The Worst Dub of Anything Ever (And No, It Isn't Anime)...

[EVA Unit 100]

Meet "The Shamshoons":

[url]http://media.putfile.com/shamshoon[/url]

Censorship is t eh suck.

[Shi no Tenshi]

ROFL!

You've made my day. When the title came up and the chorus sang 'The Shamshoons', I burst out laughing. Soda is my favourite edit.

I think it's incredible just how broad the Simpsons branches out. But it is rather unusual to choose a show that would require so much censorship to please it's audience - why not something simpler (without being patronising)?

Not much else to say on the matter, it doesn't bother me. Kids are gaining something from it, so I don't see the problem, if anything I find the dubbing rather funny.

Now if you excuse me, I need some Soda...

[EVA Unit 100]

[quote name='Shi no Tenshi']Not much else to say on the matter, it doesn't bother me. Kids are gaining something from it, so I don't see the problem, if anything I find the dubbing rather funny.[/quote]

But what could kids be gaining from this? They won't be gaining anything because edits made to get rid of American culture, non-Islamic religion, the behavior of the characters, and essentially all PG content will eliminate about all of the humor that made The Simpsons so good. If all they did was edit out bad language, mistranslate a few really obscure jokes that weren't all that funny to begin with, and not air the episodes focused entirely on marajuana and gay marriage I wouldn't mind this at all. But when you get rid of every single aspect of Homer's character outside of a catchphrase that just there kills any chance of The Shamshoons being even a quarter as smart, funny, sweet, cutting-edge, and overall enjoyable as the real version of The Simpsons.

Honestly, this is bad. Warriors of the Wind bad. Battle of the Planets bad. Escaflowne on FOX bad. CardCaptors bad. 4Kids' One Piece bad. If you liked any of those hackjobs you probably wouldn't be posting on an anime forum. If you hated those yet like this you are a hypocrite and art-racist in every sense.

[Shi no Tenshi]

Please. There are better things to get passionate about.

And yes kids are gaining from it because it is fulfilling it's purpose of being a form of entertainment. Who cares if they aren't learning the true values of being an American? Even if it's no longer the characters, it's hardly a substancial show that follows a consistent story line - so why bother getting annoyed that in some country that you don't live in, some viewers will be watching a badly dubbed version of the Simpsons (which I'm sorry to say is not an art form as much as it is a modern classic).

[EVA Unit 100]

[QUOTE=Shi no Tenshi]Please. There are better things to get passionate about.

And yes kids are gaining from it because it is fulfilling it's purpose of being a form of entertainment. Who cares if they aren't learning the true values of being an American? Even if it's no longer the characters, it's hardly a substancial show that follows a consistent story line - so why bother getting annoyed that in some country that you don't live in, some viewers will be watching a badly dubbed version of the Simpsons (which I'm sorry to say is not an art form as much as it is a modern classic).[/QUOTE]

But once you kill the characters and satire, the two main reasons why The Simpsons is so funny, how can the show possibly be entertaining? According to an LA Times article, lots of people from the places where The Shamshoons is airing are furious that such massive changes have been made.

More importantly, it's a total disgrace to all of the hard work that dozens of genius writers have put into making The Simpsons great (Exactly what do you mean by "it's hardly a substancial show" and "is not an art form as much as it is a modern classic"? Just because it doesn't focus on making a big detailed plot doesn't make The Simpsons any less of a work of art. Just the simple fact anyone put any level of creativity into it being an entertaining form of film makes it art by literal definition, but it helps that in its prime it was also the funniest and most intelligent satire on television). And that alone makes this not worth supporting if you have any respect for the artists.

What do you think about the anime hackjobs I listed earlier? Again, if you support this while hating those hackjobs you are one of the worst hypocrites alive today.

[Shi no Tenshi]

Hunny, art is Jeff Koons. It's Louise Bourgeous. It's Nan Goldin, Arthur Rackham, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Francisco de Goya, Frida Kahlo, Hannah Hoch, Nobuyoshi Araki, Klaus Oldenberg, Roy Lichenstien, Lucian Freud, Jackson Pollock... no I didn't have to Google to get those names.

Art has nothing to do with it. Granted there is work from a department of illustrators, designers, choreographers and such - but that's not the point. The point is that I could repeat previous essays I have written about the definition of art, I can bring in the definitions of Kant and Hume and we'll be here forever whilst you sit there and look up these names in Wikipedia as I spit them out.

Art is something that makes us re-evaluate our own opinions as individuals and as a public. And not in the sense that perhaps some people can learn that bonding within a family is indeed a good thing as they do with the Simpsons. How dare you compare Jackson Pollock's art that expresses angst over the horror's of the Holocaust, stating the impossibility of creating something so pure when something so evil has taken place, to say with Homer's angst over the last doughnut being eaten?

I myself am a fan of the Simpsons. Sure I'm not fanatical about it, but I do enjoy watching it. But in no way would I compare something as crudely animated as the Simpsons to say, Ghost in a Shell (which by the way has metaphorical imagery and philosphies I don't even think its fans understand).

As for One Piece and that lot, I wouldn't know. I don't watch them. And even if I did watch them and figure that they were badly dubbed, yet again I wouldn't care. Why? Because people are watching it, people are being entertained by yet again something cheaply produced to please the masses. I've at least seen adverts for One Piece - what monkies did they have to beat to draw something as badly stylised as that?

If the makers of such anime even cared about their creation, they would ensure that it was properly dubbed and translated. For example, name one Hayao Miyazaki that's been badly dubbed. No? I didn't think so. Why? Because his animations are blissful productions that challenge the viewer both aesthetically and mentally, and he would not allow a bad dub to destroy this image (even if it meant keeping the same bad ending for Howl's Flying Castle).


[/rant]

On another note, never challenge my respect for artists. I wouldn't be doing a degree in art if I didn't believe in its artists.

[EVA Unit 100]

[QUOTE=Shi no Tenshi]1) Art is something that makes us re-evaluate our own opinions as individuals and as a public. And not in the sense that perhaps some people can learn that bonding within a family is indeed a good thing as they do with the Simpsons. How dare you compare Jackson Pollock's art that expresses angst over the horror's of the Holocaust, stating the impossibility of creating something so pure when something so evil has taken place, to say with Homer's angst over the last doughnut being eaten?

2) I've at least seen adverts for One Piece - what monkies did they have to beat to draw something as badly stylised as that?

3) If the makers of such anime even cared about their creation, they would ensure that it was properly dubbed and translated.

4) For example, name one Hayao Miyazaki that's been badly dubbed. No? I didn't think so. Why? Because his animations are blissful productions that challenge the viewer both aesthetically and mentally, and he would not allow a bad dub to destroy this image (even if it meant keeping the same bad ending for Howl's Flying Castle).

5) On another note, never challenge my respect for artists. I wouldn't be doing a degree in art if I didn't believe in its artists.[/QUOTE]

1) The Simpsons is a satire. In the course of it's run, it's made challenging statements about family dysfunction, capitolism, stereotypes, advertising, the influence of the media, child labor, immigration, sexism, drug usage, sexuality, religious extremism, government spending, the agendas of political parties, the quality of schools and healthcare, and other major issues such as those. It might exaggerate them to unrealistic extremes, but the message is still there. The fact the show has been able to offend, please, and challenge so many people in the course of its run due to making fun of those issues qualifies it as art in my mind.

2) One Piece's animation is bad but in the Japanese version the storytelling is some of the best, at least for it's genre. Not very deep or artistic, but an entertaining show nonetheless. And unfortunately I can't find anything entertaining about the dub.

3) The creators do care. The problem is that the companies that own the animes don't. A good example of this happening in America would be Nickelodeon firing John Krisfalucci from Ren and Stimpy, a show that he created. I haven't read a single interview with John since then that didn't have him bashing that particular network to pieces.

4) Warriors of the Wind. There. A total massacre of the Miyazaki movie Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (which was originally one of his best movies ever). A total half-hour of that 2-hour movie was cut and the plot was changed drastically. The poster for it alone revealed lots of major changes from the Japanese version. Luckily Disney has made a good dub of Nausicaa since then, but the fact Warriors of the Wind was ever made is a total disgrace to Miyazaki's work.

5) Good to know you respect artists. Now please add Matt Groening to your list.

[Shi no Tenshi]

Despite what you say, it's still a cartoon. A cartoon that may contain some modern issues, but portrays them in a way that doesn't constitute as being challenging. You're taking it way too seriously for something that is hardly worth fighting for.

Well then, I suppoes it's [i]tragic[/i] that such a profound cartoon has been dubbed badly and Matt Groening shouldn't have tried to expand his horizon's into a country where changing the Simpons would have meant basically creating a new cartoon.

Besides, I'd like to see the Simpsons deal with those issues you mentioned above the same way Nan Goldin deals with them.