Subtitles versus Voice Overs and Dub-in

[JPablo]

My experience in Spain was that majority of people don't like subtitles but preferred dub-in films and voice over events or news...

Probably I am a bit out of touch with the current trends, but I believe this is still the case, even if there is some tendency towards accepting more and more the subtitles... (?)

I'd like to have your input on this matter...

My "philosophy" is "translating to communicate" and doing it with the highest accuracy possible... (Sometimes one has to sacrifice a bit of accuracy in order to achieve some kind of communication... but...)

At any rate, your views and data on this will be appreciated!

[aleCcowaN]

I prefer subtitles though some movies with extremely complex and fast dialogues are welcome if dubbed using talented actors (I remember first time I saw Citizen Kane. The person who made the subtitles didn't let any subtlety to be lost ... Gee!! I didn't be able to recall the faces of the actors)

Here the tendency is to dubbing, some American Spanish wishy washy sort of neutral thing with a shallow common vocabulary. No matter I would like to watch Entourage with subtitles including all profanities in porteño, that won't happen, as publics are small and the more demanding in quality a person is, the more that person is part of a small public and the less that person is responsive to bad screenplays, stale plots, naked skin and compulsive advertisement. So, in a time of aurea mediocritas being every day less aurea and more mediocritas, what caught 60% of the potential public is OK and here that doesn't use to include original sound with subtitles, voice-overs Russian-style, or local language -European Spanish the most resisted-.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by JPablo

My experience in Spain was that majority of people don't like subtitles but preferred dub-in films and voice over events or news...

I remember having the same kind of preference while I live in Chile. Today, if I have to watch a movie in Spanish I also choose the Spanish track because I don't like to hear in English and read something else in Spanish.

Originally Posted by JPablo

Probably I am a bit out of touch with the current trends, but I believe this is still the case, even if there is some tendency towards accepting more and more the subtitles... (?)

I am not sure about that. My guess is that still they would prefer the dubbed movies.

Originally Posted by JPablo

My "philosophy" is "translating to communicate" and doing it with the highest accuracy possible... (Sometimes one has to sacrifice a bit of accuracy in order to achieve some kind of communication... but...)

Wait. What you call sacrificing accuracy is really doing the job.

While translating, there are some things that cannot be translated directly, hence they have to be interpreted in order for them to make sense and fit in the translation.

[JPablo]

Thank you to both of you for your views and data. (Understood on the accuracy point, Chileno...)

More viewpoints and experience with these are also welcome...

[Caballero]

Here the tendency is to dubbing, some American Spanish wishy washy sort of neutral thing with a shallow common vocabulary.

What does that sound like to you?

[sosia]

As spaniard, I'm see (and prefer) dubbed films. So I can apreciate them at 95%, (translations do loss a little)
I have only see voice overs in eastern countries.
I only see original soundtrack with films I have already seen in spanish. So I can understand them fully.
I can see directly english chapters, I understand the plot and how it's going, but I can't catch the puns, fast speech, regional words or accents.
saludos

[conejodescarado]

I absolutely cannot stand dubbed films. You lose half of the acting when you take away the actors' voices. Maybe I've just never seen a movie with dubbing done well, but the voices always sound awful to me, almost like it's supposed to be comical

I go with subtitles every time

[chileno]

Originally Posted by conejodescarado

I absolutely cannot stand dubbed films. You lose half of the acting when you take away the actors' voices. Maybe I've just never seen a movie with dubbing done well, but the voices always sound awful to me, almost like it's supposed to be comical

I go with subtitles every time

Of course! For a Spaniard, it would be like watching a Spanish movie dubbed in English.

[JPablo]

Thank you all... and thank you, Sosia... 20 years ago, it used to be 95% of Movie theaters with dubbed films, and the ones of "Arte y Ensayo" with original sound tracks and subtitles... only for the "artsy-farsi" guys...

[Caballero]

Originally Posted by conejodescarado

I absolutely cannot stand dubbed films. You lose half of the acting when you take away the actors' voices. Maybe I've just never seen a movie with dubbing done well, but the voices always sound awful to me, almost like it's supposed to be comical

I go with subtitles every time

I think the dubbed preaching shows are pretty funny. I mean, they might as well just get the dubber to preach the same thing.

[CrOtALiTo]

The movies for my proposes are very defined for me, already they subtitles in the movies are very needed for someone who are learning English this is my personal case, I do a comparison with the subtitles when I'm trying to understand the movie in English, therefore I believe need that kind to method for everyone inclusive for Spanish learning too.


I'm going with the Spanish subtitle anyway..

Sincerely yours.

[Elaina]

I have this friend that watches American movies that are dubbed......they are awful! Usually the same people over and over and over again. The screams are not real, even the swearing is bad and the little nuances of the language are lost.

Then there are the sub-titled ones......these are just as bad. You are trying to read the sub-titles and lose the action on the screen.

I vote for neither.....but unfortunately what can you do?

[JPablo]

I guess, learn the native tongue of the films...
Thank you all for your views and data on this...

[CrOtALiTo]

Yes sincerely is good to learn a new language inclusive to watching the American movies, at least in my on own I like to listen them.

Already I can get knowledge and new slangs in the movies spoken in English.


Sincerely yours.

[explorator]

I must admit that I'm not satisfied with the film about Capitan Alatriste, directed a few years ago by Agustín Díaz Yañez; anyway the effort that Viggo Mortensen made to speak Spain's spanish in it, would be lost if the film were dubbed into any other language. This is just an example to express that watching films in their original languages is the only way to perceive the real actoral work.
In the other hand, I like watching the original version of films in english, french and italian, because I'm able to understand them and doing this way I improve my speaking and listening skills, but, if a film has been shot in a language I don't understand, I dont see the point of watching it not dubbed.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by explorator

I must admit that I'm not satisfied with the film about Capitan Alatriste, directed a few years ago by Agustín Díaz Yañez; anyway the effort that Viggo Mortensen made to speak Spain's spanish in it, would be lost if the film were dubbed into any other language. This is just an example to express that watching films in their original languages is the only way to perceive the real actoral work.
In the other hand, I like watching the original version of films in english, french and italian, because I'm able to understand them and doing this way I improve my speaking and listening skills, but, if a film has been shot in a language I don't understand, I dont see the point of watching it not dubbed.

Only if you were using the film to learn the that language and you watch it to practice your listening skills.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by explorator

...anyway the effort that Viggo Mortensen made to speak Spain's spanish in it, would be lost if the film were dubbed into any other language.

...

Viggo Mortensen es cuasi-argentino. Vivió en la provincia del Chaco entre los 3 y los 11 años de edad -y allí se hizo hincha de San Lorenzo de Almagro-. Habla castellano con una mezcla de acento litoraleño educado y ese acento ligeramente extranjerizado que los hablantes nativos tenemos cuando volvemos de vivir mucho tiempo en un lugar donde se habla otro idioma.

[JPablo]

Gracias, Explorator, por tu punto de vista. Valioso y claro para mí. Gracias a Chileno y a Alec... y gracias a la vida... que me ha dado tanto...

Por supuesto, si es para practicar el idioma, el original es lo mejor, pero en caso contrario, sólo para divertirse o informarse, parece que el programa doblado se lleva la palma...

Claro, yo disfruté con el acento irlandés de Tom Cruise en "Far and Away", y cosas por el estilo... (que por cierto, no sé cómo lo hicieron en español, pues es film lo vi hace mucho...) (Hay que ver, toda la vida llamándolas "piñículas" y ahora resulta que se llaman "flims"...)

[explorator]

En otro orden de cosas, me gustaría señalar que aunque parezca una contradicción, en España, las películas extrangeras dobladas al castellano, tienen una mejor pronunciación y vocalización que las películas rodadas directamente en castellano. Es decir, los actores de doblaje en España pronuncian mucho mejor que los actores de cine y televisión en general. De hecho, aquí, el atractivo físico de los actores y actrices es inversamente proporcional a la calidad de su declamación

[JPablo]

Cierto... (aunque tampoco se puede generalizar)
El arte del doblaje en España siempre tuvo un nivel de calidad muy elevado... (Y hablo en pasado porque hace un siglo que no he visto películas dobladas...)