It's bad enough that dubbing ruins one of the most basic aspects of a film - the richness of language! But just think how hard it is to understand a dubbed track when the film-goer is hearing-impaired. The words are completely different from the mouth movement. It's like some crazy ride.
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The japanese voice you hear is just "some actor's dubbed voice" . . . who happens to be japanese.
Or were you being ironic?
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Some dubbing are good, some dubbing is bad. The dub in this film was awful. Those kids sounded like they're grown up or something. Sotuski's voice really got on my nerves. He sounded like a 15 year old teenager, Ponyo sounded like a pre-teen even though she's supposed to be a kid, the mother's voice sounds too deep, Sosoke's friend or whatever with the ruined-dress-by-Ponyo sounded too cutesy, but her crying sounded adult-ish (or maybe her voice is a little grown up for her age).
My Neighbor Totoro had too cutesy voices, Nausicaa of the valley of the wind was O.K., not really my taste, Porco Rosso had O.K. voices, Spirited Away had wonderful voices, Castle of Cagliostro (new dub) was O.K., but Clarisse sounded like Amy Rose or a high-pitched annoying little girl, Jigen's voice was too grumpy, Fujiko is a little low, and Lupin's voice just sounds too goofy (even though it's always been like that), Princess Mononoke was good, Howl's Moving Castle (despite the british accent) fit the characters very well, The Cat Returns could've been better, Kiki's Delivery Service I guess was O.K., Castle in the Sky had the worst dubbing of all, the kids sounded like they were adults.
The worst dub you could ever see is Laputa. Watch the Japanese Dub as the characters may sound cutesy but a lot younger. Also, another Ghibli movie with bad dubbing is Grave of the Fireflies.
Sonic will be hearty forever.
"Mom, could I get one of these?" - Little Girl
I have to disagree about the CASTLE IN THE SKY dubbing completely. It's not perfect by any means, but it is in no way an unbearable dub, nor even "the worst dub of all". That honor belongs to WARRIORS OF THE WIND. the edit of NAUSICAA which totally cut down the movie by 30 minutes and altered the characters' names.
By contrast, I thought the CASTLE dub was pretty good. Sure, the leads DO sound more like teenagers, but I felt that the supporting cast was perfect and that the rescore added to the picture. Mark and Cloris were both perfect for their roles and despite the "mature" issue, I felt James and Anna did decent jobs as Pazu and Sheeta, respectively. Of course they don't compare to the rest of the cast, but they're hardly intolerable and I've heard much worse dubbing than this (the JAL-Streamline version of this title, for instance, is really quite bad and unbearable compared to Disney's dub). In fact, it's one of my favorite dubs of all time.
Ditto with PRINCESS MONONOKE; I thought the cast for that film was fantastic, especially Keith David, although I did like Billy Crudup, Minnie Driver, and the rest of the cast. Both dubs of TOTORO are fine; KIKI is also good (even though, like CASTLE, it does add in extra lines), NAUSICAA, WHISPER OF THE HEART, and all the others are done well.
As far as CAGLIOSTRO is concerned, I really enjoyed the dub for the most part, but I didn't like the profanity so much. GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES wasn't bad by any means, but it was stiff and weaker than the Disney ones.
I really can't find fault with any of the Disney-Ghibli dubs; they're in no way bad, just because some purists may hate them.
I'd have to disagree with you back. Grave of the Fireflies had posibbly the worst dubbing behind Castle in the Sky. And I don't remember if Caglisotro had any profainty. I only saw the Disney dub for Totoro, but it wasn't that good.
Anyways, did you see Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle?
Sonic will be hearty forever.
"Mom, could I get one of these?" - Little Girl
To each their own, but I don't think either CASTLE or GRAVE are particularly bad dubs. They're not perfect, but they're far from the worst I've heard. Only the non-Disney dub of LAPUTA (in which the protagonists don't sound as old, but are pretty lame and robotic, and the script, despite being less chatty, is just plain choppy and stilted) and WARRIORS OF THE WIND as well as Streamline's older dub of AKIRA truly qualify as the worst dubs. Those three were truly awful, hideous dubs.
But Disney's CASTLE IN THE SKY is certainly not anywhere near the level of those aforementioned dubs. Even if the leads are less than perfect, they still did OK to my ears, and other than that there's a lot about the dub that makes it one that I enjoy unreservedly. I've never understood the backlash, and frankly, I don't care. Are there places where it could be better? Sure. But it's not at all bad. The somewhat mature-leads and sometimes too chatty dialogue are only trivial issues to me; the rest of the cast and the new score make up for it by far.
By contrast, GRAVE is unfortunately weaker, but it's hardly terrible to my standards. It's just an "average" dub. Not great, not terrible, just mediocre. I do think the Japanese VA for Setsuko is a bit more realistic (I steer around this argument for Pazu and Sheeta because both are 13-14 in the film, although it's never really mentioned how old either are; and boys' voices tend to hit puberty at varying ages, so there's a bit of flexibility in how either character can be voiced; but since Setsuko is supposed to be four years old, then the need for authenticity is more important—of course the actress playing her in the dub is hit and miss, so that's a problem, too), but otherwise there isn't anything deal-breaking or outstanding about it. It's simply an "OK" dub to me.
Likewise, I really don't understand the backlash against Disney's TOTORO; to me, it's a solid dub, and on par with the FOX dub. True, Lisa Michelson and Cheryl Chase were great back then, but the Fanning Sisters did solid jobs as well—casting two actual sisters was a clever casting decision IMO and I felt their genuine emotions paid off well. The adults were well played in both versions, although the Disney dubbed songs in TOTORO did sound a bit too gung-ho as opposed to the softer reinditions in the FOX dub. Still, that's no major issue, and I like both tremendously.
My problem with CAGLIOSTRO's dub is that sometimes the use of profanity seems too unnecessary, especially since this is a lighthearted movie. That said, it's not like it harms the film or anything; I liked the characters' VAs just fine, and thought they all performed well... although I hadn't seen the older Carl Macek dub, so I can't say how it compares.
Trust me, I HAVE seen my share of horrible dubs, but those abovementioned efforts are not among them. They are decent to good dubs, and ones I don't mind listening to. (Less so for GRAVE, although even then that dub is at best "OK".)
Yes, I DID see SPIRITED AWAY and HOWL, and I do think the dubs on both were done very well, but they just aren't my favorite Ghibli dubs. I find that any of the other Disney-produced efforts have just as much to admire about them.
In the end, it's just a your mileage may vary thing. I'm not the sort of person who prefers Anime in Japanese, and I don't see anything particularly wrong about the dubs Disney has made. They may not be perfect, but they're nowhere near bad; otherwise Miyazaki wouldn't have allowed them to be released.
Also, what one person may consider a grevious flaw others may think otherwise. There's no "right" or "wrong" way to see these movies; only preferences. And not everyone believes that the dubs are bad at all. (Yes, that even includes the ones that folks here on IMDB love to trash so much.)
And for the record, I HAVE seen CASTLE IN THE SKY, NAUSICAA, PORCO ROSSO, and HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE one time in Japanese, but I personally like the dubs better because I can't connect with Anime in a language I can't understand. (And in the case of the former film, I wasn't enamored with the Japanese VAs for Pazu or Sheeta—both sounded quite shrill and shrieky; even if James and Anna weren't perfect for these two characters and perhaps sounded a tad too mature, I prefer them overall. Strange as that may sound.)
Wouldn't if be difficult for most young viewers to keep up with the subtitles?
My kids love this movie. My older one could easily keep up with subtitles, but the younger two couldn't, certainly not line after line for an entire film.
Normally, I'd agree with you. I hate dubbed films, and always choose to watch with sub-titles. But an animated children's film? No, dubbing was the way to go.