Cloudbox™ - now available in Dutch!

Patience is an underrated skill as a freelancer. Some projects take time to come to life, and keeping a fun secret for so long can be quite the challenge. But now, the wait is over—I’m excited to introduce Cloudbox™!

At the start of last year, the team from BTL Diffusion invited me to translate 36 beautiful children’s stories, which would be used in the CloudBox™, a storytelling device that narrates bedtime stories for children ages 0-8. The stories, written by a few different authors from both the USA and Europe, were fun and sweet. I thought it was incredibly impressive how all of the authors managed to tell an entertaining story while also including a thoughtful lesson.

The CloudBox™ itself is an impressive device. Not only does it play the stories to children - narrated by two excellent voice-actors -, but it also includes different four different mood lights, which change with the story. It is a very cute addition to an already great product.

What working on the CloudBox™ was like as the Dutch translator

Two interesting challenges were combined in this project, which I will dissect briefly. Firstly, translating (or any form of media, really) with a young audience in mind is extraordinarily difficult. Vocabulary choices and understandable sentences REALLY matter, and I relished coming up with satisfying solutions to hard-to-localise jokes or concepts.

The second challenge was capturing the unique voice for each character: our nine main friends are a diverse bunch: the clumsy yet lovable Drake the Dragon (Draco de Draak) is nothing like the good-humoured but aloof Tina the Turtle (Saartje de Schildpad), who is once more dissimilar to the eager and stubborn Finley the Fawn (Hidde het Hert).

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Being the Dutch translator means safeguarding their spirit to properly bring them to life for Dutch-speaking children, which I did with gusto. I much appreciate BTL Diffusion for placing their faith in me and granting me as much creative freedom as I needed.

Available now!

The CloudBox™ is available now wherever you buy toys, including Bol.com and grasonderjevoeten.nl.* Other than the 36 stories, translated by me, it also includes eight relaxing nature sounds, eight songs and four different types of mood lighting that reflect broadly where the story is taking place (at day, at night, underwater, in the forest, in space and so on)

This is the (English) trailer for the Cloudbox:
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Looking for your next freelance Dutch translator?

If you have been enthused by my work on the CloudBox™ and are looking to get started on your own Dutch localisation project, do get in touch! I am currently accepting new projects.

Have a great week, everyone!

-Thijmen

*While I had the pleasure of translating the CloudBox™ scripts, any other work, such as the product descriptions, are not mine.