Non-English versions of The Simpsons

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Godaiger (talk | contribs) at 23:20, 28 August 2007 (→‎Arabic). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

In some countries the animated show The Simpsons is (or has been) dubbed. This is a list over the voice cast of the different languages.

Arabic

The show was first broadcast in the area in its original language with Arabic subtitles like on the Egyptian branch of Showtime Arabia and Dubai's One TV, where it recieved a following in the area.

The program finally given an Arabic translation in September of 2005, under a title that transliterates as "Al-Shamshoon" (In Arabic, الشمشون) In addition to being dubbed in Arabic (with subtitles provided for shots including written English, such as the chalkboards), references to alcohol (Duff Beer & Moe's Tavern), pork (bacon & hot dogs), and numerous other themes have been deleted or significantly modified. For instance, Homer drinks soda-pop instead of beer and eats beef sausages as opposed to pork, while some characters, notably Apu and Krusty the Clown were omitted from the shows altogether, most likely due to religious reasons, with Apu being Hindu, and Krusty being Jewish[citation needed] however Reverend Lovejoy did appear in a number of episodes and the bible was named "The Book Of Advice". The characters were also given typical Arabic names such as Omar, Mona and Abar for Homer, Marge and Bart respectively as part of the retooling, while voices were provided by leading actors including Egyptian film star Mohamed Heneidi as "Omar", and their hometown "Springfield" was called "Rabeea" (Arabic for Spring) and made it look like an American town with a major Arab population. The show suffered a lot of criticism from longtime Arab and Muslim Simpson fans were upset over the Arabic adaptation.[1][2]

The Simpsons Movie was released in its original English language mostly unedited in several Arabic speaking areas.

Czech

The Simpsons has been dubbed into the Czech language and the show is named Simpsonovi.

The Czech voice actors are:

Character Voice actors
Homer Simpson: Vlastimil Bedrna (from 1st season); Vlastimil Zavřel (from 14th season)
Marge Simpson: Jiří Lábus
Bart Simpson: Martin Dejdar
Lisa Simpson: Helena Štáchová

Finnish

In Finland, the actual series are subtitled, but The Simpsons Movie will be released both dubbed and subtitled. The show is named Simpsonit.

The Finnish voice actors of The Simpsons Movie are:

Translated character names:

French

The Simpsons has been dubbed into the French language twice, once in the Canadian province of Quebec and again in France. In both versions, the show is named Les Simpson, as last names are not pluralized in French.

It is one of only a handful of American television shows that have wholly separate versions in Quebec and France, and a number of studies have been made comparing them. In France all the characters speak standard French, with the exception of the ethnic minorities: Apu is given the Portuguese accent common to French shop keepers while Carl, who has no accent in the American version, also speaks inflected French. In the Quebec version only the town elite, such as Principal Skinner and Reverend Lovejoy, speak International French. The Simpson family and most of the townsfolk speak with strong Québécois accents (making them sometimes difficult to understand even for metropolitan French speakers). In the Quebec version the ethnic minorities also have accents. Apu speaks in a creole while Carl has the accent of a Black immigrant from Africa or the Caribbean.[citation needed]

Local idioms are occasionally adopted in favor of direct translation. American cultural and political jokes are occasionally replaced with local references. For instance, a reference to Newt Gingrich in Quebec is generally replaced with one to Mike Harris. Most of the recurring characters keep their English names in each French version. Two exceptions are Sideshow Bob and Sideshow Mel, who are known as Tahiti Bob and Tahiti Mel in France, as the word sideshow has no direct translation. In Quebec, the title sideshow is kept as an Anglicism. Another exception is made for Simpsons family's dog, Santa's Little Helper, who is called "Le p'tit renne au nez rouge" (Little Red-Nosed Reindeer) in the Quebecois version and "Petit Papa Noël" (Little Santa) in the French.

The episodes are dubbed by a team of voice actors, similar to the one that does the original. The team does about two episodes per day. In general these voice actors also do the characters who were voiced by celebrities in the American version. In the French version, on occasion, official dubbers are brought in. For instance for the episode where Mulder and Scully from the X-Files appear the voice actors who do their voices on the French version of the X-Files guest starred.

The animation of the show is not changed, and what is in writing in English appears in English in the French versions. One important exception is the blackboard joke at the beginning of each episode. The Quebec and France versions share these French language blackboard scenes.

In July of 2007 Matt Groening said in an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that the actor who does the voice of French Homer says "Toe!" instead of Homer's trademark "D'oh!" This comes from the actor misreading the line the first time he did Homer's voice and has been that way ever since.

France

The French voice actors are:

Quebec, Canada

The speech of Homer, Lenny, Carl, and other lower-class characters in the Quebec French version occasionally resembles Joual, the working-class speech.

German

The Simpsons has been dubbed into one single German language and are broadcasted by ProSieben in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and ORF1 in Austria. The show is named Die Simpsons and the episodes appear uncut and dubbed, with written or sung English subtitled in German. The animation of the show is not changed. In the blackboard scene, we hear Bart reading the phrase translated. Homer's alveolar catch phrase "D'oh!" has been translated to "Nein!" (meaning "No!") rather than leaving it as the meaningless interjection that is his annoyed grunt.

Criticism

The German version's quality has been a frequent target for criticism. While some jokes cannot be translated, there are also numerous mistranslations.

Characters

Nearly all of the characters carry their American names; there are only just a few characters which are translated, especially animals. For example Reverend Lovejoy is still Reverend Lovejoy. Lovejoy's name seems to be the single one ever (partially) translated into German for some episodes ("Reverend Gottlieb"). Gottlieb is a real German first name - albeit outdated - meaning "to love God".

Translated characters:

In prior episodes solely translated as Tingeltangel Bob, afterwards taken over the original.
Reverend Gottlieb was used just a very few times, afterwards generally the original.
In the German version always a stereotypical Swiss, because of the contrast.

The German voice actors are:

Character Voice actors
Homer Simpson: Norbert Gastell
Marge Simpson: Elisabeth Volkmann † (season 1 - HABF04)
Anke Engelke (HABF05 - *)
Bart Simpson: Sandra Schwittau
Lisa Simpson: Sabine Bohlmann
Abe Simpson: Walter Reichelt † (season 1 - 8)
Ulrich Bernsdorff † (season 9)
Horst Raspe † (season 10 - 15)
Michael Rüth (season 16 - *)
Patty Bouvier Gudrun Vaupel (season 1)
Elisabeth Volkmann † (season 2 - GABF17)
Angelika Bender (HABF08 - *)
Selma Bouvier: Ursula Mellin (season 1)
Elisabeth Volkmann † (season 2 - GABF17)
Angelika Bender (HABF10 - *)
Ned Flanders: Ulrich Frank
Mr. Burns: Reinhard Brock
Krusty: Hans-Rainer Müller
Seymour Skinner: Fred Klaus † (season 1 - 13)
Klaus Guth (season 14 - *)
Edna Krabappel: Gudrun Vaupel (season 1 - 4)
Inge Solbrig (season 5 - *)

Link with photos and sound samples:

Hungarian

The Simpsons has been dubbed into the Hungarian language and the show is named A Simpson család.

The Hungarian voice actors are:

Character Voice actors
Homer Simpson: József Székhelyi
Marge Simpson: Zsuzsa Pálos
Bart Simpson: Balázs Simonyi
Lisa Simpson: Titanilla Bogdányi


Japanese

In Japan, The Simpsons has been dubbed into Japanese and are broadcasted by WOWOW.

The Japanese voice actors are:

Character Voice actors
Homer Simpson: Tōru Ōhira
Marge Simpson: Miyuki Ichijō
Bart Simpson: Junko Hori
Lisa Simpson: Chie Kōjiro
Krusty the Clown: Bin Shimada

Spanish

The Simpsons is also being dubbed into the Spanish language twice, once in Latin America and again in Spain. Between the two versions are many differences. In Latin America Homer is translated as Homero, but in Spain it isn't translated. Other translations in Latin America but in Spain is not translated are: Barney Gumble as Barney Gómez, Chief Wiggum as Jefe Gorgory, Ralph Wiggum as Ralf/Rafa Gorgory, Reverend Lovejoy as Reverendo Alegría, Sideshow Bob as Bob Patiño and Mayor "Diamond" Joe Quimby as Alcalde Diamante. Itchy and Scratchy are translated in the two versions: Tommy y Daly for Latin America, and Rasca y Pica for Spain.

The animation of the show is not changed, and what is in writing in English appears in English in the Spanish versions. In the blackboard scene, we hear Bart reading the phrase translated. After the introduction, in the Latin American version we hear the name of the episode, while this does not happen in the Spanish version. The region 1 DVDs include the Latin American audio.

Latin American Version

The Latin American Version is dubbed in Mexico by Grabaciones y Doblajes. A rumor has stated that Matt Groening himself chose the voices for the Latin American version, though this is contradicted by Groening himself in the DVD commentary for season 3's Like Father, Like Clown, where it's revealed that writer Wallace Wolodarsky went to several countries, including Mexico and Germany, to cast the foreign versions. The most memorable cast dubbed from seasons 1 through 9 and was:

During season 9, Huerta quit playing Bart for not being well paid by the company, and was replaced by Claudia Mota. Before season 16, the main cast had a legal issue with Grabaciones y Doblajes because it wanted the actors to be in the National Actors Association of Mexico, and they were not in that association, so in response, the whole cast was fired. Beginning at season 16, they were replaced by new actors, and curiously, Huerta returned to do both Bart's and Marge's voice.

Spanish Version

The principal cast is the following:[1]

Many fans of the series and the rest of the Spanish cast were very sad after the death of Carlos Revilla due to his excellent work,[2][3][4] and Antena 3 had to find a substitute for Revilla's voice (as opposed to Dan Castellaneta's).[5]

Carlos Revilla also dubbed the appearance of KITT in the episode The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace, like he did in Knight Rider. There are other characters that conserve their frequent voice in Spain: like Mulder and Scully from the X-Files, or Sideshow Bob and his brother Cecil. They are dubbed by the same actors who dub Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce in Frasier.

Portuguese

Brazilian version

Portugal

In Portugal the cartoon isn't dubbed in order to provide an unbiased instance of the show to the general audience.

However the "The Simpsons movie" has a dubbed version in portuguese.

Swedish

When TV3 started broadcasting The Simpsons the show was not dubbed. However, in 1993, the network decided to start dubbing The Simpsons and moved the show to a more child friendly time at 6:00 p.m. After a public outrage the dubbing was dropped after only six episodes and the show was moved to a more adult time.[6] Bart was voiced by Annica Smedius and Homer by Per Sandborgh.[3]

References

  1. ^ Spanish dub cast list
  2. ^ Spanish Carlos Revilla memorial
  3. ^ Spanish Carlos Revilla memorial 2
  4. ^ Spanish Carlos Revilla memorial 3
  5. ^ Elsemanal.tv article about Revilla's substitute
  6. ^ Sources from http://www.presstext.se/, a non-free online database of Swedish newspaper articles. Articles from Expressen and Dagens Nyheter, autumn 1993.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Non-English_versions_of_The_Simpsons&oldid=154272915"