TRANSLATION STRATEGIES OF “JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE” MOVIE

Meita Selina Istiqomah, Dr. Drs. Jumanto, M.Pd

Dian Nuswantoro University

ABSTRACT

This thesis is entitled Translation Strategies of “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” Movie. This
research directs to find translation strategies in the whole movie. The theory and strategies used
in this research is Newmark (1988). The researcher used a descriptive-qualitative method for the
research since the objective of the study is to find out the translation strategies applied in the
movie. The researcher find the subtitle from downloading the subtitle from Subscene.com. Based
on the analysis that has been done, the researcher found 7 translation strategies. There are Literal
Translation of 1008 data (59.36%), Semantic Translation of 271 data (15.96%), Communicative
Translation of 243 data (14.31%), Word-for-Word Translation of 118 data (6.95%), Free
Translation of 66 data (3.89%), Faithful Translation of 27 data (1.59%), Idiomatic Translation of 1
data (0.06%). The research also find out and describe the dominant strategies used in the data.
The dominant translation strategies in this movie is literal translation. Literal translation is a
strategies that followed the grammatical structure from the source language (SL). There are also
other dominants which are semantic and communicative translation.

Keywords: Translation Strategies, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Language, Translation

INTRODUCTION

A language is an important thing for human’s life to communicate. Without language, a

human cannot communicate with other humans. Other than that, they cannot expressing their
feelings, ideas, and thought. Without language life is pointless, no languages means no
communication. Humans even cannot think without language, they only have images but they
cannot explain about it. Samsuri stated in his book Analisa Bahasa, “Language cannot be
separated from human beings and their daily activities (1985:4).” Furthermore, in this modern
era humans need mastered foreign language besides their mother tongue. It is very important to
master foreign language because people nowadays need to establish connections and cross-
cultural friendships, to become better learner, learning a foreign language opens up a world of
job opportunities. Also there are many music and movies from other countries that make people
1
interested and curiosity about the language. Therefore, learning foreign language becomes easier
since every movies has subtitle which translated into their mother tongue. The purpose of
translation is to translate source language into target language with language that is easy to
understand and acceptable.
Translation is a form of language changed to another or target language by finding its
equivalent to the target language. Newmark (1988:5) defines translation as rendering the
meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text. Larson
(1998) stated that translation is an activity of studying lexicon meanings, grammatical structures,
communication situations, and cultural contexts of source languages, analyzing, determining the
meaning, then composing the same meanings with lexicons and grammatical structures that are
suitable in the target language and cultural context. In translating a text or conversation, the
translator must use a method or technique. Method and techniques are different, translation
method applied for the entire text while a text can be translated using vary of translation
strategies. Therefore, translators are not just dealing with the sentences but also the condition
in a certain time and situation. They must know the interpretation and implications when
translating and make the most appropriate strategies for delivering native language messages
efficiently. In addition, translators must be aware of the importance of the knowledge possessed
by their audience so the target language delivered is easily conveyed to the audiences. Therefore,
there might be changed of translation when translating a text or conversation.
This study uses a film as a data source. Film or movie is a literature work that contains
words, phrases, clauses, sentences and expressions in each conversation by the characters. The
writer choses “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” movie as the object. The reason for choosing the
film is when the writer watches the film she finds that the subtitle in the movie use a lot of
translation strategies in their conversation. Therefore, the writer is interested in conducting
research on translation strategies in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle films. The genres of the
movie are adventure, fantasy, comedy movie produced 2017. The movie directed by Jake Kasdan
and written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner, the story based
on McKenna. According to IMDb, the movie got rating of 6.9. In this study, the writer tries to find
out which types of translation techniques applied in the movie, the writer focuses on the
Indonesia translation. This movie is a recreation of Jumanji in 1995, different with previous
version this movie genre more into comedy, in the previous one is more thriller and fantasy but

2
both still carry the adventure as the main genre. Another difference with the previous version,
the film tells about a magical game board. There are animals that will come out if they are printed
on the board. Meanwhile, the new version turned the game board in the first series into a video
game in a console like Nintendo. As a result, the concept is different because the humans or
characters enter the game, not the other way around.
This study focuses on three things which are to find out the translation strategies applied
in the movie Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, to find out the dominant translation strategies
applied in the movie, and to describe the dominant strategies in the translation of the movie.
This research used Newmark’s theory and translation strategies. This research used descriptive
qualitative method to analyze the data which could not be measured by numbers. The writer also
use literature study approach. This approach examined library resources and analyzes based on
the theories that exist in the library source. The writer only collects the information and data
from various relevant reference sources. The unit analysis in this research is every certain
utterance which was belonging to the translation techniques of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
The writer chooses the movie and downloaded the subtitle from http://subscene.com. On the
other hand, the reason choses the movie as the object because this movie is very famous
therefore she argues that if she discussed about it the readers would easily understand to learn
about translation techniques. The source of the data in this research is the translation techniques
and meaning in the movie. Data collection techniques that writer used in this research are
analyzing the source of data and techniques of data analysis.

RESEARCH METHOD

Data and Subject

The data of this study were subtitle English and Indonesian version from “Jumanji:
Welcome to the Jungle” movie.

Unit of Analysis
In this research, the researcher discusses about any types of translation strategies based
on Newmark’s theory in the Indonesian version as target language and main discussion, “Jumanji:

3
Welcome to the Jungle” movie. Moreover, the writer analyzed the translation strategies, find the
dominant strategy and the description of it.

Techniques of Data Collection and Analysis

The writer analyzes each utterance which can be object the translation techniques and its
meaning. She also analyze the utterances for finding translation strategies in the movie. In
analyzing the source of the data, the writer does four steps. First, the researcher downloading
the subtitle from http://subscene.com and chose two kinds subtitle which are English and
Indonesia. Second, the researcher reads the subtitle of the movie and read on every utterance in
order to understand deeply about the content of the data. Third, after the researcher reads all
the data, she analyzes the utterances one by one then categorize it. Fourth, for translation
strategies, since the writer uses Newmark’s theory there are eight types of translation
techniques. The researcher also uses table to compare the source and target language to find out
which translation techniques the utterances use. She draw which translation techniques is
dominant as well. Each type of translation techniques to analyzed in the description below:
Example 2: 00:25:15,753 --> 00:25:17,352
SL: Perhaps you should read it aloud.
TL: Mungkin harus kau baca keras-keras.
The second corpus data above analyzed as Literal Translation because the translator tries
to make it sound natural in the target language. There is no difference in the sentence structure.
The translator translated the word ‘aloud’ into ‘keras-keras.’ ‘Aloud’ itself means ‘nyaring’ or
‘dengan suara keras.’ ‘Keras-keras’ is a colloquialisms and translator considered that this word
sounded more natural and acceptable. In addition, the translator might understands the
expression of the characters, its meaning, and produces the same meaning in the TL. This scene
described when Moose asked Dr. Bravestone to read the letter from Jumanji. Therefore, there is
no implied message or idioms.

4
FINDING AND DISCUSSION

Finding
The researcher finds seven translation strategies used in the subtitling in translating the
source text. There are word-for-word (6.95%), literal (59.36%), faithful (1.59%), semantic
(15.96%), idiomatic (0.06%), communicative (14.31%) and free translation (3.89%). The most-
used data is literal translation because it follows closely the form of the source language. The
researcher did not find adaptation translation because there are no SL text that contains
equivalent with TL culture. Newmark (1988) stated that this technique is the best option for
translating texts where the form is as important as the content such as great speeches,
autobiographies, literary works. For the details, see the result is shown in the table below:

Table 1 Table of Percentage Result of Translation Strategies

No. Types of Translation Strategy Total Percentage
1. Literal Translation 1008 59.36%
2. Semantic Translation 271 15.96%
3. Communicative Translation 243 14.31%
4. Word-for-Word Translation 118 6.95%
5. Free Translation 66 3.89%
6. Faithful Translation 27 1.59%
7. Idiomatic Translation 1 0.06%

Discussion
In transferring a message or an utterance from source language into a target language, a
translator needs methods to produce a good quality of translation. In this research, the
researcher uses the theory of translation and method from Peter Newmark in his book “A
Textbook of Translation” from page 45-47 to analyze the data. The researcher decides to use
Newmark’s because she considers that the theory is very appropriate for analyzing the data since
the data are in the level of macro-unit. The level of macro-unit in translation means a translation
cannot be seen from examples per case, but on a more comprehensive level which is the
translator’s principle in translating. In this part, the researcher explained the detail about the
definition of each Newmark’s translation strategies. Although, the researcher did not find

5
Adaptation Translation, she still explain the definition and used other examples from internet
sources.

Translation Strategies in the “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”

Since the researcher used Newmark’s theory, there are eight translation strategies, which
are:
1) Word-for-Word Translation
The translator translates per word according to the order of the source language
and the words are translated with the most common meanings. This method is applied
by translators if they find the same structure between the source language and the target
language. It contains only single words that do not form phrases or clauses so that they
do not intertwine.
Example 1: 00:03:28,839 --> 00:03:30,038
SL: You lose.
TL: Kau kalah.
The corpus data above applies Word-for-Word Translation. It can be seen from
the target text that the translator tends to translate utterances in the source text into Kau
kalah. Because the TL has the same grammatical structure as the SL. The researcher
categorized as Word-for-Word Translation because this situation when Spencer plays the
video game and he lose the game. There are no idioms or implied messages in this
utterances. It also a simple clause since this sentence contains subject, ‘You’ as ‘Kau’ and
verb ‘lose’ as ‘kalah.’ Therefore, the researcher identified as Word-for-Word Translation.
2) Faithful Translation
Faithful translation is the method tries to form contextual meaning but still
remains bound to the grammatical structure of the source language. This translation tries
to be as faithful as possible to the source language. This method is not recommended for
translating cultural terms or implied messages since the structure follows the SL.
Therefore, this method fits on simple sentence and use common meaning.

Examples 2: 00:42:11,833 --> 00:42:17,162

SL: I will summon every creature and every soldier to hunt them down.
TL: Aku akan panggil semua makhluk dan semua prajurit untuk memburu mereka.
6
 The corpus data example identified as Faithful Translation because the TL hold
strictly the SL's conception and render faithfully the content of the source language work.
This is a complex-compound sentence because it contains independent clause ‘I will
summon every creature,’ and dependent clause ‘and every soldier to hunt them down.”
This sentence does not contain any implied message and the translator used common and
literal meaning, also the sentence structure between SL and TL are same.
3) Literal Translation
Literal translation is the dominant translation strategy that using in this movie.
The method is same as the previous method which is translation the utterance per word
(word-for-word). But, it is only the first step then the translator re-arrange the sentence
to make it more appropriate. The translator is trying to change approaching the sentence
structure in the target language.

Examples 3: 00:32:46,889 --> 00:32:48,688

SL: How is strength my weakness?
TL: Bagaimana kekuatan itu kelamahanku?

The corpus data above identified as Literal Translation because the sentence does
not contain any idioms or implied messages. It is also because the words are translated
one by one and the structure of the source text is converted in the target text. It can be
seen in the SL’s sentence ‘How is strength my weakness?’ translated to ‘Bagaimana
kekuatan itu kelamahanku?’ Therefore, the translator chooses this strategy and the data
is a simple sentence. There is no difference in the grammatical structure. The translator
uses the common meaning to translate the SL. In addition, the translator might
understands the expression of the characters, its meaning, and produces the same
meaning in the TL.
4) Semantic Translation
The translator uses this method by considering the aesthetic value of the source
language text. This method is more flexible than the faithful translation method and other

7
 previous translation strategies. The term culture translated is easier for the reader to
understand.

Examples 4: 01:08:17,776 --> 01:08:20,635

SL: Okay, Fridge, you got anything like that in the backpack?
TL: Baik, Fridge, punya sesuatu dalam ranselmu?
The first corpus data above identified as Semantic Translation because the
sentence ‘…you got anything like that in the backpack?’ translated to Indonesia into
‘…punya sesuatu dalam ranselmu?’ This sentence contains true meaning or does not
contain any idioms and implied messages. However, there is a little different in the word
order. If the sentence ‘…you got anything like that in the backpack?’ translated using
word-for-word become ‘…kamu dapat sesuatu seperti itu di ransel?’ This translation
produce ambiguous with ‘that’ and ‘itu.’ Also, this translation sounds unnatural and
confusing for the people of TL. Therefore, the translator chooses this strategy to make it
sounds more beautiful and acceptable but still used the common meaning to translate
the SL but the translator also consider the aesthetic value during translating while still
strict to the SL meaning. In addition, the translator might understands the expression of
the characters, its meaning, and produces the same meaning in the TL.
5) Idiomatic Translation
This method uses a method of reproducing 'messages' from the original language
and then translating them into the target language with the language used every day to
be easily understood. This method is not translated using target language idioms. The
researcher only found one utterance, which is:

Examples 5: 00:36:20,425 --> 00:36:22,155

SL: Want me to see if I got a hacky sack.
TL: Kau ingin aku melihat serangan sengit.

The corpus data above identified as Idiomatic Translation because the last two
words which are ‘hacky sack’ can be classified as idiom and have the same meaning in TL
as ‘serangan sengit.’ The grammatical structure between SL and TL are different. One of

8
 the Idiomatic Translation’s characteristic is following the structure of the TL and make the
translation sounds natural while delivering the exact meaning of the TL. It cannot
identified as communicative translation because this strategy still deliver the exact
contextual meaning from the SL.

But it produces a communicative translation that readable and understandable. It cannot

be identified as Free Translation as well because the TL’s grammatical structure, style,
form, and content are similar with the source language. With using TL’s colloquialisms,
the utterance sounds understandable and acceptable for the audience of target language.
6) Communicative Translation
The translator translates the exact contextual meaning of the source language in
such a way that the content and language are readable and understood by the reader.
Translator uses communicative translation not based on the grammar structure between
the source language and target language but the translator considers how the target
language is acceptable.

Example 6: 00:57:22,174 --> 00:57:25,173

SL: I need you to follow me and do exactly as I say.
TL: Kalian ikuti aku dan lakukan perintahku.

The second corpus data identified as Communicative Translation because the

translator translated source language text into target language focuses on contextual
meaning therefore the content and message from the source language is understandable
in the target language. The evidence is ‘I’ as subject in the source language is reversed
become object in the target language, the infinitive ‘to follow’ change into the active form
‘ikuti’ and the translator added ‘Kalian’ as subject in the target language to complete
sentence structure of target language. ‘… and do exactly as I say’ translated into ‘…lakukan
perintahku’ in the target language. Thus, ‘I need you to follow me and do exactly as I say’
which is translated into ‘Kalian ikuti aku dan lakukan perintahku’ belongs to
communicative translation.

9
7) Free Translation
Translators uses this method to produce a target language without style, form,
and content like the source language. The content of target language is the main thing for
the translator. Usually, the target language is longer than the source language since free
translation reproduce without seeing from the form of the source language.

Example 7: 00:04:19,805 --> 00:04:22,044

SL: Little Spencer Gilpin.
TL: Spencer Gilpin memang baik.

The first corpus data identified as Free Translation because the actual meaning of
the ‘Little Spencer Gilpin’ is ‘Spencer Gilpin kecil.’ It is a totally different meaning. The
researcher thought that the translator changed the word ‘kecil’ to ‘memang baik’ as an
expression to show how generous and kind Spencer Gilpin’s character when he helped
Fridge doing his homework. Therefore, the translator implies greater latitude of
expression when translating from SL to TL.
8) Adaptation Translation
The freest form of translation, and is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry;
the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture is converted to the TL
culture and the text is rewritten. The researcher did not found this strategy while she
analyzed the utterances. However, the researcher provides another example from
internet source.

Examples 8:
SL: Mengeluarkan gunungan. (Brainly.co.id, 2019)
TL: Carrying out the traditional mountainlike. (Brainly.co.id, 2019)

The translator translated ‘gunungan’ as ‘mountainlike’ because the shape of it

represent like mountain but it just a figure. Gunungan is a figure of Indonesian theatrical
performance that called wayang. The shape of gunungan is symmetrical shaped like a

10
 mountain or like rounded ellipse. Gunungan made of dried, firm beef, whose outline is
pointed in Java and more rounded in Bali.

The Dominant Translation Strategies in the Movie

The dominant translation strategies in the movie are Literal, Semantic, and
Communicative Translation. The first dominant is Literal Translation, this method follows closely
the form of the source language. Thus, this strategy called Word-for-Word Translation. The
differences are Literal Translation translated per word but it still consider the grammatical
structure of TL.
Although this strategy translates per word, there are some omitted words which translators
consider less effective when translated into the target language. Newmark stated this method is
the best option for translating texts where the form is as important as the content such as
speeches, autobiographies, literally works.
The second dominant is Semantic Translation, this strategy still follow the SL’s
grammatical structure but it also consider the essential value and make the sentence more
‘beauty.’ Yet, this strategy process translate the sentence per word. And the last is
Communicative Translation, this translation strategy follows the TL’s grammatical structure to
make it more acceptable and readable. Communicative translation is considered to be simpler,
smoother, clearer, more direct to the TL.

Describing The Dominant Translation Strategies In The Translation of The Movie into
Indonesian
Literal translation is a translation method that sticks too close to the source text. Some
people assume that literal translation lead to a bad quality translated text, a translated text
where the SL structure is reflected in an exaggerated and unwanted way. Their opinion about
literal translation said that, the method sounds unnatural when translated in the target language.
It is usually hard to read and does not convey the meaning of the original text. However Vinay &
Darbelnet (1977: 48) stated that literal translation is often acceptable, and also agreed with
Newmark (1988:68-69) “My thesis is, however, that literal translation is correct and must not be
avoided, if it secures referential and pragmatic equivalence to the original.” Therefore, literal
translation method can be used when other techniques have failed. Translation is not a science.

11
The translator main task is to translate target language in easy way, readable, and acceptable.
Hence, translator should decide what method is most appropriate.
Semantic Translation is likely to be more complex, more concentrated, more detailed to
make the TL sounds ‘beauty.’ Semantic translation is translate naturally which means it does not
require adding, repairing or reducing. It only changes the text force and meaning of SL to TL. Since
it is also strict to follow SL’s grammatical structure.
Communicative Translation puts emphasis on the shift of messages. The method pays
attention to the TL and hopes that it does not contain any difficulty in the TL. Therefore, this
strategy does not follow the SL’s grammatical structure.
It use TL’s grammatical structure with communicative words. In communicative
translation, an equivalent effect is not desirable but effectiveness. It is more important to
consider value and effectiveness of the translation.

CONCLUSION
Based on the analysis of translation strategies in the movie Jumanji: Welcome to The
Jungle, the researcher draws the conclusions that there are seven translation strategies applied
in the movie. They are Literal Translation found 1008 data (59.36%), Semantic Translation of 271
(15.96%), Communicative Translation of 243 (14.31%), Word-for-Word Translation of 118
(6.95%), Free Translation of 66 (3.89%), Faithful Translation of 27 (1.59%), Idiomatic Translation
of 1 (0.06%). There are three translation strategies that is dominant in the subtitle. They are
Literal Translation, Semantic Translation, and Communicative Translation. Although Literal
Translation consider as less effective to be applied, but it is really important to translate the
content from the SL’s point of view. Hence, the original meaning is conveyed.
Literal translation is the most dominant strategy in this movie, the researcher found 1008
data which is 59.36%. Literal translation can be called as word-for-word translation since the
grammatical structure of target language (TL) followed the source language (SL). Many people
think that literal translation is not an effective strategies for translating SL. However, Newmark
(1988) stated this method is the best option for translating texts where the form is as important
as the content such as speeches, autobiographies, literally works.

12
REFERENCES
“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Indonesian Subtitle.” Subscene.com. Subscene. 2017. Web.
November 26, 2019. <subscene.com/subtitles/jumanji-welcome-to-the-
jungle/indonesian/1731648>.

“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. January 26, 2020.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumanji:_Welcome_to_the_Jungle>.

Adnin, Annisa Nurjannah. “AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATION STRATEGIES FOUND IN ENGLISH-

BAHASA INDONESIA SHORT STORY SOME WORDS WITH A MUMMY.” Jurnal Ilmiah
Mahasiswa FIB Universitas Brawijaya, vol. 6, no. 8, 2014, pp. 6–7,
jimbastrafib.studentjournal.ub.ac.id/index.php/jimbastrafib/article/view/670/599.
Accessed 9 Feb. 2020.

Agustino, Gerry. An Analysis of Translation Techniques and Translation Quality of Flight Attendant
Manual THESIS. Uns.Ac.Id. Universitas Sebelas Maret. November 22, 2011. Web. January
26, 2020. <digilib.uns.ac.id/dokumen/detail/23666/An-Analysis-of-Translation-
Techniques-and-Translation-Quality-of-Flight-Attendant-Manual-THESIS>.

Crocodile, Cinephile. “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” Blogspot. July 5, 2018. Web. January 26,
2020. <cinephilecrocodile.blogspot.com/2018/07/jumanji-to-jungle-dir-kasdan-2017-
i.html>.

Damayanti, Oktavia. “TRANSLATION SHIFT ON THE TRANSLATION OF NOUN PHRASE IN.”

Universitas Dian Nuswantoro, 2013. pp. 21-23. January 26, 2020.
<eprints.dinus.ac.id/5780/1/THESIS_VERIFIKASI.pdf>.

Dimitrova, Birgitta Englund. “Expertise And Explicitation in the Translation Process (Benjamins
Translation Library : Est).” Epdf.Pub. 2015. <epdf.pub/expertise-and-explicitation-in-
the-translation-process-benjamins-translation-lib.html>.

Fitriani, Siti Annisa. “The Impact Of Translation Strategies To The Readability Level Hush, Hush.”
Repository UIN Jakarta, 2015, pp. 30-31. January 26, 2020.
<http://repository.uinjkt.ac.id/dspace/handle/123456789/29596>.

IMDb. IMDb.com. December 20, 2017. Web. January 19, 2020.

<www.imdb.com/title/tt2283362/>.

İpek Karacığan. “Literal Translation.” Slideshare.Net. SlideShare. December 26, 2014. Web.
January 26, 2020. <www.slideshare.net/pekKaracan/literal-translation-43013102>.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Directed by Jake Kasdan, Sony Pictures Releasing, 20 Dec.
2017. Movie Infos. June 22, 2018. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Web. January 26,
2020. <http://yourmovieinfos.blogspot.com/2018/06/jumanji-welcome-to-
jungle.html>.

13
Karina, Lita. “AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATION STRATEGIES FOUND IN NEW MOON INTO DUA
CINTA BY MONICA DWI CHRESNAYANI.” Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Feb.
2018.

Newmark, Peter. 1988. A Textbook of Translation. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.

Rahmawati, Auliya. 2016. “Analysis of Translation Techniques in Roth’s Divergent.” Universitas

Negeri Semarang. <https://lib.unnes.ac.id/23008/1/2211411041.pdf>.

Roshan. “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.” WordPress. May 12, 2018. Web. January 26, 2020.
<awakeanddreaming.org/2018/05/12/>.

Subscene. “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle English Subtitle.” Subscene.com, Subscene. 2017.
Web. November 26, 2019. <subscene.com/subtitles/jumanji-welcome-to-the-
jungle/english/1731545>.

Vinay, J.-P. & Darbelnet, J. 1977. pp 48. Stylistiquecomparéedufrançaisetdel’anglais. Montréal,

Québec: Beauchemin.

14
15
16
17