Return to Neverland

[Dirk]

Hey there, Hi there, Ho there,

well I just thought I let you know that last week finally "Peter Pan II - Return to Neverland" opened here in Germany in the cinemas. While not doing bad it is no big hit either ... but a soundtrack was released anyway. The CD (bey WEA which is producing Walt Disney Records releases here in Europe) goes by the same name as the movie in Germany, so "Peter Pan in Disney's Neue Abenteuer in Nimmerland" which translates as "Peter Pan in Disney's New Adventures in Neverland" - the longest name for an animated movie by Disney so far used in Germany.

But anyway, back to the CD ... it contains the same tracks as the US-release did, only that the songs with the exception of "Do You Believe in Magic?" have been translated into German. Most interesting regarding the German songs: two of them ("Second Star to the Righ" translated to "In the Darkness a Star shines" and "I'll Try" translated to "So Much") are performed by Nena which had a big hit here in Germany in the 80s with "99 Luftballons" which was also released in an English version in the US (I don't know the title but if tehy would have translated it by sense it should have been "99 ballons").


Yours
Dirk

 

[SharonKurland]

Dirk-

They called it "99 Red Balloons" here (in English) and if I recall correctly, both the German AND English versions were popular.

-Sharon-

 

[Dirk]

Thanks Sharon,

I didn't know that the Verman version was popular in the US, too. This rarely happens, in fact I can think of only one other pop song who conquered the US coming from Germany: "Rock me Amadeus" by Falco.

Anyway back to Nena: she never had such a big hit in Germany again after "99 Red Balloons" but is trying to stage a comeback now for maybe 1 1/2 years. Judging the poor showing of Peter Pan II at the boxoffice and the fact that the soundtrack CDs are hidden in most stores too I doubt these two songs will make it for her.

Still I feel happy that they released at least a German soundtrack CD as they didn't release e.g. any German recordings of the songs from Hunchback II or Cinderella II. Well they are direct to video sequels but in the US you can get some recordings at least on the samplers, but not in Germany...

Yours
Dirk

 

[SharonKurland]

Dirk-

When "99 Red Balloons" was released here, the English version was much more popular, but the German version DID get quite a bit of airplay. That resulted in a lot of teenagers learning (by rote) the song in German. Same thing happened in Spanish, with Menudo, Ricky Martin and when N'Sync sang "I'll Never Break Your Heart" bilingually. Amazing what fans will do .

-Sharon-