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Tuesday, May 13, 2003 Language Ever notice how some things are better in other languages? I've seen Spirited Away in French, English, and Japanese now (yay for DVDs!), and I have to say that the English dub was the worst of all. Chihiro, the main character, is incredibly annoying in English, annoying in the beginning but better when she's in the "spirit world" in Japanese, and not annoying at all in French. I realize this is due to the various actresses rather than the languages they speak, but it's interesting to notice how much that changes the movie. Spirited Away just isn't as engaging in English as it is in the other two dubs. Boo Disney, who somehow managed to spend millions of dollars on the English voiceovers and forgot to give the movie any kind of support. If you haven't seen it yet, rent the DVD and watch it in Japanese or French with English subtitles; it won this year's Oscar for animation (with good reason!). Think: all of your favorite children's books rolled into one movie and made even better. I've been watching a fair number of movies in French over the last week or so in preparation for my trip to Paris on May 24 (more on that later). Currently I've also seen Star Trek: Insurrection, X-Men, and part of Star Wars: Episode II. Star Wars was definitely better in French--and I suspect this is due to the rhythms of the language, not just the actors--the actors aren't as monotone, one of my major problems with the film as usual. Jar Jar is hilarious in French (seriously, you have to hear it) and the dub even manages to keep Yoda's inverted sentence structure. Not bad. A viewing of A.I. will commence tonight... in a few minutes, in fact. [runs to the TV] ^ Top | 9:01 PM | | | 
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