Audio clips of WT in French & other translation subjects

[BFR from Paris]

Edited:

Changing the premise of this thread a bit: If you want to talk about dubbing, subtitles, translations of WT (BtVS) from English into your own language etc. you can do so here. If you want to talk about what W/T and or A/A mean to you in your own language you can do so in the W/T Around the World thread (be sure to include a complete translation into English).



Since we've talked about it on the Kitten board ("W & T around the world" thread), I made these two clips using a PC microphone, so the sound quality isn't the best, sorry



Anway, the first clip is from "The Body" and it's the whole scene in which Willow freaks out because she doesn't know what to wear to go to the morgue... Sorry, it's not a happy moment, but I only have a few episodes of Btvs in French

Needless to say I taped this one because of "The Kiss" (btw, you'll notice that they dubbed the kissing noises also )



membres.lycos.fr/dvero/5x16_T&W_VF.mp3 (961 Kb)



And if you want to follow, here's a transcript for ya :



W : Qu'est-ce que tu en dis? Le violet est bien. C'est sombre, comme couleur. Non? Non, c'est trop démoralisant, ça fait employée des pompes funèbres. Non, non... Sinon, y a ça : c'est plus gai. Peut-être que... Oh, je vais avoir l'air gai comme si... comme si tout le monde était normal. Non, c'est indécent, c'est... C'est un manque de respect. La la, j'en ai rien à faire ! Si je trouvais le bleu... Joyce aimait mon haut bleu. Une fois, elle m'a dit qu'elle l'aimait. Tu.. tu es sûre qu'il est pas dans ta chambre ?



T : Je vais encore regarder.



W : Non... Non. Je... Oui, c'est ça, je vais mettre le violet. Le violet, il... Je crois que c'est le chemisier violet. D'un autre côté, il est trop... Je sais pas. Ça symbolise rien de mal ?



T : Je... Je crois que c'est... la royauté. Le violet symbolise... la royauté.



W : Je peux pas aller voir Buffy à la morgue habillée comme une reine ! "Je suis la reine du monde ! Je suis supérieure à toi !" Je dois lui apporter mon réconfort. Buffy a besoin que je la réconforte. Et pourquoi tous mes... tous mes pulls ont des motifs aussi stupides ? Pourquoi je m'habille pas comme une adulte ? Je peux pas être une adulte !



T : Chut...



W : Tara...



T : Chérie...



W : C'est trop dur pour moi.



~bisous~ (= smoochies )



T : On va y arriver, toutes les deux.



W : D'accord. Il faut qu'on soit là pour Buffy. Et Dawn. La petite Dawn !



T : On va être fortes.



W : Fortes comme des amazones ?



T : Fortes comme des amazones, oui.



W : D'accord. J'aurais voulu porter le bleu...



***************************



The second clip is shorter, it's from "Older and Far Away", and it's Tara defending Willow against a very freaked out Anya... Vas-y, Tara!!!



http://membres.lycos.fr/dvero/6x14_Tara_VF.mp3 (121 Kb)



And the transcript as well :



A : C'est pas nous qui t'avons obligée à te gaver de magie !



T : Hé ! Dis donc, pour qui tu te prends ? Elle a dit non. Et tu ne la forceras pas à faire quelque chose contre sa volonté. Tu entends ? Mais si tu veux essayer, il faudra d'abord que tu me passes sur le corps. T'as compris ?



***************************



That's it, hope you enjoy this little multilingual moment



Christine

Edited by: DrG at: 8/13/02 4:55:17 am

[AutumnT]

Actually that was very interesting, especially the first one. Sometimes you can get pretty bad actors doing the voices. Autumn shudders as she remembers the German voice of Scully However, especially in the first one it sounds like the gal who is doing Willow is certainly giving it her all emotionally. Sounds like she might do a pretty good job. Then again I don't understand any French and was just listening to the emotion behind the words I knew she was saying. I'm curious as to what the French speaker's opinion is of her voice acting. It's a tough job I'm sure to try to capture the original actor's intent and inflection.

Autumn

-----------

Buffy Season 6: It grated, like something forced in where it doesn't belong.

[Lindy]

Wha?? The German voice of Scully is way sexy.



The lady who gave Scully her voice gave it also to Miss Calender



*downloading the clips now*

~~~~~~~
It's nothing. It's all.. nothing

[pikachu1060]

Oh my god, thank you. It's just so weird. I mean, i know very well willow's french voice, since i saw seasons 1 to 4 in french, but i hardly heard tara's voice since after the 15th ep of season 4, i skipped to english. It's true that it's really better, cause at the beginning, it was just sooo bad. Now, seems like the girl who gives her voice to tara has improved a lot. But anyway, the original version is always better... And i was just wondering, did you tape the musical in french?





Edited to add: the girl who does willow's french voice also gave her voice to a lot of cartoons character, which is quite funny, cause when i hear her, it makes me think of all those stupid cartoons... kinda gives her a lack of credibility sometimes... Plus, she was also the one who gave her voice to anna in ER...

Chris
------------------
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
but of respect and joy in each other's life.
Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof. (richard bach - illusions)

Edited by: pikachu1060 at: 8/10/02 11:47:35 am

[Lindy]

Heh, that was nice



I gotta admit that I never was a big fan of French.. must have something to do with my grades, grrr, anyways.. this was very nice. I went all 'awww' and stuff, hehe, cute Thanks.

~~~~~~~
It's nothing. It's all.. nothing

[ally02]

When I went to Tenneriffe, the first thing I saw was Buffy in Spanish. What a coincidence lol...well all the actors voices were badly dubbed and all the women were done by the same person and the men were all done by the same guy. How do they make Giles British??



Aly xxx

You all didnt happen to do a bunch of drugs did ya?

[pikachu1060]

Well, in French, Giles doesn't sound british at all, obvioulsy. At least, as far as the accent goes. But he speaks in a certain way that reminds of english stereotypes...



But speaking of that, i'm in big troubles: i'm trying to subtitle season 6 for a friend, and in tabula rasa, spike laugh at giles because of his brittish accent, and after that, spike says all those english words while realizing he's english too. And i really don't know how i'm gonna do to subtitle that. Cause obviously, if i translate all those into french, it won't sound british at all... But at the same time, i can't let them in english... So, i guess i'll have to do some adaptations... So, french speaking kittens... Any idea on how i can get around that?

Chris
------------------
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
but of respect and joy in each other's life.
Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof. (richard bach - illusions)

[AutumnT]

Quote:

---

The German voice of Scully is way sexy.

---

I'm far too fond of Gillian Anderson. I thought the German lady made her sound like a brute.

Autumn

-----------

Buffy Season 6: It grated, like something forced in where it doesn't belong.

[pacou]

Bah, too bad I cant speak French! Maybe I should show that all my friends, cause they do speak French.

Gosh, why did I take Russian as second foreign language?



*pouts and lost in thoughts now*



Oh, but anyway, it sounds nice. Thats all I can say.

----------------------------------

TARA: Willow, you are using too much magic. What do you want me to do, just, just sit back and keep my mouth shut?
WILLOW: Well, that'd be a good start.
TARA: If I didn't love you so damn much I would!

[frenchrose888]

About 'Willow's' french voice : Autumn is right, she's good, very good sometimes even in the more extremely emotional scenes, such as this one in the Body, or in New Moon Rising for example. She's no Aly, obviously, but she's good as far as dubbing these scenes goes, and she's a fairly good crier. But the huge problem for me is in the humourous scenes. Let's face it, the best lines are for Will, and the french actress has clearly no idea how to act them out. Aly's comedic timing and delivery are perfect, the french actress' are simply pathetic, not to mention the very very poor translation of said great lines. Also, she kinda does play Willow like a mini-Meg Ryan on crack all the time. This actress is actually also the french voice of Meg Ryan, Marandra Delfino in Roswell among others : I guess she just finds it simpler to see them all as slighlty neurotic persons, and to dub them that way. Like others have said, it just takes all credibility and depth away from the character at times.

Anyway, it's my pet peeve so I'llmove on to the one dubbing Tara. I'm not actually a big fan of her work in general in movies or series, but at least she kinda 'got' Tara. She nailed the stutter, she was good as brain-sucked Tara and most of the time, she even thinks of doing that breathy thing Amber does. To me the big problem is, the two french actresses do not have one iota of chemistry, it's terrible in the romantic scenes, you can't really feel the love, if you know what I mean.



But I've rambled enough, let's just say that BtVS was probably the show with the best dubbing in seasons 1 & 2, and now well it's probably the one with the worst dubbing.



I'm bitter about this, sorry.*g*



Rose

'Magic, thy name is Tara.' - Mariacomet, The Stone Circle.

[Repost Moderator]

Originally posted by Hemiola



What is the correct English translation of "Vampyrenes Skraek"? I'm curious about the different versions of the show's title in other countries.



A few that I know:

"Buffy contre les vampires" (France = "Buffy against the vampires")

"Buffy--In Bann der Dämonen" (Germany = "Buffy under the Spell of the Demons")

"Buffy der Vampirjägerin" (Austria/Switzerland = "Buffy the Vampire Huntress")

etc

etc

etc

etc

------------------------------------------------------------

Giles: You are the Slayer, the Chosen One, the...

Buffy: ...the only one with the strength and skill to stand against the vampires, blah blah blah

from "Welcome to the Hellmouth"

[pikachu1060]

Buffy l'ammazzavampiri (italian: buffy the vampire killer)



Two years ago, when i was on holydays in italy, i happened to see one or two episodes of BtVS. Oh my god, that was so funny. I don't really remember if the dubbing was actually bad or good, but the voices were so... italian lol, no seriously, i'm quite used to the french voices (though i didn't see any season 5 or season 6 episode in french), i'm of course totally used to the actual voices of the cast, but hearing them in a third language was just so disturbing... I didn't even know who was speaking when i didn't get to see the faces of the actors. But still, that was so much fun

Chris
------------------
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
but of respect and joy in each other's life.
Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof. (richard bach - illusions)

[kukalaka]

Quote:

---

"Buffy--In Bann der Dämonen"

---

They keep using these hyphen-names for foreign movies and series, they always make me shudder as they sound so overly melodramatic (and it's " Im Bann der Dämonen" not "In")



And it can be pretty bad when they use the same voice for different characters: I can't watch any Robert Redford movie without thinking of Jean-Luc Picard. And I'm glad I never really watched Xena as T'Pol has the same voice now



And it would be "Buffy die Vampirjägerin" in Austria, sorry for the nitpicking.



Off to listen to the French stuff now.

--

It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. - Mark Twain

[Lindy]

Oh yeah, every other show gets the same sets of dubbing voices



When I am stupid and let my TV turned on when Dawson's Creek is on but do other stuff and only hear the voices I hear it .. and shudder.



Jen has Cordy's voice

Dawson has Xander's voice

Andy has Willow's voice



And in the reruns of Charmed Prue has Tara's voice.



There are more which I can't think of right now. Two voices I hear all the time are Angel's and Wesley's. In movies, other shows .. everywhere. Oh, and I think Kirsten Dunst had Willow's dubbing voice in Spiderman, but I'm not sure, cos I was kinda distracted while I watched the movie. But when she says the word "friends" at the end of the movie I thought I hear Willow talking to Tara in the dorm in NMR.



So, uhm, bleh. I wish we had just subtitles.



And Michelle (AP) has another voice than Willow



Stupid.

~~~~~~~
It's nothing. It's all.. nothing

Edited by: Lindy  at: 8/13/02 7:21:59 am

[pikachu1060]

At least, in French, Michelle and willow have the same voice, thanks god! They usually try to stick to the initial voice, but it's true that sometimes, voices change, and it's totally disturbing. Even within a same show. Like in charmed, piper changed voice after season 2... But this is OT isn't it?



So, buffy speaking, Faith changed voice too. I guess it's because she was not there for quite a long time, but her voice in season 3 BtVS is not the same as her voice in season 4 BtVS/season 1 AtS...



Oh, and in Simply irresistible, SMG voice was not the same as in BtVS, and there are so many exemples like those... Did i mention that it was disturbing??



I hate dubbed movies/tv shows

Chris
------------------
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
but of respect and joy in each other's life.
Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof. (richard bach - illusions)

[raccoon]

Heh - in Norway BtVS is not dubbed (television never is) but the subtitles tend to get... interesting. "Miles to go before I sleep" was translated into "Miles has to go before I fall asleep" which made the whole library exchange very risquée.



Norway was one of the first countries to get BtVS - we got S1 almost simultaneously with the US. Then, after S3, the channel inexplicably cut the show. It's only this summer that they've started again. Sigh.



The show used to be called "Buffy - Vampyrenes Skrekk" (Buffy - The Horror of the Vampires) but this time around they've edited it to just "Buffy". Thank God for small mercies.

*I am, you know, yours."

[pikachu1060]

Yeah, we get lots of translation mistakes too.



In restless, when willow's painting on tara's back, and they say:



TARA: You don't know everything about me.

WILLOW: Have you told me your real name?

TARA: Oh, you know that.



It was translated by:



T: you don't know everything about me (okay, that part was pretty much the same)

W: is tara a pseudonym?

T: You know it is...



Which is the contrary of what was originally said.



And again, there are lots of other exemples, just that i can't think of any right now.

Chris
------------------
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
but of respect and joy in each other's life.
Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof. (richard bach - illusions)

[raccoon]

I was in France last spring and got to see the French-dubbed version of Forever. Ve-ery interesting.



And, oh, the translation mistakes! Norway was so bad, my sister, dad, and I (Buffy fans all of us) finally got the UK tapes just to get away from them. In every episode the translators would get some key comment all wrong. Willow'd say "I'm all over grovelling" which would turn into "I'm done grovelling". Angel would say "The Master rose" which would inexplicably be translated as "Master Rose" (the flower, not the verb!)



Edited to add: Pikachu, LOVE your signatures

*I am, you know, yours."

Edited by: raccoon at: 8/13/02 9:00:40 am

[Jimmi Magnus]

Sometimes the correct translation will get an unwanted slang expression, that will still keep the original meaning, if you're not "hip" with the slang.



The really bad one I remember is from Episode 7 season 1 "Angel", where Buffy is in the hospital with her mom, whom Darla had bitten.



Buffy: She's gonna be okay. They, they gave her some iron...



It's the second part that's a bit disturbing in danish.

"They, they gave her some iron" translates into "De, de gav hende noget jern". While it really does retain the original line to the word, it has an unwanted slang meaning. Blunty put Buffy tells Giles that her mom will be OK, and the doctors sexually penetrated her mom with their penisses.



And I'm pretty sure that's NOT how doctors operate people with blood loss!

[raccoon]

Heh, Jimmi Magnus



De gav hende noget jern? Det er virkelig ganske hysterisk morsomt Hvor langt er Buffy kommet i Danmark? Her i Norge er vi fremdeles midt i S4 - typisk norsk....

*I am, you know, yours."

[Jimmi Magnus]

Hi raccoon, (keeping it english so that other Kittens will understand it).



Here in Denmark we just recently finished season 5.

We will get "Becoming pt 1&2" sep 22.



And we allready have Buffy season 1-4 on DVD (this is like the only time _ever_ that Europe get some movie stuff before the US).

[pikachu1060]

Quote:

---

the doctors sexually penetrated her mom with their penisses

---

Lol, this is just too funny



Actually, in French, it's often the contrary, that is something which has a double meaning in English, but not in French.

The more obvious example would be "lost in extasy, spread beneath my willow tree". In french, saule is the translation of willow tree, and you don't have the double meaning Willow character / willow tree. Again, lots of other examples that i just can't remember now...



Oh yeah, also in restless, when tara says "be back before dawn", no french people could ever see the innuendo, cause dawn is translated by aurore and of course, dawn's name is still dawn...



But those are only examples with the double meanings of names, while there are lots of others which doesn't involve names at all...

Chris
------------------
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
but of respect and joy in each other's life.
Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof. (richard bach - illusions)

[Pagan singer]

Pikachu, I did tape the musical in french.. and I couldn't believe what i heard.. My God!! They changed almost all the voices during the songs..

It was so grotesque: when Tara was singing, they actually had her voice dubbed by a woman who must be at least 50.. Her name is Claude Lombard, and she used to sing most of the themes of Japanese cartoon series that were being aired in France when I was a little girl.. Imagine the voice of a 50 years old woman serenading Willow.. You get a pretty freaky picture!



At first I was angry, because it was such a waste.. and an insult to the people who worked hard on this episode. But I couldn't help laughing at the same time!

They even dubbed Giles' singing voice with the one of a guy who always dubbs teenager characters.. which is a brilliant idea in a key episode where he's supposed to represent the father figure who's deciding he's gonna leave his 19 years old 'daughter'..

That being said, I'll let you imagine what the Tara/Giles duet "Wish I could Stay" sounded like..



Throughout the whole episodes, the lyrics of the songs were lamely translated anyway.. but the whole thing was actually worth a good laugh!

[pikachu1060]

Lol, yeah, i kinda heard it on a buffy radio online, and it's true it was quite laughable But the sound wasn't really great, so i couldn't make out most of the lyrics. I wish i could buy the tape somewhere *sigh*... Guess i'll have to wait till the season 6 DVDs are released, that is roughly a year i guess. Anyway, even if i hate dubbed movies/tv shows, and i'm totally pro subtitles... we have to keep in mind that dubbing this episode (the others too, but especially this one), was probably something really difficult to do... And i'm quite amazed that they actually manage to do it... But yeah, nothing's better than the original version of course!

Chris
------------------
There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands
You seek problems because you need their gifts
Richard Bach - Illusions

[vix84]

LOL this is such a funny threat!



C'mon people, keep up the stories, they're great! Esp. the Danish penises, and the Tara/Giles duet...



XiX84

-------------------------

Why do people who don't go to college always refer to everything outside of
college as the "real world"? Like college is some imaginary realm with
elves and witches and...
(thinks about it)
Huh.


Willow to Xander, Triangle Shooting Script

[Hemiola]

I have to say that I'm truly amazed that they attempted dubbing for the French broadcast of "OMWF".



I recently watched the French version of the wonderful old Mel Brooks comedy, "History of the World, Part I" on DVD and when they came to the famous musical version of "The Inquisition (Oh What A Show!)", they simply left the language in English, without even any subtitles!!!!!



If they could do this for the Mel Brooks movie, why can't they do this for "Buffy"???? If, however, they insist on creating a French version of this episode, why not follow the excellent examples of wonderful French musical dubbing for the Disney films, or more recently, for "Shrek"?

[cpdm4444]

I just listened to the two French audio clips (thank you BFR! ) and I think they are very funny. Yes, and as everyone´s already said, nothing can be as good as the English original but the dubbed versions can still be interesting.

Tara:"No, it´s okay. Lost is good. Willow and I always know how to find each other."

Willow:"I´m a breast gal myself, but then again you knew that."

[pikachu1060]

Yeah, as a linguist, i agree that subtitled versions are the best, but everybody doesn't share that opinion. I'm part of those who prefer original versions, even when i don't understand the language. For example, i saw Fucking Amal both in french and in Swedish (which obviously i don't understand), and in my opinion, the original version was far better. But some people just doesn't like having to read the subtitles. My cousin for example, who is french, hates it. He thinks that when you read, you miss some important details on the screen. He may have a point, but still, i think there's nothing compared to an original version. But i guess it's part of the upbringing. See, belgium is a two-language country. We have french in the south and dutch in the north... i live in Brussels which is both dutch and french speaking, and when we go to the cinema, we get to se the original version with both dutch and french subtitles (they do that so that everybody can attend the same screening). And so, since i can read, i go and see movie in original version. But in France, they always have the dubbed version, and they are used to it, so, except for a few, that doesn't bother them. On the contrary, it's the subtitled version which bother them.

Quote:

---

they simply left the language in English, without even any subtitles!!!!!

---

About this, you have to understand that they just can't do it. Not for a whole episode. In restless, in giles's dream, when he sings to willow and xander about what they should do, they let it in french, cause it was very short. But see, people are used to the french voice. And when they get to hear the actual voices, they're lost and don't like it. So, for OMWF, they had to dubbed it... Cause most part of the audience are teenagers, and they like the show, but aren't addicted like we are. And that part of the audience doesn't like change, and wouldn't like to hear other voices than those they are used to...



Hope this makes some kinda sense... it's very clear in my head, but i don't know why, i have some troubles to put it into words...

Chris
------------------
There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands
You seek problems because you need their gifts
Richard Bach - Illusions

[Jimmi Magnus]

Here in Denmark we have subtitles on all foreign language movies/tv-shows.

We aren't all that important in the great scheme of things, so we just have to adapt. That is why every danish kid learns english and a second foreign language (german or french).

But having been brought up watching sub-titles, I kinda like them. You get used to them, and if they are done properly (black transparent boxes with white letters in the bottom of the screen) they will not impede the picture. But being used to subtitles also have a few drawbacks. the biggest is that I'm sure I miss some dialogue when watching something that's not subtitled. Like when I'm watching my Buffy DVD's I allways have the english subtitles on. And if it's subtitled in a language I don't understand, I'm totally fucked. I keep trying to read the subtitles, but I don't understand any of it, so I miss whatever I'm watching.

The best thing about subtitling must be in comedies. When you understand english, and get what they are saying, you sometimes get two different jokes for the price of one. As the translator will have had to make up one to fit an occation, where a direct translation will lose all meaning.



I am militantly against dubbing. The biggest con is that it destroys any acting the actor may be doing. Just watch something dubbed vs something that's not, and you will get my point. A smaller con is that you don't get used to hearing other languages. And as a result you're not as good at speaking/understanding foreign languages as someone who have watched subtitled stuff all the time. I have only been to France once, and what really stuck me is, that the youth of France overall isn't very good at english. I know that french is used in alot of countries. But from my (and many of my fellow danes) point of view, you just have to be able to speak english if you want to live in an international world. And I "blame" this "bad english" on dubbing vs subtitling.



As I said "militant". But I do respect other peoples views. I most likely just don't share them

[pikachu1060]

Quote:

---

And if it's subtitled in a language I don't understand, I'm totally fucked. I keep trying to read the subtitles, but I don't understand any of it, so I miss whatever I'm watching.

---

Yeah, same here. Actually, as i said, belgium is a bilingual country. In brussels, we have both french speaking tv channels and dutch speaking tv channels. The french have all the movies/tv shows dubbed while the dutch have them with subtitles. When i was good enough in english to understand movies without needing french subtitles, i began to watch dutch tv... That also an other pro of subtitles: even if you don't speak the language of the channel but you speak english, you can watch the programs (while dutch people can't watch anything on tv channels if they don't speak french). Anyway... When i watch stuff with subtitles that i don't get, i can't help reading them... And as you said, i focus on reading them, don't listen anymore to what is being said, and as a result, i miss everything... lol. But it's okay though, cause after a while, i realize it and focus on not reading But it's quite disturbing anyway.

On the other hand, when i watch a movie with french subtitles, i can manage to focus both on what's being said and the subtitles (i guess i can't do it with dutch subtitles cause i don't get dutch, and so my mind just sticks with meaningless words and it prevent me from listening). And that's why helped me improved my english. Cause i could manage to read the subtitles while listening, and after that, i could make out what has been said in english.



As for what you said about most of french people not being able to speak english, i totally agree. Being forced to watch a movie with subtitles kinda get you used to the language (english for instance), and then, it's easy to learn and speak it correctly. This is quite striking in belgium, cause most of the dutch people are plurilingual, while the french speaking people can't speak anything but french. And i think tv is one of the reason for that. Plus the fact that dutch is spoken nowhere except in belgium and in the netherland... well, and maybe some former colony that i don't know, but anyway, it's not much spoken. While french used to be an international language, and french people are still convinced that french is enough for them. Which is so not true.



But i think we're quite off topic here... Sorry about that, but subtitle VS dubbed tv is a topic on which i often get carried away...

Chris
------------------
There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands
You seek problems because you need their gifts
Richard Bach - Illusions