Depends on how good the dub is. I’ve only seen Excel Saga subbed so I can’t comment on that show but I’m with you in that it’s less distracting. I’m a fast reader, but when my eyes are doing two jobs instead of just one (‘hearing’ and watching) it’s easy to miss stuff. Especially when there’s signs or stuff on the screen that are also subbed. I’ll happily watch either, unless the dub has been completely botched (so nothing dubbed by 4Kids). Given the choice though, I usually opt for dubbed.
The only major issue I have with dubs is where cartoons are considered to be for kids on this side of the ocean, things will get changed in translation, for whatever reason, that I can catch as being wrong. For example, in Magical DoReMi (what? I have nothing better to do on a Saturday morning), octopus balls are often referred to as ‘chocolate doodles’, and in one episode as cookies. I’ve never seen a cookie that’s round and eaten with a toothpick. Not to mention some things just don’t translate well, due to cultural or language differences.
I speak just enough Spanish that the English subtitles for Amores Perros bothered me for the same reason. I thought that a lot of the conversational nuances were lost.
Right, but that’s not a dubbing/subtitle issue, it’s a translation issue. They can call octupus balls “chocolate doodles”, both in dubs and subtitles, and assuming you don’t know Japanese, you won’t know the difference either way.
I prefer dubbing, except for opera. When I read the dialogue at the bottom of the screen, I don’t see the actors’ faces. Acting is both visual and audible. When I can’t understand the audible part, but have to read the dialogue, I’m robbed of the visual as well. The actor’s performance is completely wasted, and I might as well be reading the script in a quiet room.
For anime it has to be subtitled.
When you watch it with English dubbed on and the actual English translation of the Japanese on at the same time as subtitles you can see that the dubbed English is way off the actual meaning of what is meant to be happening.
In order to make the sound fit the animation of the mouths.
Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are two cases in point.
You do have to keep in mind that with subtitling it’s going to have to be a compromise – sometimes dialogue goes by so fast that the sub-titler has to drop words or summarize the gyst of the meaning in order to preserve readability of the subtitles for the viewer.
I’ve seen this a lot whether the source or target language is English. It would simply be impossible to accurately translate every word in every sentence and have the movie watcher keep up with it all the time.
Regarding live action films, I think dubbing is disrespectful to the actors. English speakers who don’t care that much about foreign-language actors may not think it’s important, but I try to look at it from the other side. It’s painful to know that there are people in other countries who have never heard
Katherine Hepburn’s voice
Kathleen Turner’s voice
Humphrey Bogart’s voice
Lauren Bacall’s voice
Al Pacino’s voice
Marlon Brando’s voice
Christopher Walken’s voice
Alec Guinness’s voice
and on and on.
I want to hear the actor’s voices. It’s part of the character, as garygnu said. If the movie is good enough, I’ll want to see it a second time anyway, in case I missed something by reading. And with DVDs, you can always step back if absolutely necessary.
I rarely do it, but I also like subtitles to be on while watching regular movies that are in English, especially if the movie’s from England or Ireland or Scotland. Especially Scotland!
I don’t have anything against either in principle, but I usually prefer subtitles because dubbing tends to be… bad. I usually find it a little half-assed and inconsistent with the characters but sometimes it’s worse. I once went to a screening of House of Flying Daggers which was dubbed. The voice actors were obviously Chinese (they had accents) and delivered the lines with all the skill and conviction of your average Asian high school student. It’s hard to appreciate the story when you’re busy trying not to crack up.
I was born deaf and presently use a cochlear implant, so I use closed captioning all the time, so dealing with subtitles for foregin films has never been an issue for me.
Besides, like others have mentioned in this thread, I still want the experience of the actor’s personal delivery of the lines, not just someone else’s experience layered on top of it.
I think you switched dubbed and subbed because you are contradicting yourself in these sentences.
I have never seen dubbed programs in the Netherlands, except for kid-programs like SpongeBob.
(I actually think the Dutch voice of SpongeBob is better then the original.)
Subtitles, and not just because the ‘source’ language is usually my native one!
In a multi-language household like ours, subtitles increase the chance that the movie will be intelligible to everyone. Plus, they’re very useful when there’s a lot of noise in the house.
Both. My maternal tongue is French and I find that if I listened to a movie that was dubbed in French before the 70s, it is more acceptable (note acceptable, not better). Otherwise, subtitles, if possible.
Depends on the movie. If it’s heavy dialogue, I prefer dubbing, but only if it’s dubbed well. Hate the cheesy fake accent inappropriately inflected stuff, but if it’s done with the right voices and the right pacing, I prefer it.
For movies like “Run”, subs are ok. They’re short and don’t distract from the action.
Subbed, all the time. I watch a lot of anime, and there are important elements of Japanese that are untranslatable, such as honorifics and levels of politeness. Although I’ve only picked up a few bits of Japanese (both from watching anime, and from a little earlier experience with reading Japanese), if you have the Japanese dialogue on, you can pick up, for example, who’s being addressed as “chan”, “kun”, “sama” or even “domo” – words which have no equivalent in English.
And (for example) the character Suzume Sakurajosui in Cyberteam in Akihabara (Akihabara dennô gumi) speaks in an extremely formal (i.e., high politeness level) way – which is recognisable even to someone like me, who doesn’t understand all the words, but which has no equivalent in English. I tried listening to the English dub, but the way they tried to translate it just sounded silly.
Dubbing for foreign action movies, anime and porn filmed for the international action movie market. The dialogue isn’t the key here, and dubbing doesn’t hurt much.
Subbing for just about everything else. Good dialogue, unusual phraseology, sign translations, literary/cultural allusions, live news coverage, etc. I watch most of my TV watching with the subtitles on.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The Cantonese they speak is such a beautiful language that it sounds very poetic and complex and the subtitles just give you a hint of what they are saying.
When I watched it dubbed it just felt very dumbed down.
Kung-Fu Hustle. Watching the characters deliver their lines and reading the interpretations just added to the comedy. When I watched it dubbed it just wasn’t as funny.
I’ve even watched the Lord of the Rings with subtitles for added depth.
You can really pick up on names of people and places when you see them in print.
but I’m with you in that it’s less distracting. I’m a fast reader, but when my eyes are doing two jobs instead of just one (‘hearing’ and watching) it’s easy to miss stuff. Especially when there’s signs or stuff on the screen that are also subbed. I’ll happily watch either, unless the dub has been completely botched (so nothing dubbed by 4Kids). Given the choice though, I usually opt for dubbed.