DVD Release in Germany

[denis]

IIn 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.

From 1975 to 2002, I only watched the show in French. I bought the DVDs in 2002 and I have never watched it again in French so far ! Steed's French voice is good but it isn't only this point. It's about culture : in the episode Silent Dust, for instance, each British poets cited has a French counterpart in the French version ! More surprisingly, at the beginning of Look..., Broadfoot stands up and goes for the door without saying a word. In the French version, he says : "Quelqu'un à cette heure-ci !" What's the point to add something ?
Others series can't be translated or dubbed; Dempsey and Makepeace; there are so many puns; Makepeace : "We don't go on vacation, we go on holiday". How to translate that in a foreign language ?

[ricardomartins]

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...

Portuguese is the seventh language most spoken around the world. It's above French and German actually:

http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html

I still think that dubbing has something to do with the national idendity of some countries like France and Germany. We use subtitles here in Portugal because we don't think we are that relevant.

[ricardomartins]

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.

Yeah, that's my point. Italy has used dubbing since 1927 because of their strong sense of national identity.

[denis]

Portuguese is the seventh language most spoken around the world. It's above French and German actually:
http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html
I still think that dubbing has something to do with the national idendity of some countries like France and Germany. We use subtitles here in Portugal because we don't think we are that relevant.

As Philippa pointed out, dubbing is, first of all, a question of marketing, all the work has to be worthwhile. The series was popular in Germany and France in the sixties and I don't think The Avengers had the same popularity in Portugal then. I do not think that dubbing has something to do with national identity. In fact, the countries which are influential in the movies market tend to adopt dubbing.

[Norbert]

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.

Wrong! I have watched something with subtitles - it was weird.

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?

You did not understand my question. I asked what soundtrack is used in an international co-production. As there is no unique original soundtrack, a partly-dubbed track has to be used. For example, the Dutch DVDs of SANDOKAN have Italian sound with Dutch subtitles. However, the mini-series was not entirely shot in Italian - there were actors from France and Germany participating. I have the German box set and compared the voices of a German actor - in Italian, he had a completely different voice which was not his own. Thus, he was dubbed by an Italian actor in the Italian version. So, on the Dutch DVD, you cannot hear him with his own voice.

In the Bond movie GOLDFINGER, Gerd Fröbe played his role in English, but was overdubbed by a certain Michael Collins in the English version. His own voice can only be heard in the German version where he dubbed his English text in German.

[Norbert]

Portuguese is the seventh language most spoken around the world. It's above French and German actually:

http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html

I still think that dubbing has something to do with the national idendity of some countries like France and Germany. We use subtitles here in Portugal because we don't think we are that relevant.

That is really ridiculous.

[The Workaholic]

The reason countries don't dub, is because it is too expensive for small countries. Big countries with more viewers have more money to spend.

[mousemeat]

The reason countries don't dub, is because it is too expensive for small countries. Big countries with more viewers have more money to spend.

hard to believe, something like this, boils down to bleping money.

how much could this cost ?

I guess it makes sense..(sigh)

[Allard]

The German/French twin channel arte is repeating the Avengers starting tomorrow:
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/28/0,187 ... 74,00.html

[SteedMonk]

The German/French twin channel arte is repeating the Avengers starting tomorrow:
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/28/0,187 ... 74,00.html

That's the second time, that they broadcast the Avengers and I can put the episodes on my ipod .