Subtitle or Overdubbing?

[Foxbat]

I find myself becoming more and more discontent with Hollywood's constant regurgitation of old ideas. I am buying more and more foreign films and it makes me curious - do people prefer subtitles or an audio track in their own language?
Personally, I prefer subtitles because I find that even the sound of the original language adds to the atmosphere of the film. Of course, it can get pretty tiring reading all those captions in a two or three hour film.

 

[GOLLUM]

I always watch my foreign films with subtitles. Having the original voices of the actors in the film no matter which nationality always adds certain nuances that may be "lost in translation" literally..

It also makes the film more believable IMO because the language presumably fits the setting if its obviously based on a specific culture or country.

Quite often having Western (often American) voice-overs can seriously detract from ones viewing pleasure...

Happily these days with DVDs a lot of the time I can set the movie to its original language with English subtitles....

Of course having said all of that subtitles themselves can often be problematic because they're not always that accurate!!

 

[ravenus]

One always likes the option hearing the original dialog with subs.

In occasional cases dubbing helps. Princess Mononoke for instance I was far more comfortable with a dub since the dialog flows very fast and its hard to catch the subs. Kudos to Disney for providing very appropriate voice talent for all the parts.

Also love the dubbing on those cheap-ass Hong Kong chop-socky efforts...it multiplies the fun factor ten-fold.

 

[GOLLUM]

Also love the dubbing on those cheap-ass Hong Kong chop-socky efforts...it multiplies the fun factor ten-fold.

True Ravneus, one of the few exceptions I can see where voiceovers add to a film rather than detract from it.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Sometimes dub work can be a little hit or miss, so it's always nice to have the option. First preference is the original language where possible.

 

[Thadlerian]

There aren't really many countries who make movies in Norwegian for us, so you start reading subtitles as soon as you learn reading. After a while, you don't even think of them; you catch the meaning in a split second, and return to follow the pictures.

Funny thing is, when someone in the movie makes a joke, you read and understand it instantly, but you don't laugh until the actor has said all of it. Now that's weird!

I see dubbing as the worst possible thing that can happen to a movie. Unfortunately animated movies have to be dubbed at least once. The less times, the better (I fear Howl's Moving Castle coming to Norway will have gone Japanese-English-Norwegian).
Hearing translated voices itself isn't that bad; the problem is that dubbers tend to not only translate the script, but to interpret it as well. And poof! There you are, a whole different movie from the original. I find this a problem with the Disney dubbing of Ghibli films such as Mononoke or Laputa, especially when dialogue is added where there originally is none.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

I agree with Ravenus' comments above. In the main I prefer to watch movies in their original language - subtitles don't really bother me.
However, occasionally comedies (Shaolin Soccer comes to mind) seem better suited to dubbing.