Hmm.. This is the only exception when I prefer dub over subtitles - animated movies.

Shrek in Polish is a freakin masterpiece, better than original for me.

Except for Lion King. Nothing can beat Jeremy Irons.

"Agapio" did become a local internet sensation with their subpar Finnish dubs for some kiddie programs. :) Damn, if I could just find certain kiddie TV program title song that they mutilated too...

I've seen even worse though. Like some Russian (or was it Polish) dubs where one person (man) is speaking over all the dialogues, no matter if it is a male, female etc.voice. You can still hear the original English dialogue in the background faintly, and the "narrator" is merely speaking over them, kinda explaining what they are saying I guess.

It is the same effect as if someone sat beside you and translated a movie for you while you watch it. I can't understand how anyone could bear watching movies that way.

There is absolutely zero reason everyone shouldn't know at least one language other than their native tongue. If they don't, they are very ignorant and plain lazy, in my opinion. Call me offensive but I really feel this way. This is especially true for people whose native tongue isn't widely spread. Take me for example; If I knew only Finnish, I wouldn't be able to travel anywhere without translate assistance or major problems. Therefor I've learned English (which, by the way, is mandatory for all Finnish students, they begin learning the language in the 3rd grade), Swedish (also mandatory, but only after 7th grade), and German; although I will admit my Swedish and German are rusty but that's because I don't have to use them that often. I like to think my English is better than okay though, which is because I need it every day. I really, REALLY despise how some countries dub all their movies, games, etc. Therefor people may begin to feel they don't need to know any other languages besides their own, which is bullshit. Dubbing is okay in children's media, nowhere else.

So, my Italian friend: Start taking English classes, plow your way to become a World citizen, and quit your whining about multi-language options. You're not a kid anymore, are you?

I know a Pole who tells me that after a while, she can't even notice "lektor" anymore and when visiting Poland, she likes watching TV without subtitles. It's good to know that it's not used in cinemas, though. I once was thinking of going to see a movie in Poland, but realized I might not understand anything.

Read my posts, please! :P

btw. Polish dub in animated movies rocks, on the other hand. Few examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-2cn6Ez0IE&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y5S4mMkTSU&hd=1
Most of the movies in cinemas has subs only, audio original.

Some movies got dub, but it's mostly kids/teenage movies.

Often you may choose. For example, there were two versions of Avengers in cinemas, with dub and with subtitles.

Flipper ja Lopaka?

Did you mean this? My ears are bleeding now :(
EDIT: It's the one that DProject suggested.

Flipper & Lopaka? :D
It's just too painful..
The ending has haunted me for years. "Flipper se on" sounds like "Flip perse on" ("Flip is an ass", the butt kind).

/edit: double ninja'd :p

Don't get me wrong, I think the Finnish dubbing for Shrek is pretty good quality overall. But damn, once you've heard Eddie Murphy speaking donkey or Mike Myers as Shrek... you just can't get to their level, sorry.

Even worse if they dub some of the songs. Yeah, as if a few local voice actors can really sing as well as some professional singers in the original production... Fortunately, quite often they leave the songs alone, ie. you can hear them with their original voices, while everything else is dubbed.


That said, there is one case where I've felt I preferred the "dubbing" over the original. That was Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime). I don't know why, but I feel the English voice-overs are indeed better than the Japanese originals. It may be simply because Japanese voice acting is so different what we westerners are usually used to, e.g. how they act surprised, anger, grief etc. It may be mostly a cultural thing.

Europeans trying to express japanese emotions are the worst...

I always prefer original japanese audio in jap movies / anime. No exceptions.

Comparison: Gohan turns SSJ2 for the first time
ENGLISH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpSeF5XvJTI&hd=1
JAP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx2vMyVkmLE&hd=1

(I think I don't need to say how much english dub sucks :P)

Hehe, I doubt it. The British have certainly kicked our ass thoroughly (obliterating our entire navy and setting the capital on fire through bombardment), and we're pretty much as anglophile a nation as you're likely to find.

I'd normally do too, but I'll have to make an exception with Mononoke Hime. I've seen it many times from DVD, and most times ended up using the English voices.


About the part about loving your own language etc. that some mentioned... nothing wrong with that of course, but I think one of the reasons Europe may never become as big as (or is losing to) e.g. US, China, India, you name it... is because we are so fragmented linguistically. Not so much that we have lots of wildly different languages, but because we don't really have a common language that most people in Europe would understand, especially as so many are trying to downplay the role of English.

(I'm partly guessing how it goes in e.g. India and China, but my understanding is that in India English is the de-facto way of communicating if you don't understand some other Indian's dialect or whatever, they discuss in English without problem. Or at least English is widely known there.)

Inside EU, moving to another country might be blocked just because of having to learn a totally new language. I don't think that is an issue in e.g. US, when you move from a state to another, even if there may be places where lots of people speak Spanish, French or whatever.

Where are you from exactly? I mean, which city do you live in? Because here in Saint-Petersburg I know almost nobody who plays videogames but still can't speak in English…

Not to mention that the French subs in the English version are crap.

The biggest problem for me are accents. I couldn't understand scottish or just manchaster english accent even if I tried hard as hell.

Example video: (yeah, it's english NATIVE speaker, but she's from a region where people speak like that...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LtFqqznQT4&hd=1

In some parts it sounds like a different language... (btw. fans of Misfits UK demanded for subtitles for her lines in TV series, because even they couldn't understand her...)

But yeah, I couldn't move to Germany. My gf is speaking German perfectly and fluently, with even proper accent, but I don't know a word in German... And most German people I contacted didn't know English at all. (except for young people of course).

In Poland it's the same. Don't expect to comunicate in English in any shop, bar or whatever, except for cities that live from tourists.