Dubbing Animation
Is it okay to want to watch the Dubbed version over the original?
Personally, I think its fine, but both have their advantages
When subtitles come on the screen, I read them. My eyes are solely focused on the words in order to get the story out of the film. With my eyes focused on the subtitles, I can't appreciate the amazing visuals the films have to offer. The whole screen becomes a blur and it feels like I'm reading a book with occasional pictures when there's no dialogue.
On the other hand, there's something great about watching a film in the way the audience was intended to watch it. The audio matches the movement, and the subtitles are more accurate to the original story.
I'm split.
Animation is such a visual medium, and focusing on the actual picture is a large part of the story / style.
But dubbed is not the original. It's kinda like a Great Value version of the original.
Personally, I think its fine, but both have their advantages
When subtitles come on the screen, I read them. My eyes are solely focused on the words in order to get the story out of the film. With my eyes focused on the subtitles, I can't appreciate the amazing visuals the films have to offer. The whole screen becomes a blur and it feels like I'm reading a book with occasional pictures when there's no dialogue.
On the other hand, there's something great about watching a film in the way the audience was intended to watch it. The audio matches the movement, and the subtitles are more accurate to the original story.
I'm split.
Animation is such a visual medium, and focusing on the actual picture is a large part of the story / style.
But dubbed is not the original. It's kinda like a Great Value version of the original.
I love that you decided to tackle this subject because this is something that has always bothered me. I remember watching Shanghai Triad in A&A and not having to read the subtitles (I speak Chinese) and being able to focus solely on the film. But I found myself going back and forth between the English translation and the Chinese dialogue and finding errors that come naturally with going between different languages. I feel like language will always be too complex to get 100% of the original tone and attitude across and that's just something we have to deal with.
ReplyDeletePersonally if the dub is any good I will take it over subtitles for the same reason you mentioned, the visual immersion. But I will never do a live action dub. It's interesting that animation being this medium of no visual restrictions forces us to not have the same expectations of realism in live action. That being said it's easier to watch a dubbed animated character and in a way allows us to dwell on the other visuals more, not just the performance.
ReplyDeleteI see where you are coming from when you say that both the dubbed and subbed versions of movies have their advantages and disadvantages. I personally prefer the dubbed version when it comes to anime, as I enjoy voice acting as a hobby and I can actually impersonate the characters if I listen to their English voices. Despite that, I think the subbed version of Princess Mononoke and Akira are far better than their English counterparts due to how much more natural the characters sound. Honestly, I just thought the English voice work in both films was not that great, so that can also be a big factor when choosing which one to listen to.
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