So like Germany and France for example. It feels really weird for me as an Estonian when things that are for adults are dubbed. Maybe some (a bit shit) soap operas are dubbed – because old people have bad eyesight – but movies are never dubbed (unless it's for children, and even children's things aren't always dubbed).

For example I was in France 3 years ago during summer and absolutely everything on TV was in French – every single TV channel I had there. So I just watched some random Fast & Furious movie where a French-speaking Vin Diesel rode a car from one skyscraper to another.

So.. are there any dubs where you think the dub is better than the original? For example with the Estonian version of Ice Age iI think it might actually be better than the original (for Estonians I mean – cultural references and stuff).


31 comments

  1. Italian version of The Emperor New Groove has a few jokes that were not even there in the original scene

  2. Most of the ones from my childhood.

    And I must say Clint Eastwood’s real voice is a bit disappointing compared to the Spanish dub (Constantino Romero)

    Edit to add Donkey on Shrek 2 saying “Esto va a ser del riego” before passing out. Top

  3. I prefer books and movies in their original language if I can understand them.

    In NL we only dub media for kids that can’t read fast enough for subs yet though. E.g. nickelodeon.

  4. Polish dubbing of Shrek is masterful and I’d choose it any day over the original, even though I’m not a big fan of most of our dubbed movies.

  6. In Portugal only animated movies / shows are dubbed. Maybe some documentaries but a very small percentage.

    Anyways for example Shrek is definitely great in portuguese 😂.

  7. Nope. Ever since I learned english I have always prefered movies and TV shows in english (give that english was the original langauge). It was actually one of the reasons I stopped watching TV many years ago – everything was dubbed and I did not like it.

    generally speaking I prefer subtitles + original sound and dont like dubbing at all. The only exception where I can tolerate dubbing is children’s cartoons, where for obvious reasons, subtitles wont work)

  9. I grew up watching all Star Wars movies dubbed in French, and the first time I watched The Empire Strikes Back in English, I was really disappointed by the scene where Han and Leia kiss. The dubbed version has a great final line by Han that says something like “I am a nice scoundrel” instead of the original “I am a nice man”, which is so bland in comparison. I still prefer the dubbed version just for that line.

  10. I also prefer the Norwegian dub of Ice Age to the original English (although I’ve only seen the English version once). Tbh I prefer most animated children’s movies in Norwegian (Disney’s Robin Hood being a clear exception. That was just goddamn awful in Norwegian), but I suppose that’s just because of nostalgia, since that’s what I grew up with.

  12. Old movies and TV that had Rainer Brandt in charge of the German dubbing. For example: The Persuaders (German title: “Die Zwei”) or anything from the Bud Spencer/Terence Hill portfolio.

  13. Revenge of the Sith is so much better in german. 

    The cringey dialogue is worded a bit betteer and the voice actors sound a lot more passionate than some of the actual actors (Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in particular).

    Only real loss is Ian McDiarmids Palpatine.

  14. We don’t dub anything but kid’s shows, but I do have an example in that.

    My kids watched The Thundermans a lot, a show about an ‘odrinary superhero family’ living a ‘quiet life’ and it’s a riot. The main character Phoebe is a borderline sociopath who gets into wacky hijinks each episode by lying her pants off and her twin brother is a former bad guy whose morality is often very sus.

    Well, anyway, I recently had the ‘pleasure’ of watching the original undubbed version and it was…. quite terrible actually, almost like hearing Darth Vader’s original voice!

    The child actors were kind of struggling with their deliveries. Comedy is all about timing and confidence and the (mostly adult female) voice actors really punched up the lines to make them more hillarious. I can see why this show is very popular in Serbia but doesn’t have much of an international presence.

  15. The Spanish dub for The Simpsons is better than the original imo.

    I’m talking about our dub.

  16. I prefer the German dubs of the old Asterix movies over the original, like someone else here said. Thanks for reminding me. 
     

    And the children’s movies from Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks and Ghibli have REALLY good dubs, at least the older ones, I cannotsay anything about those from the last 10, 15 years or so. I don’t mind those at all. (And I dislike most dubs, so that says something.)

  17. Germany: Life of Brian by Monty Python. I love the German dub, some jokes of the German version are classics for me. 
    Of course, the English version is great (it’s Monty Python, duh!), it just doesn’t hit the same. 

  18. Czechia here and we end up dubbing all the popular movies eventually. In general, I prefer whichever version I saw first as the only correct one, whether original or dabbing. It also helps that our dubbing tends to be really good, matching the lip movements and tone well, and whenever possible uses the same VAs for one actor across different movies.

    Especially for male characters, I feel our VAs have better, deeper voices. Dubbing of Louis de Funes comes to mind, there’s even rumours Funes was really impressed with it himself.

    However, what I hate about dubbing is when they decide to redo it, esp for movies I’ve seen countless times before. It grates on my ears so bad when I know those aren’t the right voices or even the exact lines to the point that I’m unable to watch it.

  19. It’s a common saying that Hungarian dub is so good that many times it’s better than the original.

    I don’t think this is true. Most people who say this don’t understand English well enough, lack cultural context, or are just fond of the dubs because that’s how they first watched the movie. I think everything is better in its own voice, the way it was meant to be watched by its creators.

    A rare exception that I can think of is the Flintstones. The whole script was rewritten in rhymes, and it’s closer to a work of art than to a translation.

  20. In most cases english dub feels so sanitized when compared to polish for me. It just doesn’t pull those emotions (I can appreciate english dub hence in most rather than all).

  21. The Star Wars prequel trilogy is up there in Italian. But then again, there wasn’t much risk of making it *more* wooden.

  22. I remember a few cases where the German dub voice actors were really good and made the character special, while the original actor voice didn’t have that special “thing”. For example Gillian Anderson in the X-Files is definitely a very good actress, no issues with her acting or shade thrown at her intended, but her German voice dub actress Franziska Pigulla had an amazing unique calm deep register voice that gave Agent Scully a whole new vibe and definitely added to the awesomeness of the show.

    There are a lot of examples to the contrary tho. Now that we are speaking about 90s TV: Worf from Star Trek. The original actor has the perfect big guy klingon voice while his German voice actor just sounds like a regular dude, it’s a complete mismatch.

  23. I am german amd there is no way in this world, I would ever prefer to watch both Ice Age or Kumg Fu Panda in english over watching the german version, it’s just superior. Hape Kerkeling as Po and f.e. Otto Waalkes as Sid are just so perfect to voice these characters, that I won’t negotiate on that.

  25. Most childhood series because I’m just used to the voices.

    But two stick out: Spongebob and Ice Age!

    Spongebobs german voice actor is amazing and is not even comparable to any other spongebob voice actor! And Ice Age! Omggg I can’t believe the difference between our Sid and the other Sids!😂 There are worlds – no, universes between our voice actor and the others. I even heard that ours (Otto Waalkes, a comedian god in Germany) even gave advice about this role to voice actors from other countries.

    Of course I’m biased, but I genuinely believe those two are MUCH better than the rest!🙈

  26. the Czech dubbing of the Simpsons is so much better than the original. I remember being horrified at how grating some of the voices (*cough* Marge *cough*) were the first time I saw it in original lol

  27. I prefer The Simpsons and Shrek in the Spanish (Castillian) dub version

  28. All Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill Movies. When not in German Dub, only half as funny.

  29. The Simpsons’ french dubbing cast is great (especially for the main characters), and I’d argue that Bart’s french voice is better than his newer english one.

    Disney animated movies’ dubs are also great.

  30. It took me a while to be able to watch Gladiator from French dub to English. I was so used to it. 

    Same for The Simpsons or South Park, the French dubs are excellent, there is little added value to watch those in English (a very personal opinion). 

    The 5th element I absolutely refuse to watch in English, it’s a staple of my childhood and I won’t have my memories changed. 

  31. I genuinely think the German Simpsons dub is better, even though it’s obviously missing the D’oh. Star Wars is also better in German

    And I genuinely couldn’t care in which language I watch blockbuster movies, the German dub is generally very good. We aggressively dub absolutely everything, never seen a person older than 40 watch a single thing in English.

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