Holly wrote:
they basically pull from a pool of voice actors that get recycled over and over again

The more Adult Swim I see, the more I’m aware of that. The big one is the guy who did the dub of Jet in CB. He has a very distinctive voice, and I hear it a lot. Pretty much if there’s a tough-but-fair cop who the rebel main character trusts, there he’ll be. Fortunately, he’s quite good. According to IMDb, he’s done a truckload of TV, too. He was also in Real Genius, so I’m going to have to go back and look for him.

urbanshawoman wrote:
Another example of good dubbing – and good advance planning – would be Cowboy Bebop. It took me a couple of times through to realize that not only does word-to-lip-movement look good, but it was done so that’s rarely even an issue. It’s very subtle, but I eventually picked up on how rarely you’re looking directly at a character’s mouth while he or she is speaking dialogue of any length.

The Cowboy Bebop dub is very good. It’s probably one of the best. I also am fond of the Tenchi Muyo and the Gundam Wing dubs, as well as various movies like Twilight of the Dark Master and Ninja Scroll. I don’t really mind if the mouth movements don’t match the sounds, for me it’s all about acting ability. Regardless of whether it’s anime or western cartoons, if the voice acting sucks, it takes so much away from the whole thing. I understand anime dubs aren’t done with a huge budget and they basically pull from a pool of voice actors that get recycled over and over again, but it still bothers me that they use such sucky actors sometimes.

In general, I’d rather stick with a good foreign dub with subtitles than a lousy english dub.

Holly wrote:
But let’s not get into a subs vs. dubs war here. *subtly initiates war*

Aw, you know I can’t resist. :)

In order from “yes, please” to “die, motherfucker, die”:

Good dubbing
Good subtitles
(A few years ago, those would have been flip-flopped, but as my eyesight continues to decay….)
Bad subtitles
Bad dubbing

Another example of good dubbing – and good advance planning – would be Cowboy Bebop. It took me a couple of times through to realize that not only does word-to-lip-movement look good, but it was done so that’s rarely even an issue. It’s very subtle, but I eventually picked up on how rarely you’re looking directly at a character’s mouth while he or she is speaking dialogue of any length.

[huff]
Unfortunately, an example of bad subtitling can be found in Seven Samurai – and the Criterion version, no less. The grammar isn’t especially painful, but the spelling is. We’re talking the kinds of errors that even people who seem proud to announce that they can’t spell, and go into auto-whine mode the moment someone mentions spelling, still notice. You would think while they were rescuing an avowed classic, they could have taken a moment to have someone go through and say (for example) “Hey, it should be your there, not you’re, and bare doesn’t have two rs.”
[end huff]

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