice actors. Yeah, that would be great.
Ariel   Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:51 am GMT
Flemish and Dutch are the same thing, aren't they? I always liked Dutch!

There's a Flemish Fandub... sounds very similar to Dutch to my untrained ears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CeEF0xGyyw
Ariel   Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:54 am GMT
I think we're in the same generation. I agree that the time around the Little Mermaid and Aladdin was Disney's best (well, after the very old stuff). Okay, I liked the Toy Story too, but the stuff after was... Meh.
Death to Finding Nemo   Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:54 am GMT
I agree. I absolutely despise that 3D crap. It's just garbage. Why can't they see that? I now don't even consider watching them. You don't need fancy (yet ugly) 3D graphics to make a good movie, just look at the popularity of anime for example (and anime is even much lower quality than old fashioned Disney movies, yet people still like it).
Ariel   Sat Jul 04, 2009 12:58 am GMT
Yeah, anime like Sally the Witch, the very first anime, as well as the later version, weren't that good, but I was totally glued to the TV!

Sally from the 60s - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn6Y8UAPx30
Sally from the 80s - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sqXEisocNE

Same with Sailor Moon...
Commonaswhole   Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:02 am GMT
Yup, it's almost the same with only a few differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. In very informal speech (not in sing though or used by reporters) we say ge/gij instead of je/jij.
This may change to je/jij in time, or may remain like that. This is called Verkavelingsvlaams. It's the language Flemish people who live throughout the 'Vlaamse Ruit' (metropolitan area) adopted. These people (usually from the working class) didn't speak General Dutch, but dialect. As people from several corners moved throughout a larger heterogenous region they developed a language that took elements of General Dutch and their Brabantian dialect.

It's considered a vice in our language just like Poldernederlands in the Netherlands, yet it's used by actors much to the annoyment of people from the Taalunie. It's only okay to pronounce Dutch in Flemish way in the media, but not to use the Verkavelingsvlaams (even though they do use Verkavelingsvlaams in soaps and daily speech and such).
Commonaswhole   Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:05 am GMT
You can compare Flemish/Dutch to Andalusian/Castillian. It's the same language, but there are few differences. A Fleming often uses a more general Dutch when among people from the Netherlands, just like an Andalusian will use Castillian when he's among more northern Spaniards.
guest26734454865458658663   Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:06 am GMT
Commonaswhole, do you speak other languages besides your native one and English? I see your posts in a lot of threads.
Commonaswhole   Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:11 am GMT
Natürlich bin ich im Stande, mich in anderen Sprachen zu äußern.
Évidemment je suis capable de m'exprimer dans des autres langues.

What a question. English is just the major medium used in international forums and Dutch happens to be a language I live with day-in day-out.
Commonaswhole   Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:16 am GMT
I guess you're the Spaniard who thinks that terrorism is a result of recognizing languages? Who thinks all Basques are terrorists and thinks I'm an ETA supporter for seeing Basques as normal people? I'm affraid it's all more complex than that buddy...

Let's not make this a flame thread however,...
guest26734454865458658663   Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:19 am GMT
What are you talking about? I was just wondering what languages would a language enthusiast from Belgium speak.
Commonaswhole   Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:26 am GMT
Okay, no offense taken. It's just that there have been flame wars in the past and one time even leading to the closing of one interesting thread (about a father asking what languages his sons should learn).
I admit though, I have given in to the trolling atmosphere here and that thread closed much due to my input. This however has diminished when I realized there are serious people here and that trolling is not always that funny as it first seemed.

Yes, I have tried to troll Spanish and French in the past, but I can assure you I'm over these days. It's was all an after effect to what this forum used to be not long ago. ;)
Net Flandrii!   Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:41 am GMT
Думаю, что в этом случае следует отправить всех бельгийцев на каторгу в сибирские концлагеря.