DVD Release in Germany

[Dandy Forsdyke]

Philippa, you must have been an English girl in another life...

[denis]

There are some Gale episodes, I really like, for example MR. TEDDY BEAR. But one has to be aware of the fact that the style of the series was quite different.

This one would have made a good remake for season 4 contrary to The £50,000 Breakfast.
I watched 12 Cathy Gale and I think that many fans prefer the series from season four for a few reasons : poor quality of the picture (and the sound as well, I have to put headphones !), many stories have nothing Avengeresque compared with the b&w Emma Peel for instance. Steed is not the character you know.
These are the reasons why Arte is not going to broadcast seasons 2 and 3. In France, these seasons were broadcast in the 90s on a series channel.
That can be surprising to read that fans dare to write that some seasons or episodes are boring but it is a fact. With only these seasons, the series would never have been known world-wide !

[Philippa]

Philippa, you must have been an English girl in another life...

I guess I must've been

[Avengerholic]

That can be surprising to read that fans dare to write that some seasons or episodes are boring but it is a fact
With only these seasons, the series would never have been known world-wide !

... It's not fact !
And without them it would never have been known at all !

[denis]

With only these seasons, the series would never have been known world-wide !

... And without them it would never have been known at all !

It is a fact, indeed.

[Courier13]

Think of a movie shot in a language you never learned, e. g. Japanese. You do not know how accurate the translation really is. And if the actors talk very fast the subtitles must be very condensed.

Have you ever watched something with subtitles? The above quote seems to indicate that you haven't.

Furthermore, there are also international co-productions which have no real original language. The German actors talk in German, the French in French and the Italians in Italian. Later, the French and Italian sentences are dubbed into German for the German version, the German and Italian sentences are dubbed into French for the French version, and the German and French sentences are dubbed into Italian for the Italian version. The Dutch version is subtitled - but what soundtrack is used?

The original soundtrack. Why would we (the dutch) use a german or italian soundtrack Is this a trick question?


Other points raised in this thread:

- The Cathy Gale seasons are also very good, though Season 2 does suffer from poor picture quality and sound (people who state that Season 3 also has this problem are probably putting all the Cathy episodes on one heap).
- Steed in Season 4 is the same Steed as in Season 3. The other Seasons all feature a Steed different from those two seasons (or even from eachother).
- Dubbing is bad if only (other reasons aside) for picking up other languages. There is a reason why most of the French people (and to a lesser extent the Germans) are not able to speak English (apart from being stubborn).
- Yes, it is true that English is very easy to pick up for the Dutch (partly due to the subtitles), as I could also speak and read English by the age of 10 or 11. This was achieved by watching lots of BBC programmes, people tend to forget that English subtitles (with the English spoken word) also helps one to learn a language easier.

[ricardomartins]

Think of a movie shot in a language you never learned, e. g. Japanese. You do not know how accurate the translation really is. And if the actors talk very fast the subtitles must be very condensed.

Have you ever watched something with subtitles? The above quote seems to indicate that you haven't.

Furthermore, there are also international co-productions which have no real original language. The German actors talk in German, the French in French and the Italians in Italian. Later, the French and Italian sentences are dubbed into German for the German version, the German and Italian sentences are dubbed into French for the French version, and the German and French sentences are dubbed into Italian for the Italian version. The Dutch version is subtitled - but what soundtrack is used?

The original soundtrack. Why would we (the dutch) use a german or italian soundtrack Is this a trick question?


Other points raised in this thread:

- The Cathy Gale seasons are also very good, though Season 2 does suffer from poor picture quality and sound (people who state that Season 3 also has this problem are probably putting all the Cathy episodes on one heap).
- Steed in Season 4 is the same Steed as in Season 3. The other Seasons all feature a Steed different from those two seasons (or even from eachother).
- Dubbing is bad if only (other reasons aside) for picking up other languages. There is a reason why most of the French people (and to a lesser extent the Germans) are not able to speak English (apart from being stubborn).
- Yes, it is true that English is very easy to pick up for the Dutch (partly due to the subtitles), as I could also speak and read English by the age of 10 or 11. This was achieved by watching lots of BBC programmes, people tend to forget that English subtitles (with the English spoken word) also helps one to learn a language easier.

Courier 13's and Philippa are damn right. I identify very much with Netherlands because in Portugal we never - EVER - dub foreign films. That's probably the main reason why I'm so fluent in English, not because of what I learned in the (rather old fashioned) portuguese school.

Norbert and people who prefer dubbed movies will always prefer dubbed versions of "The Avengers" - that has been like that since 1927 - since sound appeared on Cinema. At that time, French and Germans were highly nationalistic, they couldn't even bear the shame of people speaking a foreign language on screen. I'm sorry to speak so bluntly but that's how germans and french were.

In Portugal, we consider dubbing very corny (we often make fun of Brazilians because they dub almost everything), and we are very good talking in other languages like people in Netherlands. As far as I know we dub here because Portugal had a high rate of illeteracy around 1927 so, to make people read more, the ministry of Culture opted for using subtitles and original sound instead of dubbing. I can find another very good reason for doing so - there's been a long time that Portugal is not a rich country (since the 16th century), so we managed to have some humility and begin to learn some other languages.

When I hear some spanish, french, german and italian folks state very proudly "I speak very good english" that usually makes me burst in laugh, because when they begin to speak NO english person can understand them at all.

Personally, I can't imagine a series like "The Avengers" without subtitles. Here's the prove: "The Avengers" are highly known here in Portugal, in Brazil it only aired twice since the 60's and it's almost unknown. Why? Brazilians dub, instead of using subtitles. They loose 50 % of the meaning and charm of the series.

[denis]

Norbert and people who prefer dubbed movies will always prefer dubbed versions of "The Avengers" - that has been like that since 1927 - since sound appeared on Cinema. At that time, French and Germans were highly nationalistic, they couldn't even bear the shame of people speaking a foreign language on screen. I'm sorry to speak so bluntly but that's how germans and french were.
In Portugal, we consider dubbing very corny (we often make fun of Brazilians because they dub almost everything), and we are very good talking in other languages like people in Netherlands.

I'm French and I do prefer watching The Avengers in English; there is always the possibility to let English subtitles in case of some misunderstanding. Subtitles in English or other languages are needed on the Cathy Gale seasons because of the poor quality of the sound. Dubbing films has nothing to do with nationalistic ideas (what a stupid idea!). That's only because German and French languages are more learnt around the world than Portuguese and Flemish ! That's all !
I can say that I have been many times in Portugal and Germany and the Germans are more apt to speak English than the Portuguese...

[Philippa]

I don't think it has much to do with nationalism/patriotism either to be honest.
It is true that it's not really worth it to dub tv series and films to some languages because it's not worth all the trouble. For instance with Dutch/Flemish and Portuguese to name a few. Ofcourse many people around the world speak French or Spanish for instance, so it would make all the work worthwile.
But on the other hand, everything in Italy is dubbed as well and apart from Italy and a part of Switzerland, there isn't another country in the world where they speak Italian. So it continues to be odd.

I just think, and this opinion won't change, that dubbing takes away a lot of charm and you completely loose touch with the general feeling of the show. In my opinion it's a shame to dub, because first of all you can learn a lot from watching series and films in their original language, and second of all because it's just not the same.

[Allard]

This does probably go back far before TV, merchants from smaller countries like the Netherlands or Portugal usually adapted to speaking the languages of other nations like France and Germany. The peoples of smaller nations are used to adapt and the peoples of larger nations are used to everything in their own language.