Cultural Heritage: Lakota Language Version Of ‘The Avengers’ Hits Screens

This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. You can now watch one of the biggest movies in history in the language of the Lakota people.

On June 15th a new dub of the first Marvel Avengers movie, The Avengers, dropped on Disney+. It's in the usual language options on the app. Just like if you were going to watch it in Spanish.

It was an amazing journey from idea to digital premiers for the Lakota dub of the 2012 superhero movie. McLaughlin, South Dakota Lakota language teacher, Taken Alive, first had the idea to record a version of the film in Lakota a few years ago.

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Taken Alive and some others who were excited by the idea thought it'd be a long-term labor of love. But one of the actual Avengers got involved.

They reach out to actor Mark Ruffalo, who plays The Hulk/Bruce Banner in the Marvel movies. They reached out to him in a sort of 'Ya never know' type of way.

And it paid off! The next thing Taken Alive knew he was in a meeting with Disney and Marvel executives. And they weren't angry, they wanted to help.

In addition to a large grant from an anonymous donor, Disney worked with the Lakota team through the whole process, helping them do everything in the best way possible.

They went through three script translations and worked with Lakota elders to get it right.

Producers of the project say they want the film to be an educational tool, helping to preserve the Lakota language by teaching it to future generations.

Marvel's The Avengers joins Finding Nemo and Star War: A New Hope in being dubbed in native languages.

SOURCE: ICT News