Pan's Labyrinth is subtitled and our banner says Grand Opening.

[Alephcat]

I also realize that the HUGE banner outside the store says, "GRAND OPENING- ALL MOVIE RENTALS .99!" ...

surely you could write a new sign on a sheet in boot polish?
Kudos to anyone who gets the reference.

back on topic The Full Monty was seriously considered for subtitleing to be released in the usa, so it is not only foreign films that might get subtitled

[auntiem]

I greatly prefer subtitled movies to dubbed. It cracks me up, though when they subtitle movies that already are in English - like the club scene in Trainspotting - because the accents are so thick.
I once booked an old French film - it was a re-release but they had never corrected the subtitles. It was a pretty "racy" film and the subtitles were much tamer than what was being said. You could tell the people who spoke French in the audience because they were laughing so hard and then quickly translating for their friends.

[RichS]

I've really just started watching foreign films recently and have found myself to be more emotionally moved than ever before. If you are an anime fan - watch Grave of the Fireflies. Prepare to cry and have your heart wrenched out of your chest.

I was able to watch the dubbed version when Turner Classic had it on awhile back - great movie, but, yeah..

As far as subtitled/dubbed, it doesn't matter to me, as long as it's good. And now I'll have to see if my rental place has Pan's Labyrinth.

[blas]

Alephcat, I don't think there's one member on this board who doesn't get that reference, lol.....

I thoroughly enjoyed "Emile" and "Au revoir les enfants" and other films I saw in my French classes in high school. I feel like a total idiot right now, there were two other films.....one was "Le Chateau de ma mere" but the one before it......something "de mon pere"..........rrrrrrrrr....

BTW: I saw Shrek 1 and 2 in French before I saw them in English. I was substitute teacher days en la classe de francais. We watched both movies in French with english subtitles over the course of a school week while our teacher was out ill.

[RebeccaOTool]

My BF complained about the sub-titalage in Pan's Laberynth while we were aiting for it to start, but shut-up one the movie began. It was that good.

[NightAngel]

back on topic...

That's funny seeing as you were going back off topic. This whole thread completely derailed the second I mentioned subtitles.

I now return you to your off topic discussion...

[Dreamstalker]

Worst. Voice Acting. Ever....Grandia II for Dreamcast (and any other versions, since I assume they used the same dub).

Oh hell yes. It all sounds way too stilted (although my mom likes making fun of it). I could do better, and I suck at acting generally. Elena's voice is just annoying. Maybe they figured that since the characters didn't really have mouths, the voice quality didn't matter...?

[Bagga]

I have a few stories about dubbing of films, from when I lived in Poland teaching English.

Usually the films at the main cinema were in English, with Polish subtitles, but I discovered a big problem when I went to see "Men in Tights", because the punchlines were always printed onscreen at the beginning of every spoken sentence. So the Polish people knew the joke before the sentence was started almost. So it was imposssible to actually hear the joke because all the Poles were laughing their heads off.

But on TV, all the shows were dubbed by a single person, usually male. Yes, the same person. So when you watched "Look Who's Talking 2", for example, the same guy did the mum, the dad, the kid AND the dog...

One day I discovered that if you turned the sound up very loud, quietly in the background you could hear the original soundtrack. Yep, it wasnt actually dubbed, the guy was sitting at a mike reading the words off the script while the film was running. So I decided to try it on the next broadcast of my favourite cop show, "Hill Street Blues". I turned up the sound until just before the neighbours would get angry, sat close to the set and sort of squinted my ears at the TV. Only to find that the series had been bought off a country that DID dub their programmes - the soundtrack was in Italian....

Perhaps my worst experience was when I went to the University mini-cinema to see a special showing of "A Clockwork Orange", which had been banned in the UK since its original issue. We all sat down on a miscellany of mismatched armchairs, and the film started. Just as Malcolm McDowell (?) started to say "There was I.." etc etc, in English, a man at the front of the cinema opened a folder and started to recite *bla bla bla". In Polish... We got up and left.

I transferred to Spain at the end of that school year.

[Mad-Bassist]

Mad-Bassist: With Akira, the most notable scene is the one with the vicious teddy bears...

LOL! I could see that happening (making the 'pya' sounds.) It's quite a shame they messed that part up, now I have to see the original--that's one of the best parts!

One curious thing: in Bastard and a couple others I've noticed, the English dub will have sound effects on some voices (usually the evil ones,) but the original Japanese won't. This has led me to enjoy Dark Schneider's badass spell-casting mode more on the English track. Is that normal for anime?

[Andara Bledin]

Re: Bastard! and vocal effects.

I'm not sure. I think it has to do with both the original production company and the dubbing company.

I've never seen Bastard! dubbed, but I did have a 6th generation (the quality was pretty bad) sub that was done by someone who had no clue about the show or the mangaka. The idiots translated the kingdom as Metaricana, which phonetically isn't actually wrong, but it's supposed to be Metallicana, to go with all the other metal references. That is one series that didn't take itself seriously.

^-.-^

[Bloodsoul]

It's one thing if it's a fan sub, another when it's a more well known production company.. like DiC subbing Sailor Moon or Ocean's Dragonball Z? I'd say a few folks there need to be sent to the Next Dimension...

[NightAngel]

We were discussing this evening how absolutely no one minds that Apocalypto and Letters From Iwo Jima are subtitled... WTF?

[Mad-Bassist]

I've never seen Bastard! dubbed, but I did have a 6th generation (the quality was pretty bad) ...

Yeah, the DVD with all six episodes is like that too. I think they were afraid of lawsuits or something, so they mangled the English dub and the subtitles. At least you can still hear the proper names in the Japanese track, plus they didn't mangle Exodus, Mace, and well, Iron May-don is kinda obvious. Heh heh.

Maybe the manga people should have sued them.

[Andara Bledin]

I once wrote down all the references in Bastard! Including Bonjovino (guard), Anthrax (major demon who the bad guys are trying to summon), and Lars (the dragonet).

I think the prize of worst translation ever goes to 4Kids for the butcher job they did to One Piece. And the voice acting is atrocious!

^-.-^

[Melmo]

Oh no, add another NASCAR fan that can read! THE HORRORS. I'm a NASCAR fan from Indiana, two strikes against me.

I love Pan's, great movie. I work at Blockbuster and my manager reminded us to make sure everyone who was renting Pan's, Apocalypto, or Letters knew they were subtitled. No problem right?

One customer came up, handed me his movies which included Pan's, I said "sir you do realize this movie is subtitled right?"...*blank stare* and he replies, "but it's in english right?" Yes, the subtitles are in english..."Oh good, I hate those stupid movies you have to read..."

So I explain to him what subtitles are, and he opts not to get the movie. Sadly, he's not the only customer that seems to have no clue what subtitles are.