The Differences Between Dubbed Movies and Subtitled Movies



When you watch a movie in a language you don't speak, do you look for a dubbed version, or do you turn on the subtitles? It makes a difference, because teams who dub movies into another language translate it completely separately from the teams who type up subtitles, which are also used as closed captions. Dialogue in dubbed movies makes an attempt to match the lip movements of the actors. Or sometimes they don't try all that hard, as you've no doubt noticed in some really cheaply made films. And then there's the problem of translating puns, which aren't funny if you just interpret it word by word, or even grammatically, if the context doesn't make sense in another culture. If you listen to a dubbed movie and turn on the captions, too, you might notice a lot of differences, which will cause you to lose the plot quickly. The last minute of this video is an ad.    


I watch a lot of foreign stuff and always go for subtitles over dubbing. Yes because of the poor lip movements, but mostly because there seems to be a very small international crew who do the dubbing (using Netflix as an example). Not only do the voices not match the character, if you watch enough stuff you soon recognize them. As for subtitles (and sometimes dubbing), as it was pointed out in the video, characters say Americanized phrases that make no sense or are out of context. Sometimes, I'd rather just hear/read what was really said. And if you have a Roku, your best friend is the button that lets you go back 10 seconds.
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My favorite is where Tracy, retreating from the ship's bridge after being shot, in /The Message/ episode of /Firefly/, shouts, "Gorrammit, Mal!" Which is meant to be Chinese for /God dammit, Mal!/ The subtitle track on the DVD says, "You're a rabbit, Mal."
Also, of course, there's the famous, "You see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps, Larry! You see what happens when you feed a stoner scrambled eggs!" in /The Big Lebowsky/.
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