Watching dubbed films is an inferior experience to watching the original versions. amirite?

Popular opinion

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I was wondering whether this was unpopular enough to qualify - but at least here Germany the majority seemingly don't seem to agree.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I would always prefer the original actors voice and expression. The dubbing is someone else's own take on it, which can ruin the authenticity

by Eusebio01 2 months ago

This might be unpopular with people who don't hold film in high regard. For cinephiles, this is the only opinion. I can understand it in other mediums like animation, but the original language versions are sacred.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Animation is a grey area, I agree, because it's kind of dubbed anyway. Then it depends on the translation of the script and the quality of the voice acting.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Nah I even disagree with the animation. The dub almost always feel stunted and awkward for some reason.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Really depends on the anime and voice casting tbh

by Anonymous 2 months ago

That's because I am an appeaser and you have principles! (It sounds like I'm being sarcastic, but I actually think I'm being inconsistent. I just can't sustain the level of stubbornness necessary for consistency on this point.)

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Anime eng dubs is pure cancer

by Elzaheller 2 months ago

I'm not an anime fan (just because I don't know much of it, what I've seen I did mostly like) but when observing it as an outsider I always liked that aspect of the community.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I absolutely hate live action dubs. I hate watching someone's mouth still move while they aren't even talking. Or even worse when the syllables don't even match up. Honestly dubbing only works when it's animated because the mouth movements aren't as complex

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Same, when I was younger I was fine with live action dubs, but now I just HATE it, it just sounds off, where with anime/animation it's fine.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I definitely agree. With that said I'm a multitasker and very rarely have the attention span to JUST watch a movie or show. So I usually choose dubbed versions so I can work/study, play a game, clean, etc. at the same time 😅 So I'm glad they exist as options, but they definitely rarely come close to the originals.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Interesting, I hadn't considered that aspect, but it makes sense.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I do like to watch most things in the original versions, the only exception is anime, as I have dyslexia, so having to focus on the text would mean I can't really follow what is happening at the same time, which would then mean I would either have to pause and read it more often, rewatch it, or I would just lose a lot of context, so therefor I like to watch it dubbed there, that way I get more out of watching it.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I absolutely don't understand why anybody would tolerate German voice acting. There's not the slightest attempt at replicating the on-site acoustics which can be done in the studio to a degree, not perfectly but a lot better than what we get. Then the "acting" which seems to begin and end at doing the shallowest possible parody of a forced one-trait characterization of whatever character needs to be dubbed. And everyone does this weird compressed, fry-laden voice that Germans seem to think is an "American" voice, bizarrely exaggerated melody, a weird kind of flat overacting, the kind of vocal delivery that'd get you kicked out of every small town amateur drama group on earth. I believe they could do better but there's intention behind it. There is a deep hatred for pop culture and if something can be done to point and say SEE WE TOLD YOU IT'S NOT ART, IT'S WORTHLESS TRASH AND IF YOU LIKE IT YOU'RE AN UNEDUCATED, UNEDUCATEABLE SLOB it will be done. You'll find that German dubs often significantly dumb down already stupid scripts simply because they don't trust their audience to actually get it.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I wonder why it sounds like that. It can't be that all the actors are incompetent (many of them do good work when they are acting or on stage). I think it's a sort of accepted wisdom within the industry/a kind of unconscious consensus. This is how movies sound in German, so they have to do it like this.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I put an addendum at the end that speculates on the reasons.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Hm, that's a sad speculation, but it also doesn't seem implausible. Not trusting the audience to be smart or interested in something mildly complex is something I've unfortunately noticed in a lot of German entertainment.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Go watch dubbed movies on Polish tv. All voices are dubbed by one guy. That's why many Polish people do not speak any English.

by Quiet_Winter 2 months ago

I've heard that, it sounds... Challenging to endure, tbh. Is this also how these films are shown in cinemas?

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I was there for a while and know what you mean. A monotonous voice for all dialogues and captions. It is funny first but then very annoying.

by Altruistic-Key 2 months ago

If it's a movie that I'm going to sit down and watch I agree, for shows not so much. I tend to watch shows in the backround while I am doing something else, so I'm not staring at the screen the whole time and rely on listening rather than watching. I do prefer the feel and all of the original language, but it's less convenient.

by fnolan 2 months ago

I mean, I'm in favour of actors being able to live off their work, so that's good. I kind of think that it would help the local German film industry if films weren't dubbed, but people wanted to watch films in German. More demand for German films, more profit, more German productions, more work for German actors. But maybe that's naive. German film and German actors are better than many people say, in my opinion, so they should have a chance to shine.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Most popular opinion ever

by Schulistaliya 2 months ago

I wish - but the lack of OV screenings in German cinemas says different.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Depends where you are from I suppose. Also most Germans are unable to speak English at a necessary level, that's why we have a lack of OV screenings I would argue.

by Schulistaliya 2 months ago

Yes, I'd agree. But I wonder if more people spoke better English if we didn't dub movies. Scandinavia and the Netherlands have higher levels of English proficiency and they don't dub... But it's a bit of a chicken and egg question, I guess.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Not If you are italian.

by AshamedEntry 2 months ago

That's not an unpopular opinion. Especially German dubs are so bad. It always gives me cheap porn movie vibes. :-)

by Clean-Secretary-4423 2 months ago

It always gives me cheap porn movie vibes That might be an issue with your experience with German movies mate ;-) But yes, the level of delivery is often comparable. And unlike in porn, there's not even a pizza involved in that delivery.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Depends on the movie and quality of the dub, I think. Watched boy and the heron dubbed in English because it was produced alongside the Japanese version and featured high quality voice acting, and Miyazaki publicly said to watch the English dub if you don't speak Japanese.

by Mysterious_Set5034 2 months ago

Oh yeah, good point, accessibility is obviously more important. Thanks for raising it!

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I HATE real life actor dubbing, not sure why but I just can't watch it, anime no problem, I prefer it with dubs as I have dyslexia, but shows I just skip like squid game.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Because actors and actresses are trained for cinema acting. It's a whole different ballgame compared to dubbing. You'll be hard pressed to see me watching Squid Game in English dub 🤮 The actors and actresses in there are already so fking good and respectable in Korean media.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Popular opinion It's a case by case basis, the french dub of Back to the future is leagues ahead the original for instance (no shades at all the actors, they're all really great, but the texts and vocal deliveries in french are just perfect) Also for the few german dubs I've seen... You guys don't seem that good at dubbing, but that might just be me and a limited sample

by Anonymous 2 months ago

Funny you give Back to the Future as an example - I had an audio cassette of the German dubbed version that I listened to endlessly as a child. So I practically know the German dub by heart... I still prefer the original, now I've seen it. The only film I've seen dubbed into French was "First Knight" with Richard Gere which was... Odd, but maybe that's due to the film. I can definitely imagine that our dubs are not the best though. And that's not to blame the people making them, as far as I know they are not given many resources, especially time, to do their work, so it's a thankless task.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

here's an example if you're curious about BTTF's dub (as a side note Lloyd's voice actor was also the Joker's voice actor for most batman animated/game adaptations)

by Anonymous 2 months ago

I can imagine him in that role! I like his delivery, including the nonverbal gasp at the end. That's probably especially hard to do in a voiceover booth.

by Anonymous 2 months ago

pretentious foreign film purist hipsters Yep, that's me! I bet you're wondering how I ended up in this situation....

by Anonymous 2 months ago

You seem to give 0 reason why watching a film in language you understand is a worse experience.

by Anonymous 2 months ago