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Triplets of Belleville DVD (1 Viewer)

Marc Colella

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By that logic, you wouldn't have problems with a DVD release of Toy Story that had someone else's voice in place of Tom Hanks' voice.
 

WillardK

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Once again, the original language track is included as the film was originally created in two versions for theater presentation. I have not examined the differences, but most likely all that is noticeable is the credits. In other words, I doubt it's worth it to buy both English and French language versions unless you want whatever extra supplements there might be.
 

Mark-W

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Marc Colella-

Switching Tom Hanks's voice with say Eddie Murphy's wouldn't be a big deal would it?
;)
 

WillardK

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I wonder if one of the reasons two versions were created was precisely to prevent someone from slapping subtitles over the dialogue, which as has been mentioned is mostly used as a sound effect.
 

JohnRice

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It is cropped a bit, but most of that is overscan. You are assuming none of that was intended.
 

WillardK

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...

and most if not all spaghetti westerns... and all Fellini films... and probably just about anything from Cinicetta... and most Bollywood films I've seen... and all animated films...

in any case, film sound is as much an artifice as film lighting.
 

Mark-W

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I didn't say "whole films" are dubbed did I? Simply that films, live action or not, almost always involve some dubbing and/or ADR because the set was too close to an airport, or they changed a line to fix this or that or, hey, had Darth Vader sound like James Earl Jones and not David Prowse. :)

The point was, just because a film was originally dubbed doesn't mean that exchanging the original language track with another language track because of the foreign market is often not a good artistic choice. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. A film being animted doesn't make it any more tollerable (or excuseable) than if it was a live action film.

Glad to hear that the film was always intended to have those few lines in English, but the whole, "Well it is animted," excuse doesn't cut it; Just ask the average fan of Hayao Miyazaki if Mononoke Hine is better in the original language or if they perfer to hear Clarie Danes totally SUCK in her performance as the title character.

Both are dubbed, but one was done by a professional voice actor in Japan...
 

WillardK

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What is it that you do not understand? Both versions of the film are original versions. They are both as the film was intended by it's creators. Are you in a position to second guess their decision making?
 

Mark-W

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Willardk-

You seem to have missed my last paragraph.

I was taking issue with someone taking the position that it is somehow less offensive to have an animated film (re)dubbed as opposed to a live action film. I wasn't talking specifically about The Tripletes of Belleville, which I already responded to with the following:

 

Jeff Adkins

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That's a great example! I had almost forgotten how awful the dubbing was in that one. Original Spoken Language is just as important as Original Aspect Ratio.

Jeff
 

Carlo_M

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I fully agree about Original Spoken Dialogue.

However, given the nature of this film (not that much dialogue) and the fact that the makers went out of their way to concurrently make an English version (as opposed to years later someone just redubbing a successful foreign movie), coupled with the unavailability of a superior R0 NTSC version on DVD (can't play out-of-region discs at home) makes this an R1 purchase for me. I will post my thoughts about this whole affair after I get to watch the film (hopefully this weekend)...
 

Michael Harris

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It appears that a lot of the problem and confusion was one of labling. It seems that when the term "English" was seen it was assumed that a French movie was dubbed into English as opposed to their being a version for the Francophone market and one for the English market made concurrently.

Since the city of Belleville is a stereotype of a big American city the line of dialogue spoken to the old lady "No money, no hamburger" resonates better in English IMHO.
 

Steve Y

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The version I caught in the theaters had exactly two lines of subtitle that I remember: the opening titles (which was unnecessary) and the comment at the very beginning from one character to another as they watch the TV. The line was spoken in French and translated below.

On the DVD, I'm told the line is spoken in English. This seems to be the largest change from the French soundtrack, and if so it is a remarkably small difference, and not worth gathering pitchforks over.

As for the framing, I haven't seen it so I can't comment. However, someone I trust recently purchased it and reported to me that it was a fine transfer, with no framing problems that he could see.

~s
 

Ravi K

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I noticed no framing problems in the theater, but I would like to see some screenshots, or at least get some confirmation from someone involved with the film that it was meant to be opened up vertically before buying the R1 DVD.
 

Brian F

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I ended up getting the R.1 Columbia disc. It actually isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The framing is off in a few parts (character heads being slightly cropped), but it is tolerable for me. The theatrical presentation I saw was cropped significantly more than this DVD. The DVD is good, and the film is great!
 

Doug Schiller

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Man, I just don't get it. Unless I had a magic Columbia copy, everything was perfect.

First, the only thing that was cropped odd was the opening animation which was done for effect (like the opening of JFK).

Second, everything except the lady at the burger joint was in French, even the grandmother. If this is the english version what is the difference? A different person speaking in French?

Subtitles? for what?

The only time I thought a subtitle would help was when they were showing you the French newspaper, but it was so obvious, none was needed.
 

JohnRice

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Exactly, Doug.

I ended up sidestepping a bit, but there was a lot of complaining going on based on assumptions. Like assuming the marquee at the beginning is supposed to be completely visible and the [assumption[/i] nobody's head is ever supposed to be cropped off at the top. Tops of heads are cropped off all the times in movies. Having said that, apparently the movie was intended for 1.66:1 viewing, but I've found no concrete evidence of that.
 

Michael Harris

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I finally watched it and thought it great. Just as I remember it from the theater. One thing was odd though. In the supplemental featurette on the making of the movie everytime they showed an excerpt from the movie they had subtitles on the scenes where there was dialogue even though the director was saying that the film was essentially a silent movie.
 

Carlo_M

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Finally got around to watching it last night:

1. The original dialogue vs. English version is essentially a non-issue. There are very few words spoken and quite a bit of it (actually the majority) is still in French. Personally, as a big OAR and Original Dialogue Version fan, I don't feel this is an issue.

2. The framing did seem odd *at times* - sometimes tops or bottoms of heads seemed cut off, but this was few and far between. Mostly the framing seemed fine. I can definitely understand though if some people felt the framing was tight (I thought it was in some shots). If it was originally drawn in 1.66 or 1.33 they drew it "1.78 safe" (for lack of a better word) for the most part.
 

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