When Comical Becomes Ridiculous: The Dubbing of Massimo Troisi’s Films and their Reception in Spain

Abstract

The aim of this article is to carry out a study of the dubbing of the films directed by the Italian comic actor and screenwriter Massimo Troisi and the effect of such dubbing on the way his works were received and distributed in Spain. For this purpose, we will analyse the original and dubbed versions of his first film Ricomincio da tre and the criticism received in Spain at the time of its release. As for the analysis of the corpus, we will take into account two factors: on the one hand, the language used in the comic scenes and, on the other, the consistency or contradiction of its translation with the characters’ gestures. The study of linguistic and extralinguistic data reveals that the translation of the film into Spanish does not maintain the same comic effect as the original and this probably affected the reception and distribution of Troisi’s works in Spain in a negative way.