anime and musicals
I decided to watch the dubbed version of Howl's Moving Castle tonight, just to compare it to the subtitles. But a I only got a few scenes in, then I couldn't handle it anymore and switched back to Japanese with subtitles. So to all of you anime watchers out there: you were right. Subtitles beat dubbed versions anyday. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, the meaning changes. It's hard to tell how far this holds true when you have to rely on translated subtitles anyway, but I watched some in English with the subtitles on and compared. The gist was usually the same, but the sense was different. The dubbed version in places seemed to be trying to sound more hip and modern, which for me spoilt some of the innocent feel to the movie. Maybe 'cos I was brought up reading old fashioned kids books. But the language was borderline inappropriate some of the time. Well, for really young kids that is. Maybe for 4 year olds. The best example of the difference I can give i...