THE ART OF TRANSLATING MUSIC: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SONG TRANSLATION FROM ENGLISH INTO ITALIAN IN THE FILM WONKA

This thesis proposes an analysis of the translation and adaptation of the songs from the film Wonka (2023) from English into Italian. This study aims to identify both the differences and similarities between the original versions of the songs and their corresponding translations, highlighting the strategies used to produce songs that are catchy and singable while sounding as if they were originally written in Italian. The work is divided into three chapters. The first chapter provides a theoretical background on song translation, with a particular focus on two important works by Franzon (2008) and Low (2003). The second chapter offers a general overview of the film Wonka (2023), including information about the plot and the original soundtrack. This context will be used to illustrate how the lyrics relate to the story. The last chapter compares the original English songs with their Italian translations, examining the strategies used to produce translated versions of the songs that are as powerful as their original counterparts as well as almost perfectly synchronised with the actor’s lip movements while singing.