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NEWS: Arrietty Anime Film's New U.K. Dub Clip Streamed




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littlegreenwolf



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 4796
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 11:11 am Reply with quote
Oh man, that made me totally want to dig up my hold books from the 6th grade and reread the Borrowers. I LOVE the voice they got for the old lady, who I am assuming is the Ghibli equivalent to the book's Mrs. Driver. I've only seen a few clips of this movie, but it already seems more faithful in spirit to the original book that that horrid live action movie we got a few years back, and I like that they are using scenes from the book. This makes me want the UK dub all the more.

I now love this movie even more because it seems its release has spurned the BBC into putting an adaption of the book into production with Stephen Fry and Christopher Eccleston. I am so a happy Borrowers fan right now. It'll be out this Christmas apparently. Not so happy for a contemporary setting though, but loving the cast.
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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 2:28 pm Reply with quote
UK reviewers have been mixed on the UK dub though. I guess it takes native ears to be more critical to their own accents/language. I feel like British accents have the exoticism to us North Americans so we're not able to parse whether they are always good or bad. This is probably the same with Japanese voice acting. I'm sure many anime have had bad or mediocre Japanese VAing, but you wouldn't know it from reading most anime fan opinions.

Really looking forward to this and the recent Goro Miyazaki film. They both have nice shoujo-leaning qualities to them that's a nice change of pace, I feel, from recent animated films both in Japan and the U.S.
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kakoishii



Joined: 16 Jul 2008
Posts: 741
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 7:23 pm Reply with quote
bravetailor wrote:
UK reviewers have been mixed on the UK dub though. I guess it takes native ears to be more critical to their own accents/language. I feel like British accents have the exoticism to us North Americans so we're not able to parse whether they are always good or bad. This is probably the same with Japanese voice acting. I'm sure many anime have had bad or mediocre Japanese VAing, but you wouldn't know it from reading most anime fan opinions.

Really looking forward to this and the recent Goro Miyazaki film. They both have nice shoujo-leaning qualities to them that's a nice change of pace, I feel, from recent animated films both in Japan and the U.S.

I wouldn't go that far, they may speak in their sophisticated british accents but I can tell a bad performance when I hear it, especially in my own language, or did you think Daniel Radcliffe's performance in the first Harry Potter movie was brilliant?
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mudduck454



Joined: 29 Jul 2009
Posts: 303
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 7:26 pm Reply with quote
bravetailor wrote:
UK reviewers have been mixed on the UK dub though. I guess it takes native ears to be more critical to their own accents/language. I feel like British accents have the exoticism to us North Americans so we're not able to parse whether they are always good or bad. This is probably the same with Japanese voice acting. I'm sure many anime have had bad or mediocre Japanese VAing, but you wouldn't know it from reading most anime fan opinions.

Really looking forward to this and the recent Goro Miyazaki film. They both have nice shoujo-leaning qualities to them that's a nice change of pace, I feel, from recent animated films both in Japan and the U.S.


Bad voice acting can be noticed, whether you speak a language or not, it has to do with how you convey the emotions of a scene, that is why a lot of times I do not like listening to a show unless it is the original voices, mainly because when someone dubs a scene, they just can't convey the same emotions as the original voice actor, and the scene is ruined,

I have watched anime were I didn't think the voice acting was good, even with the japanese voice actors, but I will say, that voice acting in japan, and even in the UK are taken more seriously than in america, but this is all just my opinion...
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kakoishii



Joined: 16 Jul 2008
Posts: 741
PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 7:30 pm Reply with quote
mudduck454 are you talking voice acting in general or just voice acting in anime because that statement you made is incredibly presumptuous. American voice actors especially the ones who do all kinds of voice acting, not just anime, take their performances very seriously, I'm not sure what could have led you to believe the contrary, or perhaps you don't have much exposure to american voice acting work.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14746
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:16 am Reply with quote
I could convey a very emotional Oscar-worthy scene in another language, and for all ya guys know, I'm actually just reciting the Itsy Bitsy Spider in that language. Razz
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ArsenicSteel



Joined: 12 Jan 2010
Posts: 2370
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:35 am Reply with quote
enurtsol wrote:
I could convey a very emotional Oscar-worthy scene in another language, and for all ya guys know, I'm actually just reciting the Itsy Bitsy Spider in that language. Razz


The Itsy Bitsy spider can be a very emotional song and oscar-worthy on it's own rights depending on the performance but if you are suggesting that I would not know you are reciting the lyrics to the song just because it is in another language you'd be dead wrong.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:01 am Reply with quote
ArsenicSteel wrote:
enurtsol wrote:
I could convey a very emotional Oscar-worthy scene in another language, and for all ya guys know, I'm actually just reciting the Itsy Bitsy Spider in that language. Razz


The Itsy Bitsy spider can be a very emotional song and oscar-worthy on it's own rights depending on the performance but if you are suggesting that I would not know you are reciting the lyrics to the song just because it is in another language you'd be dead wrong.


I'm more referring to a scene that doesn't have anything to do with the rhyme at all. And you don't know what languages I speak. Razz

This reminds me of an old English-learning commercial. Laughing
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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 1:32 pm Reply with quote
kakoishii wrote:
I wouldn't go that far, they may speak in their sophisticated british accents but I can tell a bad performance when I hear it, especially in my own language, or did you think Daniel Radcliffe's performance in the first Harry Potter movie was brilliant?


"Sophisticated." See? Right there you still have this sort of idea of British exoticism even though you criticized Radcliffe's performance in the first HP. Wink

Aside from a few exceptions, though, I still believe it to be true that people are more able to forgive foreign performances just for being foreign.
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kakoishii



Joined: 16 Jul 2008
Posts: 741
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 4:11 pm Reply with quote
bravetailor wrote:
kakoishii wrote:
I wouldn't go that far, they may speak in their sophisticated british accents but I can tell a bad performance when I hear it, especially in my own language, or did you think Daniel Radcliffe's performance in the first Harry Potter movie was brilliant?


"Sophisticated." See? Right there you still have this sort of idea of British exoticism even though you criticized Radcliffe's performance in the first HP. Wink

Aside from a few exceptions, though, I still believe it to be true that people are more able to forgive foreign performances just for being foreign.

I was being facetious, but I always forget sarcasm is rarely possible on the internet. Guess I should have used quotes? Anyway my statement still holds true, and you haven't said much to debunk it as other people have also stated why your remark isn't hard and fast.
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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:40 am Reply with quote
kakoishii wrote:
I was being facetious, but I always forget sarcasm is rarely possible on the internet. Guess I should have used quotes? Anyway my statement still holds true, and you haven't said much to debunk it as other people have also stated why your remark isn't hard and fast.


Yeah, maybe I should have made my facetious response more apparent also. The wink is not enough? I know you were just playing.

It's hard for me to really defend an opinion though, as it is just an opinion. And I wasn't "absolute" about it, either. I just feel that in many instances it's a sense I get, based on the widely divergent opinions of British performances between American critics and British critics. If you read a review of a British film or TV show, the British critics are almost ALWAYS much tougher and less charmed than Americans are. Read reviews of BBC shows and various period dramas. American reviews are always "softer." This type of thing really isn't something that's arguable--it really is true. I watch quite a bit of BBC TV imports and I always compare American reviews with British ones. I was referring more to this when I commented that we're always softer on British actors on this side of the pond. It often works the other way too--I've seen some very unenthusiastically received American performances in American productions get praised in British film rags and newspapers. Although since American films are seen much more often around the world, in general international audiences are used to the acting and are able to see them more impartially as American film isn't really an exotic entity in many countries anymore.

I rambled a bit there, but yeah, my point being that it should not be underestimated the foreign factor. Although yes, it's not "hard and fast" as you said, it does seem to be that the exotic element is much stronger than you think. It does seem like you jumped on me because it sounded like I said "This opinion is absolute. It ALWAYS happens." That's silly. There is a difference between "it happens a lot" and "always happens." And I quite obviously meant the former meaning.
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