Dub it or sub it?

[Petrie.]

I'm largely looking to Malte for this one, and any other member whose native language is not English and would likely watch a film in their native language versus the language the movie was produced in.  This can be LBT or any film.

Which do you prefer?  Dubs (over in your own language) or subs (where you'd get subtitles in your native language, but you'd still hear the original voices)?

About the only experiences I've had are a few of the anime films from Studio Ghibli or a couple of the Pokemon films, and the real issue is that dubs will sometimes change the structure of the film, and then the plot ends up changing versus what the creator originally intended.  If I had a choice, I'd rather hear the Japanese voices, subtitled in English off of the Japanese dub but you're at the whim of the one writing those subtitles that they actually know what they're doing.  Nothing's perfect.  I'd be better off just learning Japanese.  

[Malte279]

This depends largely on the film. Usually I find subtitles rather irritating, so unless there are some really difficult parts I would rather have no subtitles at all. However in many movies there are references to elements from daily live which people from another country won't get at all. In these cases a good translation is certainly the better choice, even if it is not a literal one, so long it gets the joke across. Problems of understanding can also occur if people are talking very fast and with strong regional dialects. In these cases a subtitle may help to get the meaning while still not missing the experience of hearing the original sound.

[DarkHououmon]

I have to say I take no side on this issue. I like both subtitles and dubs, and am not picky whether a movie is dubbed or subtitled.

[WeirdRaptor]

It would depend on a lot of things. Is it animated or live-aciton. I can't stand live-action dubbed flicks. Dubbed animation is easier to take, and sometimes, better. Example: The original Japanese dub for Vash the Stampede in "Trigun" has a deep, manly voice. I'm sorry, but that is just not Vash. English Dub: Can sound goofy, whiney or serious. Much better.

[action9000]

I suppose I'm fairly neutral on this one.  I don't want enough foreign films to get much exposure to either.

On the other hand, I do prefer original voice actors in many cases, so I'm going to say Sub it. B)

[NewOrder]

We never dub movies, only some animation films but you can always choose to watch the original version. I've been watching subtitles since I was a kid, so I'm used to it, watching a movie without subtitles now that's weird =p
The only series I remember being dubbed was Dawson's Creek, they did quite a good job, but I still would prefer it with the subtitles. It's very annoying that the spannish, french and german tv channels dub all their movies, some times I'm zapping through cable and I get RTL or M6, if it's the first even if it's a cool film I can't watch it cause I don't understand german, as for M6 my french is a bit rusty but I can understand most of what they're saying. Why go through all the trouble of dubbing? Can't people read? =p
As for the LBT, I quite enjoyed watching it in brazilian and portuguese, the original version sounds a bit weird but either way I don't mind

[Petrie.]

^ People would say you're watching the subtitles more than the film.

[Malte279]

As for the LBT, I quite enjoyed watching it in brazilian and portuguese, the original version sounds a bit weird but either way I don't mind

Brazilian is based on Portugese, isn't it? Are there very strong differences; stronger than in British / American English (I assume there must be some strong difference if there are individual versions of LBT for each country).

People would say you're watching the subtitles more than the film.

I am one of those who are not too fond of reading subtitles while watching a movie. It may be helping if you have a good idea of the language and only need to pick up an occassional word, but if you have to read all the time, you are likely to miss some of the "non-language" elements of the movie. I have also seen movies with subtitles which were really bad translations of what was said (sometimes a totally different sense or mood was suggested by the subtitles). Of course this might happen in poorly translated movies with speakers from another country too.

[NewOrder]

That's mostly true, I often laugh at some of the translation that makes no sense. Since we're used to watching the subtitles it doesn't interfer in the film, it's like watching the film with out them, it begins at a young age so our eyes are charp and no one complains. Since you don't have that costum it's normal for you to find it weird.

As for the brazilian/portuguese, Brazilian is based on old portuguese and they have some words that never existed in portuguese or other latin languages because they're derived from the local indigenal people. I find the relation between brazilian and portuguese quite different from the one between american and british english, that makes the songs different and most of the lines from the characters. For instance, I find the portuguese version of It takes all sorts more ellaborate and on the whole better than the brazilian one, it's a rip off of the english version so it makes no sense. However, the portuguese lbt is only shown every now and then on national TV, the brazilian one is the one that's sold on DVD and VHS, thankfully I've tapped some of the portuguese versions, but a lot of the brazilian one's are pretty good, I like what they've done with Always there, except the part when they make littlefoot refere to his mother as a "he"