Dubbed, Or Subtitled?

[King Alexander]

Subtitled; if it's dubbed I don't bother to watch it.

Anyway, here we always make foreing movies subtitled; We want to hear the original voices of the actors, because one can "feel" the emotions of the actors according to the tone of the voice, even if he doen't know the language(be it in English or African or Japanese, - makes no difference; we want it ORIGINAL).

 

[Tycho Brahe]

Subtitled. Even if you don't understand what they say, the SOUND of the voices ad a lot to the characters.

Italian movies are usually dubbed even in the original version. There are to mutch noice around the Cinecitta-studios to record it on the set. The advantage of this is more freedom to the camera when theres no microphone. (heard from the commentary tracs on C'era una volta il West)

 

[Chieftess]

Subtitled. How else does one learn English properly?

Unless someone subtitles movies using poor English grammar?

I also like movies that are subtitled. It makes it easier when you're trying to learn a langauge.

 

[Steph]

Unless someone subtitles movies using poor English grammar?

I also like movies that are subtitled. It makes it easier when you're trying to learn a langauge.

Hmm.. Usually the substiles are not in English when the movie is...

Learning without the subtitles is better when you have reach a certain level.

But you can have some surprise.

Our satellite receiver is usually set to "Original version" and "no subtitle", so we can see movies in English.

Then we recorded "Crounching tiger, hidden dragon". And when I tried to watch it, it was... in Chinese .

 

[echinococcus]

in germany all movies that ive seen so far are dubbed. the only exception i know of are japanese animation films sometimes shown on very marginal times at night. theyre subtitled.
but ive got no problem with dubbing at all. it sounds all fine. surely depends on the investment, i.e. how the quality is concerned. if a movie is dubbed for ...dunno...more than 100 million german-speaking or at least understanding people in europe, it would be a better investment than, for example applying the same quality of dubbing to a movie for danish, dutch or other speakers.
concering lingual joke: most on tv isnt that full full of this kind of humour. the only examples i can think of at the moment are of course monty python, maybe the asterix films, and "la monde fabuleux d'amélie". anything else hardly depends on lingual joke. so im fine with anything dubbed.

 

[Tycho Brahe]

in germany all movies that ive seen so far are dubbed. the only exception i know of are japanese animation films sometimes shown on very marginal times at night. theyre subtitled.
but ive got no problem with dubbing at all. it sounds all fine. surely depends on the investment, i.e. how the quality is concerned. if a movie is dubbed for ...dunno...more than 100 million german-speaking or at least understanding people in europe, it would be a better investment than, for example applying the same quality of dubbing to a movie for danish, dutch or other speakers.
concering lingual joke: most on tv isnt that full full of this kind of humour. the only examples i can think of at the moment are of course monty python, maybe the asterix films, and "la monde fabuleux d'amélie". anything else hardly depends on lingual joke. so im fine with anything dubbed.

We can see german TV in Denmark, and when John Wayne draw his gun and says "Hände hoch!" .... No, subs for me, please.

 

[Darth_Pugwash]

Subtitles all the way. Dubbing is just too fake, and sometimes alot of the actors performance is lost. You may not be able to understand what a character is saying, but you can catch the vibe of what they mean from the way they speak with subtitles. You don't always get that with dubbing, and it looks sooooooo fake.

A while ago I watched the Matrix dubbed to German, it was horrible. Hugo Weavings's great performance as Agent Smith was almost totally lost.

 

[echinococcus]

We can see german TV in Denmark, and when John Wayne draw his gun and says "Hände hoch!" .... No, subs for me, please.

yeah of course a danish localization would sound sound ridiculous too in my ears. but if you are a native speaker of a language your view is different.

what i really dislike are badly dubbed tv commercials! i almost regard it as an insult to present a dubbed commercial to a german audience. almost. that quality of commercial dubbing is a lot lower than the quality of movie dubbing, in germany.

 

[echinococcus]

(...)

A while ago I watched the Matrix dubbed to German, it was horrible. Hugo Weavings's great performance as Agent Smith was almost totally lost.

what great performance?

 

[Tycho Brahe]

yeah of course a danish localization would sound sound ridiculous too in my ears. but if you are a native speaker of a language your view is different.

what i really dislike are badly dubbed tv commercials! i almost regard it as an insult to present a dubbed commercial to a german audience. almost. that quality of commercial dubbing is a lot lower than the quality of movie dubbing, in germany.

In Denmark they/we only dub movies for kids. /as you said, because dubbing is expensive) The disney-movies are decent in danish, but I still prefere the original.

 

[Iggy]

The worst type of "dubbing" I have seen was in the Ukraine where the foreign (ie English) sound track was lowered and one person semi dubbed / spoke all parts.

I do not mean to thread jack, but this thread has reminded me of something I always meant to ask someone. The first time I went to the US I happened to turn on the TV in the hotel and watched part of the first Mad Max film. Mel Gibson's accent was American rather than Australian as I had originally seen it. I could be wrong here, so I am happy to be corrected. Has this film been "re-dubbed" by Mel once he became well known or was my mind playing tricks on me?

 

[The Last Conformist]

In Germany, I made something of an effort of finding cinemas that showed non-dubbed movies.

And it's not just that German isn't my native language. I don't like movies dubbed to Swedish either.

The shorter sentences in subtitles is, IME, mostly a feature of subs in commercials, news broadcasts, and the like; in movies, it's usually the full dialogue. Usually correctly translated, to boot.

For some reason, subtitles in American science shows that are broadcast in Sweden tend to suck mightily. They're, it seems, as a rule done by people who have no clue of the science involved, with the result that while usually grammatically correct, they often butch the sense of what's being said.

 

[DoubleT]

When i watch a dvd, there is no subs. But i think that they dubb it for the kids...

 

[Tycho Brahe]

....
For some reason, subtitles in American science shows that are broadcast in Sweden tend to suck mightily. They're, it seems, as a rule done by people who have no clue of the science involved, with the result that while usually grammatically correct, they often butch the sense of what's being said.

hehehe yep the discovery channel is funny. The cheapest of cheap translations.

 

[test_specimen]

Everyone involved in the dubbing industry or considering dubbing a good idea should be castrated. Voice and language are part of the artistic effort, it's a disgrace to both actors and audience that for monetary reasons movies get translated and spoken in the audiences language.

I don't just hate it, when it comes to movies where I understand the language anyway - US and French movies make about 99% of what's shown in cinemas around here - I also hate it when it comes to languages I wouldn't ever think of learning, like Kirgisian or Philippine for example.

Every person that can afford a TV or a cinema ticket should be able to read and write, so subtitles should be no problem. Off course it can be tedius, but you won't enjoy the movie anyway, if it's dubbed.

in germany all movies that ive seen so far are dubbed. the only exception i know of are japanese animation films sometimes shown on very marginal times at night. theyre subtitled.
but ive got no problem with dubbing at all. it sounds all fine. surely depends on the investment, i.e. how the quality is concerned.

Try watching the Simpsons or similar in German TV. Just today, there was an episode where Bart wrote: "Silly String is no Nasal Spray" on the blackboard. The Person dubbing the thing read: "Idiotischer Garn ist kein Nasenspray". And they're off in most cases, especially when it comes to jokes. Or when Moe introduced his guests for comedy nights he said "ohne weiteren Apu" - which makes no sense in German, except if you suspect that the English version is "without further Apu" (instead of "ado").

There are zillions of such mistakes, that make the whole thing unlikeable. I can't bear to watch dubbed movies on tv or in cinema. Fortunately there are several original language cinemas in Vienna (Haydn, Artis, Filmcasino, Schikaneder, Stadtkino, Gartenbau, Metro, Filmmuseum, De France, Votiv).

Another thing I hate about it is, that one speaker has several actors he lends his voice. Example: Nicole Kidman, Uma Thurman and Julianne Moore have the same. Alf has the same as the guy from "Who's the Boss". Dolph Lundgren and Bruce Willis share one. Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Kevin Bacon, Val Kilmer, Mark Wahlberg and Jude Law all had the same one. Bill Cosby and Samuel L. Jackson also have the same.

This list is not complete.

Everyone watching dubbed movies should die a horrible death!

 

[The Last Conformist]

Everyone watching dubbed movies should die a horrible death!

Incl children who have not learnt to read yet?

 

[Marla_Singer]

We are extremely lucky in Paris because we have movie theatres really everywhere. I've heard somewhere that Paris was the city with the most movie theatres in the world, but anyway, I'm not sure if this is still true. Anyway, two thirds of those cinemas show foreign movies in subtitled version, so it's really not hard to see them this way, and I never watch them in French version.

 

[test_specimen]

Incl children who have not learnt to read yet?

Children who haven't learnt to read yet should be occupied with other things than watching television all day. Their parents should at least suffer horribly, probably also die a horrible death for giving them away to the tv-babysitter.

 

[test_specimen]

We are extremely lucky in Paris because we have movie theatres really everywhere. I've heard somewhere that Paris was the city with the most movie theatres in the world, but anyway, I'm not sure if this is still true. Anyway, two thirds of those cinemas show foreign movies in subtitled version, so it's really not hard to see them this way, and I never watch them in French version.

Do you know the "Pagode"? IIRC it's in the seventh district, it looks like an Asian building from the outside.

One thing I unfortunately did not do, when I was in Paris, was going to one of the old cinema palaces, where they only show children movies nowadays. My cousin told me of this, they're supposed to be like they were 50 or more years ago.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Neither, I demand English if Im going to sit through a 2 hour movie. I even skipped Y Tu Mama Tambien, despite the fantastic beginning, because it was in Spanish.