Various Notes...

[Joywitch M. Curmudgeon]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., Joanne0012 at a... wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "Aberforth's Goat" <Aberforths_Goat at Y...> 
wrote:
> > Amber wondered,
> > 
> > > Actual: why burma and not brazil
> > > Translation: Is there a reason to have the snake be from Burma 
and
> > > not Brazil?
> > 
> > <snip>
> > 
> > > Actual: No "Amigo"
> > > Translation: The snake doesn't say "Thanksssss Amigo"! What, 
they
> > > couldn't spend the half a second to have it say Amigo? Hmph.
> > 
> > I think the people at the zoo must have pointed out that pythons 
live Burma,
> > not Brazil, and convinced the film people to correct the habitat. 
> 
> The book originally said boa constrictor from Brazil.  The film 
switched to a 
> python frm Burma.  Presumably because pythons get much larger than 
boas.
> 
> Naturally, a snake from Burma wouldn't say "Amigo."  For that 
matter, nor 
> would a snake from Brazil, since Brazilians speak Portuguese, not 
Spanish.

This is unbelievably nitpicky, even for me, but the word for friend 
happens to be the same in both Spanish and Portuguese, so talking 
snakes from Brazil might well use the word amigo, although pronounced 
a little differently (Ah-me-go in Spanish; more like Ah-me-goo in 
Portuguese).  We could be even more nitpicky and ask how a snake 
which was bred in captivity, presumably in England, would know the 
word amigo even if its ancestry was Brazilian, but I think this has 
probably gone far enough.

However, Joanne's point is well taken that a Burmese snake would of 
course not call anyone amigo, and also that most people, at least in 
the US, mistakenly think that people speak Spanish in Brazil.

BTW, did anyone else notice that the zoo in the movie was definitely 
the London Zoo?  (There was a plaque that said so above the snake 
sign.)  In the book, we decided it has to have been another zoo, 
since during the Diagon Alley trip it is said that Harry had never 
been to London before.

--Joywitch