Comments on: How Not To Localize

By: Ovogame

Ovogame — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:17:37 +0000

Dubs in movies are really bad in general and you do lose a lot from the original ‘better’ acting. Also, all dubs movies sound like they took place inside an audio studio. Wait.. the voice actually was reccorded inside an audio studio, that’s why ;)

Imagine going to watch your favorite singer live… expect that it was someone else singing… Well that’s almost the same with movies.

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:03:09 +0000

Yep I prefer Kung Fu movies with the original soundtrack for sure. Plus I’ve learned a bit of Chinese by watching them.

By: Jimage

Jimage — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:50:23 +0000

Haha, Bold and Beautiful is pretty hilarious in its native tongue, from what I’ve seen. Not that I’ve watched much of it. For me, laughing is the only way to endure a soap opera.

In Australia, I find it’s a similar situation to what Derrick describes. People want to watch movies so they can tune out. For myself, it depends on my mood. If I’m kind of exhausted from a day’s activity, giving my mind a rest by watching an English movie is most appealing.

But when it comes to watching foreign movies, I much prefer subtitles to dubbing. Most of the dubbed films I’ve come across and later watched in their original language with subtitles, turned out to be much better the second time round.

By: Derrick Barra

Derrick Barra — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:32:46 +0000

From my experience living in America I can tell you that foreign films are treated kindly by the general movie-going audiences of the states, and that they would much rather watch films and tv shows with the voices dubbed instead of being subbed. I’ve seen many incredible films get snubbed and tank in America because of this, audiences here go to the movies to watch and listen passively while they let their brains take a rest so that they can veg out.

Personally I would much rather have the situational context of a movie preserved through a good subbing rather than having actors lipsink their voices to the original work.

By: Giglio

Giglio — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:29:51 +0000

I’ve got a lot of interest in the localization process, and I have to agree that some works are very, very difficult to adapt – on the TV medium, “Family Guy” is a good example on how cultural references and wordplay will definitely go amiss on translated versions.

By: Toni Mäkinen

Toni Mäkinen — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:47:28 +0000

I saw that B&B episode too. Funniest thing on earth. I can’t stand dubbing. Rarely done well, translations suck most of the time thus missing jokes, points, important story plots. Even subtitling suffers from this.

TV-series usually go fast given the half an hour show time. And the fact that theres some rules how long subtitles should be on-screen. If lots of things happen at the same time, subtitler has to make a choise. We lose a joke there, miss something else here. I see it all the time.

That’s a one reason I stop watching TV at all. If I want to watch certain series, I’ll go and buy the dvd’s. Because of our geographical point, the whole season probably is out already. Plus I can watch it when I want, w/o 10 minutes worth of commercials. Win-win situation =)

That’s my 2 cents.

By: Robert Dowling

Robert Dowling — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:30:46 +0000

I do completely agree with you, I’d prefer to watch a foreign film in it’s native tongue and concentrate on the subtitles. Unless the dialogue is rediculously fast and I find myself constantly focused on the words, missing the images completely.

By: zproxy

zproxy — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:44:02 +0000

As estonian I strongly agree:)