I saw this rather interesting article on one of my favorite websites about the release of the french animated film Persepolis in the US having been dubbed. I especially like the bit about the woman who returned a dubbed film because she considered watching it 'work'. We played Perseoplis a couple months ago at Western Film subtitled and did quite well with it.
I've noticed over the last few years in Canada there's very few theatrical films being dubbed any more, most are subtitled. About the only exception I can think of are some of the Japanese Anime films.
I haven't had a complaint from a customer who didn't know a film was subtitled in a while.
I honestly don't get why people have problems with subtitles. Maybe it's just me but I don't even notice the subtitles any more. About the only time I notice them is when they are badly done such as white titles against a white scene.
I might be stretching here but I wonder if it has anything to do with the American's infamously inferior education system. Maybe many people either can't read or read too slow?
There are limits to both options. Subtitles have to be fairly short, especially in a scene with a lot of dialogue. Dubbing has to try to sync to the mouth actions or you get the unintentional comedy best personified by old martial arts flicks.
Both systems have translation issues as well. I once had a DVD of an Anime film somehow get both the subtitles and dubbing on at the same time. It was amazing how different they were.
I watched a Spanish film called The Orphanage at the Hyland a few days ago, until I thought about it I didn't even remember it was subtitled.
As you can probably tell I'm in the camp that prefers subtitles, I think it's important to be able to hear the original dialogue to understand emotions, inflections etc.
4 comments:
I grew up in Brazil where every movie has subtitles, so I really don't care. In fact, I even prefer watching DVDs with subtitles, just in case I miss a line or something.
I hate dubbed movies - the actors doing the dubbing are never as good... (which is only expected, since they haven't done the character work and all that...)
The Orphanage was a great movie. I loved it... so well done: avoided the horror cliches masterfully, and still maintained a lot of its finer aspects.
Sometimes when I watch movies with subtitles here, people complain that they can't get their eyes off the subtitles and miss lots of the action. Maybe that's the complaint... go figure.
Dubbing & Subtitling is an integral part of cultural transfer between all countries/regions.
Though the debate is always between preference of dubbing or subtitling...each of it requires high level of artistic/technical input to ensure the final output is more local in every sense.
Most Scandivian countries prefer subtitling over dubbing but now it is most preferred also for Deaf community.Same language(SLS) is one of essential way to educate people.
Preference of dubbing or subtitling does have a connection on education levels of the audience but there are several reasons which contribute to the final choice.
Dubbing always ensures a mass reach of the content.Nowdays due to multiple distribution platforms there is always a dubbed/subtitled version of same content out there for consumption...So the consumer does have a choice.
From reading the books, the protagonist's relationship with France felt like a pretty significant part of the story. So a movie with Persians, speaking French - but in English, would be an unusual experience. I wouldn't say the same about dubbed Japanese anime, because they make few references to Japan or Japanese culture. Persepolis focuses on France quite heavily, so upon hearing English, I may be sucked right out of the film.
Dubbed anime does have problems of its own, though. While the dialogues aren't shortened like what subtitles, the um...writers? tend to throw in a few changes here and there. I noticed this with Spirited Away, where the term "true love" was peppered throughout the dubbed version but was almost hard to pick up in the subbed version, along with various cultural modifications, right down to the temperament of the parents!
Still, I wouldn't mind seeing it again without having to read subtitles. Reading may not take a lot of work, but it does distract me from the rest of the screen to some extent. It isn't a problem for most films, but it's a bit of a bummer for animated, especially since the illustrative style of Persepolis was my top reason for going to see it.
The problem with subtitles is that you change the focus of attention from the scene to the lines of text and if the scene goes fast or you aren't fast enough reading, you can miss parts of the movie.
Personally, I prefer subtitles because dubbing doesn't result in the same product.
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