When I went to Honduras, we saw Snow Dogs and it was subtitled in Spanish.
In Japan, most animated films or films aimed at younger audiences will be widely released in theaters with Japanese dubbing. Most Disney films are that way.
Live action films are almost always released in their original language followed by Japanese subtitles. Sometimes Japanese subtitles are displayed vertically along the right side of the screen.
Interestingly, Captain EO, the short film by Coppola and Lucas starring Michael Jackson currently playing at Tokyo Disneyland, is entirely in English with a relatively few major lines subtitled in Japanese.
In China, both dubbed and subbed versions are available, at least in the bigger cities. On my last trip I saw the new Pirates movie (Xiamen) and Kung Fu Panda 2 (Ningbo) subtitled, both in packed theaters. I saw Inception subtitled on a previous trip. One of our China hands can probably say better how often theater English movies are dubbed.
Interestingly, I also saw a Chinese movie (I think it was called house of silver or something like that, about a family that owned a bank during the late Qing and Republican era) that had English subtitles in Fuzhou. Nice modern theater.
Here in Poland, Harry Potter is dubbed (as a “kids movie”), thought there might be some special viewings with original audio. “Adult” movies are all subtitled.
Here in Italy everything is dubbed. The only way you can watch a film in its original language is to watch it on DVD or occasionally in a special English Cinema night in bigger cities.
Even if they do quite a good job I hate it, as to me it ruins the whole atmosphere of a film. I also think people would would speak English a lot better if they watched films in English with subtitles. In fact, I teach English and also recommend this to my students all the time.
In Germany it’d almost invariably be the dubbed version (with a few English-language screenings in towns that have a lot of English speakers). We don’t mind dubbing (the vast majority of English-language speakers do seem to mind). If, hypothetically, I did not know what language a movie was produced in, and you asked me afterwards if it was dubbed or originally produced in German, I would not be able to answer that because I did not pay attention.
Yes. In Germany and France, it would be dubbed (though some cinemas in Germany show original English movies, for people fluent enough in the language and for learners of English.)
Foreign movies from unusual languages are also often subtitled, these are then shown in small art cinemas and no the big houses (since subtitling is cheaper than hiring dubbing speakers; but most Germans dislike reading subtitles and prefer a dubbed version.
With popular movies aimed at children, they sometimes do two dubbings, one in standard German for Germany, and one in Austrian dialect for the Austrian market! Example: Babe (the piglet movie).
The option depends on the majority culture. For right or wrong, the general public in Germany gives the impression that only dubbing is acceptable, so both movie cinemas and TV stations showing imported series and TV movies bow to their wishes.
With TV hit series, where the target audience is often a small segment of young, educated people (like Star Trek) who are “hip” enough to possess mid-level and higher English, and when the translation for the dubbing is bad, the fans would prefer subtitled originals (it would also eliminate the long time gap - usually 1 1/2 years, though they have speeded up lately - for translating and recording the new audio track that delays the current seasons of NCIS, Desperate Housewives, Greys Anatomy and other hit shows on their way from the US to the German public.)
But no matter what the fans tell the TV stations, the answer is always "The public wants dubbing, so we don’t want to offend.
Leading often to fans trying to watch series online or buying DVDs with both tracks. (or getting bootlegs from friends in the US).
France is different because of the special laws they have about their language.
The scandinavian countries in general go in the opposite direction: they already assume that nobody else will learn their language, so they must learn English anyway, so only children’s stuff is dubbed.
As result, they are far more proficient as adults in English than the Germans.
A friend of mine once had the Polish channel PolSat, and I remember watching Lawrence of Arabia in a version that wasn’t really dubbed as much as it had one guy read out all lines in Polish. Is that still going on? It was a strange experience.
When I was in Malaysia, I went to see an English-language Hollywood movie- which was subtitled with both Malay and Chinese subtitles.
Seeing Hong Kong Action movies advertised at the theatre as well, I asked if they had English subtitles. Nope, they were in Chinese with Malay subtitles.
I saw Raiders Of The Lost Ark in Finland and it was a bit strange to see subtitles in both Finnish and Swedish, especially when Indiana Jones (or someone else) said Hi!, which perhaps needn’t be translated, but there it was:
Terve!
Hej!
Everything said above about Scandinavian countries also applies to Israel (a historic first, probably).
One interesting thing is that the subtitles guys in Israel will often translate foreign-language dialogue that wasn’t subtitled in the original version. Example: the subtitles for *Firefly *also translated all of the Mandarin swearing, making it a very profane show.
That’s interesting, as usually the translators work from the original script without seeing the movie; it seems to be one of the biggest sources of mismatches between what’s being said and what the subtitles say (the other one is the need to shorten the subtitles to make them fit available characters and minimum required times).
Spanish is a dubbing country, although subtitling is becoming more popular (large foreign populations; people who espeak englis but whose reading skills are much better than that; subtitling for the deaf is required in a large % of programming anyway and dual-soundtrack has been made possible by digital systems). Yesterday we caught Los Tudor on Spanish TV (La 1 specifically); English soundtrack, “no subtitles”, only there were subtitles whenever someone spoke in a language that was neither English nor Spanish. So, rather than “no subtitles”, what we were getting was “the same subtitles as if you were watching it with the Spanish soundtrack”.
In Pakistan English language movies are always released in English; no subtitles or dubbing.
Would think thats the case for India, Banagaldesh and Sri Lanka as well. It certainly is for the UAE.
I find the Simpsons funnier in French than In US English.
Regarding dubbing vs subtitles in France:
on TV, most channels broadcast dubbed movies (but if you got an ISP TVbox you have access to the English language versions, with subtitles as well, if you want them. Quite a revolution in France when only “Artsy” channels had ever dared to broadcast movies in the original language. Sadly that means I dont really watch “Arte” anymore).
For theatres, there is always the choice if you consider nationwide options but if you take a closer look, it is very unbalanced. Paris gets most of the subtitled versions, and it’s really Paris “Intra Muros”, if you ever get to the multiplexes in the Parisian suburbs, it’s almost always in dubbed version, even in well to do suburbs. If you’re a Parisian you can see any movie released in subtitled version, if you’re not, tough luck.
And, off course, there’s the issue of the age target of a movie, they’re not going to be releasing a kid movie with a lot of subtitled versions, since most of those kids wont be able to read fast enough.
Not only that, but the original dialogue isnt taken off, it is just a bit muted out so the Polish guy can talk over them. So you hear the guy doing all the voices in the movie (female ones included,) with the original voices chattering in the background. Very weird.
Last time I was in Poland (well, I was only there once to be honest), a few years ago, they still had that.
I saw the original “Spider-Man” movie while visiting my brother in Singapore. It was in English with mandarin subtitles. He told me that’s how most Hollywood movies are shown there. Singapore has a large multicultural population, and many speak English.
In Quebec, English-language movies are dubbed in French, although depending on where you are theatres may both show the movie with the original English soundtrack (no dubbing, no subtitles) and the French version. In larger cities the original version is generally available, although in Sherbrooke where I’m living now I’ve occasionally seen theatres only show the dubbed version. This usually disappoints me because I’d rather see a movie in the original version, if I understand the language.
The dubbing is usually done in France. I understand that there are French laws that require movies dubbed in French to have the dubbing done in France if the producers want to show them in French theatres, in order to protect the French dubbing industry. So given that the population of Quebec is low compared to that of France, it doesn’t make sense to dub movies twice. I find that the result usually sounds really weird and laughable, but most people don’t seem bothered by it, and even I didn’t care about it back when I didn’t understand English. We’re used to it. But it’s worth noting that on some things, Quebec is much closer culturally to the US than France is to the US, which can lead to weird results. A movie about baseball, for example, will sound terrible dubbed in France French, because the French don’t know baseball and don’t have any words for the sport’s technical terms, while Quebecers do.
TV shows are also dubbed, but in this case the dubbing may be done either in Quebec or in France. The Simpsons have always been dubbed in Quebec ever since they’ve been shown here, and they usually sound just as natural in their Quebec version as in their original version to me. I still prefer watching the original (of course we have access to plenty of English-language channels), since when they refer to US-specific events or debates it sounds wrong to have them speak French. This is also the reason why I’ve never watched the Quebec version of King of the Hill, given how closely linked to Texan culture this show is. I believe the French version of South Park used to be shown here, but a few years ago they started making a Quebec version.
Really? The Spanish dubbing of the Simpsons they show in Latin America inevitably lacks so much of the cultural inlay that makes the Simpsons funny. You can’t dub into Spanish things like Mayor Quimby’s accent–and what that connotes (i.e., Kennedy’s, womanizing, etc.), or Comic Book Guy’s manner of speech. I think the major appeal of the Simpsons in the Latin America market is the slapstick–that is, that which can be conveyed visually alone.
Usually when I prefer a movie or TV show in the dubbed version instead of the original one, it’s because the dubbing actor is better at his job (at least voice wise) than the original actor. Perfect example would be Clint Eastwood, his usual French dubber brought a sense of very well crafted sarcasm and irony that was there in Eastwood’s general acting, but not so much in his voice (Eastwood got a rather uncharismatic muted voice).
For the Simpsons, it is that, and the voice ranges used by the French dubbers that seem to fit the characters more than the US version does. Homer sounds like a likable but pretty dense moron in the US show. In French, he has some kind of petulant child colour added to him, which fits him very well.
And, also, snark and irony do tend to sound sharper in French, and there’s plenty of that in the Simpsons.
I’ve heard Homer’s French (from France) voice (a few example scenes are included on my DVDs) and I must say that to me it doesn’t fit the character at all. He sounds like what Cletus should sound: like a dumb hillbilly, not like Homer, who’s an urban, blue-collar dad who may not be very bright or very hard-working, but who loves his family and wants what’s best for them. I think his Quebec voice fits the character much better. I suspect Capitaine Zombie’s opinion and mine are a consequence of what we’re familiar with.
I feel I should add something to my previous post. I said that English-language movies are shown dubbed (usually in France) in Quebec. This is true, but Quebec movie theatres also show movies originally shot in other languages, notably French-language movies from France and Quebec. French movies are shown in their original version, as you’d expect. So are Quebec movies, but those, while mainly shot in French, occasionally use other languages. For example, an English-speaking character may speak English in the movie. In this case, subtitles are generally used for the non-French dialogue, as there is a plot-related reason why the character speaks a particular language. (Alternatively, no subtitles at all may be used. This often happens with English, when it’s assumed that the audience will understand a snippet of foreign language even without having it translated for them.)