The German translation of Baldur’s Gate decided for some reason that elves spoke in an east-German accent. Imagine Legolas sounding like he was from Texas.
I like that, actually. It provides the “not from around here” vibe without faking some kind of foreign accent and undoubtedly stereotyping another culture for no reason.
I saw this stuff here as well back when I was a kid. The Dutch dub of The Lion King (the cartoon) did an interesting thing where the savannah animals all spoke Netherlands Dutch and Timon and Pumba, the jungle animals, spoke Flemish Dutch. I always liked that, it showed a clear difference between the two “worlds” in more than just background art.
It’s a bit tougher to get many different accents in smaller countries these days, though. You don’t get a lot of voice actors out of a limited population (especially one that generally doesn’t have a big problem consuming foreign media without, and you get even fewer voice actors that are all from the same region within a country with a distinct accent.
The homogenisation of language through TV, radio, and the internet is slowly killing many accents, and I think that’s a shame. The place I grew up in used to have a clearly distinct dialect (spoken only in a single town, with a different dialect with similar but distinct rules only seven or right kilometers away) with structure and region specific words, but I never got to learn that as a kid because everyone spoke standard Dutch.
They don’t just sound like they’re from Hannover. They sound like they’re a Hannover stereotype. Every fucking vowel is sounded out completely. Like, I’m from Mecklenburg Vorpommern, we speak pretty clear Hochdeutsch here for the most part and it still all sounds stilted as fuck to me.
It also doesn’t help that they always use their “voice actor” voice when dubbong live action, where the original actors will use a more normal/natural voice compared to when they’re doing VA for a cartoon or something. Then the audio mixing is all fucked and all semblance of a natural conversation is lost. Genuinely the only thing I can watch in German is animated stuff.
Yup. I really hate that notion that people think that one dialect is “normal” and the other ways to speak are degenerated deviations for the underclass. Everyone has a dialect and they’re all equally valid.
You can’t even watch the Sendung mit der Maus? ;_;
I think the only reason it sounds goofy is because of the same voices and dialects being used everywhere, so when they do use a different dialect, it’s usually a reference to something. Farmer stereotypes get the remote farmer accents, “foreigner” stereotypes get a generic foreign accent, and every other character sounds like they grew up together in the same neighbourhood.
I’m kind of glad we don’t really do dubbed movies for adults over here, I have plenty of childhood memories of the quality of Dutch voice actors in general, let alone their diversity. I know they’re doing the best they can, but there aren’t that many Dutch speakers. For double damage, most good VAs also do commercials and radio work, so you end up with characters sounding like the ad selling you skin ointments.
(that said, the Dutch voice for Sponge Bob will always sound better than the English one to me, they really nailed that show)
The German translation of Baldur’s Gate decided for some reason that elves spoke in an east-German accent. Imagine Legolas sounding like he was from Texas.
YEE-HAW, I’m the FASTEST BOW IN THESE HERE WOODS
I like that, actually. It provides the “not from around here” vibe without faking some kind of foreign accent and undoubtedly stereotyping another culture for no reason.
I saw this stuff here as well back when I was a kid. The Dutch dub of The Lion King (the cartoon) did an interesting thing where the savannah animals all spoke Netherlands Dutch and Timon and Pumba, the jungle animals, spoke Flemish Dutch. I always liked that, it showed a clear difference between the two “worlds” in more than just background art.
It’s a bit tougher to get many different accents in smaller countries these days, though. You don’t get a lot of voice actors out of a limited population (especially one that generally doesn’t have a big problem consuming foreign media without, and you get even fewer voice actors that are all from the same region within a country with a distinct accent.
The homogenisation of language through TV, radio, and the internet is slowly killing many accents, and I think that’s a shame. The place I grew up in used to have a clearly distinct dialect (spoken only in a single town, with a different dialect with similar but distinct rules only seven or right kilometers away) with structure and region specific words, but I never got to learn that as a kid because everyone spoke standard Dutch.
I’m a bit torn on this. On the one hand: you’re completely right. On the other: It sounded goofy as fuck.
But missing variety in dialects in German dubs is something I really dislike. Everyone in German dubs sounds like they’re from Hannover.
They don’t just sound like they’re from Hannover. They sound like they’re a Hannover stereotype. Every fucking vowel is sounded out completely. Like, I’m from Mecklenburg Vorpommern, we speak pretty clear Hochdeutsch here for the most part and it still all sounds stilted as fuck to me.
It also doesn’t help that they always use their “voice actor” voice when dubbong live action, where the original actors will use a more normal/natural voice compared to when they’re doing VA for a cartoon or something. Then the audio mixing is all fucked and all semblance of a natural conversation is lost. Genuinely the only thing I can watch in German is animated stuff.
Yup. I really hate that notion that people think that one dialect is “normal” and the other ways to speak are degenerated deviations for the underclass. Everyone has a dialect and they’re all equally valid.
You can’t even watch the Sendung mit der Maus? ;_;
Oh no, German productions are fine, it’s just dubs. They don’t fuck up the audio on their own productions.
I think the only reason it sounds goofy is because of the same voices and dialects being used everywhere, so when they do use a different dialect, it’s usually a reference to something. Farmer stereotypes get the remote farmer accents, “foreigner” stereotypes get a generic foreign accent, and every other character sounds like they grew up together in the same neighbourhood.
I’m kind of glad we don’t really do dubbed movies for adults over here, I have plenty of childhood memories of the quality of Dutch voice actors in general, let alone their diversity. I know they’re doing the best they can, but there aren’t that many Dutch speakers. For double damage, most good VAs also do commercials and radio work, so you end up with characters sounding like the ad selling you skin ointments.
(that said, the Dutch voice for Sponge Bob will always sound better than the English one to me, they really nailed that show)
Oh god, which East German? Sachsen? Berlin-Brandenburg?
I think it was Sachsen.