movies at la casa de mousepod

[innerSpaceman]

Well, in preparation for the language vote for the actual Earthsea movie which is, hahaha, the purported subject of this thread ... I did a little basic Wikipedia research which did not help me at all.

I'm surprised the Ghibli movie is not based on the original novel, or even the second one ... but rather loosely on the 3rd and 4th books. That gives me the same pause I have in reading the books in that I just have this general assumption that the first story is great ... and the subsquent ones not so great ... for any series of books or movies.


BUT, the key question here of whether the language of EarthSea is better represented by English or Japanese is still an open one for me. Apparently, most of our good guys vaguely resemble Pacific Islanders ...and most of our bad guys resemble Northern Europeans? Is that right?


I really don't give a hoot if the film's original language is Japanese. I find it very distracting to watch films that clearly take place in Europe, but have everyone speaking as if they're in Nippon. This will not be case with EarthSea, of course, but the trailer mousepod linked to made it look like the film takes place in quasi-Arabia!!

Also, since I find reading the subtitles ever so, but noticeably, distracting from the beautiful images so vital to animated films ... I really can only condone the Japanese language track for stories that actually happen in Japan.

Um, and it would be hard for me to vote against Timothy Dalton and Willem Dafoe as two of the actors I'd be hearing.



Will of the majority (or the casa de mousepod dogs) will rule ... but I'm giving fair warning that my vote will likely be for the English language version.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

I really don't give a hoot if the film's original language is Japanese. I find it very distracting to watch films that clearly take place in Europe, but have everyone speaking as if they're in Nippon.

And yet you accept American-made movies set in France consisting entirely of spoken English?

For me, watching dubbed is so grating. It's not about what the people look like or where they're from, it's about the pace and rhythm of the language matching the visual pace and rhythm of the movie. Even if Miyazaki has said he doesn't animate to the voice acting, there is simply a narrative sensibility that is inseparable from the native language of the story teller and that sensibility comes through in the animation. I don't care how good the translation and subsequent voice acting is, there will always be a disjoint in a dubbed movie between the spoken word and the visuals and to me, it's a glaring disjoint that detracts from the whole.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

And yet you accept American-made movies set in France consisting entirely of spoken English?

Not necessarily. Movies set in France where people speak English with American accents would be totally wrong. Everyone knows the proper way to represent the French language in film is with English spoken with British accents. Sheesh.