Bojack Horseman Qartulad -
Georgian is an ancient, guttural, and incredibly expressive language. It carries a weight that English often smooths over. When Bojack mutters, “What are you doing here?” in English, it sounds like a catchphrase. When the Georgian dub delivers “აქ რას აკეთებ?” (Ak ras aketeb?), it sounds like a soul being crushed under a velvet boot.
Good luck. The official Netflix Georgian dub is available if you set your profile language to Georgian (or use a VPN to Georgia). However, the true treasure is the fan-edit community on Reddit (r/Sakartvelo) who have subtitled the untranslatable puns. Bojack Horseman Qartulad
The voice actors for the Georgian dub (who remain criminally under-credited) faced an impossible task. How do you translate “That went better than most of my Christmases” (a reference to his traumatic childhood) without losing the rhythm? The answer, it turns out, is leaning into Georgian fatalism. Georgian is an ancient, guttural, and incredibly expressive
For the uninitiated, “Qartulad” simply means “in Georgian.” But in the context of this Netflix animated masterpiece, it has become shorthand for a specific kind of beautiful, tragic localization. However, the true treasure is the fan-edit community
In English, Bojack’s despair is clinical. In Georgian, it is folkloric.
The show’s running gag about “Hollywoo” gets a hilarious treatment. They don’t translate it directly. Instead, Princess Carolyn says, “We are in Hollywood… uh, I mean, Tbilis-Doo.” It shouldn’t work. But it does.