I'm quite impressed with the English language track for Spirited Away. It looks like Disney hired the same kind of talent that they would use on a Disney original. But, I wanted to see if the Miyazaki fans feel the same way. I know my friend is a purist--he says that he refuses to watch ANY foreign movie not in its original language (he really hated the English dub for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). But, I think Spirited Away is an exception. I like both tracks and perhaps even the English track a little better (usually I prefer the native language as well, but I'm not a purist). What do you all think?

I'm always in favor of Subtitles. Many years of watching anime Subtitled has given me a fondness of watching it the way it was originally intended and no matter how close of a translation you can get, you will lose something in any translation.

you should always go for the original language.

I can't answer yet, since I've only seen Spirited Away at the movies, where it was in English. I'm sure I'll watch it both ways, and then I'll make up my mind for sure. But on just having viewed the dubbed version (technically, I suppose both versions are dubbed, actually), I think they did a very good job.

Ordinarily (with non-animated movies) I won't watch a dubbed movie, but to tell the truth, it didn't bug me in Spirited Away, for a couple of reasons. First, they really made an effort to do a good job. Second, the animation in Spirited Away includes very little mouth movement, so it's not really obvious that it's dubbed.

As far as losing something in the translation, the subtitles are still a translation, so you're going to lose something either way, unless you speak Japanese.

I prefer the original. to me it preserves the atmosphere.

I love dubs, and can generally even enjoy really bad ones provided I still have access to the original language track (which is always the version I watch first if possible)... but good God, is it possible to NOT hate the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon dub? It's painful to listen to!

Different folks have different takes on the translation and over see it. If the wrong folks over see a translation of something it could end up becoming a sort of "All your base are belong to us". In this case it's also a factor of delivery of the lines written and how much you have to change simply because it doesn't sound correct. You will notice when you listen to the dub with subtitles on you can see that their is a difference and in many cases, some lines just get left out completely.

English.. only cause years of hanging out with "anime" fans has made my ears sensitive to the unnatural octave those damn women SCREAM at.. I swear almost all anime is just one chick SCREAMING all her lines.

Probably not the case with this movie but I'm playing it safe.

Yeah, I noticed that when I tried to watch the English dub with subtitles it didn't match up most of the time. But when I switched to "English - For the hearing impaired" it matched up almost verbatim with the English dub.

I guess subtitles is more or less a transliteration of the Japanese.

Accurate subtitles are much better than "dubtitles" (the easy way out that is often taken with foreign language DVDs).


The subs are supposed to accurately translate the original dialogue, while the dubbing, by necessity, can't be as accurate (it would be impossible to exactly translate every line into English and expect them to fit the mouth movements and timing of the animation).

As far as the poll goes, Japanese track all the way. (especially the DTS track on the R2 disc).

I don't mind the dubbed tracks on animated films the way I despise them on live action films. The problem with a lot of anime though is terrible acting or translations. I haven't gotten to watch the dub of SA yet, but I had no problems with the PM dub and am expecting the SA track to be just as good.

Now what kind of accent was Dawson trying to do on Castle in the Sky? That was worse than any screaming girl.

I usually go for the original Japanese track. Many dubs on anime films/series are horrible (like Dragon Ball Z). Although I hear this one in particular was one of the better dub tracks.

I'm pretty sure that the Subtile tracks are literal translations for this release. Which isn't always the case for anime sub tracks. Also "dubtitles" are considered the to be the spawn of hell by anime purists.

I personally perfer the Japanese track over the english dub.

This poll reserves for me a biased response as I only watch foreign films in their original language, as I cannot stand dubbed films. Animation films of course, are not as bad to watch dubbed but I still prefer the original language. Even if you do not understand the spoken language, I still feel there is an atmosphere that is produced that cannot be duplicated by a translation and dubbing. As I've lived in Europe and have watched many American series dubbed, there is something lost when it is done in this manner. The translation might be accurate and well done . . . but yet there is something missing. Anyone who has a feeling for language and/or has especially studied foreign languages will understand where I am coming from.

On the other hand, I think my young daughter would enjoy this film and I would take advantage of the dubbing for her sake, that's when I knee at the holy altar of the DVD and all it has to offer.

Not to be a pedant, but aren't you "losing something in the translation" by reading the subtitles? Aren't subtitles an English translation as well?

I prefer the original Japanese language version, but that's more because I love the sound of Japanese. I'll probably watch both. It's animated, so there really is no "original" language. Those drawings aren't really speaking, you know.

-- Jough

I view the Japanese as the actual original language just because that's the language the actual original creative team worked on, and the one that best reflects what the writers were originally going for.

It's sort of an original vs. remake thing. The English dubbing team is going to spin the way the dialogue is played out, and present the English track as their reinterpetation of the Japanese track. The same is present in the subtitle track, but you have far fewer instances of subtitles adding or completely altering the meaning of the original lines, and completely cut out the times when the voice actor or dub director changes the tone of voice a character delivers a line in.

Which is not to knock the Spirited Away dub--everything I've heard sounds very good. I just consider it more of an alternate take on the movie than an actual part of the movie.

Definitely the original, even when the dub would be better (a case I've never encountered in my life).

Dub tracks are more than a translation. They are an alteration. A dub completely removes the original performances of the original voice actors chosen for the film by the director, and replaces them with new American voice actors chosen by an American who had nothing to do with the film's production.

The Spirited Away dub is better than most, but it is still an alteration to the film.

Subtitles offer a translation, not an alteration. Even if something gets lost in the translation, you have not taken the radical steps of changing the film.

I prefer to watch things in their original language so Spirited Away will be watched in Japanese. But since I have those big speakers by the t.v sooner or later I will watch it dubbed as well. Oh and the Crouching Tiger dub was horrid at best!

Yep, even with well-translated dubs there are times when there isn't a 1:1 match between what's spoken in Japanese and what's spoken in English. And with not-so-good translations... one big offender in my collection is the Japanese Lupin 3 Castle of Cagliostro DVD. I upgraded from the US version and the picture quality is much more stable and clear. Unfortunately, they used an older and much less accurate translation. Half the time there's English subtitles for silence if you listen to the original audio! Of course it matches up perfectly to the old crusty dub. Oh well, maybe there'll be yet another release someday.

My love of dubbing began with Kung Pow: ETF, and I never looked back.

seriously, the dub track on this one was really good. For me, subtitles take too much away from watching the actual movie.

Does anyone care about what subtitles do to the framing of an image? It's far worse than any P&S, isn't it?

Sure it is.

When tastefully done, subtitles don't ruin the image underneath them. I prefer white, not too large subtitles, and it helps that they often go partially over the bottom black bar (I have a 4:3 TV) on widescreen movies.

That and the fact that living in a country where foreign TV programs are subtitled, not dubbed (thank god!) has gotten me used to subs.

You must not have read my response to this early on in the thread.

english dubs do not match up always with the subs. there seems to be a few lines missing when the dub occurs so if you put the Dub on while the subs are on, you will notice that in many cases it doesn't follow translation right. Also the delivery of the line. You get the emotion and the feeling from the Original Language even if you can't understand the language by simple tone of voice. In the dub, even if it's a good dub, it lacks that certain something. Not to mention I have been watching subtitled anime for close to 10 years so I guess that is one reason why I'm so used to the language and being able to read and pick up the emotion from it. as for your comment about I must say that it is pretty silly to say that. Just because the drawings themselves were not speaking, doesn't mean the artist didn't use the actors movements of speech to draw the images. In most cases animators look at the reaction and lip movements of the voice actors to match up just right the artwork. Their is indeed an Original language as it was made in japan and thus has that as it's Original Language. They do not alter the lip movement or acting when they bring it here or redo art. they dub it. It does indeed have an Original Language and it seems silly to believe otherwise.

In all, the english subtitles are a direct translation, many things have to be altered to have folks understand it because it might have to much of a culture reference that americans might not get and so forth. All those little things are changed in someway or another to make it more understandable to other countries. So the english subtitles are different then the Dubtitles. do you see the difference?