Subtitles cause Christmas disappointment
To subtitle or not to subtitle? Critics point out that children of playschool age can't understand Danish nor read Icelandic. Screenshot/ Rúv
Every year, the RÚV national broadcasting service runs a daily programme for children from December 1st until December 24th, known as the RÚV advent calendar. This year, the advent calendar is in Danish, with icelandic subtitles, which means that the target audience of young children who can't read yet won't understand a thing.
Similar to opening a new window in an advent calender each day of December before Christmas, the RÚV advent calendar always revolves around a Christmas themed story for children to follow on a daily basis. It's a much anticipated moment of the day for children as young as two or three as a countdown to Christmas.
This year's series, a Danish series called Tidresjen (Time travel) has not been dubbed in Icelandic and is presented with Icelandic subtitles. A lot of people have voiced strong criticism of this fact on social media, including one of Iceland's best known bloggers, Biggi the cop.
"The RÚV advent calendar has been a part of the advent as long as I can remember. Today, like every year, my kids waited excitedly in front of the television and they were really disappointed when it turned out that this year, it's not in Icelandic as usual." Others point out that this must simply be a mistake. Actor Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson writes," This must be a mistake, they must have uploaded the wrong file or something. Anything else would just be too stupid."
