Subtitled vs. Dubbed

[chicago]

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[Marquis De Sade]

Subtitled everytime with me. I'm not a fan of dubbed whether it be animated or not. I feel like dubs are so far removed from the original intent it ruins it and/or changes it so much that I'm not watching it as it was meant to be seen.

I've done comparisons with anime for example. In certain shows, sometimes entire lines of dialogue are changed, sometimes just a term or a word but it still makes a huge difference. English speaking voice over actors sometimes don't connect with certain cultural things either that also make a difference in something as small as an intonation, an expression, a reaction to something.

Ugh.

I dunno...I just kinda feel like it isn't their story to tell.

 

[alchemy]

Subtitled all the way

I LOVE subtitles. Sometimes I even turn the subtitle function on for movies I like that are in English.

Some animated stuff is cool dubbed, but a lot of it is embarrassingly bad.

Anyway, I love the balcony scene in Annie Hall

 

[Marquis De Sade]

The voice actors are pretty good in them.[/FONT][/SIZE]

Btw, they are really good. And of course they do try. It just doesn't seem...right. Like something's off. Like I'm getting a diluted version of something you know?

 

[ParanoidChant]

I like the way that they did subtitles in Slumdog Millionaire where they had them move around the screen to where the eye would naturally be looking. That, it seemed to me, solved all problems genrally associated with subtitles.

Otherwise, dubbed voice overs just seem ridiculous to me.

 

[KrazieDog]

Dubbing tends to be horrifically done. Like Annie, I prefer it in anime, because animated voice over people are just that; professionals at expressing emotion with just their voice. A lot of time for film, foreign countries hire out actors to do the same, and they really are two different crafts. For movies, I prefer subtitles.

I just recently watched again, Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno) and Let The Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) and still enjoy them both subtitled and wouldn't want to see either dubbed.

 

[SlaverTickler]

Depending on who is in the movie I can go either way. Most (if not all) of my Forghien films star Monica Bellucci, and I like her voice so I normally take the sub-titled path.

 

[jkb]

Inherently, I prefer dubs just because I'd rather hear the story in my native language rather than in another while reading the bottom of the screen. But in anime, until the 21st century, dubs tended to be HORRIBLY done.

My favorite anime, One Piece, has two dubs: a 90's style geared-towards-children dub done by 4kids which is godawful, and an accurate and true-to-the-original dub done by Funimation which is incredibly done. The 4kids dub's level of quality is so atrocious that I had to see what it looked like in Japanese just for my sanity. But if I had to watch One Piece ("had to"? More like "want to"), it would be the Funimation dub.

The Japanese version is fantastic too (I love the subtitled versions of One Piece where a bigger, special font was used for character's attacks), but true to subtitled versions of any anime, TV, or movie, the dialogue would often be a little awkward.

 

[Peace_sign]

I just recently watched again, Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno) and Let The Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) and still enjoy them both subtitled and wouldn't want to see either dubbed.

Ugh! I watched the dubbed version of Let The Right One In accidentally and wondered to myself why the acting sounded so horrible. Personally, I think it's the nature of non-animated movies to sound bad with dubs.

With anime, it depends on the dub. I liked the first season Dragonball Z, Samurai Champloo, Fullmetal Alchemist, etc because I think the voices matched. Even if some context was lost, the story still flowed. Though, I think Azumanga Daioh needed to be watched in subtitles because the cultural references were very important.

Subtitles are usually my choice

A load of anime has mismatched or bad voice-acting which is sad...

 

[PenMasterRule]

It's a double stander that doesn't make any sense to me. Do you think that the directors 'Original vision' included subtitles on the bottom of the screen? Just because you choose to watch something in a language it first came out in doesn't mean your being respectful or anything like that. It just means you prefer reading English versus hearing it. Which doesn't make any sense to me. No if you want to respect a directors 'original vision' you'd learn their language and watch it without the subtitles. It's just being picky and choosy about something.

But 9/10 times the director would probably prefer you to listen to the story they are trying to tell versus being respectful and not understand the language they speak. I'm sure that 9/10 directors would rather have you see what's going on on the screen versus reading those white/yellow letters at the bottom of the screen. That's what they prefer. Also you know the Japanese language can't be directly translated meaning what your reading isn't technically what's being said on the screen. What your reading is basically something that matches the lips of the characters on the screen. So the story is pretty much getting butchered right there. That certainly isn't showing a lot of respect to the director.

Edit: Oh and another thing I would like to add. If you're watching an Anime in Japanese dubbed/English subbed title just because you think it's better then here's a little shocker for you. No matter how hard you try you cannot tell if it's better unless you speak that language and know the culture. Take the show Elfin Lied for example. I watched that show in both Subbed and dubbed formats and I'll be the first to admit the Japanese dub sounded better. But it turns out both formats were criticized for poor voice work. I couldn't tell and I doubt anyone else could either. So it really falls on preference. Other then preference any argument could easily be shot down.

 

[TMF Jeff]

I prefer subtitles because when you write something that you're going to try to sell, like a movie, every word is chosen pretty carefully, and I want to hear the actors say the lines in their original language to preserve the subtle intonations and nuances of delivery. Even if I don't know what they're saying, I can sort of apply those layers of performance to the words I'm reading.

Also, translations are almost always insufficient, they get the gist across without conveying any of the deeper intent. Having the original dialogue intact can help make up for that.

That said, I seem to mind it a lot less in animation too, maybe because it's not shoved in your face so much by mismatched lip movements.

 

[CurtWild]

i prefer subtitles

 

[milagros317]

Subtitled. The actor's or actress' voice conveys a lot, even when you don't speak the language of the film.

 

[Carsomyr]

Coming from a country where you really don't have a choice unless it's childrens movies, I have to say I am mostly used to subs and therefore I guess it's not so hard to understand that it is also my preference.

If I saw a foreign film and it was dubbed, I seriously doubt I would be able to watch the whole thing.

Animes on the other hand I kinda like with an English dub. Partly because I'm not that used to Japanese, but also because the subs tend to be pretty bad. Even if I've watched an anime with subs, then I might just watch the dubbed version too afterwards, out of a purely "academic interest" to see if I think it's better or worse.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Subtitles. I don't watch German TV because they just friggin dub everything. All of a sudden James Bond speaks fluent German, what the fuck is up with that? (the only way to watch such films is when you're really drunk hanging out with friends)

Although I sometimes prefer to watch English spoken films with English subtitles; sometimes it can be a bit hard to hear what the actors are saying, but I hate Dutch subtitles in an English spoken films because I can see how much of the original content is lost and jokes/puns that are raped to the point of annoyance.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Coming from a country where you really don't have a choice unless it's childrens movies, I have to say I am mostly used to subs and therefore I guess it's not so hard to understand that it is also my preference.

If I saw a foreign film and it was dubbed, I seriously doubt I would be able to watch the whole thing.

Animes on the other hand I kinda like with an English dub. Partly because I'm not that used to Japanese, but also because the subs tend to be pretty bad. Even if I've watched an anime with subs, then I might just watch the dubbed version too afterwards, out of a purely "academic interest" to see if I think it's better or worse.

I had this series called Berserk in the Japanese version with bad subtitles (shitty image quality too, and throughout the episodes there were about 4 of 5 different ways the name of the main character was spelled)) and later I got the DVD version dubbed English. I preferred the Japanese though, I must say despite that the English dub wasn't bad at all the original Japanese version had better voice acting.

 

[MrMacphisto]

I'd agree with Annie's assessment. Animated dubbing isn't so bad... unless you're talking about your typical anime.

The American voice actors for Miyazaki films are often major film actors. However, for anime series, the American voice actors are often crap compared to the Japanese ones.

 

[tcklft]

Subtitles, please. Dubbing actors are often poor actors.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

I am torn. I enjoy subtitles when it is clear that dubbing would lose the nuances or little cultural elements the film would otherwise have had. I find, especially when made for an United States audience, that the dub changes the dialog to suit an US viewer, with cultural elements replaced by US ones. If the dub is a good one (Howl's Moving Castle is one I can think of) then I have no issues. I'd rather watch the sub first and the dub second, as the dub tends to ruin the sub for me.

 

[Saeria]

I'm a fan of subs for several reasons. Firstly, i have difficulty hearing clearly so having something already subbed saves me the aggravation of hard encoding captions or turning the tv up way loud. Plus my miniscule attention span has a running start if i'm kept occupied with reading while watching. I actually have to think and analyze what's said and keeps it coherent... so here's to wishing EVERYTHING had subs. My last point.. Fushigi Yuugi... dubbed if you haven't experienced it, just give episode one a shot.. by the first 10 minutes you'll be wishing you could tear out poor little Miaka's tongue.. i swear Fran Drescher could have made that voice acting sound better.

 

[jkb]

Even with animated, I prefer subtitles. I still think you lose some of the emotional content of the original acting and you can sense this even if you don't understand the language. I agree that it is generally less bothersome in animated movies--Spirited Away, for example, is good either way--but even some animated dubs are dreadful (Grave of the Fireflies--definitely watch this one with subtitles).

I don't think you lose the emotional content with dubs, at least not inherently. Again, I would refer one to the Funimation dub of One Piece to compare with the original Japanese version of the same show.

As a matter of fact, here are two clips from One Piece's Funimation dub. I don't think the VA's lost any of the emotional content (the supposed inherent loss of dub VA's ability to convey emotional scenes is the reason I choose these two clips). Just remember to add the spaces:

http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC61Mmt5j8M

http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VIpC7ae_us

 

[ticklishfan]

Overall I prefer subtitles but I do like what Viz Media does for shows like Naruto and Bleach. I like some of the voice actors on the shows

 

[fordtech30]

9 times out of 10 I prefer subtitles to dubbed. I just feel like I might be missing something when I get a dubbed version of a movie.


You mean you don't like it when their mouths move then the words come out?

 

[Wildtime]

I've watched the movie "La Femme Nikita" in both subtitled form and dubbed form and I got to say that the original movie with subtitles was head and shoulders above the English dubbed form. Anne Parillaud's performance was extremely strong and actually drove the storyline, whereas the dubbed version was extremely flat monotone and actually detracted from the character. Mind you, it also helped that I understand French, so I didn't really have to read the subtitles.

On the other hand the subtitled and the dubbed versions are far superior to the Hollywood remakes.

 

[Mephistopheles]

No, because dubbing a movie is so expensive, they tend to go with lesser known actors and shittier translations unless the movie is a big hit internationally. Thus, I feel I am missing something from the original in the translation.

German dubs I've seen are mostly done by about 2 people, I once even saw an Italian dub for a james bond movie which featured 1 person doing the dubbing. Just 1 man who sat there and monotonously read the script.