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There's a deeply frustrating infantilisation when something is localized in the same language. My kids and I love Bluey, an Australian show, but apparently the
by CalRobert 5y ago
There's a deeply frustrating infantilisation when something is localized in the same language. My kids and I love Bluey, an Australian show, but apparently the producers had to refuse to have it redone with US and UK accents to stop it happening.
Never understood what the problem with having David Attenborough instead of Sigourney Weaver narrate Planet Earth was either.
- mcphage 5y agoRemoving all the Australian idioms from Bluey would have been a travesty!
- giancarlostoro 5y agoI don't care one direction or the other, but for example Doctor Who is just fine without having to be redone and loved by people in America regardless of the accents. Is there a reason you'd love to see it redone outside of just having the show have more exposure in America? I can understand the sentiment.
- CalRobert 5y agoOh, no I definitely do _not_ want it redone. It's better this way. I love Puffin Rock too (an Irish show) and can't fathom that with American accents.
- giancarlostoro 5y agoThank you for clarifying I just lost what you were conveying.
- astrange 5y agoSpeaking of Doctor Who, David Tennant is the same role in the American remake of Broadchurch and he has the worst American accent I've ever heard. It's set in California and he sounds like he's from everywhere else at the same time.
- giancarlostoro 5y agoThat's kind of odd, they should just let him have his accent, it's not like anybody is going to question why anybody from another country would ever live in America... I've not seen Broadchurch though so I don't know how out of character it would be.
- vrc 5y agoI think there’s something about British narration of nature docs that makes them more relaxing and engaging for American audiences. Especially those who grew up in an era of Discovery Channel and PBS where the narration was usually British, or South African, or Australian, or in the Commonwealth-tinged flavor of English of that location. Perhaps it’s nostalgia.
- twofornone 5y agoI agree and I think part of it is nostalgia for a time when educational channels actually broadcast informative content, not semi-scripted, over edited, over dramatized reality tv. Did anyone else notice the slow boil of channels like History, Discovery, Animal Planet? Just irresponsible to coast on their reputation and start showing nothing but junk TV 24/7 to people who thought they were learning. I think it started with Pawn Stars and went downhill from there. MBAs saw $$$ and had no qualms about dumbing down their national audience and trashing the reputations of the channels in the process. American TV is unwatchable IMO.
- throwaway894345 5y agoI didn’t have cable growing up, but by the time I was in college History channel had already given up on history and was just running “Ancient Aliens” and its ilk along with reality TV. As far as I know, there is nowhere to find good documentary content on a regular basis (whether by streaming or legacy media). PBS gets close, but even their Nova and Nature programs have degraded in quality.
- CalRobert 5y agoIt really is painful to watch. It's been so long since I watched anything that wasn't a streaming service that when I see old fashioned TV with commercials and horrible editing it drives me up a wall. I remember when my complaint about the History Channel was that it was WWII all the time. It was still massively better than today; at least I learned about the Battle of the Bulge over and over and over.
- vrc 5y agoI used to watch Discovery’s “Wild Discovery” animal series every night. Then they spun out Animal Planet, which was cool. Then they started putting filler programming on AP. Now it’s all gone Honey Boo Boo TLC with scripted reality shows that are animal-adjacent. Have to catch reruns of Blue Planet and Planet Earth on BBCAmerica if I want to unwind with a nature doc in the evening
- technothrasher 5y agoWhen my son was little we used to watch "Bob the Builder" together, but apparently the producers didn't feel the same as the Bluey ones or didn't have as much sway. Our local station switched to a dubbed version with American accents and it was just awful and pointless. So now they say "soccer" instead of "football", so what? It lost most of its charm.
- tombert 5y agoHonest question: how did it lose charm by switching to American accents and localisms? I'm not disagreeing (I'm a bit too old for Bob the Builder and I don't have kids), I'm genuinely curious.
- technothrasher 5y agoI think it was mostly because we were used to the voice actors they had been using. The new ones just didn't fit the characters as well. I'm not sure it was an American vs British thing, I think it was more likely 1) you like what you were introduced to, and 2) they hired less qualified voice actors and re-writers to do the cheap dubbing than they originally did when they cast the show.
- not1ofU 5y agoSounds like watching The Simpsons with dubbing - interesting for a brief moment, but then you want the original.
- astrange 5y agoThe French-Canadian dub of The Simpsons is at least as good as the original. https://twitter.com/matttomic/status/1158910781964083201 https://twitter.com/matttomic/status/1158910781964083201 The Japanese dub from what I've seen is surprisingly okay, but also kind of wordy, which they make up for by speaking faster than usual. (But they have the guy who does all the anime priests as Rev. Lovejoy.)
- lbriner 5y agoIn my experience, some people in the US/Canada struggle to understand a British accent and this might be one reason to dub it into another accent. My brother tried to order an apple pie fritter in Canada and the woman didn't understand what he was asking for. When he proncounced it fridder, she did :-) I understood both ways perfectly well but hey!
- jack_riminton 5y agoI had this too when I was in the US. A waitress didn't understand "bottle of water" so I had to point to it, to which she replied "Oh you mean a boddle of warder"
- beanders 5y agoThat’s unfortunate… variations in American accents can differ as much or more than that, so it’s a little surprising she struggled. I hope you don’t judge all Americans by that experience :)
- jack_riminton 5y agoI know I shouldn't but I still do find it surprising how someone speaking English can't understand a well spoken English person!
- kergonath 5y agoFrom my experience, even people used to variation still struggle when it is the wrong kind of variation. It's a bit difficult to explain but I have seen it happening regularly, including once when I tried to say something about Vancouver and it took a writing down to get it across. The other person was used to one southern American accent, Estuary English and European Globish at least.
- leoedin 5y agoNot understanding an accent is purely due to lack of exposure - so if that's the reason producers choose to dub everything then it's a self perpetuating cycle of ignorance.
- Joeboy 5y agoI guess David Attenborough probably isn't so well-known in the US? It's apparently much harder to get people to show up for something without a big name attached. Edit: > Actress and conservationist Sigourney Weaver was brought in to replace David Attenborough as narrator, as it was thought her familiarity to American audiences would attract more viewers.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_(2006_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_(2006_TV_series)
- Intermernet 5y agoDavid Attenborough is by far the most famous nature documentarist in the world. No one comes close. I'm not sure what name would be regarded as bigger.
- dymk 5y agoMorgan Freeman as a runner up
- quesera 5y agoKen Burns is a candidate, though not strictly natural world stuff.
- pvaldes 5y agoI would put Jacques Cousteau and Felix Rodríguez de la Fuente in the same league. If we take in mind the risks that they suffered to film nature I would say that they score higher in the epic factor. I'm not denying that Attenborough is a category in himself and a wonderful narrator of course. Freeman and Sigourney are in a different category. Both are excellent actors and narrators in films directed by another people. Freeman is "the" voice in the anglosphere, but Rodriguez de la Fuente was "the" voice in the latinosphere. Everybody was trying to imitate their style and accent decades after their death. He was the leader in a wolf pack when nobody was doing that, and don't hesitate to escalate a clift to take a good shot of a vulture nest. He was not an actor that just arrives to a set, say their lines and go.
- 5y ago
- vlunkr 5y agoBluey is a fantastic show, and the fact that it's unapologetically Australian is part of what's so fun about it. I think it's just the choice of nervous higher-ups to localize things like this, and not actually what people want. Like Douglas Adams says, people can survive hearing references they don't understand. And they might even learn something about another culture.
- marlowe221 5y agoMy kids (ages 6 and 3) LOVE Bluey. We are American and (sadly) English-only speakers. The fact that the show is full of Australian accents has not impacted their ability to understand or enjoy the show in any way at all. The exposure to places that are not-America is good for them!
- CalRobert 5y agoI didn't even realize it but when Bluey, Bingo, and dad go to watch Chunky Chimp (the kids' movie with a big storm) the characters' accents are American. "it's just a bunch of singing monkeys I wouldn't read too much in to it"
- thrdbndndn 5y ago>English-only speakers I mean most of native speakers won't have much trouble understanding Australian accents. It's the ESL people that would have a hard time without having enough exposure.
- soperj 5y agoIt's not really the accents that are hard to understand in Australia, it's the slang.
- onpensionsterm 5y agoWhich is why non-localised US media can be so successful in other countries, even places where English isn't the first language.
- Abekkus 5y agoThe first planet earth wasn't just given different voiceover for American audiences, it was recut. The brass called the Attenborough cut "excruciatingly slow-paced", so once they decided to re-edit, it was probably easier to recast the narration than to try and edit down Attenborough's own speech. The Attenborough cut is my personal preference too.
- Hayvok 5y agoAgree in general that the UK/Attenborough cut is preferable, but the American intro sequence is fantastic and dramatic. Gave me chills the first time I watched it.
- yes_i_can 5y agoI kind of hate the dramatization in newer nature documentaries, rife with cuts of sweeping landscape views set to loud, epic music. I'm probably just getting old, but it feels like they're trying too hard to keep my attention. I don't need blaring horns and pounding timpani to keep me watching.
- Chris2048 5y agoThe problem is it's a race to the bottom with these kinds of things, comparable to the over-salt-&-sugar-ing of American foods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G77ev9pks4I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G77ev9pks4I "..until eventually, they’re shipping hamburger buns with exactly three sesame seeds artfully arranged in a triangle, and nobody buys their hamburgers any more." -- https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2007/09/11/theres-no-place-like-127001/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2007/09/11/theres-no-place-li...
- throwaway894345 5y agoHonestly I’m an avid fan of all of the “Planet” series precisely because of Attenborough.
- ZoomZoomZoom 5y ago
- jonpurdy 5y agoDiscovered Bluey and use it as a treat/distraction when needed with my 10-month-old. I legitimately enjoy watching it and love the subtle jokes made for parents. A big part of the charm is the Australianisms. We don't need more Americanized stuff. If anything it should be the reverse: USA needs more international content, accents, etc.
- _carbyau_ 5y agoAs an Aussie I think of Bluey as one our proudest exports. But some episodes I wonder if overseas audiences get the same tensions. IE Curry Quest, walk for a curry swap but have to deal with a magpie. Do people really understand how "out to get you" magpies can be in Spring? As a kid, they can be vicious bastards.. when I realised they were dealing with one I was anxious over how it was going to go.
- theshrike79 5y agoBluey is one of the few kids shows a parent can watch without having their brain melt. And it gives great ideas for playing with the kids.
- scrollaway 5y agoYou should check out Gravity Falls, and the 2017 DuckTales.
- larkost 5y agoI would also suggest the Storybots series. There are some amazing cameos by Snoop Dog and Weird All Yancovic among others.
- Hayvok 5y agoBluey runs on repeat in our (American) house and I'm sure I've seen each episode a half-dozen times now. I find the Australian accents and cultural references to be a charming and fundamental part of the show. The wildlife, the fauna, the building designs—it all screams "Australian" at you, so hearing a bunch of American accents in that setting would be jarring and out-of-place. The Aussie themes have even led to some history lessons in our house: a handful of episodes reference Australian soldiers (including Bluey's grandpa) which led to my kids asking what wars Australia fought in. Queue the (very) gentle introductions to WW1 and WW2, and the Pacific War specifically.
- nerdponx 5y agoI know a lot of American children and families that have similar associations with Wallace and Gromit. I think even for relatively young children, the fact that something is "international" can make it more entertaining and interesting.
- neild 5y agoBluey is the only show that made my kid want to turn the TV off so he could play whatever game Bluey and her sister were playing himself. We still play Silly Hotel from time to time. It’s very different tonally (much more serene), but fans of Bluey should check out the BBC kids’ show Sarah & Duck, which is aimed at a similar age range and also contains much for parents to love as well as children. It’s gentle and surreal, and I’d have been happy to watch it on its own merits even if I didn’t have a kid who loved it as well.
- pessimizer 5y agoNot everybody is a xenophile, some people are nationalist types who get annoyed (rather than aroused) whenever they hear a foreign accent, and may even have trouble understanding them. You're not going to change channels if you hear an American accent, but they very much will if they hear an Australian one. One out of every six big US movies would be black if it were proportionate to population, but they're not. The reason is because black people will watch white movies, but white people don't watch black movies. It's the people willing to walk away that make the decision. It's very expensive to redub a series just to change the accent; they're getting a return on that.
- gordian-mind 5y ago> The reason is because black people will watch white movies, but white people don't watch black movies. What happened to "people just want to be represented in movies"? Simply put, since there are more whites than blacks in the U.S., then every film-maker has an incentive to represent them more to reach a broader audience. This is absolutely not because "white people are more bigoted", which is laughable when you consider that they are surely, in proportion, the most xenophile people on the planet.
- inkywatcher 5y ago> surely Would you mind substantiating this?
- gordian-mind 4y agoI don't believe there an exact measurable statistic that captures this, however it'd be interesting to: - reflect on how many white people have made a social virtue out of countersignaling their own group; - point out how low the bar is in the rest of the world, and how easy this comparison really is.
- pessimizer 5y agoI don't understand the argument that you're making. Black people expect not to be represented in movies, and so seeing someone like themselves is not essential to appreciate them (although a token certainly helps.) White people are alienated from movies they don't see themselves in. Therefore movies made for white people will not lose black audiences, but movies made for black people will lose white audiences. You seem to be supporting that opinion, but angrily.
- petepete 5y agoOr when Mary Beard was cut from the American release of Civilisation. She, a world-renowned scholar and classicist, was replaced by Liev fucking Schreiber.
- dunham 5y agoAnd you get to learn new words like dunny and dobber.
- deltarholamda 5y agoIt's fascinating to see the number of Bluey fans. My kids love it too. Making it American would just ruin it. I grew up reading Paddington books, and about 90% of what I know about British money came from those books. Re-interpreting it to American dollars would have ruined the immersion into the story, IMO. I was very glad when the Paddington movies were unapologetically British.
- abruzzi 5y agoSomewhat famously, Mad Max was dubbed into “American” for distribution in the USA. I have an old DVD that has both soundtracks and it can be fun to switch back and forth.
- underwater 5y agoFun fact which is strangely on point for this thread: Dave Mccormack, the voice of Dad on Bluey, was previously known for his band Custard. One of their most popular songs was "I feel like Ringo". Ringo Starr was famously the narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine.