NEW DUBS THAT ARE BAD

[Zeiram999]

I was just thinking about re-doing the dubs on some of these animes. A while back I purchased the collector's edition of Patlabor 2, a film that I love; however, I was disappointed to learn that the company releasing the DVD, had replaced the original Manga DVD dub with a new English dub that was simply terrible. For those of you who've seen Patlabor 2 on DVD, I thought that the dub of Goto was dead-on and had lots of character to the vocal. The rest was true about the other dubbed over voices, they matched perfectly. I also noticed that the swearing was toned-down a bit.

I was just wondering why they did this and why not keep the original dub? When My Neighbor Totoro was released by Disney finally on 2-disc DVD. They did not use the original great dub but instead replaced it with Dakota Fanning's voice (tell me what the hell's with that?)... I understand that there are copyright laws involved and everything, but if fans have an affection for the original material, the sway tends to land toward the familiar. You don't colorize Casablanca or Citizen Kane, you leave it as is and hope it sells. All in all, I think they should start keeping the good dubs for a change. They've done it before.

What do you think? Or do you simply not care?

[BasharOfTheAges]

... fans have an affection for the original material ...

Like the Japanese audio? You know, not a dub.

[Willen]

I would surmise that it has to do with licensing.

For Bandai Visual/Honneamise, it was probably cheaper for them in the long run to re-dub the Patlabor movies with the cast of their choosing. Plus, it avoids having to deal with another company when the inevitable HD format releases come around (and the resultant re-negotiations for using the old dub in another media).

The same goes for the Disney/Buena Vista version of My Neighbor Totoro. I'm sure they didn't want to have to deal with Fox for the rights to use the old dub of the movie. Plus, in this case you have the opportunity to promote the movie with the names of some well known actors attached to it. We have the aforementioned Dakota Fanning (Uptown Girls, War of the Worlds), her younger sister Elle Fanning, Timothy Daly (star of Wings, Superman (90's animated series), Lea Salonga (Aladdin, Mulan (singing voice for Jasmine and Mulan, respectively), and veteran cartoon voice actor Frank Welker (voice of Megatron in Transformers, among many other roles).

You don't colorize Casablanca or Citizen Kane, you leave it as is and hope it sells.

This isn't the same situation. Plus, strictly speaking, like BasharOfTheAges mentioned, keeping the original Japanese audio is truly staying to the original. In a way, dubbing it in English (or any other language) is more akin to 'colorizing' the movie than replacing the old dub with another one.

[kaze no moui]

Generally speaking I watch dubs. I'm more interested in the art, and most of the time only half watch anime while doing something else on my computer (college is a time bandit). That being said, I had to watch a subtitles on Samurai Gun. The Dub script was an atrocity. Bad translation, bad voice acting & directing, whoever did ADR on it should be shot in the street and made an example of. Oh and One Piece, don't get me started on that failure. How do you screw up what is often called the anime cash cow? I wish the Japanese would reduce lisencing cost so we can actually get good dubs, not just Ocean Group we work for peanuts crap. BLAME CANADA! *sigh* I'd rather go back to silent movies than watch another ocean group dub. Wait thats about what subs are for me.

[Mr. Anobe]

Meh, at least most dubs are not that bad...to me that is. I just find dubs just telling another side of the story, one anime after another. Some are great, and some are bad...and some are just plain funny, especially if the anime contains some "H".

Yeah, I find the dubs for hentai are hillarious, as if they are not even trying to make it sound interesting...except for Sexfriend.

I wish the Japanese would reduce lisencing cost so we can actually get good dubs, not just Ocean Group we work for peanuts crap. BLAME CANADA! *sigh* I'd rather go back to silent movies than watch another ocean group dub.

Wait, do you actually work for the Ocean Group Studios?

At least I can appreciate the efforts and talents of the Ocean Group down in my country, and probably the only good studio in Canada so far, IMO. I wouldn't mind watching them once in awhile, instead of listening to the same old guys down south, no offence...(but hey, they're pretty damn good too like FUNi and ADV)

It just how studios approach to these things with dubs, whether they pick the right vocal talents or made the right scripts. A good dub will have a strong vocal cast that has a strong and gripping script, and perform right on the spot which made to justify the original Japanese version or even better (like Trinity Blood for instance).