English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies ISSN 2640-9836 (Print) ISSN 2640-9844 (Online) Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls 43 Original Paper On the Subtitle Translation in Zootopia from the Perspective of Skopos Theory Wei Wang1 1 College of Liberal Arts, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, China Received: November 29, 2023 Accepted: February 19, 2024 Online Published: March 08, 2024 doi:10.22158/eltls.v6n2p43 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/eltls.v6n2p43 Abstract As cultural exchanges become more and more frequent, film has become a new type of cultural communication tool, that is, viewers need to read subtitles to understand contents of films. Subtitles usually translated by translators who need to rely on some translation theories, but traditional translation theories can no longer better meet people’s needs. The differences between various versions of subtitle translation do not achieve the desired effect, and it is difficult to create emotional resonance between the audience of the source language and the audience of the target language. The success of a film does not lie in the wonderful contents but in whether the translation of the film content can meet its expected requirements and whether the audience can truly understand it, and the German Vermeer’s translation purpose theory provides new ideas for subtitle translation, based on a purpose that can produce certain expected effects. To study the film further and create emotional resonance among different audiences, this paper adopted Skopos theory to analyze the film: Zootopia. In the paper, the contents include three principles of Skopos theory, translation strategies and other translation methods. Keywords subtitle translation, the Skopos theory, Zootopia, translation strategies 1. Introduction In the wake of technology and science, people’s life is gradually colorful and vivid, and with the development of globalization, more and more people are easily accessible to experiencing different entertainment methods such as doing sports, watching films and so on. In terms of the development of films, it experiences five periods and brings about dramatic changes for people’s life. From the beginning of movies, firstly the emergence of monochrome film without sound represented by the father of comedy Charlie Chaplin, then following modern films represented by prominent actors or www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 44 Published by SCHOLINK INC. actresses. Currently, as cultural exchanges between countries around the world become more and more frequent, films become new cultural communication instrument, people can choose their preferences like romantic films, animation films, action movies, etc., different types of movies express different topics and sentiments, which are instrumental to our learning of foreign culture and customs. With the development of international communication, English has become an essential instrument to communicate with foreigners. After watching films and learning spoken English, there are always demonstrate an illusion to people that they think themselves can understand and master the main content of a film, but most people lack basic comprehension of a movie, who usually rely on captions of a whole movie. In terms of subtitle translation, few people ponder over the question, and it is the biggest obstruction of understanding a movie. Under some circumstances, high-quality subtitle translation will offer accurate information about a film and offer people more opportunities to understand foreign culture. In terms of subtitle, it is tantamount to a kind of text, it usually appears at the bottom of movies, TV series, etc. For foreign viewers, subtitle translation is necessary that can help them have a rough learning of different foreign movies. As famous scholar Qian Shaochang said, “Thinking about its importance in our daily life, we should attach more importance to subtitle and do more research on this area” (Qian, 2000). This paper applies Skopos theory of Vermeer to studying subtitle translation of Zootopia, which is an American action-comedy film whose theme is about love and peace. This movie tells the story of Judy rabbit, who achieves her childhood dream and becomes an animal policeman through her own efforts in the animal city where all animals coexist peacefully. The author chooses parts of captions of this movie to research subtitle translation through the application of Skopos theory. The paper introduces the main contents of subtitle translation and Skopos theory as well as the main content of the movie, using parts of subtitles of the film to prove subtitle translation in accordance with Skopos theory. The article also involves in a lot of examples of the application of theory, including three principles and several translation methods. In addition, the article interprets feasibility and popularity of the translation theory in the movie Zootopia. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Brief Introduction of Subtitle Translation As we all know, the study of subtitle translation started earlier in western countries than China, and foreign scholars have acquired prominent achievements in this field, who promote the study of subtitle translation to become an independent course. In terms of subtitle translation, it has become a mature theoretical system. For one thing, its study started early in western countries and the overseas research went into a golden time in the 90s of the last century, which majorly relies on polar language culture among different European countries. The history of studying subtitle translation could back to the end of the 1950s to the early 1960s. The article “Traduction et Cinema” in the journal Le 1inguiste/De www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 45 Published by SCHOLINK INC. taalkundige published in 1956 and the special edition of the magazine Babel “Cinema et traduction” published in 1960 are among the earliest theoretical studies of film and television in Europe. “In 1974, Dollerup published an article entitled “On Subtitles in Television Program”, in which he analyzed the problems and errors in translating English into Danish, and he also suggested the importance of subtitle translation for foreign language learning. He also suggested the importance of subtitling for foreign language learning (Wang & Gong, 2018). In addition, in order to study subtitle translation deeply and express interest in subtitle translation, there were a film subtitle translation in Europe—European Association for Studies in Screen Translation, which suggests that more and more people take an interest in it. Moreover, unlikely precedent study, European scholars have gradually transferred their attention from theory to practice and promote its development further. For another thing, compared with western countries, the domestic study of subtitle translation research started later. And scholars who engage in the study of subtitle translation are few, so relevant essays are limited. In addition, the study scope of subtitle translation is narrow and loose as well as lack of mature theoretical system. In fact, domestic study began in 1949 and it is really popular after the Reform and Open. Since the introduction of Neda’s translation theory to China in the 1980s, the translation sector has witnessed the climax of Neda’s research and citation. After that, famous professors Qian Shaochang and Ma Zhengqi proposed their own opinions about translation including basic translation principles, methods and so on, which generate important influence on domestic subtitle translation (Wang & Gong, 2018). All in all, whether film translation practices or film translation theories, China is still behind the western countries. The theories and strategies of film translation still need further developing. Although there are many difficulties in the course of exploring subtitle translation, we still need to learn fine aspects from western countries and do our best to put forward to new translation theory influenced by other advanced theories. Moreover, China also needs to make efforts to master subtitle translation as well as explore new fields. 2.1.1 Definition of Subtitles As we all know, subtitle is a common kind of text, and most movies or dramas have subtitles, so we can see them everywhere. Subtitles of motion picture refers to invisible context in the form of text displaying dialogue in television, film and stage productions, and also refers generally to the text of post-processing of film and television works. Subtitles for dialogue in film and television productions usually appear at the bottom of the screen, while subtitles productions may be displayed on the sides or above the stage. Generally speaking, displaying the audio content of a program as subtitles can help viewers who have difficulty in listening to or understand the content of the program. In addition, subtitles can also be used to translate foreign language programs so that viewers who do not understand that foreign language can hear the soundtrack of the original work while understanding the content of the program. And viewers are able to understand main content of a story or even generate emotional resonance including their actions or feelings. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 46 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 2.1.2 Classification of Subtitles According to films’ language, subtitles can be divided into three types: translation subtitles, bilingual subtitles and intra-linguistic subtitles. Firstly, translation subtitles refer to mutual translation, in short, subtitle translation should be based on the native and fit for native language standards, when an English people is watching a Chinese movie, if he wants to learn main contents of the Chinese movies, subtitle translators should use their native language to help viewers to understand those plots. Secondly, bilingual subtitles refer to two kinds of language displayed on the screen at the same time. In particular, it usually appears in multilingual regions, such as Belgium, where Dutch and French are the dominant languages, and Israel, where both Hebrew and Arabic are official languages (Venuti, 2001); there are also bilingual Chinese and foreign language subtitles, which are common for Chinese web subtitles and are suitable for foreign language learning. For my part, bilingual subtitles are beneficial to learn, be helpful to train people’s hearing or even improve viewers’ verbal abilities. Thirdly, intra-linguistic translation is tantamount to paraphrase, generally speaking, the design of this subtitle just to help deal with certain problems among people who speak different dialects or people who suffer from hearing impairments. At the same time, this subtitle also includes karaoke or music video lyrics with subtitles. According to the classification showing controllability, subtitles can be divided into closed subtitles and open subtitles, the former refers to viewers are able to use remote control or resort to other methods to control the appearance of captions or disappearance. The later usually be compulsory, that’s to say, viewers fail to close the captions even they are tired of these captions. In addition, there are many other classifications of subtitles, different viewers have their own opinions. 2.2 Features of Subtitle Translation Translation of film language is also different from other types of text translation. Compared with other types of translation, translation of film and television subtitles is special, it is largely subject to the constraints of technology and context, mainly with the characteristics of interprofessionalism, publicness, transience, spatiality and cross-culturalism (Lin & Geng, 2016). (1) interprofessionalism: unlikely other types of translation, which just focus on one specific field, for example, business translation focus on business affairs among business circles, legal translation focus on criminal law. But subtitle translation usually involves in several other fields like an American drama White Collar, because this drama is a crimal drama that probably describes the dramatic personas who is an old fraud hand who engages in the fraud of famous pictures and antiques as well as securities, so its subtitle translation is bound to involve in the definition of famous pictures, antique knowledge and financial knowledge. Above all, the subtitle translation of every movie will include different knowledge fields. (2) publicness: When a movie display in the cinema, by virtue of different groups including children, the elders, women and men, so subtitle translation needs to master the public’s taste. In terms of films, television and film are the main forms of mass communication, usually spreading to all levels of society. For subtitle translation, what the most important is the language that should be crystal clear and straight www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 47 Published by SCHOLINK INC. as well as real, like The Big Bang Theory whose language should be humorous and natural, Downton Abbey should be based on the social situation and true history, so its translation must be serious. (3) transience: Because a movie has limited time, every plot should be closely connected and every sentence should be brief and clear. Film and television works are expressed through sound and image to express central idea, so with the change of light and sound, the screen switch is basically fleeting, if the translation is complex, most viewers will give up their appreciation to the movie. Therefore, the requires of translation of subtitles should be smooth, concise and verbal. (4) spatiality: Subtitle translation is limited by space, which is about the size of screen and subtitle font and the number of lines. The whole screen is limited, if the translation is complex and too long, the whole layout of a movie is turbid and the whole process will be discordant. In addition, some scholars pointed out that the number of lines of subtitles is best not to exceed two lines. And the subtitles should also be relative to the actors’ mouths, that is, when actors’ lines are finished, the subtitles should be played. (5) cross-culturalism: In fact, translation is a special kind of cross-cultural communication in itself. When translating a Chinese movie into English movie, what the most important factor is invisible culture background. Evidently, it is important to learn different culture, traditional custom before translating movies. 2.3 Constraints of Subtitle Translation In addition, from the perspective of time-consuming, every movie has restrictive time, within limited time, it is necessary to display characters dialogue through concise language, so subtitle translation must be concise and accurate and focus on movies’ core content. Firstly, when actors’ dialogue begins, captions will appear at the bottom of the screen, and every dialogue and the movie picture must synchronize, in fact, without learning subtitle translation, it is difficult to deal with subtitles and pictures. Generally speaking, the continuation of movie sound should rely on movie pictures, the range of captions should be dependent on the continuation of movie sound. Moderate subtitle amplitude should ensure the duration of the sound and keep the time in synchronized with the picture for the best artistic effect. What’s more, viewers browse subtitles needing consuming some time, take into viewers’ age, groups, education level consideration, different viewers may spend different time understanding the same captions. Subtitle translation needs to consider slow viewers. Therefore, the two factors require translators to flexibly use different translation strategies and manage to pursue the best translation text (Wu, 2012). For another thing, the major factor of subtitle translation is space. In movies, subtitles usually appear at the bottom of the screen, the screen is fixed, the amplitude of subtitles is limited. Generally speaking, the number of language symbols that can be accommodated on the screen, sometimes in two lines, sometimes in one, varies in terms of the number of words and there are small differences between countries. If the number of subtitles is too many, it will influence the beauty of the whole movie. This factor adds the difficulty in translating subtitles, and translators must give priority to this factor when www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 48 Published by SCHOLINK INC. translating subtitles (Wu, 2012). 3. The Skopos Theory 3.1 Brief Introduction of Skopos Theory Skopos theory is a creative kind of translation theory, it generates important influence on different translation texts. Skopos is a Greek word meaning “purpose”. Skopostheorie is a theory that applies Skopos to translation, the central concept of which is that the greatest determinant of the translation process is the purpose of the whole act of translation. Vermeer also uses related terms such as “aim”, “intention”, “purpose” and “function”, and “function” (Nord, 2001). To avoid conceptual confusion, another scholar who has contributed significantly to the refinement of the theory, Christina Nord, proposes a basic distinction between intention and function, i.e. “intention” refers to the definition from the sender’s point of view, while “function” refers to the function of the text, defined by the needs, expectations, intellectual background and environment of the recipient. In his framework of purpose theory, Vermeer suggests that the purpose of translation is determined to some extent by the audience, the recipients of the translation, who have their own expectations of the translation, their communicative needs and their own cultural knowledge background. Every translation activity is directed to a specific audience, and therefore a translation is a discourse produced for a certain purpose, a certain target audience, in a target language context. Vermeer argues that the original text is only a basis for providing some or all of the information to the target audience, thus showing that the original text in the purpose theory has a much lower status than in the reciprocity theory. 3.2 Principles of Skopos Theory 3.2.1 Skopos Rule Skopos rule put purpose rule at first, and other translation practices should obey the principle. If translation is successfully used in recipient of the translation’ context and culture and works in the way that translation receptors expect, the translation is fine. The whole process of translation action is dependent on translation purpose, so results determine methods. And the translation purpose includes receptors’ purpose, users’ purpose, text purpose. Different movies also need different subtitles, and the choice of subtitles translation usually depend on movies’ theme like documentaries need educational subtitles, animated films is liable to vivid and energetic subtitle translation. 3.2.2 Coherence Rule Coherence rule refers to translation text must consist with standard of intra-textual coherence, we can understand that the whole translation text has readability and acceptability, and receptors are able to understand translation meaning between recipient of the translation culture and the use of communicative context. Good subtitle translation must conform to intra-textual coherence, translation must be coherent in the eyes of target language readers, that is, target language readers can understand the translation in their environment by using this translation principle. www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 49 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 3.2.3 Fidelity Rule Fidelity rule approves that there is certain inter-textual coherence between source text and target language, which requires translation text conforms to original text, it is equivalent to what other translation theories call fidelity to the original text, but the degree and form of fidelity of original text still are reliable to the purpose of translation text and translators’ understanding of original text. And there are differences between source text and target text, usually including cultural difference, language difference. Translators also need to take the main factors into consideration and do their best to ensure that source text readers and target language readers can acquire the same content as much as possible. In general, among three rules, Skopos rule is the highest and decisive principle, a good translation text should start from the purpose between source text and language text firstly, understand the real meaning and decide how to convey its purpose. 3.3 The Possibility and Necessity of the Application of Skopos Theory Movies have become an important instrument of publicizing human culture and main way of cultural exchange since its emergence. And movies also export to foreign markets, all people are influenced by different culture. Of the process, subtitle translation plays an unsurmountable role in the process of culture exchange. The task of subtitle translation aims to help viewers to acquire major information according to the intentions of directors and producers within the constraints of the time and space, i.e. in the process of subtitle translation, the intentions of the originator of the act of translation and the wishes of the recipient of the target text should be fully considered. Skopos rule ranks first among three principles, a good translation text should start from the purpose between source text and target text firstly, only purpose is clear and accurate, this method can play an important role in subtitle translation. Subtitle translation is consistent with the purpose of Skopos theory and rules. At the same time, film and television translation as a branch of literary translation, which has its own features. In addition, limited by other factors, its features that is different from literary translation, so the traditional translation theory that emphasizes faithfulness and equivalence is no longer suitable for the objective requirements of film subtitle translation. Therefore, film subtitle translation needs to be guided by a translation theory that is compatible with it. 4. Translation Skills in Zootopia from the Perspective of Skopos Theory Zootopia is an American movie, whose theme is love, peace and dream. This movie is equivalent to a comedy that usually uses humorous episodes to tell viewers some truth. The story briefly introduces two protagonists—Judy and Nick, the rabbit Judy achieves her childhood dream and becomes an animal policeman through her own efforts in an animal city where all animals coexist peacefully. The main purpose of subtitle translation is to convey messages to target readers with the limitations of time and space. If translators want to make full use of Skopos theory, translators must understand the purpose of film and television, grasp its core and use specific methods to express its main meaning. In addition, translators also know the preferences of audiences, then analyze source text to translate www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 50 Published by SCHOLINK INC. concise and accurate target text to help viewers appreciate movies. Due to cultural difference, in terms of the images of a rabbit and fox, Chinese people and American people may have some differences on this question. For one thing, Chinese people usually regard a rabbit as an auspicious animal, on behalf of luck, filial piety and virtue and morality. On the contrary, foreign people often consider rabbits timid, as the idiom says, “as timid as a hare”, so rabbits have left bad impression on foreign people. Therefore, in this movie, that’s why a lot of animals all look down upon Judy. For another thing, the fox usually represents sly and suspicious people in Chinese culture, people further connected foxes with evil and abase people, instead, foreign culture considers foxes as clever and creative animals, as the proverb says, “Fox is not taken twice in the same snare”. But with the development of culture, foreign people have the same opinions as Chinese people, that’s why at the beginning the little fox Nick was excluded when he joined the boy scouts (Sheng, 2022). Therefore, before translating, translators need to figure out every character represents what kinds of image, including its true meaning and symbolic meaning. In addition, learn more knowledge about Chinese culture and foreign culture, grasp different countries’ cultural background, use concise and accurate subtitles to help audiences understand main content as much as possible within limited time and space. 4.1 Domestication and Foreignization Domestication method and foreignization method, as two different translation strategies, were put forward by Lawrence Venuti, as mentioned in his book The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation (Venuti, 1995). Based on target language and readers, domestication method usually uses local source language that target readers are familiar with to convey the information of source text. Domestication method requires translators to move closer to target readers, they should use language like native readers to convey information with a transparent and fluent style, which can also minimize target readers’ strangeness to the original text. If original authors want to communicate with readers directly, the translation text must be indigent language. Briefly speaking, domestication translation, taking the target language as its destination, emphasizes on the readers’ response. In addition, this translation method is conducive to target readers to understand target text and enhance the readability of translation. Foreignization method is the other method developed by Lawrence Venuti, unlikely domestication method, this method internally breaks the norms of the target culture by retaining some certain elements of the original text, referring to readers should move closer to authors and translators don’t disturb authors as much as possible (Chen, 2019). In terms of translation, the whole translation language should adapt to characteristics and use the expressed way of foreign language, by using expressing way of source authors that is familiar with to convey the content of source text. This method aims to consider differences of different national culture and to reflect characteristics of foreign nationalities and linguistic styles and to preserve the exotic atmosphere for readers. The subtitle translation of Zootopia partly uses the domestication and foreignization methods, such as www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 51 Published by SCHOLINK INC. idioms. These idioms are familiar to Chinese people. The use of these idioms is helpful to Chinese viewers to understand the story and close the distance between source authors and target viewers. In addition, humor in dialogues adds the interest and features to two protagonists, viewers are easy to be attested. This kind of humor conforms to American culture, but also be consist with Chinese people’s expectancy. Therefore, this movie is loved by many people who at home and aboard. In terms of target viewers, the domestication method indeed defuses the sufferings that target readers are vague about the source text. Translators move closer to target viewers by using native language, and maximize the advantages of domestication method to express the core content of sentences. Here are some examples: Eg.1: in the movie the dialogue between Judy and Nick, Nick said, “I also know that, somewhere... there’s a toy store missing its stuffed animal... so why don’t you get back to your box”? Judy replied, “Fine. Then we’ll have to do this the hard way”. In liberal meaning, the sentence means “好吧,那我得采用更艰难的方法了”. In fact, according to Chinese people’s minds, the sentence includes a respectful meaning firstly, but because Nick doesn’t want to resign to a rabbit, Judy only resorts to the euphemism, the degree of the sentence is stronger than common translation. Therefore, the whole sentence means “好吧,是你敬酒不吃吃罚酒” or “好吧, 你自讨苦吃”. This translation method sounds interesting than literal translation. Eg.2: I will take your kindness and pay it forward. This sentence is said by Mr. Big, Judy saved Mr. Big’s daughter from the giant donut crushing. In general, the sentences can be translated into “我会记住你的好意并且将来报答你” if subtitle translation is translated like this, the whole story will lose its highlights. In Chinese culture, there are many epigrams expressing gratitude. In order to be suitable for the limitations of movie space and time, the sentence should translated concisely into “你投我以桃 我报之以李”. In the course of watching, viewers don’t consume another time mastering the meaning and also memorizing the meaning firmly. Eg.3: We are really fighting the clock... and every minute counts. This sentence expresses the importance of time, in Chinese culture, we people describe time is money, to some extent, money is valuable to our life, is true of time. If we translate the sentence directly, the meaning will like “我们正 在和钟作斗争，分秒都得争”, the former is not consistent with coherence rule, generally speaking, in foreign culture, when people says what’s time is it instead of what’s clock is it. And when people reply specific time like eight o’clock, usually the clock is omitted. So the sentence can be directly translates into “我们正在和时间作斗争, 分秒都得争”, so translates the sentence in a more colloquial way “现 在真的争分夺秒,刻不容缓啊”. The sentence is not only express the urgency of time but also emphasize the emergency of things. Eg.4: Speak of the devil. Right on time. This sentence is a classic idiom in Chinese culture, which was used to warn someone to watch out because there were more channels to convey information to the host. But at present, it usually describes the surprise caused by the appearance of someone when speaking of someone. The sentence is translated into “真是说曹操,曹操到” rather than “谈到那家伙, www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 52 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 那家伙就来了”, the latter lack of aesthetic perception and emotion is worse than the former, for my part, the emotion of the latter usually expresses a sense of boredom, at the same time, the sentence also loses its humor. The method conforms to Chinese culture and viewers are liable to accept. Eg.5: Hey, listen. It would take a miracle... to get this rust-bucket going. Well. Hallelujah. “哇噢,老天 显灵了” In this sentence, hallelujah is translated into “老天”, as we all know, a translator usually translate “老天” in China into “God”, but the sentence uses the word “hallelujah” to replace it, so obviously it is based on the foreign culture to translate like this. Therefore, viewers can also feel foreign culture further and experience different language disparities. Eg.6: You were just trying to protect your job. The translation is “你只是想保住乌纱帽而已”, of the translation, “乌纱帽” merely refers to “your job”, in Chinese culture, especially in ancient times of China, the masses usually replace the “hat” with an “official position”, and the tradition is inherited. Therefore, translator use domestication method to translate your job as “乌纱帽” rather than “你的工 作”, the translation is natural and native than traditional translation, and it is easily accepted by Chinese viewers. 4.2 Literal Translation Literal translation means that maintaining both the content and language form of the original text, especially the image, national and local features of the original text on the base of the target language (Chen, 2019). And the translation method is suitable to film translation. For some phrases, it is difficult to translate or master their nature, so sometimes translators need to use this method. In the movie, there is an example: Eg.1: He just kept yelling about the Night Howlers. Over and over. The Night Howlers. In this sentence, Night Howlers is a key point, before audiences watch the movie, I believe most viewers are confused that what the Night Howler is. So translators might as well translate from its surface, night refers to the evening and the evening is approximately twelve o’clock, howler derives from the verb “howl”, the verb means crying, usually the suffix “er” represents people or objects, so the two words can be translated as “午夜嚎叫的人”, but if the sentence translates like this, it will lack of elegance. Therefore, the phase expresses “午夜嚎叫”，the whole sentence is “只是他嘴里一直喊着午 夜嚎叫, 一遍又一遍地喊午夜嚎叫”. Although viewers still confuse the phase, with the development of the movie, viewers soon understand the Night Howler is a flower. 4.3 Other Translation Methods In the movie, translator also uses some Chinese four-character idioms and proverbs to reveal different animals’ images. Chinese four-character idioms and proverbs are unique Chinese culture, some four-characters have different meaning in different context. In the movie, there are several examples: Eg.1: Sir, I’m not just some token bunny. In the sentence, “token” as a descriptive word, usually means “symbolic”, translator translate “象征性的” as “花拳绣腿的”, this translation method is practically consider the source discourse, because Judy is the first a rabbit to become policeman, many strong and carnivore animals all look down upon her even she acquired good grades in the first police academy www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 53 Published by SCHOLINK INC. graduate. Therefore, the translation of “token” conforms to text. And translator uses the four-character idioms to suggest an ironic state, strengthen the tone and enhance the appeal of language. Eg.2: A world where prey was scared of predators. This sentence is simple, if translator directly the sentence, whose translation will be “一个被捕食者害怕捕食者的世界”, the translation is not consist with standard of subtitle translation, and the whole sentence is also redundant. On the contrary, translator translates the sentence into “一个弱肉强食的世界”, the four-character idiom “弱肉强食” perfectly interpret the major meaning of the sentence, and successfully solve the problem of the limits of time and space in subtitle translation. In addition, the movie is an American animated film, so the movie is filled with vivid and energetic atmosphere, which embodies their actions, dialogues, etc. Moreover, the movie also shows humor between Benjamin Clawhauser and Chief Bogo. Benjamin Clawhauser said, “I’m sorry, sir. I tried to stop her. She is super-slippery”. Super-slippery is translated into “麻溜”, apparently, this translation shows Chinese cultural elements, and create humor for viewers. Before Judy attested Nick, Judy promotes the law to him, and persuaded him not to revolt, she said “Stop, in the name of the law”! it is translated into “依法束手就擒吧”, the translation embodies the conciseness and humor, usually in China, we usually talk offenders into giving up revolting and voluntarily accept the sanction of the law. All in all, the use of these words all suggests the charm of Chinese culture, the movie is not only successfully consistent with its theme, but also strike a chord among different countries’ audiences. By virtue of concise subtitle translation, every sentence can be understood by viewers, and subtitle translation that uses different translation methods doesn’t lose main content of the movie as well as transmit cultural information. Using concise and humorous subtitle translation, the movie Zootopia also shapes different animal figures successfully including brave and positive rabbit Judy, eloquent and helpful fox Nick. 5. Conclusion Subtitle translation is a kind of particular translation text, which has its own features. It needs appropriate translation methods as well as strategies to display its content. Different source texts need to generate different effects and achieve different goals. Therefore, the paper uses Skopos theory to discuss the movie Zootopia, including advantages and limitations of subtitle translation. And the author also uses three rules of Skopos theory to interpret the examples of the movie. In addition, the paper also combines other translation methods with part of the subtitles to analyze the use of Chinese four-character idioms, use domestication and foreignization method to compare several examples and give reasonable reasons about subtitle translation. Skopos theory has three rules and two specific translation methods, whose development goes through four stages. The coherence rule and fidelity rule are subordinated to the purpose of the translation task, so the theory is committed to place priority on skopos rule. And the movie has clear themes including love, dream, peace and friendship. Of them, the most important is the dream theme, the rabbit Judy www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 2, 2024 54 Published by SCHOLINK INC. relies on her own efforts to become the policeman and represent the image of Zootopia. Nick also shies away from temporal eyes becoming the partner and the best friend of Judy. Just as the subtitle reads, “I thought in Zootopia, anyone could be anything”, the sentence inspires everyone who has their respective dreams to pursue dreams. Life is yours, others don’t have rights to interfere with your life and you also don’t care about others opinions. The movie emphasizes the strength of dream at the beginning. Skopos theory conforms to the content of the movie, which is necessary and appropriate to the film. For my part, any film that has clear themes and purpose can use Skopos theory, but not merely limited by Skopos theory. Every film has several themes, different translation theories also applied to different movies. Translators should consider the demand of target readers and the intention of source readers, according to their specific requirements to choose appropriate translation theories to translate. With limited translation experience, the thesis just uses the theory to analyze the surface content, there are still more things to do. As we all know, translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way the author intended the text. And it is usually compared to a bridge between the author of the text and the reader of the target text. Translator needs to analyze the intention of the author and try to convey it to the reader. In addition, translation is a bridge connecting two different cultures and helps people from different cultural backgrounds to communicate with each other. In the article, the author uses foreignization to interpret the content of the movie, which retains the flavor of the original text and helps readers know the western culture better. For a qualified translator, what the most important is to understand the basic content of the source text, properly convey to readers. However, in terms of the Chinese translation theories, there are more larger development space, as a to-be translator, I have the duty to promote the development of translation theories. References Chen, L. R. (2019). Application of Domestication and Foreignization in the Translation of To the Sky Kingdom. Fujian Normal University. Christiane, N. (n.d.). Translating as a Purposeful Activity. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Han, J. V. (1978). Framework for a General Translation Theory. Lawrence, V. 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