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Dub quality by language

  Tags: Film | Translation
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio Post Reply
9 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
Randwulf
Newbie
United States
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 Message 1 of 9
22 February 2014 at 6:34pm | IP Logged 
I was wondering if anyone else felt this way. After watching a few series of Anime in German I really can't go back to English. The voice acting in the German dubs is far, far superior to that in the English dubs. It seems like English dubs are bad at matching voice to appearance and personality. Case in point...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtzlKJ1dObU (warning, bad language)
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Medulin
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Croatia
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 Message 2 of 9
23 February 2014 at 12:44am | IP Logged 
Why would you (want to) watch dubbed Anime in the 1st place?
I prefer them in Japanese, with subtitles (as is the case when they are shown on the Croatian tv).
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Fuenf_Katzen
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
notjustajd.wordpress
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337 posts - 476 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans

 
 Message 3 of 9
23 February 2014 at 1:14am | IP Logged 
I generally do tend to prefer dubbed material--subtitles haven't worked well as a language learning technique for me. In general German dubbing tends to be pretty good, and certainly better than some of the stories I've heard with other languages (with Polish, it's typically one person doing the dialogue and you can still hear the original underneath--it's like listening to a simultaneous interpreting setting!). I've had a few awkward experiences with English shows dubbed in German, but overall it's been pretty good, and the voice actors really do a good job at giving the characters their own personalities. There are some shows that are really strange for me to watch in English after seeing the dubbed versions. I think that dubbing still requires an acting ability and a certain amount of art, which probably is forgotten too often.
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DavidStyles
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Pro Member
United Kingdom
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 Message 4 of 9
23 February 2014 at 1:14am | IP Logged 
There are many English language movies of which I've watched non-English dubs, and often preferred the voice actors to the original actors.

A possible explanation is that they have something to act to, whereas the original actor was doing it more "blind".

Often when a movie is popular, very many fans will talk about which actors were great and which were awful, etc, and voice-actors will be able to model what they're doing accordingly, according to what's wanted.
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Cavesa
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Czech Republic
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 Message 5 of 9
23 February 2014 at 1:53pm | IP Logged 
I think dubbing is usually worse than the original. However, there is a whole scale of
dubbing quality, ranging from "just as good as the original" to "horrible mutilation of
the movie".

And there are good and bad dubs in every language. In general, dubbing today tends to
be worse than years ago because there is only little time to do the whole thing. The
actors today, info taken from various interviews in the newspapers, don't have time to
worry about the movie or to work to the highest quality. They just get the text and go.
So I disagree with David's theory. The dubbing makers couldn't care less about the
fans. The true fans have already seen the thing in original on the internet anyways
(and dubbing is actually one of the major reasons behind piracy).

There are high quality dubbings but they are not always possible. Some things are
probably impossible to keep good when dubbed (The Big Bang Theory could be an example,
in my opinion) while others are easier. The translation must be of the highest quality,
made with respect for both the context in the original language and in the dubbed one,
which isn't always the case. The actors must do a good job. And there should be a
larger variety of actors. For example, there are so many interesting czech voices but
only a few get rotated in everything during the last few years. And it is not only in
czech. I loved the Spanish voices in Erase una vez (Once upon a Time) but when I heard
exactly the same people in another show with different original actors, I was bored.

I always prefer the original, unless I am learning and the dubbing is significantly
widening my options. The truth is that the USA tv series are the largest pool in the
world to draw from. Fortunately, that also means some of them get as high quality
dubbing as possible.
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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
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 Message 6 of 9
23 February 2014 at 2:24pm | IP Logged 
Cavesa wrote:
The dubbing makers couldn't care less about the
fans. The true fans have already seen the thing in original on the internet anyways
I sure hope you just mean it in terms of time and aren't saying that true fans are obliged to watch the original, with subtitles if needed.

IDK, I care so little about cinema that I'm quite satisfied with understanding only dubbed movies, which are easier.
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Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
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 Message 7 of 9
23 February 2014 at 5:47pm | IP Logged 
I'm not saying anyone is obliged to anything. Just that too many people I know suffer
from seeing the bad quality dubbing. And that it is sometimes much harder to get to
like something from the dubbing because either the translators or actors and the staff
around did a job they shouldn't even be paid for considering how carelessly they
worked.

For example, I know lots of fans of the Big Bang Theory. Not a single one likes the
czech dubbing and not a single fan I've met started to like the show based on seeing it
dubbed. It is impossible. The translator was lazy, they should have just taken some fan
made subtitles online and make the actors read them and it would be better. The actors
don't suit the show, especially Sheldon is probably impossible to replace. On the other
hand, the dubbing of the Red Dwarf (most of which is quite old) is just as good as the
original and I can enjoy both. And I could already find such exemples for French and
Spanish dubbing as well.
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Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 8 of 9
24 February 2014 at 2:08am | IP Logged 
Once I tried to watch things in original while using subs in the language I know I just can't stop doing that. The one and only exception for me is a cinema, where it's not likely that one can find a movie in original and Russian subs (at least in my city).
Even Turkish (don't think I'll ever learn the language) original with subs works for me better than dubbing.
On the other hand, if you want to learn the language, dubs can help you. For example, you've watched one movie before in English and then in your TL dubs. Quality matters, but I think you have to be advanced to really care about it.


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