Dubbing, also known as re-recording, is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production, in which vocal recording (like dialogue) occurs subsequent to the original recording stage. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers speaking another language. However, the practice also involves the re-recording and synchronizing of audio segments with the existing footage. In the past, the procedure was practiced in musicals when the actor had an unsatisfactory singing voice, and remains in use to enable the screening of audio-visual material to a mass audience in countries where viewers do not speak the same language as the original performers.
This process whereby an actor re-records lines spoken during filming in order to improve audio quality or reflect dialogue changes is called Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR), also known as Additional Dialogue Recording. Music is also subject to the dubbing process in the post-editing stage of a film.
Films, videos and sometimes video games are sometimes dubbed into the local language of a foreign market. Where foreign distribution occurs, dubbing is sometimes common in theatrically released films, television films, television series, cartoons and anime.
Automated Dialogue Replacement / post-sync 
Automated Dialogue Replacement, or Additional Dialogue Recording (ADR), is the process of re-recording the original dialogue after the filming process for the purpose of obtaining a cleaner, more intelligible dialogue track (also known as "looping" or a "looping session"). In the UK it is also called "post-synchronisation" or "post-sync".
In conventional film production, a production sound mixer records dialogue during filming. Accompanying noise from the set, equipment, traffic, wind, and the overall ambiance of the surrounding environment often results in unusable production sound. During the post-production process a supervising sound editor or ADR Supervisor reviews all of the dialogue in the film and decides which lines must be re-recorded. ADR is also used to change original lines recorded on set to clarify context or improve diction and timing.
For animation such as computer-generated imagery or animated cartoons, dialogue is recorded to a pre-edited version of the show. Although the characters' voices are recorded in a studio, ADR is necessary whenever members of the cast cannot all be present at once.
ADR is recorded during an ADR session, which takes place in a specialized sound studio. The actor, usually the original actor from the set, views the scene with the original sound, then attempts to recreate the performance as closely as possible. Over the course of multiple re-takes, the actor repeatedly performs the lines while watching the scene, and the most suitable take becomes the final version.
Sometimes, a different actor is used from the original actor on set. Two famous examples are the Star Wars characters Darth Vader, portrayed by David Prowse and Beru Lars portrayed by Scottish actress Shelagh Fraser. In post-production, James Earl Jones dubbed the voice of Vader and an unknown actress dubbed for Fraser due to her heavy Scottish accent.
Sometimes actors are hired to dub actors who speak the same language but delivered their lines with a foreign accent or poor diction. For example, Frenchmen Philippe Noiret and Jacques Perrin were dubbed into Italian for Cinema Paradiso and Austrian bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger was dubbed for Hercules in New York. Argentine boxer Carlos Monzon, who didn't have a clear diction, had his voice dubbed by a professional actor when he played the lead in the drama La Mary, and Gert Frobe, who played Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film of that name (Goldfinger) was because of his heavy German accent dubbed by Michael Collins.
There are variations of the ADR process. It does not have to take place in a post-production studio, but can be recorded on location, with mobile equipment. ADR can also be recorded without showing the actor the image they must match, but only by having him listen to the performance.
Rythmo band 
An alternative method, called "rythmo band" (or "lip-sync band"), has historically been utilized in Canada and France. It provides a more precise guide for the actors, directors and technicians and can be used to complement the traditional ADR method. The "band" is actually a clear 35 mm film leader on which the dialogue is hand-written in India ink, together with numerous additional indications for the actor—including laughs, cries, length of syllables, mouth sounds, breaths, mouth openings and closings.
The rythmo band is projected in the studio and scrolls in perfect synchronization with the picture. Due to the efficiency of the rythmo band, the number of retakes can be reduced, resulting in substantial savings in recording time; although, the time saved in the studio requires a long preparatory process.
The preparation of a rythmo band is a time-consuming process involving a series of specialists organized in a production line. Until recently this prevented the technique from being more widely adopted, but software emulations of rythmo band technology overcome the disadvantages of the traditional rythmo band process and significantly reduce the time needed to prepare a dubbing session. Studio time is also used more efficiently, since with the aid of scrolling text, picture, and audio cues actors can read more lines per hour than with ADR alone (only picture and audio). With ADR, actors can average 10–12 lines per hour, while rythmo band can facilitate the reading of 35-50 lines per hour.
At present, there exist several dubbing software solutions, among which are dubStudio (developed in Québec, Canada) and Synchronos (developed in France).
Practice of dubbing foreign films throughout the world 
Dubbing is often used to localize a foreign movie. The new voice track is usually spoken by a voice artist. In many countries, most actors who regularly perform this duty are generally little-known outside of popular circles such as anime fandom, for example, or when their voice has become synonymous with the role or the actor or actress whose voice they usually dub. In the United States, many of these actors also employ pseudonyms or go uncredited due to Screen Actors Guild regulations or a simple desire to dissociate themselves from the role. However, famous local actors can also be hired to perform the dubbing, particularly for comedies and animated movies, as their names are supposed to attract moviegoers, and the entire Hollywood cast may be dubbed by a local cast of similar notoriety.
Dubbing only for children 
In North-West Europe— the UK, Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium and the Nordic countries—Portugal and Balkan countries generally only movies and TV shows intended for children are dubbed, while all TV shows and movies for older audiences are subtitled (animated productions have a tradition of often being dubbed though). For movies in cinemas with clear target audiences both below and above around 10–11 years of age, usually both a dubbed and a subtitled version are available.
In the Netherlands, in the majority of cases Dutch versions are only made for children and youth related films. Animation movies are shown in theaters with Dutch dubbing, but usually those cinemas with more screening rooms also provide the original subtitled version; that was the case for movies like Babe, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Finding Nemo, Cars, Shrek the Third, Ratatouille, Kung Fu Panda and WALL-E.
Since Belgium is a multilingual country, films are shown in Dutch and French. The range of French dubbed versions is approximately as wide as the German range where practically all films and TV-series are dubbed. Sometimes separate versions are recorded in the Netherlands and in Flanders; for instance several Walt Disney films or Harry Potter films. These dubbed versions only differ from each other in using different voice actors and different pronunciation while the text is almost the same. In general, movies shown by Flemish broadcasters are always shown in their original language with subtitles, except most movies made for a young audience.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the vast majority of foreign films are subtitled although, mostly animated films and TV programmes, are dubbed in English. These usually originate from North America as opposed to being dubbed locally, although there have been notable examples of films and TV programmes successfully dubbed in the UK, such as the Japanese Monkey and French Magic Roundabout series. When airing films on television, channels in the UK and Ireland often choose subtitling over dubbing, even if a dubbing in English exists. It is also a fairly common practice for animation aimed at pre-school children to be re-dubbed with British voice actors replacing the original voices, although this is not done with shows aimed at older audiences.
In Portugal, dubbing was banned under a 1948 law, as a way of protecting the domestic film industry. Till 1994, animated movies as well as other TV series for children in Portugal were dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese due to the lack of interest from Portuguese companies in the dubbing industry. This lack of interest was justified since there were already quality dubbed copies of shows and movies in the Portuguese language made by Brazilians (same language, different accent and some dialogue changes). The Lion King was the first feature film to be dubbed in European Portuguese rather than just Brazilian Portuguese alone. Nowadays all movies for children are dubbed in European Portuguese. Subtitles are preferred in Portugal, being used in every foreign-language documentary, TV series and film, the exception being when children are the target public. While on TV children's shows and movies are always dubbed, in cinema theaters films with a clear juvenile target can be found in two versions, one dubbed (identified by the letters V.P., meaning versão portuguesa - Portuguese version) and other subtitled version (V.O., meaning versão original - original version). This duality applies only to juvenile films, others use subtitles only. While the quality of these dubs is recognized (some already got international recognition and prizes), original versions with subtitles are usually preferred by the grown public (Bee Movie as an example). It is not a common practice to dub cartoons meant for adults (such as The Simpsons or South Park). When The Simpsons Movie debuted in Portugal most cinemas showed both versions (V.O. and V.P.), but in some small cities, cinemas decided to offer only the Portuguese version, decision that lead to the public protest. Nowadays, live action series and movies are always shown in its original language format with Portuguese subtitles. Television programs for young children for example such as: Power Rangers, Goosebumps, Big Bad Beetleborgs, etc. are dubbed into European Portuguese. Regarding video games, there are some mature-based games that are dubbed in European Portuguese such as God of War III, Halo 3, Assassin's Creed III, inFamous 2 and others. All dubbed games allow you to change to the original version at the option menu, at your will.
In Romania, virtually all programmes intended for children and young adults are dubbed in Romanian, including cartoons, live-action movies and TV series on Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Minimax, Nickelodeon as well as those shown on generalist television networks, children-focused series like Power Rangers, The New Addams Family, The Planet's Funniest Animals or movies screened on children television. Animation movies are shown in theaters with Romanian dubbing, but usually those cinemas with more screening rooms also provide the original subtitled version; that was the case for movies like Babe, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Finding Nemo, Cars, Shrek the Third, Ratatouille, Kung Fu Panda or WALL-E. Other foreign TV shows and movies are shown in the original language with Romanian subtitles. Usually subtitles are preferred in the Romanian market, except for programmes intended for children. According to "Special Eurobarometer 243" of the European Commission (research carried out in November and December 2005), 62% of Romanians prefer to watch foreign films and programmes with subtitles, rather than dubbed; nonetheless 22% have a preference for dubbing, while 16% declined to answer. This is led by the assumption that watching movies in their original versions is very useful for learning foreign languages. However, according to the same Eurobarometer, virtually no Romanian found this method—watching movies in their original version—to be the most efficient way of learning foreign languages, compared to 53 percent who preferred language lessons at school.
In the Nordic countries, dubbing is used only in animated features and other films for young audiences. Some theaters in the major cities may also screen the original version, usually as the last showing of the day, or in a smaller auditorium in a multiplex. According to a survey, almost 95% of the population in these countries prefer the original version. In Finland, for children of the 5% Swedish-speaking minority, the dubbed version from Sweden may also be available at certain cinemas, but only in cities/towns with a significant percentage of Swedish speakers. DVD releases usually only have the original audio, except for children's films which have both Finnish and Swedish language tracks, in addition to the original audio and subtitles in both languages. In movie theaters, films for grown-up audiences have both Finnish and Swedish subtitles, the Finnish printed in basic font and the Swedish printed below the Finnish in a cursive font. In the early ages of television, foreign TV shows and movies were dubbed by one actor in Finland, as in Russian Gavrilov translation. Later, subtitles became a practice on Finnish television. Dubbing of other than children's films is unpopular in Finland, as in many other countries. A good example is The Simpsons Movie. While the original version was well-received, the Finnish dubbed version got poor reviews; some critics even calling it a disaster. On the other hand, many dubs of Disney animated features have been well-received, both critically and by the public.
In Greece, all films are released theatrically in their original versions and contain subtitles. Only cartoon films (for example, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and so on) are released in both original and Greek-dubbed versions, for children who cannot yet read quickly or not at all. Foreign TV shows are also shown in their original versions except for most cartoons. For example The Flintstones and The Jetsons were always dubbed, while Family Guy and American Dad! are always subtitled and contains the original English dialogue, since it is mostly for adults rather than children. Only Mexican TV series like Rubí, La usurpadora, and teen series like Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody are dubbed in Greek. Japanese Anime like Dragon Ball, Tokyo Mew Mew, Sonic X Pokémon and Sailor Moon are also shown dubbed in Greek.
In Serbia and most other Serbian-speaking parts of former Yugoslavia, foreign films, TV series and TV news are always subtitled, while children's movies and cartoons are dubbed into Serbian. The dubbing of cartoon classics during the 1980s had a twist of its own: famous Belgrade actors provided the voices for Disney's, Warner Brothers', MGM's and other companies' characters, frequently using region specific phrases and sentences and thus adding a dose of local humor to the translation of the original lines. These phrases became immensely popular and are still being used for tongue-in-cheek comments in specific situations. Even though these dubbed classics are seldom aired nowadays, younger generations continue to use these phrases without knowing their true origin.
In Croatia foreign films and TV series are always subtitled, while some children programs and cartoons are dubbed into Croatian. Recently, more efforts have been made to introduce dubbing, but public reception was poor. Regardless of language, Croatian audience prefers subtitling to dubbing. Some previously quite popular shows (for example, Sailor Moon) lost their appeal completely after dubbing started and were eventually taken off the program. The situation is similar with theater movies with only those intended for children being dubbed (Finding Nemo, Shark Tale), but they are also regularly shown subtitled as well. Recently, there has been effort to impose dubbing by Nova TV with La Fea Más Bella translated as Ružna ljepotica (lit. "The Ugly Beauty"), a Mexican telenovela, but it failed poorly. In fact they had only dubbed a quarter of the show, ultimately replacing it with the subtitled version due to lack of interest for the dubbed version.
In Slovenia, all foreign films and television programmes are subtitled without exception. Traditionally, children's movies and animated cartoons used to be dubbed, but subtitling has gradually spread into that genre as well. Nowadays, only movies for pre-school children remain dubbed.
Unlike Latvia and Lithuania, in Estonian films are shown in the original language with subtitles at cinemas. Subtitles are usually presented in both Estonian and Russian languages. Animated films are commonly shown in both the original language and dubbed into Estonian (or Russian in many cinemas). Most Estonian language television channels use subtitles for foreign language films and TV channels however Russian language channels tend to use dubbing more often especially for Russian channels broadcast from Russian (as opposed to Russian channels broadcast from Estonia).
Countries that generally dub foreign programming into their own language 
In the Italian, French, German, Spanish, Turkish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Russian and Ukrainian language-speaking markets of Europe, almost all foreign films and television shows are dubbed (the exception being the majority of theatrical releases of adult-audience movies in Czech Republic and Slovakia and high profile videos in Russia). There are few opportunities to watch foreign movies in their original versions, and in Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria even in the largest cities there are few cinemas that screen original versions with subtitles, or without any translation. However, digital pay-TV programming is often available in the original language, including the latest movies. Prior to the rise of DVDs, which in these countries are mostly issued with multi-language audio tracks, original-language films other than in the country's official language were rare, whether in theaters, on TV, or on home video, and subtitled versions were considered a product for small niche markets such as intellectual or art films.
In France, movies and TV series are always released dubbed in French in TV. Films are usually released theatrically in both dubbed and original versions in large cities' main street theaters, a theater showing a subtitled movie typically has a sign on the poster advising moviegoers that the film is an original-language version (usually abbreviated VO [version originale] or VOST [version originale sous-titrée] as opposed to VF [version française]). Normally, the availability of films dubbed or subtitled depends of the characteristics of the film, American blockbusters with mainly mixed or negative reviews by critics tend to be only in dubbed versions, while foreign films with mainly positive reviews are usually available in their original versions. Art house movies are often only available in their original version, due to limited distribution. Some voice talents, such as Alexandre Gillet, Roger Carel, Richard Darbois, Edgar Givry, Jacques Frantz, Jacques Balutin, Marc Alfos, Serge Faliu or Francis Lax, have achieved significant popularity.
The Germanophone dubbing market is the largest in Europe. Germany has the most foreign movie dubbing studios per capita and per given area in the world. In Germany, Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland, practically all films, shows, television series and foreign soap operas are shown in dubbed versions created for the German market. (In Switzerland however in every bigger town [10,000 and more inhabitants], both versions are usually shown, either in the same theatre at different hours/days or in different cinemas. Even a considerably high number of Swiss' big cities theaters tend to show only the original versions with subtitles). In this market, computer games and video games feature German text menus and are dubbed into the German language if there are any speaking parts in the games. However, in recent years, Swiss-German television, SRF 1 and SRF zwei have been showing increasing numbers of movies in dual sound, which means the viewer can choose between the original language (usually English) or German. In addition, Swiss-French television shows many broadcasts available in either the original language or in French, as does the Swiss-Italian television channel RSI. A common example is the American detective series Columbo and other popular series-based broadcasts, such as Starsky and Hutch.
Dubbing films has been and is still tradition and common practice in the German-speaking area, since subtitles are not accepted and used as much as in other European countries. According to a European study, Austria is the country with the highest rejection (more than 70 percent) with regard to using subtitles, followed by Italy, Spain and Germany.
Although voice actors play only a secondary role, they are still notable for providing familiar voices to well-known actors. Famous foreign actors are known and recognized for their German voice and the German audience is used to them, so dubbing is also a matter of authenticity. However, in larger cities there are theaters where movies can be seen in their original versions as English has become somewhat more popular (among young educated viewers). On German mainstream television, films are never broadcast with subtitles, but pay-per-view programming is often available in the original language. Subtitled niche and art films are sometimes aired on smaller networks.
German dubbed versions sometimes diverge greatly from the original, especially adding humorous elements to the original. In extreme cases, like The Persuaders!, the dubbed version was more successful than the English original. Often, translation adds sexually explicit gags the U.S. versions might not be allowed to use. For example, in Bewitched, the translators changed The Do-not-disturb sign will hang on the door tonight to The only hanging thing tonight will be the Do-not-disturb sign.
Some movies dubbed before reunification exist in different versions for the east and the west. They use different translations, and often differ in the style of dubbing.
In Italy, dubbing is systematic, with a tradition going back to the 1930s in Rome, Milan, and Turin. In Mussolini's fascist Italy, release of foreign languages movies was banned for political reasons. Rome is the principal base of the dubbing industry, where major productions such as movies, drama, documentaries and some cartoons are dubbed. However, dubbing in Milan is mostly of cartoons and some minor productions. Practically every foreign film of every genre (mostly American ones), for kids or adults, as well as TV shows, are dubbed into Italian. In big cities original version movies can also be seen in some theatre. Subtitles are usually available on late night programmes on mainstream TV channels, and on pay-TV all movies are available in the original language with Italian subtitles, and many shows feature the original soundtrack. But for fans of dubbing, there are some little-known sites on the Internet that offer the free streaming of movies with their Italian soundtrack. Early in their career, actors as Alberto Sordi or Nino Manfredi worked extensively as a dubbing actor. Furthermore, common practice at one point in Italian cinema was to shoot scenes MOS and dub the dialogue in post-production, a notable example being The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, in which even actors speaking English on screen had to dub in their own voices. Also in Italy an actor/actress can be identified with his/her dubbing artist's voice: Ferruccio Amendola is Robert De Niro or Sylvester Stallone, Giuseppe Rinaldi is Paul Newman, Lydia Simoneschi is Bette Davis or Ingrid Bergman etc.
In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, virtually all foreign films and television programmes shown on television are dubbed, often by very well known actors. In Slovakia often the Czech dub is shown instead of producing a local one. Some audiences prefer the Czech dubs because they are considered to be of higher quality. In both countries dubbing actors often "overact", causing audiences to express views that American films are of low intellectual quality. In cinemas, films are usually shown subtitled, unless they are intended for children of 12 years of age and younger; Slovak law requires that those films be dubbed or rated as MP-12 (roughly equivalent to PG-13, without a cautionary meaning in this case.). Cinemas sometimes offer both dubbed and subtitled screenings for either very major movie releases (for example, the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy) that would have otherwise not been dubbed, or conversely for children's films or family films that are expected to also attract mature viewers (for example, Shrek) to maximize the potential audience. In the Czech Republic, it is also common that some actors are always dubbed by one Czech actor, for instance Louis de Funes was almost always dubbed by František Filipovský. In Slovakia, state-owned public broadcaster Slovenská televízia dubs programs that it acquires from foreign companies for its channels into Slovak. Markiza and TV JOJ also dub TV series. In the Czech Republic, MiniMax, Animax, TV Prima and other Czech-language stations also impose dubbing. For example, Jan Maxián is the official Czech voice dubbing artist for high-profile actor, Elijah Wood. But in the Slovak dubbing markets, Elijah Wood's Slovak voice was provided by Michal Hallon.
In Spain, practically all foreign television programmes are shown dubbed in European Spanish, as are most films. Some dubbing actors have achieved popularity for their voices, like Constantino Romero, who dubs Clint Eastwood, Darth Vader and Schwarzenegger's Terminator, among others, and Óscar Muñoz who is the official European Spanish dub-over voice artist for Elijah Wood and Hayden Christensen.
In Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, Galicia and the Basque Country, many or most foreign programmes are also dubbed into their own official languages, different from European Spanish. Currently, with the spread of the Digital terrestrial television most movies and series can be listened to both in the original and in the dubbed version.
Mixed areas 
In Bulgaria, television series are dubbed but most television channels in Bulgaria use subtitles for the action and drama movies. AXN uses subtitles for its series, but currently, as of 2008 emphasizes dubbing. Only Diema channels dub all programmes. Movies in theaters, excepting films for children, use subtitles. Dubbing of television programs is usually done using voice-overs, but usually with at least four or five actors reading the lines and always trying to give each character a different voice and use appropriate intonations in each sentence. Dubbing with synchronized voices is rarely used, mostly for animated films (with Mrs. Doubtfire being a rare example of a feature film dubbed this way on BNT Channel 1, though a subtitled version is currently shown on other channels). Walt Disney Television's animated series (for example, DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, Timon and Pumbaa) were only aired with synchronized Bulgarian voices on BNT Channel 1 until 2005, but then the Disney show was canceled. When airing of Disney series resumed on Nova Television and Jetix in 2008, voice-over was used (but Disney animated movie translations still use synchronized voices). Voice-over dubbing is not used in theatrical releases. The Bulgarian film industry law requires ALL children's films to be dubbed, not subtitled. Nova Television dubbed and aired the Pokémon anime with synchronized voices. Now, the show is airing on Disney Channel, also in a synchronized form.
In Hungary, practically all television programmes are dubbed, as are about 50 percent of movies in theaters. In the socialist era, every one of them was dubbed with professional and mostly popular actors. Great care was taken to make sure the same voice actor would lend his voice to the same actor. In the early 1990s, as cinemas tried to keep up with showing newly released films, subtitling became dominant in cinema. This, in turn, forced TV channels to make their own cheap versions of dubbed soundtracks for the movies they presented, resulting in a constant degrading of dubbing quality. Once this became customary, cinema distributors resumed the habit of dubbing for popular productions, presenting them in a quality varying from very poor to average. However, every single feature is presented with the original soundtrack in at least one cinema in large towns and cities.
However, in Hungary, most documentary films and series (for example, on Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel) are made with voice-over. Also some old movies and series, or ones that provide non-translatable jokes and conversations (for example, Mr. Bean television series), are shown only with subtitles.
There is a more recent problem arising from dubbing included on DVD releases. Many generations have grown up with an original, and by current technological standards outdated soundtrack, which is either technologically (mono or bad quality stereo sound) or legally (expired soundtrack license) unsuitable for a DVD release. Many original features are released on DVD with a new soundtrack, which in some cases proves to be extremely unpopular, thus forcing DVD producers to include the original soundtrack. In some rare cases the Hungarian soundtrack is left out altogether. This happens notably with Warner Home Video Hungary, who ignored the existence of Hungarian soundtracks completely. This was because they did not want to pay the licensees for the soundtracks to be included on their new DVD releases, which appear with improved picture quality, but very poor subtitling.
In Poland cinema releases for general audiences are almost exclusively subtitled, with the exception of children's movies, and television screenings of movies, as well as made-for-TV shows, are usually shown with voice-over, where a voice talent reads a translation over the original soundtrack. This method, called juxtareading, is similar to the so-called Gavrilov translation in Russia, with one difference—all dialogues are translated with only one acute, and usually male voice, preferably deep and neutral, that does not interfere with the pitch of voice of the original speakers in the background. To some extent, it resembles live translation. Certain highly qualified lectors are traditionally assigned to a particular kind of production, such as action or drama. Standard dubbing is not widely popular with most audiences, with the exception of cartoons and children's shows, which are dubbed also for TV releases.
Poland's dubbing traditions begin between the two world wars. In 1931, among the first movies dubbed int Polish by a Lector were Dangerous Curves (1929), The Dance of Life (1929), Paramount on Parade (1930), and Darling of the Gods (1930). In 1949, the first dubbing studio opened in Łódź. The first film dubbed that year was Russkiy Vopros (filmed 1948).
The Polish dubbing in the first post-war years suffered from poor synchronization. The Polish dialogues were unclear, so people could not understand them. Cinemas had an old aperture that sometimes made a film more unclear than it was. In the 1950s, the Polish publicist discussed about the quality of Polish versions of foreign movies.
The number of dubbed movies and the quality improved. In the 1960s-80's, Polish dubbing had a golden age. In the cinemas were dubbed 1/3 of foreign movies. It was said about "Polish dubbing school" because of its high quality. In that time Poland had some of the best dubbing in the world. The most important person who initiated high quality dubbing versions was director Zofia Dybowska-Aleksandrowicz. Her works were as good as original and sometimes even better who admitted people connected with the original version (actors and directors). In that time, dubbing in Poland was very popular. The Polish television dubbed very popular films and TV series such as Rich Man, Poor Man, Fawlty Towers, Forsyte Saga, Elizabeth R, I, Claudius, I'll Take Manhattan, Peter the Great.
In the 1980s, due to budget cuts, the television did not have money for tapes so they used the actual recordings. After the first emission, dubbing was cancelled (they recorded on that tape something else). In the era of communism, almost 1000 films were dubbed. In the 1990s, after democratic transformation, Polish television (TVP) was still dubbing films and TV series. Unfortunately, like in the 1980s, it was a dubbing only for one emission.
In the year 1995, Canal+ was launched, it at its first years dubbed 30% of the schedule. They dubbed very ambitious films and popular TV series. One of the most well-known and popular dubbings was the Polish dub of Friends. Unfortunately they stopped dubbing Friends in 2001, and stopped dubbing films in 1999 although many people supported the idea of dubbing and bought the access only for dubbing versions of foreign productions. In the 1990s, dubbing was also done by the television channel known as Wizja Jeden. They mainly dubbed BBC productions such as The League of Gentlemen, Absolutely Fabulous or Men Behaving Badly. Wizja Jeden was closed in 2001. In the same year, TVP stopped dubbing the TV series, Frasier although that dubbing was very popular.
Currently, dubbing of films and TV series for teenagers is made by Nickelodeon and Disney's Channels. One of the major breakthroughs in dubbing was the Polish release of Shrek, which contained many references to local culture and Polish humor. Since then, people seem to have grown to like dubbed versions more, and pay more attention to the dubbing actors. However, this seems to be the case only with animated films, as live-action dubbing is still considered a bad practice. In the case of DVD releases, most discs contain both the original soundtrack and subtitles, and either lector or dubbed Polish track. The dubbed version is in most cases the one from the theater release, while voice-over is provided for movies that were only subtitled in theaters.
Russian television is generally dubbed with only a couple of voice actors, with the original speech still audible underneath. In the Soviet Union most foreign movies to be officially released were dubbed. However, with the fall of the regime many popular foreign movies, previously forbidden or at least questionable under communist rule, started to flood in, in the form of low-quality home-copied videos. Being unofficial releases, they were dubbed in a very primitive way, for example, the translator spoke the text directly over the audio of a video being copied, using primitive equipment. The quality of the resulting dub was very low, the translated phrases were off-sync, interfered with the original voices, background sounds leaked into the track, translation was inaccurate and most importantly, all dub voices were made by a single person and usually lacked the intonation of the original, making comprehension of some scenes quite difficult. After all, this way of translation exerted a strong influence on Russian pop culture. Voices of translators became recognizable for generations. In modern Russia, the overdubbing technique is still used in many cases, although with vastly improved quality and now with multiple voice actors dubbing different original voices.
In Ukraine, television and cinema is generally dubbed with the overdubbing technique, with multiple voice actors dubbing different original voices. But for Russian films, subtitles are possible. Russian-language TV programs are usually not dubbed.
In Latvia and Lithuania, voice-over dubbing is hugely popular on television; almost all shows are voice-over dubbed. This dubbing method is similar to the Polish method—one person reads the whole translated text while the original sound plays at low volume in the background. In cinemas, only children's animated films (such as The Tale of Despereaux) and children's live-action films (such as Charlotte's Web) are dubbed in Latvian and Lithuanian languages.
In the United States and most of Canada outside of Quebec, foreign films shown in theaters such as Metropolis and Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur 2006 are usually subtitled. The exceptions are tokusatsu and daikaiju films, which are dubbed when imported into the U.S.; the poor quality of the dubbing of these films has become the subject of much mockery. A small number of British films have been dubbed when released in America owing to dialects used that Americans are not familiar with (for example, Kes, Trainspotting). In addition, British children shows (such as Bob the Builder) are re-dubbed with American voice actors, making the series more understandable for American children. Televised Japanese anime is almost always aired in its dubbed format regardless of its content or target age group, with the sole exceptions occurring either when an English dub has not been produced for the program (usually in the case of feature films) or when the program is being presented by a network that places importance on presenting it in its original format (as was the case when Turner Classic Movies aired several of Hayao Miyazaki's works, which were presented both dubbed and subtitled). Most anime DVDs contain options for original Japanese, Japanese with subtitles, and English dubbed, except for a handful of series that have been heavily edited or Americanized. Also, Disney has a policy that makes its directors undergo stages to perfect alignment of certain lip movements so the movie looks believable.
For Spanish-speaking countries, all foreign-language programs, films, cartoons and documentaries shown in free aired TV channels are dubbed into Neutral Spanish, while in cable and satellite pan-regional channels, films are either dubbed or subtitled. In theaters, only films made for children are dubbed into Neutral Spanish (sometimes with Mexican pronunciation) and sometimes dubbed into local Spanish. In Argentina, all movies are shown in their original language, in addition to Spanish-dubbed versions of films for children.
In Mexico, by law, films shown in theaters must be shown in their original version; films in languages other than Spanish are usually subtitled. Only educational documentaries and movies classified for a children's audience, as well as some movies that are expected to have a wide audience (e.g. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King or The Avengers) may be dubbed, but this is not compulsory and some animated films are shown in theaters in both dubbed and subtitled versions (e.g. some DreamWorks productions).
Dubbing must be made in Mexico by Mexican nationals or foreigners residing in Mexico, however several programs that are shown on pay TV are being dubbed in other countries like Venezuela, Chile or Colombia.
Most of the movies released as DVD have the feature of Neutral Spanish and sometimes there is a specific dub for Mexican audiences (e.g. Rio). On broadcast TV foreign programs are dubbed. In pay TV most shows and movies are subtitled.
Dubbing became very popular in the 90s with the uprising of anime in Mexico, some dub actors became geek celebrities and are always identified as some specific characters, such as Mario Castañeda that became popular by dubbing Goku in Dragon Ball Z or Humberto Velez by dubbing Homer Simpson in the first 15 seasons of The Simpsons. In the last year the popularity of pay TV allows people to see several series in their original language rather than the dubbed version and the dubbing has been criticized several times by the use of TV or movie stars as dub actors (such as Ricky Martin on Disney’s Hercules or Eugenio Derbez on DreamWorks's Shrek) or by the incorrect use of local popular culture that sometimes breaks the jokes or the feeling of the original chapter (such as the infamous translation of Sheldon Copper's Bazzinga! to "Vacilón!").
Recently, several video games are being dubbed to neutral Spanish rather than European Spanish in Mexico such as Gears of War series, Halo 3, Infamous 2 and others. Sony recently announced that more games like God of War: Ascension will be dubbed into Neutral Spanish.
In Brazil, foreign programs are invariably dubbed into Brazilian Portuguese on broadcast TV, with only a few exceptions. Films shown at cinemas are generally offered with both subtitled and dubbed versions, with dubbing being preferential for children movies, and subtitling for adult movies. In recent years, more cinemas have opened in Brazil attracting new social groups to cinema who prefer dubbing. Pay TV commonly offers both dubbed and subtitled movies, with statistics showing that dubbed contents are becoming predominant. When released on DVD or Blu-ray, most movies, except for a few exceptions, usually feature both dubbing and subtitling. Also, Video games are being dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese as well, rather than just having European Portuguese dubs alone for the gaming industry. Games such as Halo 3, God of War: Ascension, inFamous 2, Assassin's Creed III, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, World of Warcraft and others are dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese.
In Quebec, Canada, most films and TV programs in English are dubbed into Quebec French (with an International French accent for ease of comprehension and regional neutrality). Occasionally, the dubbing of a series or a movie, such as The Simpsons, is made using the more widely-spoken joual variety of Québec French. This has the advantage of making children's films and TV series comprehensible to younger audiences, but many bilingual Québécois prefer subtitling since they would understand some or all of the original audio. In addition, all films are shown in English as well in certain theaters (especially in major cities and English-speaking areas such as the West Island), and in fact, some theatres, such as the Scotiabank Cinema Montreal, show only movies in English. Most American television series are only available in English on DVD, or on English-language channels, but some of the more popular ones have French dubs shown on mainstream networks, and are released in French on DVD as well, sometimes separately from an English-only version.
Formerly, all French-language dubbed films in Québec were imported from France, and to this day some still are. Such a practice was criticized by former politician Mario Dumont after he took his children to see the Parisian French dub of Shrek the Third, which Dumont found incomprehensible. After Dumont's complaints and a proposed bill, Bee Movie, the following film from DreamWorks Animation, was dubbed in Québec, making it the studio's first animated film to have a Québec French dub, as all DreamWorks Animation films had previously been dubbed in France. In addition, because Canadian viewers usually find Québec French more comprehensible than other dialects of the language, some older film series that had the French-language versions of previous installments dubbed in France have later ones dubbed in Québec, often creating inconsistencies within the French version of the series' canon. Lucasfilm's Star Wars and Indiana Jones series are examples. Both series had films released in the 1970s and 1980s with no Québécois French dubbed versions; instead, the Parisian French versions with altered character and object names, terms, and so on, were distributed in the province. However, later films in both series released 1999 and later were dubbed in Québec, using different voice actors and "reversing" name changes made in France's dubbings due to the change in studio. The French dub of Naruto that airs in Québec is from France but uses a local opening.
China has a long tradition of generally dubbing foreign films into Mandarin Chinese, starting in the 1930s. Beginning in the late 1970s, not only films, but popular TV series from the United States, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico were also dubbed. The Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio has been the most celebrated one in the film dubbing industry in China. In order to generate high-quality products, they divide each film into short segments, each one lasting only a few minutes, and then work on the segments one by one. In addition to the correct meaning in translation, they make tremendous effort to match the lips of the actors. As a result, viewers can hardly detect that the films they are seeing are actually dubbed. The cast of dubbers is acknowledged at the end of a dubbed film. Quite a few dubbing actors and actresses of the Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio became well-known celebrities, among whom are Qiu Yuefeng, Bi Ke, Li Zi, and Liu Guangning. In recent years however, especially in the larger cities on east and south coast, it has become increasingly common that movie theaters show subtitled versions with the original soundtrack intact.
Taiwan also dubs some foreign films and TV series in Mandarin Chinese. Until mid 1990s, the major national terrestrial channels both dubbed and subtitled all foreign programs and films, and for some popular programs, the original voices were offered in Second audio program. But gradually both terrestrial and cable channels stopped dubbing for prime time US shows and films, while subtitling continued. In the 2000s, the dubbing practice differs depends on the nature and origin of the program. Animations, children's shows and some educational programs on PTS are mostly dubbed. English live-action movies and shows were not dubbed in theaters or on any channel. Japanese TV dramas were no longer dubbed, while Korean dramas, Hong Kong dramas and dramas from other Asian countries were still often dubbed. Korean variety shows were not dubbed. Japanese and Korean films on Asian movie channels were still dubbed. In theaters, most foreign films were not dubbed, while animated films and some films meant for children offer a dubbed version. Hong Kong live-action films have a long tradition of being dubbed into Mandarin, while more famous films offer a Cantonese version.
In Hong Kong, foreign television programmes, except for English and Mandarin television programmes, are dubbed in Cantonese, and Japanese programmes, including anime, are also dubbed in Cantonese Chinese. English and Mandarin programmes are generally shown in their original language with subtitles. Foreign films such as most live-action films and animated films are also generally dubbed in Cantonese such as anime films and Disney animated films.
Almost all the time, foreign films and TV programmes, both live-action and animated, are generally dubbed in both Mandarin and Cantonese.
For example in The Lord of the Rings film series, Elijah Wood's character Frodo Baggins was dubbed into Mandarin by Jiang Guangtao for China and Taiwan. For the Cantonese localization, his voice was given by Bosco Tang for the Hong Kong market.
In Israel, only children's movies and TV programming are dubbed in Hebrew. In programs aimed at teenagers and adults, dubbing is rarely considered as a method of translation not only because of its high costs, but also because the audience is mainly multi-lingual. Most viewers in Israel speak at least one European language in addition to Hebrew, and there is also a large audience that speaks Arabic. Therefore, most viewers prefer to hear the original soundtrack, aided by Hebrew subtitles. Another problem is that dubbing does not allow for translation into two different languages simultaneously, as is often the case in Israeli television channels that use subtitles in Hebrew and another language (like Russian) simultaneously.
In Japan, many television programs go on Japanese television subtitled or dubbed if they are intended for children. When the American film Morocco was released in Japan in 1931, subtitles became the mainstream method of translating TV programs and films in Japan. Later around the 1950s, foreign television programs and films began to be shown dubbed in Japanese on television. In the first stage; the lack of video software for domestic television; video software is imported from abroad. When the television program was shown on television, it was mostly dubbed. This is the character limit for a small TV screen at a lower resolution and the initial response to their poor elderly and illiterate eye, as far as television was to be used for audio dubbing. Nowadays, TV shows and movies that are aimed either at all ages, or for adults-only are both shown generally dubbed and shown with its original language with Japanese subtitles and contains the original language option when that film gets released on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray. Adult cartoons such as Family Guy and South Park are shown dubbed in Japanese on the WOWOW TV channel. But South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut was dubbed in Japanese by different actors instead of the same Japanese dubbing-actors from the cartoon, due to the fact that it was handled by a different Japanese dubbing studio, and also marketed for the Kansai market. In Japanese theaters, foreign-language movies, except those intended for children, are usually shown in their original version with Japanese subtitles. Foreign films usually contain multiple different Japanese-dubbing versions, but with a bunch of different original Japanese-dubbing voice actors depending whenever on which TV station it airs on. NHK, Nippon TV, Fuji TV, TV Asahi and also TBS usually do this, and same for even on software releases such as being released on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray. There are also certain film theaters in Japan that also show both dubbed and subtitled editions of foreign films.
There also exists "Japanese dub-over artists" for famous celebrities, for many examples that are listed:
In Thailand, foreign television programs are dubbed in Thai, but the original soundtrack is often simultaneously carried on a NICAM audio track on terrestrial broadcast, and alternate audio tracks on satellite broadcast; previously, terrestrial stations simulcasted the original soundtrack on the radio. On pay-TV, many channels carry foreign-language movies and television programs with subtitles. Nearly all movie theaters throughout the country show both the subtitled version and the dubbed version of English-language movies. In Bangkok, the majority of theaters showing English-language movies are subtitled only. In big cities like Bangkok Thai-language movies have English subtitles. For English-language animated movies, Disney films like The Lion King, Mulan and Tangled are dubbed ENTIRELY in Thai. Chonnai Sukawat has provided the Thai-dubbing voice for the heroine Rapunzel in the film Tangled. In Harry Potter, Hermione Granger was dubbed in Thai by Thai singer and actress Bismillah Nana. Many English-language movies are sold on VCDs in Thailand, with the original English language with Thai subtitles as well as also being available with the Thai-language-dubbed version, such as Eragon, Avatar, the Harry Potter film series and The Lord of the Rings film series. Thai lakorns are with English subtitles if broadcast on international television channels, or sold as DVD abroad.
In South Korea, anime that are imported from Japan are shown dubbed in Korean generally, on television. However, some anime gets censored such as Japanese letters or content being edited for a suitable Korean audience. Western cartoons are also dubbed in Korean as well, such as Nickelodeon cartoons like SpongeBob SquarePants and Danny Phantom. Several English-language (mostly American) live-action films were generally dubbed in Korean, but they were not shown in theaters. Instead they were only broadcast on South Korean television networks (KBS, MBC, SBS), while DVD import releases of these films were shown with Korean subtitles. This may be due to the fact that the six American major film studios may not own any rights to the Korean dubs of their live-action films, currently to this point, that the Korean television networks have dubbed and aired. Even if they don't own the rights, Korean or Non-Korean viewers can record off Korean dubbed live action films from Television broadcasting onto DVDs with DVRs. Sometimes video games are also dubbed in Korean. Good examples would be the Halo video games, the Jak & Daxter series and even the God of War series. For the Halo games, Lee Jeong Gu lends his Korean voice to the main protagonist Master Chief (replacing Steve Downes's voice), while Kim So Hyeong voices Chieftain Tartarus (replacing Kevin Michael Richardson's voice), one of the main antagonists.
In Indonesia and Malaysia, South American telenovelas are dubbed in Indonesian and Malay, while English-language programs are usually shown in the original language with Indonesian and Malay subtitles, respectively. However, this has recently changed in Malaysia, and South American telenovelas now retain their original language, with Malay subtitles. Most but not all Korean and Japanese dramas are still dubbed in Mandarin with Malay subtitles on terrestrial television channels. Cantonese, Mandarin, Tamil and Hindi programmes are shown in original language all this while, usually with Malay subtitling (and in some cases, multilingual subtitling). Cartoons and anime are also dubbed as well, such as Kekkaishi, Megas XLR, Spheres (Korea), dubbed by young sound-man Mohamad Nor Aliff Abd Majid, also known as Aliff JJ, and others like Crayon Shin Chan, Doraemon, Bleach, and Naruto. Although English-language cartoons are normally not dubbed, and some anime do retain their original Japanese language. However, Malay dubbed English-language cartoons are much more frequent occurring on televisions such as Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network series. In Indonesia, English-language daytime cartoons are mostly dubbed, however on some pay-TV channels like Nickelodeon, cartoons are not dubbed and do not have subtitles. Feature animations are either dubbed or subtitled depending on which television-channel it appears on.
Malaysian news programs are broadcast in several languages for twenty minutes each language for minor languages and international languages, including dialects of Chinese, the languages of news to broadcast by law is Malay, English, Mandarin Chinese, Min Nan and Thai.
In the Philippines, Japanese anime are usually dubbed in Tagalog or another Philippine regional language. The channel HERO TV, which focuses on anime and tokusatsu shows, dubs all its foreign programs into Tagalog. Animax, meanwhile, have their anime programs dubbed in English. Also popular in the Philippines are Chinese, Korean, and Mexican dramas, which are called Chinovelas, Koreanovelas, and Mexicanovelas, respectively. All these are also dubbed in Tagalog or another Philippine regional language, with its unique set of Filipino-speaking voice actors. The prevalence of media needing to be dubbed has resulted in a talent pool that is very capable of syncing voice to lip, especially for shows broadcast by the country's three largest networks. It is not uncommon in the Filipino dub industry to have most of the voices in a series dubbed by only a handful of voice talents. Normally, English-language programs are usually not dubbed, because most Filipinos can understand English. Notable exceptions are a number of Nickelodeon cartoons shown on TV5, which are dubbed in Tagalog or another Philippine regional language. TV5 and GMA7 are also the only television channels in the country that air English-language movies dubbed in Tagalog. Cinema One, ABS-CBN's cable movie channel, also shown movies mostly in Korea and Thailand, being dubbed in Tagalog. NatGeo Wild aired most programs being dubbed in Tagalog for Philippine audiences, one of the only cable channels to do so.
In Mongolia, most television dubbing uses the Russian method, with only a few voice actors, and the original language audible underneath. In movie theaters, foreign films are shown in their original language with Mongolian subtitles underneath.
In India, where "foreign films" are synonymous with Hollywood films, dubbing is generally done mostly in major three Indian languages that include: Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Dubbing ( of foreign languages) is rarely done to the other major Indian languages, namely Malayalam and Bengali, due to the high literacy rate among the population who speak the languages. The finished works are released into the towns and lower tier settlements of the respective states (where English penetration is low), often with the English-language originals being released in the metropolitan areas. In all other states, the English originals are released along with the dubbed versions where often the dubbed version collections are outstanding than original. The most recent dubbing of Spider-Man 3 was also done in the Bhojpuri language, a language popular in eastern India. A Good Day to Die Hard, the most recent installment in the Die Hard franchise was also the first ever Hollywood film to receive a Punjabi language dub as well.
Most TV channels do not mention the Indian-language dubbing credits nor its staff after the end of the original ending credits, since changing the credits casting for the original actors or voice actors involves a huge budget on modifying, making it somewhat difficult to find information for the dubbed versions. Same for films. Information for the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu voice actors who have done the voices for specific actors and for their roles on foreign films and television programs are published in local Indian data magazines, for those that are involved in the dubbing industry in India. But in a few occasions, there are some foreign productions that do credit the dubbing cast, such as for example, Animated films like the Barbie films, and some Disney films. Disney Channel original series released on DVD with their Hindi dubs, also shows a list of the artists at the Hindi dub credits, shown after the original ending credits. Theatrical releases and VCD releases of foreign films do not have the dubbing cast or staff, mentioned. The DVD releases, however do have them, if they are released multilingual. For a list of Indian voice-dubbing artists, click here. A few Indian dubbing artists are listed in this column.
|Indian dubbing artists||Actor(s)/Actress(es)||Language dubbed in||Notes|
|Chetan Shashital||Amitabh Bachchan
|Hindi||Dubbed these two Urdu actors in Hindi, after their deaths.|
|Rajesh Khattar||Tom Hanks
Robert Downey Jr.
|Pawan Kalra||Arnold Schwarzenegger||Hindi||Dubbed his roles for films that aired on later TV airings and released on later VCD/DVD releases dubbed.|
|Ninad Kamat||Amitabh Bachchan
|Damandeep Singh Baggan||Jim Carrey||Hindi|
|Mona Ghosh Shetty||Kirsten Dunst
|Hindi||Vice president of Indian dubbing studio, Sound & Vision India.|
|Namrata Sawhney||Kate Winslet|
|Karan Trivedi||Daniel Radcliffe
|Hindi||Dubbed Daniel's role as Harry Potter of the titular film franchise from films 2-5. Dubbed Zac's role as Troy in the High School Musical films.|
|Parignya Pandya||Emma Watson
|Hindi||Dubbed Emma's role as Hermione for the rest of the Harry Potter films, since the third installment. Dubbed Vanessa's role as Gabriella in the High School Musical films. Also dubbed for Kirsten's role as Bella Swan for the Twilight films.|
|Nachiket Dighe||Rupert Grint
|Hindi||Dubbed Rupert's role as Rom for the rest of the Harry Potter films, since the second installment. Dubbed Ryne as Jason Cross in the High School Musical Films. Also dubbed Skandar Keynes as Edmund Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia.|
|Saumya Daan||Shia LaBeouf
James and Oliver Phelps
|Hindi||Dubbed James and Oliver Phelps as Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter film series.|
|Dilip Sinha||Robbie Coltrane||Hindi||Dubbed Robbie as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series.|
|Rishabh Shukla||Ralph Fiennes||Hindi||Dubbed Ralph as Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter film series from Goblet of Fire, to Deathly Hallows Part 2.|
|Prachi Save Sathi||Brenda Song||Hindi||Dubbed her role as London Tipton in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, including it's spinoff series and film.|
|Priya Adivarekar||Miley Cyrus||Hindi||Dubbed her role as Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana from Season 2 and onwards after it was passed from Kumud Bappal, including the film, and her role as Penny from Bolt.|
|Unknown dubbing artist||Elijah Wood||Hindi|
|Unknown dubbing artist||Sean Astin||Hindi|
|Unknown dubbing artist||Ian McKellen||Hindi|
|Unknown dubbing artist||Gary Oldman||Hindi|
|Unknown dubbing artist||Leonardo DiCaprio||Hindi|
|Unknown dubbing artist||Rachel Weisz||Hindi|
|Unknown dubbing artist||Sean Connery||Hindi|
|Unknown dubbing artist||Christopher Lee||Hindi|
|Ashwin Mushran||Adam Sandler
|Shakti Singh||Anthony Hopkins
Samuel L. Jackson
Tommy Lee Jones
|Samay Raj Thakkar||Arnold Schwarzenegger
|Hindi||Dubbed Christan and Tobey's roles throughout the Batman and Spider-man films respectively.|
|Viraj Adhav||Tom Cruise||Hindi||Voiced his role as Ethan Hunt throughout the Mission Impossible series, and other popular films he starred in.|
|Mohan Kapoor||Kevin Bacon||Hindi|
In Pakistan, almost 60% of the population speaks Punjabi as their mother tongue. Therefore, Punjabi films have more business than Urdu films. The film companies produced Punjabi films and re-record all films in Urdu and released the result as a "double version" film.
Also in Pakistan, where "foreign films" are synonymous with Hollywood films, dubbing is done mostly in Urdu, which is the national language, and the finished works are released in the major cities throughout country.
In Vietnam, foreign-language films and programs are subtitled on television in Vietnamese, and previously (until 1985) are not dubbed, but are brief translated with a speaker before commercial breaks. Rio was considered to be the very first American Hollywood film to be entirely dubbed in Vietnamese. Since then, children's films that came out later afterwards, have been released in theaters in the country dubbed. HTV3 has dubbed television programs for Kids such as Ben 10, and Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, by using various voice actors to dub over the character roles.
In multilingual Singapore, English-language programs on the free-to-air terrestrial channels are usually subtitled in Chinese or Malay, while Chinese, Malay and Tamil programs are almost always subtitled in English. Dual sound programs like Korean and Japanese dramas offer sound in the original languages with subtitles, Mandarin dubbed and subtitled, or English dubbed. The deliberate policy to encourage Mandarin among citizens made it required by law for programs in other Chinese dialects (Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew) to be dubbed into Mandarin, exceptions being traditional operas. Cantonese and Hokkien shows from Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively are nevertheless available on VCD and DVD. In a recent development, news bulletins are subtitled.
Middle East 
In Egypt and Saudi Arabia, A lot of Turkish soap operas and Indian films are dubbed in Arabic and distributed around Arabic speaking countries.
In Iran, foreign films and television programs are dubbed in Persian. Dubbing started in 1946 with the advent of movies and cinemas in the country. Since then, foreign movies have always been dubbed for the cinema and TV. Using various voice actors and adding local hints and witticisms to the original contents, dubbing played a major role in attracting people to the cinemas and interesting them in other cultures. The dubbing art in Iran reached its culminant point during the 1960s and 1970s with the inflow of American, European and Hindi movies. The most famous musicals of the time, such as My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music were translated, adjusted and performed in Persian by the voice talents. Since the 1990s for political reasons and pressure from the state the dubbing industry has declined, with movies dubbed only for the state TV channels. During recent years DVDs with Persian subtitles have found a market among viewers due to the same reason, but most people still prefer the Persian-speaking dubbed versions. Recently privately operated companies started dubbing TV series by hiring famous dubbers.
The Maghreb 
In Algeria and Morocco, most foreign movies (especially Hollywood productions) are shown dubbed French. These movies are usually imported directly from French film distributors. The choice of movies dubbed into French can be explained by the colonization past of these countries by France and the widespread use of the French language (among the intellectual elite), in addition to the marginalization of one national language. Another important factor is that local theaters and private media companies do not dub in local languages to avoid high costs, but also because of the lack of both expertise and demand. Starting from the 1980s, dubbed series and movies for children in Modern Standard Arabic became a popular choice among most TV channels, cinemas and VHS/DVD stores. But dubbed films are still imported and dubbing is performed in Arab countries with strong tradition of dubbing and subtitling (mainly Syria, Lebanon and Jordan). The evolution of movies targeting the adult audience was different. After the satellite boom in the Arab World and the emergence of Pan-Arab channels, the use of subtitles, which was already popular in the Middle-East, was highly popular among local viewers in Algeria and Morocco.
In the Arab World (member states such as in North Africa, Western Asia and others), Only children's films and TV series were dubbed in Arabic. Also, many different Anime titles are generally dubbed in the Arabic language as well. Everything else is usually shown in its original language with Arabic subtitles. Recently, The Arabic dubbing industry has boomed and channels such as MBC Max, are now offering famous older action films aimed at an older audience, dubbed in Arabic, to be broadcasted on television. Action movies such as: Braveheart, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and Troy have became three of some of the first foreign action titles to be dubbed in Arabic, rather than using subtitles, on the MBC Max channel. But they can still be watched in their original language with subtitles.
In Tunisia, theaters usually show French dubbed movies, but cinema attendance in the country for such movies is in continuous decline compared to Tunisian and Arab movies. This decline can be traced to the huge popularity of free-to-air Pan-Arab movie channels offering mainly subtitled content and the government's reduced efforts to limit piracy. Tunisia National Television (TNT), the public broadcaster of Tunisia, is not allowed to show any content in any language other than Arabic, which forced it to broadcast only dubbed content (this restriction was lately removed for commercials). During the 1970s and 1980s, TNT (known as ERTT at the time) started dubbing famous cartoons in Tunisian and Standard Arabic. This move was highly successful locally, but was not able to compete with mainstream dubbing companies (especially in the Middle East). In the private sector, television channels are not subject to the language rule and sometimes broadcast foreign content dubbed into French (excluding children content), although some of them, such as Hannibal TV started adopting subtitling in Arabic instead, which proved to be more popular than simply importing French dubbed content.
South Africa 
In South Africa, many television programmes were dubbed in Afrikaans, with the original soundtrack (usually in English, but sometimes Dutch or German) "simulcast" in FM stereo on Radio 2000. These included The Six Million Dollar Man, (Steve Austin: Die Man van Staal) Miami Vice (Misdaad in Miami)
However, this practice has declined as a result of the reduction of airtime for the language on SABC TV, and the increase of locally produced material in Afrikaans on other channels like KykNet and MK.
In common with other English-speaking countries, there has traditionally been little dubbing in Australia, with foreign-language television programmes and films being shown (usually on SBS) with subtitles. This has also been the case in New Zealand, but the Maori Television Service, launched in 2004, has dubbed animated films, like Watership Down, into Maori. However, some TV commercials from foreign countries are dubbed, even if the original commercial came from another English-speaking country.
Insistence on subtitling 
Subtitles can be used instead of dubbing, as different countries have different traditions regarding the choice between dubbing and subtitling. In most English-speaking countries, dubbing is comparatively rare. In Israel, some programmes need to be comprehensible to speakers of both Hebrew and Russian. This cannot be accomplished with dubbing, so subtitling is much more commonplace—sometimes even with subtitles in multiple languages, with the soundtrack remaining in the original language, usually English. The same also applies to certain television shows in Finland, where Finnish and Swedish are both official languages.
In the Netherlands, Flanders, Nordic countries and Estonia, films and television programmes are shown in the original language (usually English) with subtitles, and only cartoons and children movies and programs are dubbed, such as the Harry Potter series, Finding Nemo, Shrek, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and so on. Cinemas usually show both a dubbed version and one with subtitles for this kind of movie, with the subtitled version shown later in the evening.
In Portugal this has traditionally also been the case (at least for live-action material), but one terrestrial channel, TVI, dubs U.S. series like Dawson's Creek into Portuguese. RTP also transmitted Friends in a dubbed version, but it was poorly received and later re-aired in a subtitled version. Cartoons, on the other hand, are usually dubbed, sometimes by well-known actors, even on TV. Animated movies are usually released to the cinemas in both subtitled and dubbed versions.
On DVDs with higher translation budgets, the option for both types will often be provided to account for individual preferences; purists often demand subtitles. For small markets (small language area or films for a select audience) subtitling is more suitable because it is cheaper. For films for small children who cannot yet read, or do not read fast enough, dubbing is necessary.
In Argentina and Venezuela, terrestrial channels air films and TV series in a dubbed version, as demanded by law. However, those same series can be seen on cable channels at more accessible time-slots in their subtitled version, and usually before they are shown on open TV. In contrast, the series The Simpsons is aired in its Mexican dubbed version both on terrestrial television and on the cable station Fox, which broadcasts the series for the area. Although the first season of the series appeared with subtitles, this was not continued for the following seasons.
Apart from airing dubbed TV series (for example, Lost, ER and House) the Argentinian open TV station Canal 13 (Argentina) has bought the rights to produce and air a "ported version" of Desperate Housewives in Argentina, with local actors and actresses.
Use in video games 
With recent video games placing a heavy emphasis on dialogue, many video games, when translated into another language for the foreign markets of North America, Japan and also PAL countries such as Europe and Australia, are also dubbed into the market's main languages. Because characters' mouth movements can be part of the game's code, lip sync is sometimes achieved by re-coding the mouth movements to match the dialogue in the new language, when translated to a new one. The Source engine automatically generates lip-sync data, making it easier for games to be localized. However, more often than not, the animations are only intended for the source language. To achieve synchronization, localized content is mostly recorded using techniques borrowed from movie dubbing (such as rythmo band) or, for instance when the images are not available, localized dubbing is done using only the source audios as a reference (sound-synch is one method, where the localized audios have to be recorded matching the length and internal pauses of the source content).
For the European version of a video game, the text of the game is available in various languages, and in many cases, the dialogue is dubbed into the respective languages as well.
The North American version of any game is always available in English with translated text and dubbed dialogue if necessary, as well as in other languages in some cases, especially if the North American version of the game contains the same data as the European version. Because the English dubbing voice casts of many Japanese games are perceived negatively, some Japanese games, such as those in the Sonic the Hedgehog, Dynasty Warriors and Soul Calibur series, include the original Japanese audio as well as an English translated dubbing version.
Other uses 
Dubbing is occasionally used on network television broadcasts of films that contain dialogue that the network executives or censors have decided to replace. This is usually done to remove profanity. In most cases, the original actor does not perform this duty, but instead an actor with a similar voice reads the changes. The results are sometimes seamless, but in many cases the voice of the replacement actor sounds nothing like the original performer, which becomes particularly noticeable when extensive dialogue must be replaced. Also, often easy to notice, is the sudden absence of background sounds in the movie during the dubbed dialogue. Among the films considered notorious for using substitute actors that sound very different from their theatrical counterparts are the Smokey and the Bandit and the Die Hard film series as shown on broadcasters such as TBS. In the case of Smokey and the Bandit, extensive dubbing was done for the first network airing on ABC Television in 1978, especially for Jackie Gleason's character, Buford T. Justice. The dubbing of his phrase "Sombitch" became the more palatable (and memorable) "Scum Bum," which became a catchphrase of the time.
Dubbing is commonly used in science fiction television as well. Sound generated by effects equipment such as animatronic puppets or by actors' movements on elaborate multi-level plywood sets (for example, starship bridges or other command centers) will quite often make the original character dialogue unusable. Stargate and Farscape are two prime examples where ADR is used heavily to produce usable audio.
Since some anime series contain some amount of profanity, the studios recording the English dubs often re-record certain lines if a series or movie is going to be broadcast on Cartoon Network, removing references to death and hell as well. Some companies will offer both an edited and an uncut version of the series on DVD, so that there is an edited script available in case the series is broadcast. Other companies also edit the full-length version of a series, meaning that even on the uncut DVD characters say things like "Blast!" and "Darn!" in place of the original dialogue's profanity. Bandai Entertainment's English dub of G Gundam is infamous for this, among many other things, with such lines as "Bartender, more milk".
Dubbing has also been used for comedic purposes, replacing lines of dialogue to create comedies from footage that was originally another genre. Examples include the Australian shows The Olden Days and Bargearse, re-dubbed from 1970s Australian drama and action series, respectively, and the Irish show Soupy Norman, re-dubbed from Pierwsza miłość, a Polish soap opera.
Dubbing into a foreign language does not always entail the deletion of the original language; in some countries, a performer may read the translated dialogue as a voice-over. This often occurs in Russia and Poland, where "lektories" or "lektors" read the translated dialogue into Russian and Polish. In Poland, a single person reads all parts of the performance, both male and female. However, this is done almost exclusively for the television and home video markets, while theatrical releases are usually subtitled. Recently, however, the number of high-quality, fully dubbed films has increased, especially for children's movies. If a quality dubbed version exists for some film, it is shown in theaters (however, some films, such as Harry Potter or Star Wars, are shown in both dubbed and subtitled versions varying with the time of the show) as well as on TV (although some channels drop it and do standard one narrator translation) and VHS/DVD. In other countries, like Vietnam, the voice-over technique is also used for theatrical releases.
In Russia, the reading of all lines by a single person is referred to as a Gavrilov translation, and is generally found only in illegal copies of films and on cable television. Professional copies always include at least two actors of opposite gender translating the dialogue. Some titles in Poland have been dubbed this way, too, but this method lacks public appeal so it is very rare now.
Dubbing the same language several times 
In the case of languages with large communities (like English, Chinese, Portuguese, German, Spanish or French), a single translation may sound foreign to some groups, or even all of them. This is why a film may be translated to a certain language more than once: for example, the animated movie The Incredibles was translated to European Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Neutral Spanish (which used the mexican voice cast) and Rioplatense Spanish, although people from Chile and Uruguay clearly noticed a strong porteño accent from most of the characters of the Rioplatense Spanish translation. However, almost all media are dubbed only twice: into Spanish (Spain) and Neutral Spanish (which is Mexican Spanish but avoiding local phrases).
Another example is the French dubbing of The Simpsons, which is entirely different in Quebec and France, the humor being highly different for each audience (see Non-English versions of The Simpsons). Audiences in Quebec are generally critical of France's dubbing of The Simpsons, which they often do not find amusing. The French-language Télétoon network once aired the Quebec Simpsons dub, as well as Parisian French dubs of Futurama and Family Guy, which were both similar to the Parisian Simpsons dub. The two latter shows have since been taken off the network (probably due to a lack of popularity), while The Simpsons continues its run on Télétoon. The Quebec French dubbing of films, while generally made in accent-less Standard French, often sounds peculiar to audiences in France, because of the persistence of some regionally neutral expression that may not sound quite natural to all audiences, and because Quebec French performers pronounce Anglo-Saxon names with an American accent, while French performers do not. Occasionally, for reasons of cost, American direct-to-video films, such as the 1995 film When the Bullet Hits the Bone, are released in France with a Quebec French dubbing, sometimes resulting in what some members of French audiences perceive as unintentional humor.
Portugal and Brazil also use different versions of dubbed films and series. Due to the fact that dubbing has never been very popular in Portugal, for decades children films and television series were distributed using the higher-quality Brazilian dub. Only in the 1990s dubbing began to gain importance in Portugal, thanks to the popularity of dubbed series like Dragon Ball. The Lion King became the first Disney feature film to be completely dubbed into European Portuguese, and subsequently all major animation films and series gained European Portuguese versions. In recent DVD releases, most of these Brazilian-dubbed classics were released with new Portuguese dubs, eliminating the predominance of Brazilian Portuguese dubs in Portugal.
The German-speaking area, which includes Germany, Austria, the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and Liechtenstein share a common German dubbed version. Although there are some differences in German dialects, all films, shows, and series are dubbed into a single German version that avoids regional variations in the German-speaking audience. Most voice actors are primarily Germans and Austrians, since here there has been a long tradition of dubbing films. Switzerland which has four official languages (German, French, Italian, Romansh) generally use the dubbed versions made in its respective countries (except for Romansh). Liechtenstein uses German-dubbed versions only.
Sometimes films are also dubbed into several German dialects for example, (Berlinerisch, Kölsch, Saxonian, Austro-Bavarian or Swiss German), which concerns especially animated films or Disney films. It is rather made for amusement and as an additional "special feature" for making the audience buying it. Popular animated films dubbed into German dialects include Asterix films (in addition to its standard German version, every film has a particular dialect version), The Little Mermaid, Shrek 2, Cars (+ Austrian German) or Up (+ Austrian German). Also, some live-action films or TV-series have an additional German dubbing: Babe and its sequel Babe: Pig in the City (Germany German, Austrian German, Swiss German); Rehearsal for Murder, Framed (+ Austrian German). TV-series: The Munsters, Serpico, Rumpole (+ Austrian German); The Thorn Birds (only Austrian German dubbing).
The many martial arts movies from Hong Kong that were imported under the unofficial banner Kung Fu Theater were notorious for seemingly careless dubbing that included poor lip sync and awkward dialogue. Since the results were frequently unintentionally hilarious, this has become one of the hallmarks that endear these films to part of the 1980s culture.
While the voice actors involved usually bear the brunt of criticisms towards poor dubbing, other factors may include script translation and audio mixing. A literal translation of dialogue typically contains speech patterns and sentence structure that are native to the foreign language but would appear awkward if translated literally. English dubs of Japanese animation, for example, must rewrite the dialogue so that it flows smoothly and follows the natural pattern of English speech. Voice actors in a dubbing capacity typically do not have the luxury of viewing the original film with the original voice actor and thus have little idea on how to perform the role. Also, on some occasions, voice actors record their dialogue separately, which lacks the dynamics gained from performing as a group.
New technology 
It is now becoming possible to overcome some of the problems associated with dubbing using new technology. An application developed at New York University, known as Video Rewrite, uses computer animation to match lip movements with the new voice track. In a video clip made using this technology, John F. Kennedy appears to be saying "Video Rewrite gives lip-synced movies".
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Further reading 
- Maluf, Ramez (19 December 2003). Dubbing into Arabic: A Trojan Horse at the Gates? (PDF). Lebanese American University. Retrieved 2011-04-10.
- Di Fortunato E. e Paolinelli M. (a cura di), "La Questione Doppiaggio - barriere linguistiche e circolazione delle opere audiovisive", Roma, AIDAC, 1996 - (available on website: www.aidac.it)
- Castellano A. (a cura di), "Il Doppiaggio, profilo, storia e analisi di un'arte negata", Roma, AIDAC-ARLEM, 2001
- Di Fortunato E. e Paolinelli M., "Tradurre per il doppiaggio - la trasposizione linguistica dell'audiovisivo: teoria e pratica di un'arte imperfetta", Milano, Hoepli, 2005
- ASINC online magazine on criticism of the art of dubbing