ASTANA – “Guardians of the Galaxy” has become the ninth film to be dubbed into Kazakh and the third movie of 2014 to be screened in the Kazakh language.
The Bolashak Association, supported by the ruling Nur Otan party and sponsored by the Baiterek National Holding, organised the film dubbing project, which cost 9 million tenge (US$49,445).
“Guardians of the Galaxy” is one of this year’s worldwide blockbusters and rated one of the best movies of the year by some. Critics are calling it the best work of Marvel Studios, and its IMDB (Internet Movie Database) rating is 8.7/10 based on feedback from more than 100,000 movie fans.
“While choosing a project, we took into consideration such factors as its level of innovation and social orientation, as those are some of the directions of our holding’s activity. It is good that among the 18 languages the film has premiered in, there is the Kazakh language, too. We all continue to support projects promoting the study of the Kazakh language by Kazakhstan’s population,” head of the Baiterek Holding executive office Anuarbek Sultangazin said at the premiere of the film in Astana.
The film has been dubbed into 18 languages, with Kazakh one of two Turkic languages it has been screened in. Not many movies in Kazakhstan are screened in Kazakh – but the ones that have been are among the world’s biggest and best. They include “Cars 2,” and “Men in Black 3” in 2011; “Brave” and “The Amazing Spiderman” in 2012; “Monsters University” and “The Lone Ranger” in 2013 and “The Amazing Spiderman 2,” “Maleficent” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” in 2014.
Dubbing projects also help promote Kazakhstan’s film industry. This project was a good experience for young director Timur Balymbetov. “In some scenes, the Kazakh dubbing sounds even better than original,” he said.
The main protagonist of the movie, Peter Quill, was voiced by the well-known voice actor Timur Piyazov, who has experience in dubbing films in Kazakh.
Gulnaz Auesbayeva, also the voice of the witch from “Maleficent,” voiced the main female character of the movie, Gamora.
Fully animated characters of the film, including tree-like humanoid Groot, martial raccoon Rocket, demonic Drax (Destroyer) and the villain Ronan, were voiced by Baurzhan Kaptagai, Yerzhan Zharylkasynov, Ruslan Senkebayev and Beybit Kamaranov, all of whom work every year dubbing Hollywood films. About 20 actors participated in the project.
Secretary of the Nur Otan party Kumar Aksakalov and Chairman of the Baiterek Holding Kuandyk Bishimbayev attended the premiere on Aug. 1, as did other officials and representatives of the business and science sector.
Orphans, students, bloggers, Bolashak scholarship programme graduates, members of national youth organisations and the Bolashak Association, project organisers and other partners were also invited to the film’s premiere.
