Ready Player One: The Analysis of Specific Dialogue Translation Problems and Potential Cultural Consequences

In a world where we find ourselves constantly talking about “the latest Oscar-material movie” and “that new super cool Netflix series”, it is impossible to deny that the entertainment industry is one of the biggest money machines ever created. The global box office revenue is forecast to reach the 50 billion USD mark in 2020 (Statista, 2018) and the global entertainment market size is expected to reach 114.93 billion USD by 2025 (Financial Buzz, 2018). Throughout the years, accessing media products has become increasingly easier (Parrot Analytics, 2018), to the point where we now have an incredibly broad and commercial-free choice of contents at our fingertips (Abend-David, 2014, p. 293). This is especially true for English-speaking countries, but what happens when media products have to be translated and marketed in countries where English is not one of the main languages? Using Steven Spielberg’s 2018 science fiction adventure movie, Ready Player One (Spielberg, 2018), this study highlights how a cheap and hasty adaption work can heavily affect a media product. This paper also outlines what skills a good translator should have in order to be able to overcome these obstacles. A simple legitimate question that could arise at this point is “Why is it so important?". Movies are one of the most widespread and influential tools when it comes to cultural transmission (Pavesi, 2012, p. 14). Movies mirror reality and their dialogues carry out the same function they have in real life: they establish and sustain social relationships and play a decisive role in making individuals unique (Pavesi, 2012, p. 9). Movies are not just a way to entertain the audience, but also and above all a way to educate it (Swain, 2013). For all these reasons, everyone should have access to the original media product, regardless of what language they speak.