Dubbing is something that, I’d imagine, you don’t get much in America, mainly because your country is where most of the dubbable stuff comes out of, and most of the other stuff comes from countries speaking your language. Thankfully, Finland doesn’t have to deal with much dubbing either - our TV programs and movies have subtitles. However, there’s one segment of programs which have to be dubbed - kiddies’ cartoons. Reason is obvious - small children, at least Finnish children, don’t understand English, and subtitles would be a strain, especially to those who aren’t going to school yet. However, if you are going to dub cartoons, then at least do it properly. And this post links to many clips, both avi and mp3, proving that Agapio Racing Team’s dubbing reaches levels of atrocity. I mean, these aren’t very good cartoons to begin with, but with ART’s dubbing, they become something completely out of this world. I shudder to think if all programs shown on Finnish TV were dubbed, and these guys got to dub, say, Simpsons.
(Some clips, esp. the songs, are in Finnish. They are understandably difficult for a non-Finn to understand, but I believe that even in songs, foreigner can see the lack of rhyming, talent, feeling, everything but sheer unadulterated shit.)
Dubbing isn’t something treated as an art. Whatever those dickwrenches in Agapio Racing Team treat it as is unclear, but they clearly labor under pretension nobody’s going to hear their work, so they can fuck it up any way they please. Whatever cartoons they dub can be instantly recognized by lack of effort to replicate even the most basic human emotions. Everything is said with a stale tone. THIS INCLUDES SCREAMING. If someone’s falling from a waterfall and is screaming, screaming should go in lanes of “AAaaaaAAaaArrrGGhhhH!”. Simple “Aaaaaaaaa.”, which ART used in this clip (it’s Digimon, but it short enough not to kill you) is insufficient. Incidentally, “Aaaaaaa.” is the same sound that ART belives to represent crying. It, surprisingly, doesn’t represent laughing. This does.
Next up, we have singing. Now, songs in kiddie cartoons aren’t normally stuff record-breaking record sales are made of. With ART’s dubbing, they are elevated to status of cult hits. It’s very bad. It’s very very bad. It’s so bad that you’d rather pour honey on your rectum and sit in ant’s nest than listen to it repeatedly. Well, not really, but exaggeration and rectums are what signature quotes are made of. Let’s repeat that in sig-quotable form. Exaggeration and rectums are what signature quotes are made of. Now, these are indeed in Finnish, but they are so turgid it shines through. First we have some tune from My Little Pony. Note the way singer uses her voice in total non-coordination with the tune. And also note the way itdoesn’tmatterifyouputfewextrasyllablesintoaliiii-neee. Here’s a cult hit - opening tune of Flipper & Lopaka, cartoon blatantly abusing your favorite dolphin in ways not described in that dolphin sex page. In here, most of the fun is in lyrics. I’ll translate few choice bits.
“Sky darkened like night.”
“Waves, the size of the mountain, chew.”
“Water splashed full-mouthedly.”
“Darkest, the most devious of fish, aims of Dexter are evil.”
And if you think those sound silly because of literally translation, they are just as silly in Finnish. And the girl still can’t sing.
Well, in any case, Agapio Racing Team’s dubbing is an insult to dubbing, insult to cartooning, insult to children who have to watch these cartoons, insult to Finnish language, insult to singing, insult to emotional displays, and insult towards common human decency. Therefore, they all should have to suffer some testicular twist’n pop, with equivalent punishment for female members of the team. I rest my case.
We’ll end this with Agapio-bashing link. Don’t worry, the site’s in English. http://www.tekniikka.turkuamk.fi/~jfinnber/agapio/english.html