[the_af]

Subtitled (not dubbed; dubbing is a sin) is the best. Then again, for me all Hollywood cinema is subtitled. I wouldn't have it any other way, I love hearing the original actors speaking.

I hear in some countries like Spain, dubbing is the norm. And they are quite proud of it. I find that puzzling.

[aphroz]

In France the dubbing is very well done and some movies are even better when dubbed. I still watch movies in the original language with subtitles but some 90's movies like Back to the Future are even better dubbed in French. There are even YouTube channels dedicated to dubbed movies where they invite dubbing actors, etc.

[fleaaa]

9 of 10 times dubbing doesn't fit with natural situational space(echo, reverb, any time based post processing in general). It's almost always out of space, stands out for me annoyingly which I find breaking the immersion. I wonder french dubbing is different.

[ign0ramus]

I found that as a result, dialog was clearer. I really hate how loud everything other than dialog is in most movies for the sake of 'immersion'. I eventually gave up and settled on using subtitles when I don't want to miss any parts of a conversation.

FWIW, I'm way more fluent in English than French.

[oblio]

Probably not, but he's used to it since childhood.

[the_af]

Movies cannot be better dubbed. I want to watch and hear the original actors act. Voice is an essential part of acting.

What you're saying is effectively "our voice actors are better than the original actors", which I simply cannot stand behind.

[mitchdoogle]

Isn't there a lot of Dubbing / ADR in movies by the original actors? Such as when the original audio recording wasn't that great?

[3836293648]

Movies can absolutely be better dubbed. It's incredibly rare in live action, but not so much with animation

[the_af]

I will agree with you animation is a special case where it can happen. But in general and in my experience, it's not common even in this case.

Spanish dubs of animé are sometimes good. All English dubs I've heard are atrocious. I remember one of the first dubs that was lauded was the English dub of Princess Mononoke... and it's hilariously bad, even if it has big names doing the voices. The Japanese version is the best, but even the Spanish dub is better.

[hiptobecubic]

Doesn't this happen all the time though? How many cover songs out there are better than the originals?

[the_af]

I think this both misses the point and is incredibly insightiful at the same time. A cover of a known song may be better (it happens!), but you'd never claim you heard the original song if all you listened to is the cover.

A dub is like a cover, agreed. Almost always, a terrible cover. I can always tell when I incorrectly set the language on Netflix to something other than the original -- you can immediately tell it's a dub because of the drop in voice acting quality. English dubs are particularly terrible, it's like the voice actors are emotionless drones, and when they try emotion, they use it in all the wrong places.

Besides, it's disrespectful. An actor/actress is not just their face and mannerisms. It's their voices, too. The voices are an essential part of their acting (if you are deaf, you can't help missing them, but if you are not, unless it's a scene without speech, you're missing a key ingredient). Saying "ok, I'll replace his voice with this other voice, and his face with with this other face I like better.. you know what? I'll just edit him out of the movie and replace him with this other actor I like better!" is way too scifi and post-cyberpunk dystopia for me. It's just disrespectful.

I cannot honestly say I watched a movie if I watched it dubbed. I watched a cover instead.

[bryanrasmussen]

>but some 90's movies like Back to the Future are even better dubbed in French.

what do you mean by this, that the French language is so much better that it renders the movie better by using it? Or is it that the writers translating the English to French are better and make the movies more interesting by their choices?

>There are even YouTube channels dedicated to dubbed movies where they invite dubbing actors, etc.

Or is it that the dubbing actors are better speakers than the original actors, for example most actors when they do voiceovers suck because they aren't trained for it I guess, and maybe a dubbed actor is trained for it or... I guess I am just confused by how a dubbing could improve a really good movie although I might suppose it would be possible to improve a really bad movie in this way.

So how does this work?

If it is a replicable aesthetic phenomenon you might expect people to aesthetically choose to make movies in this way, to make better movies.

[edgyquant]

I despise subtitles, I watch films for the visual medium when I turn on subtitles they distract me from watching the actual film. I know I’m uncultured etc but I can’t help the way I feel about it.

[the_af]

I'm ok with turning off subtitles, but then I can only watch English language (or Spanish) films. Only subtitles let me watch French, Japanese, Korean, Italian, etc.

Dubbing is out of the question because I do not hate actors and cinema.

[User23]

> not dubbed; dubbing is a sin

People without enough usable vision to read subtitles would disagree.

[the_af]

Well, obviously it was a generalization and there are special conditions. People who are deaf can only watch with close captions, so...

[User23]

Sure. Normally I find quibbling annoying, but I hope you can understand why I want to highlight accessibility on a site that many of the world’s best software engineers frequent. I care about accessibility on all dimensions not just visual. At the end of the day accessible design is good design.