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For me it isn't really a strict subbing-dubbing thing, but more that dubbed anime often uses poor voice actors. They never really emote and are noticeably subdued compared to the animation.
A good dub with voice actors who actually match the emotion etc in the original I'd happily watch.
 
I watched an old interview with Clint Eastwood (I think it was from about the time he did The Outlaw Josey Wales) and he got to talking about doing the Italian Westerns (which were almost all filmed in Spain). He mentioned that the Italian film makers were masters of dubbing because their market is international so they dub everything, even the films going to the Italian speaking market. The studios had experienced voice actors on staff and the film makers used a system within the filming to give the voice actors cues to help them sync up with the on screen actors.
 
Also when dubbing a foreign language you lose certain characteristics of speech that don’t sound right when you try to carry them over. And the expressions of the characters then don’t quite match the tone of the dubbed track. The little incongruities are subtle but they accumulate and stick out if you care about that sort of thing.
 
I watched an old interview with Clint Eastwood (I think it was from about the time he did The Outlaw Josey Wales) and he got to talking about doing the Italian Westerns (which were almost all filmed in Spain). He mentioned that the Italian film makers were masters of dubbing because their market is international so they dub everything, even the films going to the Italian speaking market. The studios had experienced voice actors on staff and the film makers used a system within the filming to give the voice actors cues to help them sync up with the on screen actors.
That’s very common outside English speaking countries.
 
If you're like Hill you definitely need to see The Driver, one of his best imo, along with Hard Times with Charles Bronson (which is an atypical Bronson film).

The interview is from Film Comment right after the film came out, Cameron said that he took the minimalism and drive of The Driver as inspiration for how he structured The Terminator.

Yeah I've been sort of familiar with it, but it is now on my to find list.
 
Also when dubbing a foreign language you lose certain characteristics of speech that don’t sound right when you try to carry them over. And the expressions of the characters then don’t quite match the tone of the dubbed track. The little incongruities are subtle but they accumulate and stick out if you care about that sort of thing.

I'm sure that is further exaggerated when you have highly dissimilar languages like Chinese or Japanese to English. Most western languages have a common foundation so the sounds / facial expressions are often close.

That’s very common outside English speaking countries.

I expect that is true, he was comparing his experiences so Hollywood vs Italy. He very well could have made the same comment if he had ever been hired for a Bollywood Western (please, please, please somebody tell me that really is a thing). :grin:
 
Dubbing tends to work better with animation in my mind than live action.

I certainly don't mind people preferring the subtitles--just as long as they don't get snippy about it and suggest it's the one true way for animation, etc. The translation companies do a great job today of providing both for us.
Why not both? I enable subtitles in every film I watch. Even when they are speaking English, some actors don't know how to enunciate. Or maybe it is the poor sound quality in many films. Perhaps it has something to do with a bit of tinnitus in my right ear from a combination of live fire exercises and working at a jazz club.
 
For me it isn't really a strict subbing-dubbing thing, but more that dubbed anime often uses poor voice actors. They never really emote and are noticeably subdued compared to the animation.
A good dub with voice actors who actually match the emotion etc in the original I'd happily watch.

Exactly, I don't like dubbing for films because whenever possible I want to hear the actors actually on screen. Even in the case of film traditions that use post-sync dialogue (e.g. Italy) ideally you have the actor doing their own dialogue.

In animation, this is less of a concern and I've watched some of the Studio Ghibli films with the English dubs as they tend to be of a very good standard but the first 15-20 years of anime in the West has a lot of truly terrible dubs.

For trash and camp anime the bad dubs become part of the charm (also true for some Eurotrash film classics) but in general I go for subs because I assume the dub will be terrible to begin with.
 
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And then there are animes whose dubs are so completely different from the originals that they become a transformative work of art in their own right


Straight away you'd know that cat is Ryusei Nakao. The Freeza voice is so distinctive and he gives it to most of his characters. It always jumps out at me. Sometimes he tries other voices for evil characters but they always sound very similar to Freeza. It's not really that close to his real voice either.
 
I watched the Netflix She-Ra series this week. I kept seeing people say that it's a good series, and I was not disappointed! Very fun and t struck that reight balance between keeping kids entertained and keeping adults entertained. I look forward to the new He-Man series with Mark Hamil as Skeletor.
 
Is it going to be done in the same art style?
No idea.
Just looking it up, apparently there's 2 new He-Man shows. The one I had heard about was Masters of the Universe: Revelations, which is apparently 2D.
Links:
 
Is it going to be done in the same art style?
Revelations? According to various reports, it's going to be animated by the same studio that did Castlevania. However, although it's called He-Man, it apparently (According to several sources, but vehemently denied then insulted by the Show runner, Kevin Smith) will feature a minor character as the main lead rather than Prince Adam or He-Man. They are claiming that this will be Teela's story.
 
Hmm, well that could be good or bad I suppose. I dunno, it'd be like a Superman story told from Lois Lane's PoV, I'd just wonder how long the novelty could hold up. Kevin Smith as showrunner gives me pause though - I've never seen him do a "straight" narrative. And it's been around 20 years since the last anything he did that I liked.
 
Hmm, well that could be good or bad I suppose. I dunno, it'd be like a Superman story told from Lois Lane's PoV, I'd just wonder how long the novelty could hold up. Kevin Smith as showrunner gives me pause though - I've never seen him do a "straight" narrative. And it's been around 20 years since the last anything he did that I liked.

Red State is the last good thing did for me, a quality horror film.
 
A genuine anime:
The cop in that scene looks so much like Dennis Franz that I feel like he must have been a model for the character.

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Hmm, well that could be good or bad I suppose. I dunno, it'd be like a Superman story told from Lois Lane's PoV, I'd just wonder how long the novelty could hold up. Kevin Smith as showrunner gives me pause though - I've never seen him do a "straight" narrative. And it's been around 20 years since the last anything he did that I liked.
You can do that, but Lois Lane would be an 'observer' character. There's nothing wrong with that, especially given that as a new reporter, observation is part of her character.

Here's the problem, the supposed sources (which have been vouched for by a few people who know the Animation Industry) claim that it's going to make Teela the new 'hero' of the Master of The Universe, and that He-Man's sword is damaged or destroyed. There are also rumours of changing the characters as well, beyond the focus suddenly shifting to Teela.

Namely that she's going to be the one doing all the work, suddenly changing her relationship with Adam and some distancing of her destiny as the next Sorceress of Greyskull.

However, Mr. Smith has come out and denied these and then accused both a Youtuber and Screenrant of lying, which got Screenrant to change the article, despite what they had reported earlier.
 
Taking a break from the Portland Horror Film Festival to check out Watchmen, since Hulu has it free to watch until the end of today. Figure I can get most of it in before I hit the sack in the morning
 
Last night, I opened up the Vudu app and intended to watch The Captains. I bought it on Vudu a few years ago. Except it wasn't there. It shows that I "own" the film, but all it will display is the trailer, and a message that the film is "Coming soon." There is no movie to watch, even though it was there a couple of years ago.

How long ago The Captains was removed from my "digital library," I couldn't tell you. I bought it a few years ago, and watched it sometime a couple of years ago. But it definitely isn't there now.

Hooray for digital media "ownership!"
 
Last night, I opened up the Vudu app and intended to watch The Captains. I bought it on Vudu a few years ago. Except it wasn't there. It shows that I "own" the film, but all it will display is the trailer, and a message that the film is "Coming soon." There is no movie to watch, even though it was there a couple of years ago.

How long ago The Captains was removed from my "digital library," I couldn't tell you. I bought it a few years ago, and watched it sometime a couple of years ago. But it definitely isn't there now.

Hooray for digital media "ownership!"

This is the concern that keeps me wedded to physical copies. Sure houses burn down, but glitch, computer crash, change in copyright laws are much more likely. It is no secret that companies want us to lease everything, and it is not limited to software, music and video. Some vehicle manufacturers have been trying to promote the idea that they actually own your vehicle and have actively been trying to prevent owner repairs.
 
Any fans of The Boardwalk Empire?

I'm not typically a fan of gangster films but I've seen an episode here and there and it looks really well done. The only way for me to get it involves paying (get Hulu, rent or buy from Amazon Prime Video), so I'm strongly considering just buying the DVD set as in the long term that is my cheapest option.
 
Any fans of The Boardwalk Empire?

I'm not typically a fan of gangster films but I've seen an episode here and there and it looks really well done. The only way for me to get it involves paying (get Hulu, rent or buy from Amazon Prime Video), so I'm strongly considering just buying the DVD set as in the long term that is my cheapest option.
I loved it, but it never fully lives up to what it could have been. The actors are almost all perfect but the plotting is a bit silly and meadering at times and the show hovers between being a show about prohibition era gangsters in general and trying to tell a specific story about Atlantic city.
 
Got 5 episodes in on Watchmen. It's not bad. Hopefully I can find a way to get in the other 4 episodes while I'm at work lol
 
I'm still paranoid enough about "digital ownership" that I continue to buy everything on blu-ray
You want to physical media, because companies are subtly changing and censoring shows and movies in the last little while.

Iron Man (2008) for example, they removed the female soldier scenes from the beginning of the movie.
 
I agree with the "have a physical copy", and I think it's important to support a physical blu-ray and CDs if it's you're all-time favorite movies, but it's getting harder and harder to do that. The rise and ease of use of streaming has really done a number on the physical media support.

The Digital Bits, one of the better blogs when it comes to finding out what's coming out on media, did a report last year on the decline of support from both the publishers of discs as well as the technology manufacturers of physical media.


They also noted in a blog post a few months later that physical media has declined in a five year period to 50% of what it was. They reference this report from a few years ago. If you look under Home Media, Physical Media went down between 2013-2018 to half.


Also, as noted in the first article, it's probably going to get harder and harder to find blu-ray players if this trend continues. Both the physical units for TVs are in decline (it's not a cutting-edge tech like the actual TVs are), and the fact that many computers no longer have a DVD/blu-ray drive mean it's probably going to be harder for the enthusiast in years to come. Enjoy it while you can.
 
Howl's moving castle

<snip snip>

Tengen toppa gurren lagann

Many of these are not movies but series. Or both.
My recommendation:

Spirited Away (movie, one of Miyazaki's masterpieces)
Princess Mononoke (same, and the movie which probably best reflects Miyazaki's poetics)
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (long series, beautiful, far superior to the one of the same name but without "Brotherhood")
The Ancient Magus Bride (short series, total masterpiece, must watch)
Stein's Gate (average length series, first half is slow as hell and looks like an idiotic comedy, second half switches into legendary gear and delivers some horrific punches)
Ghost in the Shell (skip the movies; they're overrated (ducks). Watch the "Stand Alone Complex" series; 2 seasons plus a final movie; total masterpiece, must watch)
Psycho Pass (first season only; the strongest one)

Not listed but very much worthy:

Kill la Kill (average length series, most of the same authors as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and superior to it. Total masterpiece, must watch)
Madoka Magica (short series, skip the movies; first two are just the series in movie form, third is an abomination made for money and the author pretty much admitted as much. Total masterpiece, must watch)
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (short series, very peculiar animation; total masterpiece, must watch, and one of the most feminist and ferocious satire of modern society I've ever seen. But you need to read a bit between the lines... but not even all that much)
Planetes (hard sf series, masterpiece)
Seirei no Moribito (average length series; fantasy; total masterpiece, must watch)


I didn't like Madoka,
Especially the ending, which is the ultimate bait and switch in a show full of them. But I don't handle those very well in general, so take this under advisement.

How so? It's perfect. One of the few cases where the author actually understand that
reconstruction is supposed to follow the deconstruction
 
I loved it, but it never fully lives up to what it could have been. The actors are almost all perfect but the plotting is a bit silly and meadering at times and the show hovers between being a show about prohibition era gangsters in general and trying to tell a specific story about Atlantic city.
Yeah it starts strong but meanders as it goes along. Still enough good stuff to make it worthwhile though.

Ok, on the list, thanks


You want to physical media, because companies are subtly changing and censoring shows and movies in the last little while.

Iron Man (2008) for example, they removed the female soldier scenes from the beginning of the movie.

Guido shooting first in Star Wars is the classic example of this.
 
How so? It's perfect. One of the few cases where the author actually understand that
reconstruction is supposed to follow the deconstruction
The fact that every thing gets undone, that it actively misleads the viewer, it's a cheap out, I found.
However, please don't think this is me trying to talk anyone from liking it. I can only explain why I didn't.
 
The fact that every thing gets undone, that it actively misleads the viewer, it's a cheap out, I found.
However, please don't think this is me trying to talk anyone from liking it. I can only explain why I didn't.

But it's not? I mean
I'm not sure what you mean exactly, but however you look at it, fhe final situation is completely different from the starting one. In a way, it's the exact opposite: every single witch who has ever lived is saved, while before, they were all damned with their very souls being lost.
Also, some of the people who die remain dead, and Madoka herself certainly does not go back to normal. But these are details, the main thing is the metaphysical reality which has just been completely subverted.
Madoka is basically a Japanese scriptwriter wanting to deconstruct the Mahou Shoujo genre and using the Jesus Christ story almost word-for-word, with Madoka being Christ and taking on "the sins of the world" to save everyone else.

In any case, I can tell you why I classify it as one of the very few (6-7) anime series worth of a perfect 10/10 score out of the hundreds I've seen: *essentiality*. There isn't a single frame which is not needed. Everything is rigorous in pushing the story to its needed completion.
 
Just watched season 1 of Sword Art Online. It's not bad, quite good in some place, but ran to slightly cringey levels of fanservice in others. Seriously - Hero's little sister isn't really his sister and totally has the hots for him? Hasn't that been done to death on Pornhub? I can't really see what that dynamic added to the story. At least Yui seemed to be there as a mcguffin that actually did stuff later in the story.

I thought The Witcher was quite fanservicey as well - I wonder if this is actually Netflix policy.
 
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