I don’t normally show American movies with Spanish dubbed in, because they’re culturally irrelevant and many times beyond my students, both linguistically and in attitude–they assume it’s the same as the English and tune out the language. But I found this clip of Shrek 2 on YouTube, the torture scene where the prince is dipping the gingerbread man in milk to try to get him to talk. In the English film, the conversation goes like this:
Prince: “Do you know the muffin man?”
Gingerbread man: “The muffin man?”
Prince: “The muffin man. Do you know the muffin man?”
Gingerbread man: “The one who lives on Drury Lane?”
It’s one of the funniest parts of the movie. But think about it–how funny would this be to Spanish-speakers who have no idea what the muffin man is? So, when I watched the scene in Spanish, I found out that they actually dubbed in a conversation involving Pin Pon, a Puerto Rican children’s song. Awesome! I can’t wait to show it in Spanish 3. Funny, linguistically accessible and relevant, and culturally relevant too!
Pin Pon is a chilean character. Jorge Guerra (the actor who portrayed Pin Pon) died this year on February 6th.