A difference of opinion
I think I mentioned that while we were in Paris, someone suggested that America is a bad country for us, and we're starting to think that person may be on to something...although not because of politics or anything like that, because we live in a cave.
See, there's a new animated series on Netflix, and today we decided to give it a try. The story was interesting enough, but the characters were really getting on our nerves, so when the first episode ended and started its little preview of what's to come, I was just like, "Uuuuuuugh..." the whole time. But then the French voice credits came up, and it turns out we had to go back and watch some scenes again in French, for the usual reason. The thing about it, though, is I was like, "I'm not sure I can do it," because the show was that annoying to me. Nevertheless, our voice actor loyalty is strong, and Athena was going to insist anyway, so we went back and watched those scenes. And they were pretty okay. (The scenes were pretty okay. The voice acting was good.)
After that, I decided the story was intriguing enough that, since our favorite voice actor is in the series, I was willing to keep going...but only if we didn't watch it in English. So we watched the second episode in French...and it was way better. Like a breath of fresh air, almost. Or at least like getting off the bus (one vehicle with canned air) and getting on the train (another vehicle with canned air, but different, so it feels fresher anyway). ...Okay, it's probably not really that bad, but the point is I had a much easier time with it when we watched it in French.
I don't know what it is. I've already mentioned our philosophy about watching things in the original language because supposedly it's that much closer to the creator's original vision. But we just couldn't stand the English language voices. I don't know if it's some allergy we have. I'm certain that everybody involved in the creation of the show was trying to do a good job. Towards the beginning of the first episode, Athena noticed that one of the characters was delivering lines in a way that wasn't how she personally would have said them, but realized that sometimes people just talk differently, so her comment was, "I don't know if the voice acting is bad, but it's definitely annoying."
And that's how it was for the majority of the cast. To me, it sounded like they were acting real hard. Like they were trying so hard to deliver their lines in a fun, creative way that it didn't sound like real people. I think there's a rhythm to natural speech, and while they're trying to be fun, quirky characters, they lose track of the rhythm, so I guess it's kind of like listening to someone try and fail to clap to the beat. Or something.
But obviously there were several people who approved it, so they didn't think it was a problem. And we feel like a lot of voice acting in America is subpar these days (though to be fair, we kind of avoid listening to it anymore, so it's not like we really know). Conclusion: maybe America really is a bad country for us.
Today I'm thankful for the soothing voices in the original Fraggle Rock, Wembley's song about learning to love a wimp (which we also listened to in French), the amazing voice direction of Andrea Romano, having ice cream to eat now, and getting to sleep in tomorrow.
See, there's a new animated series on Netflix, and today we decided to give it a try. The story was interesting enough, but the characters were really getting on our nerves, so when the first episode ended and started its little preview of what's to come, I was just like, "Uuuuuuugh..." the whole time. But then the French voice credits came up, and it turns out we had to go back and watch some scenes again in French, for the usual reason. The thing about it, though, is I was like, "I'm not sure I can do it," because the show was that annoying to me. Nevertheless, our voice actor loyalty is strong, and Athena was going to insist anyway, so we went back and watched those scenes. And they were pretty okay. (The scenes were pretty okay. The voice acting was good.)
After that, I decided the story was intriguing enough that, since our favorite voice actor is in the series, I was willing to keep going...but only if we didn't watch it in English. So we watched the second episode in French...and it was way better. Like a breath of fresh air, almost. Or at least like getting off the bus (one vehicle with canned air) and getting on the train (another vehicle with canned air, but different, so it feels fresher anyway). ...Okay, it's probably not really that bad, but the point is I had a much easier time with it when we watched it in French.
I don't know what it is. I've already mentioned our philosophy about watching things in the original language because supposedly it's that much closer to the creator's original vision. But we just couldn't stand the English language voices. I don't know if it's some allergy we have. I'm certain that everybody involved in the creation of the show was trying to do a good job. Towards the beginning of the first episode, Athena noticed that one of the characters was delivering lines in a way that wasn't how she personally would have said them, but realized that sometimes people just talk differently, so her comment was, "I don't know if the voice acting is bad, but it's definitely annoying."
And that's how it was for the majority of the cast. To me, it sounded like they were acting real hard. Like they were trying so hard to deliver their lines in a fun, creative way that it didn't sound like real people. I think there's a rhythm to natural speech, and while they're trying to be fun, quirky characters, they lose track of the rhythm, so I guess it's kind of like listening to someone try and fail to clap to the beat. Or something.
But obviously there were several people who approved it, so they didn't think it was a problem. And we feel like a lot of voice acting in America is subpar these days (though to be fair, we kind of avoid listening to it anymore, so it's not like we really know). Conclusion: maybe America really is a bad country for us.
Today I'm thankful for the soothing voices in the original Fraggle Rock, Wembley's song about learning to love a wimp (which we also listened to in French), the amazing voice direction of Andrea Romano, having ice cream to eat now, and getting to sleep in tomorrow.