I'm a person who enjoys reading and watching really well fleshed out characters with lots of dimension, so characterization is really important to me. So that's probably why I enjoy LotR more than The Hobbit. The Hobbit was written in a simpler, carefree format and was intended for a younger group of audiences, so it reads kind of like a storybook and focuses on an unlucky hero (Bilbo) interacting with his wacky gang of helpers (the dwarves). I think part of the reason the movie is so off is because it tried to upgrade that storybook motif into a more mature piece of work by making Thorin a puddle of angst and including Sauron and the orcs (was this really necessary? The only times the orcs even appear in the book are when Bilbo meets Gollum and the Battle of the 5 Armies...*eye twitch*). The primary focus of the LotR books is, like The Hobbit, Middle-Earth rather than the characters. However, the characters get enough characterization so that they're all individuals. It's not a lot, but in a few well-chosen sentences they become real to the reader and are characters that that reader can root for. This translates better into the movies, except that they mistakenly assumed that it was a heroic fantasy starring Aragorn, rather than a chronicle of *all* the characters involved in the war of the Ring. Instead of nerd rage, I experience more of a nerd ice-cold fury. I can still sit back and enjoy the LotR movies without getting too upset about them turning Frodo into a damsel in distress because I don't consider them to be part of the LotR canon, just an interpretation of it. They're good movies in their own right, but they aren't the same LotR that Tolkien wrote. However, The Hobbit was a little too much for me and I bet that Tolkien is rolling over in his grave right now.
Cultural notes are good point; I wish more subs had them. Usually when I watch something subbed like on Hulu or Youtube or something, most likely I'll miss the puns because there won't be a note at the end (unless they're really thorough--but that's what I'd do, I'd add a few minutes to the end of the episode with some notes or something). The solution to this would be to watch them at the translator's website, where you can ask questions and stuff. I don't know any though! Do you know any good websites where they add cultural notes to videos? I really like that you add cultural notes at the end of every chapter; maybe it's more effective to read them as you go, but they still bring insight to things I didn't even pick up on when reading. Well, anything that aids the understanding of a work is a plus.
I think that the best dubs probably turn out to be those that don't try too hard or too little. The absolute worst are just those that don't even bother getting rid of the original voices--they just muffle them and then have one or two different people dub over the entire cast. Russia is a repeat offender; one time, I got invited to see Cars 2, and regretted it almost right away as I realized that all they did was just paste the new voices on top of the English acting which you could still hear (and this was at the movies, like I paid to go see this)! It's doubly confusing for people who speak both languages because then the brain tries to latch on to both simultaneously and by trying to understand both, you understand nothing. One thing you can say for professional dubs is that they at least try to match up the movement of the character's mouth to the voice.
Like you said, professional voice actors who specialize in that sort of thing turn out poorly, I agree. Some may not even try that much because it's like, dubs will always be in high demand and I'll still get paid. But the worst thing is maybe if they try so hard that their voice sounds too forced and over-the-top emotional, which is what I mean by dubs that try too hard. The best dubs would result from having a group of people who actually want to do well and put their all into it...but it's like, how often would you get that?
It's hard for me to to tell how good the Jungle Book Japanese voice acting is because I don't know Japanese well at all (and I haven't seen the movie in years, but now I think I might go watch it tonight!). But I think subtle voice differences are always a given, just because it's hard to find two people with the same vocal range--and if you can, it's really unlikely that the other will be a voice actor--so considering, Balloo's dub doesn't bother me at all. But with children's movies like these, I almost always think that it's better for kids to watch programs and hear them in their own language, too, rather than having them watch the English version with subs.
As for 'realistic speech', yeah that's also a good point because if books and movies were made so that the characters speak like they would in real life, it wouldn't be as enjoyable watching or reading them. You have not experienced struggle until you have had to make a conscious effort to eliminate all the 'uhhs' and 'umms' and 'like's from your speech. I am taking a mandatory class for speech, and I can safely say that doing that is the hardest part. Well...that and the fact that when nervous, I start speaking faster than the speed of sound. However, if a speech is well-made and given by a talented professional, the omitted common speech patterns don't sound off at all; it goes unnoticed. Speaking like that is very businesslike, too, so if you tried to do that in real life, it wouldn't translate well to personal relationships because the hesitations, stutters, and pauses are all parts of nonverbal communication too.
So how did you learn Japanese so well? I always assumed you took college classes or something, but you say that you have less than a full year of coursework! How long did it take you to get to be able to, well, start translating stuff?
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Cultural notes are good point; I wish more subs had them. Usually when I watch something subbed like on Hulu or Youtube or something, most likely I'll miss the puns because there won't be a note at the end (unless they're really thorough--but that's what I'd do, I'd add a few minutes to the end of the episode with some notes or something). The solution to this would be to watch them at the translator's website, where you can ask questions and stuff. I don't know any though! Do you know any good websites where they add cultural notes to videos? I really like that you add cultural notes at the end of every chapter; maybe it's more effective to read them as you go, but they still bring insight to things I didn't even pick up on when reading. Well, anything that aids the understanding of a work is a plus.
I think that the best dubs probably turn out to be those that don't try too hard or too little. The absolute worst are just those that don't even bother getting rid of the original voices--they just muffle them and then have one or two different people dub over the entire cast. Russia is a repeat offender; one time, I got invited to see Cars 2, and regretted it almost right away as I realized that all they did was just paste the new voices on top of the English acting which you could still hear (and this was at the movies, like I paid to go see this)! It's doubly confusing for people who speak both languages because then the brain tries to latch on to both simultaneously and by trying to understand both, you understand nothing. One thing you can say for professional dubs is that they at least try to match up the movement of the character's mouth to the voice.
Like you said, professional voice actors who specialize in that sort of thing turn out poorly, I agree. Some may not even try that much because it's like, dubs will always be in high demand and I'll still get paid. But the worst thing is maybe if they try so hard that their voice sounds too forced and over-the-top emotional, which is what I mean by dubs that try too hard.
The best dubs would result from having a group of people who actually want to do well and put their all into it...but it's like, how often would you get that?
It's hard for me to to tell how good the Jungle Book Japanese voice acting is because I don't know Japanese well at all (and I haven't seen the movie in years, but now I think I might go watch it tonight!). But I think subtle voice differences are always a given, just because it's hard to find two people with the same vocal range--and if you can, it's really unlikely that the other will be a voice actor--so considering, Balloo's dub doesn't bother me at all. But with children's movies like these, I almost always think that it's better for kids to watch programs and hear them in their own language, too, rather than having them watch the English version with subs.
As for 'realistic speech', yeah that's also a good point because if books and movies were made so that the characters speak like they would in real life, it wouldn't be as enjoyable watching or reading them. You have not experienced struggle until you have had to make a conscious effort to eliminate all the 'uhhs' and 'umms' and 'like's from your speech. I am taking a mandatory class for speech, and I can safely say that doing that is the hardest part. Well...that and the fact that when nervous, I start speaking faster than the speed of sound.
However, if a speech is well-made and given by a talented professional, the omitted common speech patterns don't sound off at all; it goes unnoticed. Speaking like that is very businesslike, too, so if you tried to do that in real life, it wouldn't translate well to personal relationships because the hesitations, stutters, and pauses are all parts of nonverbal communication too.
So how did you learn Japanese so well? I always assumed you took college classes or something, but you say that you have less than a full year of coursework! How long did it take you to get to be able to, well, start translating stuff?