Totoro and "Whisper" dubs... what did you think?

I'm just curious what everyone thought of the dubs of My Neighbor Totoro and Whisper of the Heart that played (for the first time ever) on Turner Classic Movies on Thursday. Personally, I thought the Totoro dub was a disaster. It was many steps down from the previous 20th Century Fox dub. The kids were WAY too screamy, and the way that they pronounced the word "totoro" throughout the film nearly made my ears bleed. (They pronounced it with a soft 't'). I commented to a friend afterwards that it was the only English -language Ghibli release that I am likely to always watch in Japanese. However, on a more positive note, I found the Whisper of the Heart dub to be very good. All performances were understated and conveyed the nuance that the story required. I'm wondering what everyone else thought.


I look forward to your responses,

Damion Pisacane

**slight spoiler**

I'm curious how they did the translating of Country Road

What they did was have Shizuku writing new lyrics to the song (rather than translating them.) I was wondering that myself when I was watching it. But I think they did a pretty good job with it. Would have been neat if she was translating the song into French or something though.

I also like the old Fox dub better than the new Disney one. I liked the way the songs were sung in the original dub over the new one as well(the beginning and ending songs). And even though it's a niggling detail, I liked the way Totoro sounded in the Fox dub/Japanese version over the new Disney one (even though Frank Welker is a living legend in voice acting).

I was very surprised at how good the dub of Whisper of the Heart was. The Japanese version is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I thought surely it would be one Ghibli work that would be hard to dub.

I loved it, and IMO i'm beginning to like it over the original version. I do think they took some liberties in how they translated some things (making them use words like "corny", "shut up", etc.), and it took away some of the timeless grace of the dialogue.

Also, the voice actor for Shizuku (Brittany Snow) had a better singing voice than Yuko Honna (no disrespect for Yuko though; I've always found her singing in the original very charming).

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I've never really liked anime's dubbed, I always watch it with english subtitles. Like you showed, they don't get it quite right (like with the children pronouncing totoro wrong)

It's according to preference really, sometimes you just like dubs and sometimes you just prefer subs. They're usually pretty much equal. You'd be surprised how horrible some japanese voices are (watch hack//Dusk) and how good some dubs are (Cardcaptor Sakura).

Anyway, I hope I can rent the english dub of Whisper. It's my personal fav, so looking forward to hearing the dub.

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Originally posted by fenkashi
Screw your opinions, they are not relevant ^^.

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Heh... the TCM channel here has never showed any Ghibli movie, while the Cartoon Network has never shown any anime. I really envy you guys . So far I cannot find any rental store with the US Ghibli releases available. The only Ghibli movie that I have seen in English is Kiki, and that's only because the English track is included in the R2JP DVD.

As for the immortal sub vs dub debate, I personally treat a movie with a local dub an original piece of work separated from the subbed version. You can like either of them, like all of them or hate both of them. In any case they are not mutually exclusive. If one prefers the original version, just stick to the sub, or even better, learn Japanese. The sub translations can be horrible and unliteral at times.

My love of the original Japanese Kiki didn't really impede my enjoyment of the local dub, which blatantly turned it into a slapstick comedy. I laughed so hard that I almost fell off my chair. Purists may shout "blasphemy," but I just treated it as a parody and do not hesitate to admit that the viewing experience was very entertaining.

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I've never seen a studio ghibli film on tv but i guess i just have the normal channels and nothing extra.

I didn't get to see Totoro at all, but I loved Whisper of the Heart.

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