A question about the LBA2 intro voice

[Lupin]

I was wondering something about this line: "Can you see me up on the box up there with my girlfriend Zoé?". Is it clear that he refers to the picture frame?

The word used in the French version is "cadre", which literally means "frame". It sounds a bit weird to me that the English version would use the word "box" instead. Is it confusing to you native English speakers, or is it just me?

[CiB]

It is very weird, now that you point it out.

I wouldn't say it was clear he was referring to the frame, but I had played the first game (so I knew what Twinsen looked like), so for me it was clear he was referring to where I could see Twinsen?

Shortly after Twinsen says this line the picture starts moving. Now, at least in the UK, at this time (I've not heard anyone do this for a few years though) people would sometimes call a television "the box". I wonder if the English translators saw that the picture moves and so used language based on TV's rather than paintings? Maybe not, but it might explain why they went with "box" there rather than "picture". (Argument against is that this is 1997 so mounting a TV on a wall is science fiction when LBA2 was made, as is a TV that isn't a huge bulky CRT thing)

[Medur]

Maybe it's just a bad translation?

[Battler]

According to Wiktionary, cadre can translate to a box or square on a printed page. So I would say it's the case of translation done without knowing the context.

[SpaceGuitarist]

Supposing that cadre means the same as quadro in portuguese (they sound the same don't they), I suppose the usage of quadro is quite clear in both languages to be referring to a picture frame as well as other things, it's kind of vague in a beautiful way.

But in english there isn't such a word as it tends to be quite specific. Say... you can call it a portrait, and that implies a still photograph of someone. Or, you call it a painting, and that implies it's a painted canvas with a frame on it.

In portuguese if you just say "quadro", it can be pretty much anything that's hanging on the wall.

Bottom line: Might be as Battler said, without giving any context, they went for box to be a "50/50 chance of not missing whatever it is about"?
Or like CiB said, if they did have context and actually saw the cutscene, thus knowing it is an "alive" portrait, they went for box because it isn't just a plain old static portrait?

Oh well, let's blame it on the Saxons or whoever was part of inventing the english language for not forseeing magical moving picture frames and not creating one word as versatile as quadro or cadre.

[Polaris]

Translators should have to play/see the whole product before translating, until then, these kind of mistakes will be unavoidable

That being said, I would never have translated "cadre" to "box"

[SpaceGuitarist]

Well, Mr.Thread Creator, now that you got your answers, what will you do with it ? have nothing to say ? hhhhhh

[Lupin]

What I’m going to do with it is secret, but thanks for the answers!