Originally Posted By alexbook I'll stick up for dubbing, slightly: I'd rather watch a well-dubbed movie than a badly-subtitled one.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>That one and that other French fantasy film that qualified for the oscars this year both seem really cool.<< Dragon Hunters. It is REALLY cool. Wish they'd give it a decent release.* Don't forget Persepolis was French too. *Actually the same can be said for Azur and Asmar - the authoring on the US DVD is pretty crummy. (A single layer disc? With all that intricate detail? What are they, NUTS?) I'm definitely getting the Blu-Ray from Japan.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I'll stick up for dubbing, slightly<< Most Japanese directors, Miyazaki too IIRC, would prefer you watch the dub. They don't like you reading and missing the visuals. I have this theory that the reason some Anime dubs are so lousy is that they ARE accurate representations of the original intent. The subtitles serve as a "stupidity buffer." Your brain is busy reading, and therefore not processing the inanity of the dialog. Not really true of the Disney/Ghibli films, but I'm of the opinion that those are unusually fabulous dubs.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <Don't forget Persepolis was French too.> And The Triplets of Belleville, non?
Originally Posted By Anatole69 Oui, Oui. I had all of those films in mind. I keep expecting that another one of the industrialized countries besides USA and Japan will develop a full fledged animation scene. I would have expected Korea to do so before now, given that it already does a lot of farmed out work for the USA and Japan, so it's surprising to me to see France produce some quality stuff recently. The more the merrier, I say. - Anatole
Originally Posted By Anatole69 Also while I understand that dubbing is more commercially viable than subtitles, I personally prefer reading subtitles. Usually the vocal track is created before the animation, so it is vital to how the film is produced. A dubbed track comes after that, so it is not a part of the original creative process, so it can't capture the same spirit of the film. To me it's the same argument as black and white versus color. People prefer color films over black and white ones, but seeing a colorized film never works as well as seeing the original in black and white, again because it comes after the original creative process has been finished, so it can't cohere with the same spirit. My favorite quote on this is Orson Welles saying that Ted Turner should keep his damn crayons off Citizen Kane. - Anatole
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Usually the vocal track is created before the animation<< That's almost never true in anime. They do all their voice tracks post-sync. It's easier to do with Japanese, which is a somewhat more rhythmic language, but they also aren't so concerned about matching mouth movements. Bad lip sync in animation simply doesn't bother them, whereas it (allegedly) drives Americans bananas.
Originally Posted By SBSBelle22 >>Most Japanese directors, Miyazaki too IIRC, would prefer you watch the dub. They don't like you reading and missing the visuals.<< I agree, for me, I do get too focused on reading that I lose something of what's actually happening on screen and it gets a little frustrating. Not that I wouldn't watch something just because it's got subtitles I have nothing against them.
