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.
