[wolfgke]

> Germany have always been a stickler for dubbing things though, maybe they don't put as much effort into it.

There are hardly any countries that put more effort into dubbing foreign movies than Germany, but in this points Germans are perfectionists: If a dubbing doesn't use all the possible nuances that the German language allows for the best possible translation, people will complain. I've read (can't give source, it was many years ago) that among computer translations for pairs of "popular" Western language pairs, the pair "English -> German" is among the most difficult to handle. In my humble opinion this is because German is very exact in its wordings and allows to express lots of subtleties by its very free ordering of clauses. This makes it necessary to read additional things into the original text, which computers have difficulties with.

There are even people who say that the German dubbing of some American movies is yet better than the English original.

[chestnut-tree]

A bit of a digression, but...I strongly dislike dubbing and simply cannot enjoy a dubbed drama or film.

First, you have the distracting mismatch between the actor's mouth movements and the dubbed dialogue.

Second, the way an actor speaks in their native language is an intrinsic part of their performance. A dubbed performance will be different, but can never match the original (unless we're talking about a poorly acted, poor quality production).

To give an example, the Scandinavian series The Bridge has won great praise for the performance of its lead (Sofia Helin). This has been a big international hit (in the UK it was shown subtitled). Can a dubbing actor really ever inhabit a character in the same way as the original performer? (Don't forget the dubbing actor also sits in a room performing the dub, not on location like the original actors).

There is one scenario where I understand dubbing is necessary: children's films. But even here, you can notice a difference. When Disney dubbed the Japanese animated movie Spirited Away, they did a very good job with the American voice actors. However, if you listen to the original Japanese soundtrack, you come away with a different impression of the film because the Japanese language has a very different tone and inflection to English.

[wolfgke]

> I strongly dislike dubbing and simply cannot enjoy a dubbed drama or film.

The problem is that often the original screenplay contains cultural references that are not known in the audience that the dubbing is made for. So you have to replace the cultural references by ones that are understood by them. The same holds for puns, word plays, songs etc. These have to be rewritten.

In this sense a dubbing (at least in Germany) is much more than a rough translation of the original spoken text, but often a reinterpretation. Thus I wrote that there are even people who say that the German dubbing of some American movies is yet better than the English original, since the translators are even more creative in the wordings than the original screenplay writers.

To give one example: In Finding Nemo, the German names of the two sharks (besides Bruce) are Hammer (hammer) and Hart (hard) (in the English original they are "Anchor" and "Chum"). Now you have to know that in German "Ich bin voll der Hammer" ("I am full the hammer") is a very plebby way of saying "I'm the greatest". If you now keep in mind that Hammer and Art were dubbed by some German comedians which have a very turkish-plebby image you will understand why the German dubbing of these scenes is much more funny in German than in the English original.

[lorenzhs]

Also, the combination "hammerhart" is a colloquial word, maybe comparable to "smashing" (as in, great) in English. Those two names are just a great pun.

[cerebellum42]

I have only ever seen animated films/series where things like that occurred (which isn't dubbing as someone else pointed out).

When it comes to live action movies, I stopped watching dubbed versions a long time ago, at least in situations where I'm not watching together with people who don't understand English that well.

I cannot enjoy dubbed films as much as originals for a number of reasons. First of all the voice actors rarely match the tone/behaviour of the original actor very well, which detracts from the experience.

Then there's the problem that there actually aren't all that many voice actors in major productions so I tend to instantly recognize the voice actors (or at least recognize that I have heard that voice many time before) within seconds. Finally I just don't think most dubs are very good - they feel forced, cold, detached, often times like the voice actor was bored; you just notice that they were recorded in a studio and not on the actual set.

It bothers me enough that if say, Amazon Prime Video only has the dubbed version and not the original of a movie I was going to watch, I'll just watch something else instead.

Edit: In case it wasn't obvious, German native speaker here

[ginko]

Yeah, no. German dubs are absolutely terrible. And I'm saying that as a native speaker.

[wolfgke]

As a native German speaker too, I still hold by my claim that dubs for most other languages than German are worse.

[tormeh]

It's not dubbing when it's an animation. Then it's simply a different voice track. The 3D models don't have a voice.

[wingerlang]

I'm not disagreeing, but it can still be annoying because the voice does not match the 3D models mouth movement.

[lorenzhs]

I have a strong dislike towards dubbed versions where I'm capable of understanding the original. I've only seen the dubbed (German) version of The Bridge and it was excellent. Very captivating and I thin the voice actress did a great job. Obviously I can't compare to the original.

Some English -> German dubs which are said to be very good include most of the Monty Python stuff (believe it or not) and The Big Lebowksy.