No matter where you travel in the world, one thing is always consistent: we all grew up watching the same cartoons. Of course, even cartoon theme songs have to be re-recorded in different languages, and this often leads to some incredibly awesome and hilarious re-interpretations of some of the most memorable cartoon theme songs from our childhood. Here are some of the best:
Pinky & The Brain (in Japanese)
Apparently the Japanese don’t have a translation for the word "Brain", which seems weird since they’re pretty smart people. But the real joy in this version of the intro comes from the Japanese interpretation of Brain as a maniacal villain, apparently voiced by Pat Moreta, as evidenced by the incredibly dialogue dubbing at the beginning. That alone makes this clip absolutely priceless.
Duck Tales (in Arabic)
My favorite part about this version of the Duck Tales theme is that there’s no Arabic translation for "Woo hoo!", so when they get to the part of the song where it goes "Duck Tales, woo hoo!", it just cuts to some women saying a really long Arabic phrase that I can only imagine translates to "Duck Tales, they follow the word of God!"
Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers (in Russian)
This is probably one of the most epic renditions of a cartoon intro theme song ever recorded. It’s pretty clear that Russia was experiencing a sever job shortage for the Awesome Male Vocalist crowd, because this guy sings way too well to be doing the Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers theme song. Also, it’s pretty clear that the many decades of communist oppression have gotten to the country as a whole, because somehow they weren’t even able to make this theme song sound all that exciting, which is pretty difficult to do.
Punky Brewster (in Spanish…sort of)
We realize that Punky Brewster isn’t a cartoon, and that most of this intro isn’t in Spanish, but this rendition is so awesome that it deserves a place on this list. The ONLY difference between this theme and the American version is that, for some reason, they felt the need to say, "PAAAAAAAANKKEEEEE BREWSTAIIIR!" It was like they watched the intro, and the telemundo executives were like, "Hmm. I feel like people aren’t going to think that this show is geared toward hispanic people." Then they thought for a second and were like, "Why don’t we get that newscaster from Channel Ocho News to just say ‘Punky Brewster’ when the words come up," and then everyone else in the meeting was like, "Bueno!"
Gummi Bears (in German)
When Germans are trying to sound warm and heartfelt, it creeps me out even more than just hearing them speak normally. German words don’t really rhyme all that well, so when they’re trying to make them rhyme in this song, it just sounds like a really uncomfortable open mic poetry reading. Luckily, just when it starts to get intolerable, they chime in with "Gooooomi Bars!", and the song becomes excellent again.
Denver, The Last Dinosaur (in French)
French is a beautiful language, but for some reason when they’re singing this song in French, it kind of just sounds like a kid with Down’s Syndrome trying to sing the American version of it. Also, this just goes to prove that even incredibly shitty rock music shouldn’t be sung in French, just in case you didn’t already know that.
Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (in German)
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! theme song is awesome in English, mostly because it’s a rap song about the Super Mario Brothers. As a rule of thumb, rap is always cooler in German, so that makes this cartoon intro completely radical. Additionally, the fade-out, echoing "die bruder!" at the end is just the icing on a cake made of pure badass.
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This isn’t “official” Chip’n'Dale intro – I would imagine it’s some professional singer did a custom translation.
This one was aired on tv – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pEaM6-u6UA
I think that the dutch version of chip and dale is the best. Knabbel en Babbel!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzSGvt-QWrk&feature=player_embedded#
I’m sorry but Denver in French is just fantastically awesome.
So did the French version change the name of the dinosaur cartoon? I used to watch it as a kid and it was called, “Dino (for the first part of “dino”saur)the last Dinosaur” not “Denver the last Dinosaur.”
Ducktales in Arabic… the word the women singers are saying instead of “woo-hoo” is (something unintelligible to me) and “t-fiya”.. t-fiya meaning “bird”. So instead of woo hoo it’s “something something birds”. So no God stuff there sorry.
Rap sucks in any language. True story.
you copied this from coed.com. They did this a few months back. Get original and stop stealing other people’s posts.
Atama is brain
Yes, I agree with SPANISH. In Spain almost every foreign show would be pronounced wrong. It is the same funny if I try to teach spanish to any foreigner.
I liked the list but I found REALLY DISGUSTING that comment about Down´s Syndrom
The german intro of Pinky & Brain is better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIaQKnzQzj4
The Punky brewster intro is from Spain (Europe). Every country that speak spanish (Mexico, Argentina, Spain…) translates at his own.
If a spaniard that doesn’t know english read “Punky Brewster”, he will pronouns like you pronounce “Poonkee Breahustear”.
The voice of the beginning pronouns more or less correctly the name so a spaniard could learn how to pronouns it. That’s all.
For pinky and the brain cartoon where they do not translate brain, you do not translate names, and brain is brain’s name.
lol im an arab so i can translate the whole song
theyre saying (hikayat batootiya) batootiya means “duckly” or ducky” and hikayat means tales so there,no god bull involved heh
I remember the 2nd version distinctly from the early 90s. Intro from the first season were just plain English then this 2nd version appeared which in my opinion is the best one.
Yes, the dino is called Denver in the French cartoon.
It sometimes different, like pepe le pieu, the skunk.
It doesn’t make sense if pepe le pieu is French in the French version , so over there pepe is called “mouflette” and he is Italian!
Chi-chi-chi-chippy dale. Zonkey gloss.
I’m not the only one who wanted to bone Gadget, right?
10 year old me totally wanted to bang Gadget’s box. She was a hottie!
and I thought I was the only one…
“Apparently the Japanese don’t have a translation for the word “Brain” “. Brain is the characters name. That’s like asking “How do you say my name in Mexican?”.
Except if your name was a noun that’s already a pre-existing word
Like, “brain”?
Asdf is right-
The Japanese would not have tried to find a corresponding word for Brain, as that is his name… They didn’t try to find one for pinky either, if you noticed.
Mexican? you mean spanish. Seems like you’d assume the role of Pinky.
In Mexico, Brain´s name is “Cerebro”. Like, duh.
I’m amazed that the “A-WOO-OOO” in Ducktales actually translates into something else for Arabians.
HALAHALLLAHALLLALALAAHALLLAHALLALALALALA
they didn’t try to translate “woo hoo”. instead of saying “duck tales woo hoo” they’re just saying “duck tales” but the translation they used allows it to be dragged out over the same melody.
Lol, actually if I translate what they’re saying in arabic it’s the equivelant of saying
“Duckarinos”
(She’s actually saying Duck tales only in Arabic though
)
Yeah german words don’t rhyme at all, ey ?
So people all around the world are actually being sarcastic when they say that Germany is an nation of great poets and thinkers, ey ?
We just received a fucking nobel prize in literature last week you stupid fucks !
BtW: Play WCIII Honk Survival for 3 hours and you’ll start to love the Gummibären Song !!!
gummibären hüpfen hier und dort und überall …
Rhyme is the lowest form of poetry, and you dont really need your word to rhyme to make a great literary piece or be a good thinker, seems your logic isn’t that great
hey they said in da 2nd german translated thing tht germans are cool rappers (yeah they are) n rhyme is the core of rap so u cant say they cant rhyme dude lolz…….
Es gefällt mir aber sehr!
the rescue rangers russian is good stuff
sounds like he says scoobly doo and sucky blaa’s
when ya look back at the old cartoon theme songs it seems they are well down pieces of music
Jo, seh ich ganz genauso!
Nice re-post, asshat(s). I agree this is funnier the second time though.
Yeah fuck boys nice one. i knew i already saw this before.
You didn’t find any finnish version … they are strange… especially those from -80′s… can be found from youtube as well.
In the Arabic “Duck Tales” song, they don’t say “Whoo Hoo” or attempt to translate it, the phrase they’re saying translates to “duck tales”, literally (Or “tales of the duck kind”).