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Ratatouille or “Gardēdis” is testament to why Walt Disney Pictures needs to keep producing great animation films together with Pixar - to experience it all in Latvian puts the icing on the cake. Can’t wait for the DVD release of “Gardēdis” which begs the question - why haven’t any new Latvian dubbed DVDs been released since December, 2006. We are still eagerly waiting for the latest Lotte, Trauksme Mežā (Open Season), Aizskalotājs (Flushed Away) and Šarlotes tīkls (Charlotte’s Web) - the first two films screened nearly 12 months ago.

Gardēdis is dubbed in Latvian by Artūrs Skrastiņš, Pēteris Šogolovs, Ivars Auziņš, Artis Robežnieks, Uldis Dumpis, Karīna Tatarinova, Juris Strenga and well known Latvian chef Mārtiņš Rītiņš.

The last couple of months has seen not only more detail added to Rīga (especially the smaller streets), but the addition of many regional cities in Latvia which previously were represented only as a dot on the map. On closer scrutiny Google Maps has still some work to do to correct details and driving directions.

 

The map of Kuldiga now shows more detail, but the Venta ir shown as a lake rather than a river (click on map above).

In travelling from Rīga to Daugavpils most local drivers would take the main “Daugavpils šoseja” on the other side of the Daugava rather than the route suggested by Google Maps (click on map above).

When they said that this was going to be released worldwide on 27th July they meant it - even in Rīga cinemas! The most surpising thing about this film was the apparent absence of any advance information that there was going to be a Latvian version as well. Something obviously went haywire with the marketing - even the film previews from only a few weeks before were shown only in English. Anyway they did a great job with the dubbing. You could swear that Marge has finally learnt Latvian - Bart and Maggie were quite convincing too.

Dubbed by Santa Didžus, Ieva Pļavniece, Laila Kirmuška, Ģirts Jakovļevs and Ārija Stūrniece.

Shrek returns for a third time - the Latvian dubbed version debuting in Rīga cinemas on June 3, 2007.

It looks like the Hollywood-based film studio Dreamworks is quite happy to keep investing in the Baltics market and has once again asked local Latvian film studio “Rijas studija” to assemble the Latvian cast: Gundars Āboliņš (Shrek), Artūrs Skrastiņš (Donkey), Evija Skulte (Princess Fiona), Akvelīna Līvmane (Queen Lillian), Ģirts Jakovļevs (King Harold), Pēteris Šogolocs (Puss In Boots), Artis Robežnieks (Prince Charming), Katrīne Pasternaka (Fairy), Jakovs Rafalsons (Wicked Mother) as well as Dita Lūriņa, Rēzija Kalniņa, Maija Apine, Zane Burnicka, Pēteris Liepiņš, Imants Vekmanis, Jānis Jarāns, Jānis Kirmuška, Leons Krivāns, Imants Pakalnietis, Andris Freidenfelds and Kaspars Upacieris in other roles.

Although Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Bruņrupuči Nindzjas) debuted in Latvian cinemas on 27th April, 2007 it seems that as of writing (less than 2 months later) to have already dropped off the big screen.

Thanks to Warner Bros and the local talent of Edgars Lipors, Ainārs Ančevskis, Armands Berģis, Aldis Siliņš, Andris Freidenfelds, Jānis Kirmuška and others our turtle heros have learnt Latvian as well. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we see the Latvian DVD release.

Back in 2004 GMail made news by being the first Web-based email service to offer 1 Gb free file storage. At the beginning of this year it has finally been opened up to the public (previously it was by invitation only), but the best news of all is that the interface is also available in all three Baltic languages.

Click on any of the images below to view some GMail screens in Latvian.

If you have an iPod nano purchased before September 2006 (first generation) then you can download firmware which will convert the interface on your music player into Latvian.

To install the Latvian firmware you’ll also need to download the iPodWizard utility which is currently only available for Windows.

Aimed at children 3 years and older the Power Professor educational computer is the first of its kind to be adapted for the Latvian language. Both the keyboard and LCD screen display all of the Latvian letters (except for the now rarely used ō and ŗ letters). The audio responses are spoken in Latvian: “Sveiks“, “Izvēlies uzdevumu“, “Bravo“, “Atā“ and others.

You can choose from 24 different exercises: Zudušais vārds, Jauktais vārds, Zudušais burts, Sinonīmi, Antonīmi, Anagrammas, Daudzskaitlis, Liekais burts, Mainītie burti, Vārda minēšana, Burti uzbrūk, Zudušais skaitlis, Saskaitīšana, Atņemšana, Reizināšana, Dalīšana, Līdzīgās figūras, Pāri, Salīdzināšana, Zvirbuļa ķērāji, Mēŗķa skaitlis, Zilbju medīšana, Angliski-latviski and Latviski-angliski.

The User’s guide is also in Latvian. The Lexibook JC250LV retails for about Ls 45.

The latest film adaptation by Paramount Pictures of the best selling children’s paperback of all time “Charlotte’s Web” (E. B. White) begins screening in Latvian cinemas this week.

Up until now only the bigger animation movies (Shrek, Ice Age, Cars, Flushed Away) got the Latvian treatment, but now “Šarlotes tīkls“ joins them as the first feature film to be fully dubbed in Latvian.

“Šarlotes tīkls“ features the voices of Ilze Skarbule (Fern), Gustavs Hartmanis (Wilber), Andris Keišs, Ivars Puga, Akvelīna Līvmane, Ģirts Jakovļevs, Katrīna Pasternaka, Juris Kalniņš, Ieva Pļavniece, Jānis Kirmuška and others.

Wikipedia is an online free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The theory goes that since so many people read the articles and monitor contributions then the biased, out-of-date or incorrect information is soon corrected and validated. The Latvian version Vikipēdija already has over 8000 articles, but is still behind the Estonian and Lithuanian versions of 30,000 articles each. Become a Wikipedian and help make this an even better resource for Latvians worldwide.

Kudos to easyJet.com for providing a Latvian language option on their Web site. Although they currently only fly from Berlin to Rīga they seem to be the only overseas-based airline to have made the effort to provide their information and online booking in Latvian.

Even Ryanair who are planning to invest considerable millions into Rīga is yet to provide a Latvian language version.

In an effort to make clothes washing even simpler Electrolux decided to dispense with most of the dials (except the program dial) and slap on a larger LCD display instead. Following their current advertising campaign Electrolux was definitely “Thinking of Us” by choosing to add the Latvian language to their EWF12981W, EWF14981W & EWF16981W Front Load Washer models.

Rotate the program dial to select “Kokvilna”, “Ekonomiskā mazgāšana”, “Smalka veļa”, “Vilna”, “Mazgāt ar rokām”, “Zīds”, “Sintētika” and other wash cycles. Click on the images below to get a closer view of the Latvian text.

   

      

Estonian, Lithuanian and 10 other European languages are also supported. Visit Electrolux’s Latvian Web site for more details.

"Ice Age 2: The Meltdown” ("Ledus Laikmets 2: Atkusnis") by 20th Century Fox was first shown in Latvian cinemas in mid-April, 2006 and was finally released in DVD format in November, 2006.

It is fully dubbed in Latvian featuring the well known Latvian voices of Kaspars Upacieris/Ufo, Aivars Čivželis/Čižiks, Jana Kalniņa, Pēteris Šogolovs, Edgars Lipors, Ainārs Ančevskis, Andris Freidenfelds/Fredis, Jānis Jarāns and others.

You can select Latvian as the spoken language as well as Latvian sub-titles or even both simultaneously. This DVD is coded only for Region 2 so if you live outside of Europe you will need to use a region free DVD player. This is the first time that the Baltic distributors, Forum Cinemas, have decided to release the Latvian version of a blockbuster film in DVD format - up until November of last year all films dubbed in Latvian were available only in VHS format. Ledus Laikmets 2: Atkusnis is also available in VHS format.

Released in December 2003 this major upgrade of MS Office introduces for the first time Latvian versions (menus, dialogs, help) of MS Excel 2003, MS Powerpoint 2003 and MS Outlook 2003. The less popular applications MS Access 2003 and MS Publisher 2003 missed out on a Latvian version and remain with the English user interface.

Click on the image below to view the Latvian version of MS Word 2003:

Latvian version of MS Excel 2003:

Latvian version of MS Outlook 2003:

Latvian version of MS Powerpoint 2003:

It is pleasing to see that Microsoft Latvia has consulted with both Latvian localisers and used local translation resources to provide an interface that it is quite easy to understand. Estonian and Lithuanian versions of MS Office 2003 are also available.

Although MS Office 2007 is starting to appear on store shelves it won’t be until mid-year before we see the Latvian version.

Auto Bild is Europe’s largest car magazine and in conjunction with German based publisher “Axel Springer” Santa first published the Latvian version of Auto Bild in May 2004. Auto Bild Latvija is published monthly and has a print run of 15,000. Apart from the current cover a PDF version of the magazine is not yet available.

Auto Bild is also published in Estonia and 28 other countries.