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.
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. Bojack Horseman Qartulad
Georgia has a history. It has survived revolutions, wars, and the collapse of empires. There is a cultural understanding of “sadness as a default state” that Americans simply don’t have. The answer, it turns out, is leaning into Georgian fatalism
Dubbed in Georgian? No way. A look at how the existential dread of Bojack Horseman translates into the Georgian language, the cult following in Tbilisi, and why “Qartulad” might be the most depressing—and best—way to watch the show. If you had told me five years ago that I would be sobbing over a cartoon horse speaking Georgian, I would have laughed. But here we are. There is a cultural understanding of “sadness as