‘The Boy and the Heron’: How GKIDS Pulled Off One of the Most Important Dubs in Anime History

[naveedchick]

We're taking you inside the story of how an American animation company laid it all on the line to make the English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki's "last" film a devastatingly beautiful must-see event: https://t.co/xZFh5KNDFh pic.twitter.com/7EhsNBGHRa
- IndieWire (@IndieWire) December 8, 2023

• The English language version came together rather

Comments

[benihime99]

She was encouraged to make it American and was able to bring a more emotional/vulnerable twist to the recording.

Right ...

I've tried watching Chihiro dubbed once and it was so horrendous I've never seen any other Ghibli dubbed
I find dubbed anime often lack in depth and emotion.

Also I'm a kid of the 80 and I've been horrified by the level of censure that occured with certain anime

[su_metal]

They sound so mediocre to me, and I don't hate US dub, there are some supreme US dubbing, but Ghibli films aren't there. Probably Mononoke dubbed is the only one I like the most.

Chihiro, Howl, and Totoro are like nails on a chalkboard for me.

[moirasrose]

They would have been better if Disney didn’t cast “celebrities.” Kingdom Hearts came out around the same time they had the rights to distribute Ghibli’s films and has the same issue.

There are some celebs that can voice act/dub, but for a lot of them it often feels like an easy paycheck “where you work in your pajamas lol.”

[su_metal]

Agree 100%

[magnetic_rose92]

I actually prefer the American dub of Princess Mononoke solely for Gillian Anderson as Moro. When I heard the Japanese version for the first time it really threw me off that Moro was a dude lol.

[su_metal]

We stand a goddess.

[elevatorshaker]

Moro is female. She was just voiced by a man (who did drag incidentally) in the original.

[qaladriel]

totoro is so, so bad. usually I can make my way through a dub but I've never finished that one. the original is beautiful though.

[su_metal]

I like to watch people reacting to Ghibli movies but it's hard...

[deerlike]

I actually don't mind the Chihiro/Spirited Away English dub that much (they actually used trained voice actors in this one, no Hollywood big names), but the original is superior.

But I really can't abide most Ghibli English dubs because they just don't capture the nuances of the dialogue. Hollywood actors as a rule aren't trained in voice acting the way actual voice actors are, so they often come out sounding very flat and subdued in affect, which doesn't work for the emotions and larger than life storytelling of Miyazaki's films.