OT: Subtitles vs. Dubbing

Since we have a wide membership from different countries I'm curious. I am American and have nearly always seen foreign language movies with subtitles (save for animation). I was surprised a few years ago, when a French/German friend of mine said that English movies in his countries were dubbed.

What's your experience in your country?

Are movies from particular countries treated differently in this respect?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Responses

rocky_o

1.4K Messages

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51K Points

7 years ago

hey jen...

i am from new york, and i watch foreign films with subtitles...hate dubbing...

some dvd's do offer both options...some don't...but i would say the majority i see always have subtitles at least...

ElMaruecan82

5.1K Messages

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137.8K Points

7 years ago

I'm surprised you were surprised. Dubbing was part of cinema's industry ever since the talkies started. Walt Disney was a visionary man and he knew his films would be translated into different languages so he made versions of the movies without the animated texts (the books' opening, the poisoned apple's recipe, the dwarfs' names on the beds) to make the adaptation easier.

I don't know for the other countries but I guess Germany, Italy and France were such huge markets for Hollywood that American movies couldn't do without dubbing and generations of moviegoers grew up with actors being voiced with the same actor, I mean Jack Lemmon, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood etc. all had the same voice-actors. I even made a suggestion about that lately.

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls063670072/

Dubbing was also used when a director casted a foreign actor like Fellini who worked with Anthony Quinn, Richard Baseheart, Broderick Crawford and François Périer, they didn't speak Italian so they had to be dubbed.

I think I can say that there has never been a problem with French dubbing and since I grew up with VHS tapes, I'm glad they never used subtitles, subtitles were simply impossible to read on VHS, can you imagine, little texts designed for the big screen and then appearing on the little one and not with DVD quality.

The only films that had subtitles were Japanese, Swedish , you know "foreign" foreign, not American foreign, but by the time I got interested in these movies, I started to watch them in their original version and it was the DVD era. But I don't mind watching a dubbed one sometimes for nostalgic reasons, 70's, 80's and 90's movie had quality dubbing, take my word for it..

Which leads me to the worst thing about dubbing is that now the DVD industry is re-dubbing the old classics to adapt them with the DVD format, so they re-dubbed movies like "The Godfather", "Jaws", "Apocalypse Now" and the new voices are simply horrendous, generations of French speaking people grew up with one famous raspy voice being used for Robert Shaw, a special voice for Roy Scheider (the same used for Steve McQueen) but they just changed them. It's simply awful.

Worse, they even re-dubbed Disney movies, I grew up with a French version of Bambi, and then they changed the voice and it just wasn't the same experience. So there's another side of the coin. I'm not purist enough to say that every movies should be watched in the original language, but dubbing isn't what it used to be.

Peter_pbn

Champion

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13.9K Messages

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324.8K Points

Even though I know about French dubbing, it's still a bit surprising to hear that you would enjoy The Godfather in a dubbed version.

7 years ago

ElMaruecan82

5.1K Messages

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137.8K Points

Well, that's how I "found" it the first time and while I had the opportunity to watch the original version a few times, I could only get the French version aired on TV or recorded on VHS, and that's true for every other American movie.

I mean I spent 20 years of my life without the DVDs but once I could get the movie in their original format you bet I watched them in English with the subtitles.

But in the 90's, you couldn't get an original version and no one wanted to, the dubbing was excellent anyway, the actors had their usual voice, so I guess it's a case where the supply created the demand. With the DVD era, everyone wanted to see the film in the original version.

But sometimes, the French version is more enjoyable, take "The Untouchables", Sean Connery's performance is great but his accent is too distracting, in the French version, everyone speaks the same so you really focus on the actots.

7 years ago

ElMaruecan82

5.1K Messages

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137.8K Points

I think the degree of relevance is on an individual basis.

I think it works for American movies in French in general. But I remembered I started to watch Friends with the DVDs, in English, and every time I saw an episode in French, I cringed, some gags weren't even hard to translate and they were completely wasted. So what applies for movies might not apply for the series. Not to mention that three of the French Friends' voice-actors left the show at the ninth season and it was horrible to hear the characters with different voices.

The french dubbing of the Simpsons was great but I noticed a huge drop in quality in the latest seasons, not only that but many secondary characters' voices tend to change and it's like the adaptators don't care, sometimes they even change a character's name. Sideshow Bob used to be called 'Tahiti Bob' but for some reason, he became 'Sideshow Bob' since Season 13 or 14.

But let's get back to the movies, there are some cases where even a good quality dubbing can't save the film from a few awkward moments,in the French Pulp Fiction, they used the 'Quarter Pounder With Cheese' line literally although no one is familiar with that name, what's more SLJ's voice-actor had a very thick French accent the "tomato" joke didn't work either, it was a very lame translation, believe me.

But generally, QT movies have always found great dubbers, for instance, In the French version, the line "If you fucking beat this prick long enough, he'll tell you he started the goddamn Chicago fire" was translated into "he'll tell you he blew the bridge over the River Kwai", which was clever and hilarious.

Now, it's another case for the 'foreign' foreign movies, a few days ago, I saw Miyazaki's "Porco Rosso", Miyazaki said he loved the French version better than the original, and I couldn't agree more, Porco was voiced by Jean Reno. But near the end (spoiler) the narration reveals that Porco never came back again. And I was saddened by that.

But then I learned that the actual line in Japanese was "he never showed his face", which totally changes the meaning of the sentence and the nature of the ending, now, here's a case where a bad translation changes everything. So it's not just a matter of voicing, but of writing adequation.

7 years ago

ElMaruecan82

5.1K Messages

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137.8K Points

He says exactly the same in French "ma langue", exactly:)
This reminds me of a sketch from French comedians in the early 90's, tehy parodied American movies with awkward subtitles, of course it doesn't work if you don't speak French
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ4pldh_pOA
(the title is the F word but it doesn't show here so I hope it's not a problem)

7 years ago

leavey_2

1.9K Messages

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52.5K Points

7 years ago

I live in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium and luckily, except for kids movies and kids channels (the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon are completely in Dutch), we never dub movies or tv-series. They are always subtitled. It's not only a matter of being cost-effective, we are so used of watching the original version that a dubbed version just wouldn't work here. And ever since I saw Clint Eastwood say "Machen Sie meinen Tag", I'm very glad they don't.

Peter_pbn

Champion

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13.9K Messages

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324.8K Points

7 years ago

Denmark (and Scandinavia): Most animated films and children's films are dubbed, other films are subtitled, in cinemas as well as on TV.

It is sometimes said that this may explain why Scandinavians tend to speak better English than Germans or French people.

Dibyayan_Chakravorty

Champion

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4.8K Messages

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98.4K Points

7 years ago

In India, we get both - the original with English subtitle and dubbed in Hindi. I hate to watch dubbing, I prefer the original.

Pencho15

Champion

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6.4K Messages

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114.6K Points

7 years ago

I always watch movies in their original language with subtitles. Voice is one of the most important tools of an actor, so dubbing takes away one of the most important aspect of his work.

In Mexico, animated movies are usually dubbed, with a few theaters showing original language. The big releases are usually released half and half, with options both in original and dubbed, usually there are zones where peolpe preffer one option or the other.

Minor releases are only in original language.

Subtitles used to be a common practice a few years ago. But unfortunately dubbing is winning preferences lately.

peaspot

131 Messages

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2.2K Points

7 years ago

In Indonesia, most of children and animated films are dubbed. Many other films / foreign TV series on TV are half dubbed, half subtitles. Box office movies are usually subtitled. In cinema, all movie are subtitled. And all subtitle are in Indonesian. Dubbing is awful and silly, I choose subtitles anytime.

jen_264364

Champion

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4.3K Messages

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88.6K Points

7 years ago

ElMo, I'm not quite getting what your preference is...dubbing or subtitles?

I haven't had to deal with this but it seems like McQueen, De Niro and DeCaprio (just an example) all having the same voice would bother me.

Tsarstepan

3.9K Messages

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84.9K Points

4 years ago

The dubbed vs subtitle wars in the anime community is as brutal and bloody as the War of Northern Aggression.;-)

Animation of probably the one true genre that can get away with dubbing, (but only if the character mouth design was reanimated to flow along with the dubbed language track).

Generally speaking, I prefer subtitled versions of foreign films. And well, it's not a hot take of a point that Disney is the undisputed master in producing dubbed versions of Studio Ghibli films (where the voice acting is often equal to the original Japanese language actors).

jen_264364

OT: Subtitles vs. Dubbing

rocky_o

ElMaruecan82

Peter_pbn

ElMaruecan82

ElMaruecan82

ElMaruecan82

leavey_2

Peter_pbn

Dibyayan_Chakravorty

Pencho15

peaspot

jen_264364

Tsarstepan

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