MovieChat Forums > Sister Act (1992) Discussion > Why the bad dubbing?

Why the bad dubbing?

posted 18 years ago by puirt-a-beul
12 replies | jump to latest

OK, it's a tiny point, but:

At the start of the movie, actually at the close of Dolores' stage act in the casino, there's a moment where Dolores' voice says something like "OK, let's rap this up ... rap it up!" -- but her mouth very clearly says something totally different. It's not even close to being in sync.

My DVD, at least, doesn't have a commentary track -- I'm not sure if any of them do -- so I haven't heard any comments on this.

But does anyone know what it was she actually said, why they had to change it, and why they went with such a bad bit of dubbing ?

Seems odd to me.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] puirt-a-beul 17 years ago

No, it's definitely Whoopi. It's her mouth that's moving, and the words don't match her mouth movements. Not even close.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] KatharineFanatic 17 years ago

That bothers me too. In fact, I'm at this forum because I just watched the movie for the thousandth time the other night and was wondering if anyone lip-reads well enough to figure out what she actually said.

My theory was that she said something really nasty, and they had to re-dub it in order to get the desired PG rating and appease any possible Catholic groups with a connection to the film. Sound plausible?

[–] puirt-a-beul 17 years ago

Certainly does, Lady, thanks for suggesting it.

Can't think of any other reason why they would redub it. If it had just been badly recorded for some reason, they could have foley'd in the same lines. But she clearly isn't saying the words we hear.

One of those things that make you go "hmmm ...".

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] betweennowandthen 17 years ago

Jennifer Lewis says it. You can clearly see her say those words. You just can't hear what Whoopi is saying.

[–] puirt-a-beul 17 years ago

No, I don't think it is. It doesn't match her mouth -- and if *both* of them we're talking, that still means the voice must have been dubbed in post.

And besides, it's a line that doesn't make sense for her character to say. Whoopi calls all the shots in the group, and the others just do what they're told -- why would one of them be saying "OK, let's wrap this up!" in a bossy tone?

And it definitely sounds like Whoopi's voice to me.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] puirt-a-beul 17 years ago

Yes, you're right, and so were the others in this thread who said the same thing.

Coincidentally, I happened to watch the movie again this evening, and stopped and checked -- and you know, I had never noticed that Jennifer Lewis was actually speaking. My bad.

As you say, the other two are also speaking at the same moment, so I guess I was distracted by that. I expect that our only hearing Jennifer Lewis' voice is explained by the fact that she is speaking directly into her hand-held mic, whereas the other two aren't.

Anyway, I got it wrong.

(Though I still think it is bad dubbing, to have all three people on-screen speaking, but only hear the voice of one of them on the soundtrack.)

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] progun38 9 years ago

In the doc about "The Blues Brothers" John Landis discusses how difficult it is to record singing live. Most of the songs were filmed and the artists "dubbed" themselves, Aretha included. I've seen that movie about 50 times and I can't see the differences. Since Whoopi isn't a professional, I expect that she had trouble in that area.

[–] Cavitation 8 years ago

It looks like she said the F-word, so they probably redubbed it to get a PG rating, since they already said the S-word, and the MPAA has weird rules about the quantity and combination of swear words.

"Baba Booey! Baba Booey!"