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By Ciara O' DonnellThe growth of dubbed films and television is becoming commonplace through unexpected means.
Dubbed cinema has an interesting history. Not all countries, cultures, and genre dub films. Italy originally dubbed over every film entering the country. Anime and the community around it typically prefer subtitles. Americans have been pampered by Hollywood and the majority of films cater to them through the use of the English language. So, what is dubbing? Dubbing is when the original production mixed audio is replaced with voice overs in other languages. These are recorded during post production in sound stages rather than on set. This makes the films accessible and marketable to audiences beyond borders. Dubbed cinema versus subbed cinema, cinema with subtitles, can become a rousing topic as it is often preference led. Do you prefer to hear the film as intended? Do subtitles take away from the film? For our deaf and hard of hearing community, subtitles are often desired and needed. This allows them the ability to watch films at the cinema and not just at home. Which leads to the question: What if you don’t know something has been dubbed? Recent changes in technology and dubbing skills, especially with online streaming platforms make it difficult to detect that you are watching a dubbed foreign film or tv show. There are other considerations for dubbing. In Italy, films that entered the country were always dubbed for the ease of the audience. Subtitles were a rarity. To consider a country having such a culture around this while others hardly considered it is fascinating. Similar to Hollywood before sound, films entering Italian cinema could focus on appearances. With Japan, anime is imported into other countries where the idea is not whether to dub or not. It is dub versus sub for the focus to be on the original voice acting. However, this too has evolved. Films from Studio Ghibli Films and other Japanese art cinema will always be considered films to never watch dubbed but rather subbed. As people become busier and are watching film and television while doing other daily tasks, they simply do not have the time to sit down and watch things with subtitles. This has even created fans and community around American voice actors who dub over anime. Cinema has constantly been evolving and we have had so many ways to view moving pictures. This includes the nickelodeons, silent films, talkies, modern theaters, television, Blockbuster, Netflix, and other streaming services. Netflix started as a humble movie rental website that allowed anyone to be mailed mainstream movies, art films, older movies, and international films. America has never taken strongly to subtitled movies, and dubbed films can come across as cheesy. The newest evolution in streaming has changed this. Netflix has been curating content that is enjoyable and visually beautiful. Some of this content is foreign and you would not immediately come to this realization. The posters and photos give nothing away. If you click on the information it is also not immediately obvious. How you come to this realization is if you click where it gives it’s age rating. This small section will give you the genres and you can find out where a film is from. However, most people just click play. Netflix’s brilliance is in the mastered audio. It is seamlessly worked over the original films and shows. Only a keen eye and ear would notice the difference and upon simpler inspection of the subtitle and audio options see what the original audio was. When and if the viewer notices the difference they have become so interested in what they are watching that they are invested and no longer care if it has been dubbed over.
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