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Mexican Film Buffs Shafted
HE reader Alejandro Aldrete of Monterrey, Mexico, is angry that Disney/Pixar has sent only dubbed prints of WALL*E to local theatres, in contradiction of the usual-usual. I'm guessing that the Mexican distribution exec has probably decided that subtitles aren't necessary for a kid's film, and would certainly hurt business -- brilliant.
"WALL*E arrived today in Mexican cinemas all over the country, and I believe in most of Latin America," Aldrete writes. "I don't know about the other countries, but apparently, even though today in my city of Monterrey, with nearly 5 million people and counting, and with WALL*E in hundreds and hundreds of theatres playing every hour from 10 am to midnight, I can't find one single print of this film that isn't dubbed into Spanish.
"Dubbing is common on Latin American television, but for the theatre run most films are subtitled. Only kiddie films get here dubbed to cinemas, and usually with one or two prints with subtitles. Yet in the last few years, animated films have stopped coming here with subtitles. Last year it was the same situation with Ratatouille, and even common people around here know it's a crime against any film of that caliber to not be able to get seen as it is intended in it's original version.
"My problem with Disney/Pixar on this is that they damn well know Pixar films have a special appeal to adults and film buffs. In the past with The Incredibles and Finding Nemo, I would go to a subtitled showing of those films and have a great time because I knew I was watching something ten times better than any dubbing they could come up with, and also because subtitled showings tend to have less kids fucking around and making noises. So it was a nice deal.
"I personally feel insulted and not taken into account as a loyal costumer of Pixar that they have decided to not bring here one single copy of WALL*E in it's original form with original audio. Is it too much to ask that they send a bunch of subtitled prints to Latin America for the film buffs? The ones that will keep buying their films in 30 years? I mean really, how greedy can you be to think that you're losing money by giving us one print in a hundred?"
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 4, 2008 at 2:13 PM
comment #1
facls
says ...
Here in Sao Paulo, Brazil there were only two theaters playing Wall-E with subtitles. First time there are so few subtitled copies for Pixar movies, though.
Posted by facls
at July 4, 2008 3:09 PM
comment #2
mutinyco
says ...
Okay. Ready. In English and Spanish, here's the entire movie subtitled:
"WALL*E!"
"EEV-AHH!"
WALL*E!"
EEV-AHH!"
Posted by mutinyco
at July 4, 2008 3:17 PM
comment #3
CinemaPhreek
says ...
I'm with mutinyco on this - of all the Pixar films to bitch about concerning dubbing...
I usually try to find subtitled versions of any non-language film (because A) the dubbing usually makes the dialogue sound idiotic and B) the sync issue bugs the crap outta me), but if something with this little dialogue spoken by the human characters came out of Japan, I could live with it being dubbed.
I guess, being the 4th weekend, slow news period.
Posted by CinemaPhreek
at July 4, 2008 3:41 PM
comment #4
joserc
says ...
I have to agree with Alejandro. I live in Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city, and this morning when I tried to find a subtitled copy I was furious to realize there wasn't any. The same had happened a few weeks ago with "Kung Fu Panda". I have nothing against dubbing, but we should be able to make a choice of how we want to see the movie and not only because it's animated should Disney or whatever distributor is behind each make the decision to downgrade it adn present it in an altered form, because that's what it is.
Anyway, I've heard other countries such as Spain and France get mostly dubbed versions of ALL movies, so I can't complain much, in Mexico it's only the animated format which suffers from this. But come on... one subtitled copy per city? Is that too much to ask?
Posted by joserc
at July 4, 2008 4:56 PM
comment #5
Edward
says ...
The fact that Wall*E will be over the head of most young children should have been factored into Pixar's decision not to send out subtitled versions. Great film. I'll leave the debate about it being a "best picture nominee" to others -- I was mesmerized by the film.
Posted by Edward
at July 4, 2008 6:24 PM
comment #6
JCEFalconi
says ...
In Mexico City only two theaters have subtitled prints. Then again Pixar is always very good about dubbing the movies, they take great care so the inflections and tones are all the same. It's Dreamworks and Blue Sky that really eff the dog, letting the Z-level mexican celebrities dub the movies and even (ugh) give input into what slang words they can use. This was the case with Donkey on the Shrek movies where they let the mexican comedian, put his on "brilliant spin" on Eddie Murphy's character.
Posted by JCEFalconi
at July 5, 2008 8:55 AM
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