DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Whisper Of The Heart - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! (1 Viewer)

[Jay Pennington]

That is indeed a difficult aspect to casting English dubs of Ghibli films. The female characters are so often soft spoken and delicately feminine in voice, and most American actresses come across much more harshly in tone and inflection.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I suppose it's a question of whether you regard the anime film as a foreign film which happens to be animated, or an animated film which happens to be from another country. From my point of view it's the former, and so I regard whatever English-language there is as just that — a support, a crutch if you like — and its absence is no more than an annoyance. Thus, excessive literalism to the detriment of aesthetic effect doesn't disturb me nearly as much as adaptation of cultural references, and so forth; by the same token, I expect the voice actors to follow the expression patterns of the original actors as closely as I expect the translation to follow the script. I'm often disappointed on both counts.

 

[Adam_S]

I actually preferred the dub on My Neighbors the Yamadas, because with that animation style the subtitles were VERY VERY distracting, even if hearing the Japanese made more sense, the English worked better overall for me.

 

[James_M]

Actually, I forget the reason, but I heard that Disney has no plans at all to release Only Yesterday on DVD. You notice how now just about every Ghibli movie has it's DVD release by now? All that remains is Ocean Waves, which was not included in the Disney Tokuma deal, and Only Yesterday.http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/int...ew2.html#other

 

[Tony Kwong]

Only yesterday and I can hear the sea are my favroite. Whisper of the heart a close following. Heck I saw just about all of them in a movie theater in Japan ages ago It would have helped if my Japanese was good enough.

What I ended up doing for a lot of films was reading a print out of the translations I found on a bbs and stopping the video every once in a while to read to translated dialogue on the printout... I did this in the mid 1980's -early 1990's. ah the good old days of watching anime

 

[ChristopherDAC]

As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing stranger in this than in reading the libretto of an opera before you go… not that people do that anymore…

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Subtitle update (see review)...

 

[Carlo_M]

I agree with CDac in the belief that these are foreign films first, animated second. I honestly can't imagine a U.S. dub to something like Grave of the Fireflies capturing the same emotions that the original language dub does (and yes I did briefly listen to the US dub on that disc).

At the same time, I will agree with David's premise about it being a distraction having to go from reading the words to focusing on the image.

So my solution is simple: multiple viewings. The first time I focus on the words, and learn the plot. The second (and subsequent viewings) I hardly have to read the words since I already know the story, and can focus on the visuals.

I find this to be my ideal solution.

 

[Adam_S]

there is acceptable (david's approach) and comprehensible
and then there is WRONG, as wrong as wrong can possibly be

That sort of wrong is like watching grave of the fireflies in anything but Japanese. Just the thought is intolerable.

 

[Max Leung]

I do exactly the same thing as Carlo - I watch the sub first, then the english dub if the dub is of acceptable quality. I've watched Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex several times this way, as well as Princess Mononoke and a few of the other Disney distributed Miyazaki films.

It is ideal for myself as well.

 

[Brent Hutto]

Princess Mononoke with the Japanese dialog and no subtitles is a scary movie, like a nightmare in places. Spirited Away in Japanese with no subs is like a really lucid sweet dream.