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International Audio (including Voice-Over Translations) — Page 2

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The trilogy - No. But I think the Ewok was released by Bonton but it's a long time since I heard it

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Here are the pioneers of the Star Wars Trilogy CCCP Voice-Over Translations:

Episode 4 - perhaps this is the earliest, the first translation
"Star Wars" Alexei Mikhailovich Mikhalev
(19.12.1944-09.12.1994 years.).

5 and 6 episodes - perhaps the most rany, the first translation
"Star Wars" Leonid Veniaminovich Volodarsky.

Mechanical translations of tributes to the two men:

Aleksey Mikhailovich Mikhalev (19.12.1944-09.12.1994 years.) - one of the most famous Soviet interpreters Pioneers (Soviet Union), orientalist. The man who won the hearts of many millions of people in our a country known for its many translations of foreign films 80 (USSR) and the early 90's. The best-known films are (many of the best comedies and blockbusters of the year): "Ruthless People", "Getting Things Done", "Easy Money", "Swap," "Man Overboard," "Star Wars" and many others These films were then spun at the first video recorders such as "electronics", for whom took turns at night to buy them. When viewing movies, often in the room was going for 8-9 people. AM Mikhaleva listen and listen to millions of people.
    
    A. M. Mikhalev graduated from the Institute of Asian and African Studies of Moscow State University (specialization - the Persian language). He worked as a translator of the embassies of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and Iran. On the disposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR was transferred in Moscow, where he translated the conversation when they met Leonid Brezhnev with the leaders of these countries. In the early 1970s. A. M. Mikhalev fiction translated from Persian (Golamhoseyn Saedi, etc.) and literature English: Muriel Spark, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, JM Coetzee, and others
    
    A. M. Mikhalev translated from English movies and Persian at the famous Moscow International film festivals, and in 1979 became converts, many movies that are scattered to all corners of the Soviet Union. One of the first movies that sounded AM Mikhalev is a famous movie (USA) "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" 1979 (The sad and absurd death of an ordinary man vstenah mental hospital) - was shown in cinemas.
    
    It is known that A. M. Mikhalev flatly refused to translate something "in the opposite direction" - from Russian into English. Voice AM Mikhaleva as well as the voice of AV Volodarsky is unique. He was gentle, "no pressure on the ear", fits easily into any movie, beautiful diction. Particularly valuable in translations AM Mikhalev is the fact that Mikhalev, not hesitating, often ironic voice conveyed the mood of his characters that he voiced, and was able to masterfully convey hints of the phrases said.  And all this because A. Mikhalev was not only fun and a good man (as can be seen even from the physiognomy of his face on the photo), but also an excellent knowledge of psychology - the voice of man was able to quickly determine his psychological emotional state. Here is a small example from the movie "Ruthless People," his masterly translation of the classical
    (This is the earliest translation of the film). Even listening to a sound start to laugh from the intonations of voice Mikhaleva AM. Notice how skillfully conveys Mikhalev tone of voice and an intimate male coquetry of his mistress
    (In particular through the phrase: "I would like arms, hands," - "you would want your hands?»): Laughing
 ===================================
    Today, the Internet, there are people who write (regretting in a latent form, and cynically) about what they say sorry for translations AM Mikhaleva no auth. rights (and himself added, we would have warmed his hands and received from that income), I quote:
    
    "Entries to the voice of the interpreter continues to shamelessly use, including in the legal videobiznese and on television - because it is no copyright on the unique talent of interpreter is not provided. "
    
    Voice AM Mikhalev belong to the people, is the story of ?-second period of our country. Due to this server people are able to get free voice (track) and the films themselves with the transfer of AM Mikhalev.
    P. S. The voice of AM Mikhaleva author. right there and it's great! And that would be movies with his transfer to us coupons issued, and we have sat and waited for the "good uncle" will allow us to see anything ... Cool

More:

Leonid Veniaminovich Volodarsky (born May 20, 1950) - one of the most famous Russian interpreters pioneers (USSR), writer, radio broadcaster. The man who won the hearts of many millions of people in our country famous for its many translations of foreign films of the second half 80 (USSR) and the early 90's. The best-known films are: "Rambo (First Blood)," Star Wars " (David Lucas), "Mad Max", etc. These films were then spun at the first video recorders such as "electronics" beyond which took turns at night to buy them. When viewing movies, often in the room going for 8-9 people. AV Voice Volodarsky has the characteristic features of the natural light twang making it easy to find. His voice can not be confused with any other voice. His voice is heard millions of people, and not just heard, and listened day and night, night and day, for his film translation ever seen. His voice while you can was heard on many cassettes (VHS). From the interview (see distribution) taken from him in 2000, it became known that at the while it is often called in authorities as a witness once again to ask whether it concerns the so-called "pirated copies of foreign films," which was heard of his wonderful voice?
    

    AV Volodarsky graduated from Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages ??named after Maurice Thorez.  He worked at the Institute of African Academy of Sciences, then at the Institute of International Workers' Movement USSR. Languages ??began to study with 4 years of age. Knows the 4th Language: English, French, Spanish and Italian. Parents AV Volodarsky also taught foreign languages ??(see the interview taken from him in 2000).
    
    Because of the characteristic voices, AV Volodarsky called "nasal translator," but the younger generation disrespectful - "Trip-to-clothespin." However, AV Volodarsky never used it the subject of when translating films, besides a nickname greatly offended the master of professional
    scoring, which had to go through a hard school scoring in the USSR.
    
    Here he writes AV Volodarsky his voice:
    "I'm not interested in my voice at all. There was a time, I translated the movies, and now I first of all recognize the voice, always ask about the clothespin on his nose. I do not like. I'm not an opera singer and voice has nothing to do with my personality. It is said that he was part of the story? Well and good. But I live today. "
    
    Please people do not write about the clothespin. See more from side to his voice, and ask yourself, and who you know in our country as well as AV Volodarsky, especially without pegs?
    
    SW. AV Volodarsky, your voice is really really was (and AM voice Mikhalev, Andrei Gavrilov Gorchakov and Basil), part of the history of our country. This is sort of a mini era of great sunrise period in our country, foreign cinema. On behalf of millions of fans would like to cordially thank you for your excellent work and professional sounding.  Personally, I listen to your voice for over 20 years and I'm not tired of it - you, for me, as a mother already ... Laughing
    May God grant you good health and prosperity! I dedicate this cover you!
    ============
    P. S. In any case report that AV Volodarsky is not related to the creation of this distribution.
    Please, if anything, do not call it a "witness" ... as it was in Soviet times. Smile

 

So that shows you how popular Star Wars was, a CCCP translator possibly in Iran or Afghanistan had a copy...  crazy.

 

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This online program is called "Retro : Nedovolené filmy" [Illegal Movies]

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10176269182-retro/210411000360024/

has a segment where they interview Ond?ej Neff.  (he's shown around 18:00)  Sounds like the article is about the rychlodabing phenomenon.  Please let us know what's in the piece.  Mr. Neff's also got a website, so sent him an e-mail.

Found via this thread which lists the active players and what movies they dubbed: http://www.dabingforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=6017&sid=b16f110f67dce1395463f27feee5fcbe

 

Hey this looks like a conversation we'd have around here: [subtitle comparisons]

http://www.dabingforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=317&start=40#p147327

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Molly wrote: Not too different from what they often do in Poland.

Do you remember anything specific (if there was) a voice over in Polish of the Star Wars films?

from the below article: In Russia, the reading of all lines by a single person is referred to as a Gavrilov translation, and is generally found only in illegal copies of films and on cable television. Professional copies always include at least two actors of opposite gender translating the dialogue. Some titles in Poland have been dubbed this way, too, but this method lacks public appeal so it is very rare now.

This story could be an example of a version not preserved by the DVD releases: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubbing_%28filmmaking%29

In addition, because Canadian viewers usually find Quebec French more comprehensible than other dialects of the language, some older film series that had the French-language versions of previous installments dubbed in France have later ones dubbed in Quebec, often creating inconsistencies within the French version of the series' canon. Lucasfilm's Star Wars and Indiana Jones series are examples. Both series had films released in the 1970s and 1980s with no Québécois French dubbed versions; instead, the Parisian French versions with altered character and object names, terms, and so on, were distributed in the province. However, later films in both series released 1999 and later were dubbed in Quebec, using different voice actors and "reversing" name changes made in France's dubbings due to the change in studio.

 

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According to the dvdcompare website, the German Blu Ray has a Polish soundtrack and subtitles. Is is very vague and does not say if all 6 films have that soundtrack or not. I would only believe it if someone here could actually eyeball the set for themselves and confirm what the discs contain.

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=19095

 

The same applies to this for the Quebec soundtrack and subtitles

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Wars-Complete-Episodes-Blu-ray/dp/B005HNV2OS

Ignore that last bit as it is PT only. Sorry!!

4 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 6 - 2

Discuss…

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I'd believe the Polish and Hungarian dubs are real.  That's not an unusual choice of languages if you're targeting Central Europe, just based on language numbers and demographics.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Article focuses on the differences between the dub and subs.  http://nihonshock.com/2009/12/star-wars-quotes-in-japanese/

 

Here are some more stories about International dubs

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DuelingDubs

The history of Hungarian Star Wars dubs are well documented. There are several major, distinct categories:

  • Original Trilogy, first dub — The Empire Strikes Back was the first to be dubbed, in 1982. A New Hope, previously only available with (some very bizarre) subtitles, received a made-for-TV dub in '84. Return of the Jedi was a step back, in that it was again shown only with subtitles. Fans had to Keep Circulating the Tapes 'till '93, the date that marked the first instance all three movies became available on VHS. ROTJ finally got dubbed at this point. All three dubs were, sadly, extremely inconsistent, and that of ROTJ was particularly So Bad, It's Good.
  • THX dubs, 1995 — the first attempt at creating a consistent dub for the entire trilogy. Most of the characters received their now-famous VAs here, but the dub was soon overshadowed by...
  • Special Edition, 1997 — the most widely available versions... mostly through piracy, until the 2011 Blu-ray came along, marking the first time this dub became obtainable through legal means (it was originally created solely for TV broadcasts). The voices were, more or less, consistent throughout, though Vader curiously retained his old THX voice actor for A New Hope, and due to a major sound-editing blunder, they somehow erased his iconic breathing noise from the entirety of Empire.
    • Special Edition dub 1.1? Though the Blu-ray reached back to the '97 dub, instead of opting for yet another complete revision, the extended scenes of course had yet to be dubbed. As Vader's "new" voice actor had passed away in '05, they had to call in his THX voice for a couple of lines. Not noticeable in Hope (seeing as he voiced him in that film anyway), but it's jarring in Empire. The breathing hasn't been reinstalled either.
  • Prequel Trilogy dubs. Can be considered separate from the OT dubs, as most recurring characters received new voices. Only Threepio and Vader kept their '97 VAs.*
  • And you may also wanna count a prehistoric voice-over, with a single person talking over the original audio track.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InconsistentDub

  • Star Wars is a major sufferer of this in several languages, partly due to its age and changes in countries' dubbing practices during the franchise's lifespan.
    • In both the French and Italian versions of the original Star Wars movies, most characters and vehicles received a Dub Name Change. However, in translations of the prequels and later Expanded Universe material, most of these changes were reverted.
      • In the case of French, Darth Vader is a unique case; both France and Canada share one dub of the original movies, made in France, in which Vader's name (the only "Darth" character at that point) is changed to "Dark Vador". Although later translations in France kept this change and carried it over to new characters ("Dark Maul", etc.), the French-Canadian versions of the new movies, series and packaging blurbs on merchandise not only kept "Darth", but also used Vader's original English name. This actually happens a lot in French Canada when new entries to old movies and TV series are dubbed. Before the 1990's, most French translations were done in France. Nowadays, most of them get a local dub in Quebec; series that got early instalments dubbed in France can have later ones dubbed in Quebec (Indiana Jones, The Lion King and Family Guy come to mind).
      • For the Italian versions, there was actually a poll to determine whether Darth Vader (known as "Dart Fener" in Italian) would use his original name in the Revenge of the Sith dub. "Fener" won with 55% of the votes, although "Darth Vader", for some reason, is still used in most Italian merchandise blurbs. (Not to mention the fact that other Sith Lords would use "Darth" rather than "Dart" as a title.)
    • The German Star Wars franchise has some serious problems with consistency. Sometimes english titles like captain and lieutenant are swapped with the german versions, sometimes not. Sometimes Poggle the Lesser is Poggle der Geringere, sometimes not (even within some episodes in The Clone Wars). Sometimes Tarkin is a Grand Moff, but sometimes it gets woolseyisted to Mufti (made up word by a translator). Even the comics, full of a staff of promoted fanboys it is not safe to say if the Home One is Heimat Eins or not. Jango is called with english pronounceiation everywhere except for The Clone Wars where it is Ijangoh.
    • Same for the Hungarian translations. Nobody is sure whether the Millenium Falcon's name should be left in English, or if the dubs (there are several) of the Original Trilogy are correct by naming it "Ezeréves Sólyom" ("Thousand Year-Old Falcon"). Light sabers also get to be referred to as "Laser swords" a lot, and although the dubbing studio made an effort to keep the voices and name translations of the Prequels and the cartoon shows consistent, they still switched them around needlessly. The dub of The Clone Wars, for instance translated the clone nicknames at first, then decided to go with their English names, only Rex is voiced by the "standard" clone voice actor from the movies, and the voices of secondary characters also keep changing depending on the episode.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SuperlativeDubbing/SpanishDubs

The original Star Wars trilogy is considered to have one of the most memorable Spaniard dubs ever. Its cast got an entire generation of awesome voice actors in their prime, like Salvador Vidal for Luke, Camilo García for Han, Maria Luisa Solá for Leia, Luis Posada for Obi-Wan, etc, etc. And of course, Constantino Romero for Darth Vader, who made the Dark Lord of the Sith just as memorable in Spanish as James Earl Jones made him in English (maybe even more, since while Jones was a little bit off sometimes in Episode IV, Romero was spectacular throughout all three movies).

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CleanDubName

Some characters in the Star Wars prequel trilogy had to have their names adapted in Brazil:

  • Capt. Panaka (which is almost panaca, "moron") became "Panac?".
  • Count Dooku became "Dookan" to avoid jokes (do cu = "from the ass"). Dooku can also sound like "Dou o cu", "I can be ass-fucked". Weird.
  • Sifo-Dyas was renamed Zaifo Vias (a phonetic transcription), since the original name sounded so much like "if you would fuck" (se fodias).

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/BlindIdiotTranslation/Film

When the remade versions of the Star Wars films were shown in Norway, the subtitles were really badly translated. The most widely known example is that the word "lightsaber" was translated as "lettsabel", which does, in fact, mean "light saber", as in the opposite of a heavy saber. In Attack of the Clones, "you will be invincible" was translated as "you will be invisible". The very same movie had the phrase "Let the execution begin" end up as "Let the excursion begin".

  • In the first French dub of Star Wars, Darth Vader is referred to as "Dark Invader." Obviously the translators caught on to this and edited it to "Dark Vador" rather than use the original name. Much later, the original name was finally used in the French-Canadian dub of Episode III, which ironically had Blind Idiot Translations of its own ("thousands of star systems of the Republic" translated to "thousands of galaxy of the Republic").
  • "DO NOT WANT!"

 

One of the early Russian dubs of Star Wars: A New Hope gave us a character called "Obi-Odin" (Russian for Obi-1). Guess who was that.

  • To be fair, it's a made-up name alongside named like R2-D2 and C-3PO. It's not much of a stretch to assume (just based on hearing it) that "Wan" is "One", especially since they mention clones at some point.

 

Then there is Star War: Backstroke of the West, a bootleg version of Revenge of the Sith, translated to Chinese, with English subtitles. But in writing the subtitles, they didn't write it in the original English - No, they retranslated the Chinese back into English. Hilarity ensued. Big "NO!"? Do Not Want!

  • Especially funny in every instance involving elephants. And using the F-word as a replacement for "work" or "do."
Do you fuck on I?''
  • Other gems involve translating 'Jedi Council' as 'Presbyterian Church' and one of the Red Shirt pilots in the opening sequence getting the line "He is in my behind!"

 

Similarly, the legendary mistranslation of "Must be another drill" in the Finnish TV broadcast of Star Wars as "Ehkä se on pora," referring to the hole-making tool rather than a training routine.

  • In the trench run sequence, "Switch all power to front deflector screens" became "Switch front projection (monitor) screens to full power".
  • Also, instead of the usual existing translations for blasters and the Force, there was whammers and the Might. That was a conscious (and bad) choice by the translator, though.

 

 

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The Empire Strikes Back - I am Your Father (Multi-Language)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf5iDCY8UO4

English (James Earl Jones), Latin Spanish 1980 (Isidro Olace), Latin Spanish 1997 (Rederico Romano), Brazilian Portuguese 1980 (Silvio Navas), French (Georges Aminel), German (Heinz Petruo), Italian (Massimo Foschi), European Spanish (Constantino Romero), Czech (???), Hungarian 1982 (Attila Nagy) & Hungarian 1995 (Frigyes Hohllosi).

In Japanese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbpslRxy8T0

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Began modifying the first post, added a listing of all the countries which have played the film in theaters, organized by the date of first show.  Next step is to figure out if those countries got a dub or just subtitles and the others who got voice-over translations, or created them.

Polish lektor (reader) or dubingiem

Gwiezdne Wojny Nowa nadzieja cz4 Lektor-1.avi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ4kDxyFbN8
[A commenters post seems like there might be four well respected voice-over translations in Polish]

Gwiezdne wojny cz??? V - Imperium kontratakuje
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEr4L4qtynw

Gwiezdne Wojny Cz??? VI - Powrót Jedi cz. 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZDq2ieuEQw

 

The Russian Voice-Overs seem to come in multiple variations and styles.  I guess the Voice-Over people develop a style, some may translate stricter, others may understand english neuances, maybe they're done for specific dialecs.  Gavrilov, Glanz, Kinomania, Mihaleva, Tycoon, Zhivov are some of the players in this field.  Some of these groups/individuals? like the fansubbers of anime create their own subtitles.

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Star Wars on TV in Korea (subbed) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OulPequbwuc

Started looking at the wiki pages for Star Wars in all the different languages.

Chinese : http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars
Entry doesn't translate too well.  Sounds like there was a 1997 translation.  But then a new team did the Episode 1 translation.  An organization called Maxwell BBS was involved.

Russian : http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars

In the USSR, "Star Wars" was first shown in theaters " Horizon "and" Zaryadye "in the" Days of U.S. films in the USSR "in 1988. In 1990, the fourth episode of "New Hope", and then the other two episodes of the classic trilogy are also shown in the USSR [8] [ unauthoritative citation needed ].
In 1997, Russian distributors refused to purchase "Star Wars. Trilogy. Special Edition "for a wide theatrical distribution [9] .
In the Russian television show was first performed channel RTR ("Russia") in 2002 in mono sound . In 2005-2006, on the First Channel broadcast five episodes of "Star Wars" with stereo sound . Interestingly, this channel would show the film in 1992, but the film was removed from the broadcast as a "pirate" [10] .

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/25726 (1992.10.06)
Sounds like Star Wars was to air on the Ostankino channel but was removed 3 hours before broadcast.  I guess they got a copy and were going to air it but hadn't gotten 20th Century Fox's permission and the government stepped in as then that broadcast would be further pirated.  Little weird in the translation not sure if it was a film festival or a tv network...

http://www.spade.ru/starwarrior/films/rushistory.htm
Russian page on the history of Star Wars in Russia.  Even has pics of the 1988 limited premiere brochure and a 1991 VHS bootleg.  Overview of TV/DVD releases: http://www.spade.ru/starwarrior/films/hexalogy.htm

The prequels are dubbed.  Not sure when the first three got dubbed, either for the SEs or the DVDs.

Japanese : http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars
Theatrical Dub - 1978.06.30 original dub actors
DVD Dub - 2004 new set of dub actors

So this is another case of the Original dub being supplanted.

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Infos for German Version:

All 3 of the Star Wars came into cinema in Germany/Austria in german dub language. This dub was never replaced since then. Due to added SE scenes or changed dialogues the voices in those scenes got replaced by new actors, but only in the added/changed dialogues. Vader has 3 different voices in ESB now. Standard, "Prepare my shuttle for my arrival" and another one for the "Imperator Hologram" Scene. The empire also got a new voice for the ESB hologram scene, the one from the prequels. An interesting fact about german audio, that since SE several actors appeared to be lispering due to some miss-use of some filtering. For the blu ray release this was fixed and all sounds very clear now.

We got a german crawl for all three movies, german end titles for ANH, german alien subtitles for ANH & ROTJ.

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^ Thanks for the first hand concise specifics.  Anything worth noting about the PT?

Have been referring to: http://www.jedi-archiv.de/Video.htm & http://schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=4334040

[the first list many home video releases and the second covers similar territory but expands into the changes between variations and more trivia and details]

 

On the subject of voice over actors, anyone know why for the Japanese dub the cast of SW and ESB were replaced for RotJ?  The RotJ cast would redub the full OT for the SEs: http://www.japanstarwars.com/topics/2006/07/20.html + http://translate.google.com/

There's also possibly some controversy? over the Natsuko Toda created subtitles for TPM, not sure if it was because they changed for the BD or something else.  (it was one of the comments in the PTBD amazon.jp page)

 

Phantom Menace 3D Swedish dub controversy: http://www.thelocal.se/38998/20120208/  Wonder what other TPM3D locations got a new dub?

Hebrew subs of 3D trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FAP2gFsleg

 

Csillagok háborúja- A Birodalom visszavág (1.rész) [Hungarian Voice-Over German ESB]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC6-PoHA1mE

VHS Hungarian Jedi voice-over

Star Wars - Csillagok Háborúja: A Jedi visszatér - Narrátoros, hangalámondás

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LwDHmcH6KU

Csillagok háborúja - Egy új remény (eredeti szinkron)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV5E4TtP0Ss

Jedi Visszatér hangalámondásos jelenet VHS - A droidok [83 VHS]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFU9YbqnNZw

 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeyItsThatVoice

In the Hungarian Star Wars dubs (of which there were many), 1st The Empire Strikes Back dub Emperor is Tarkin in all three A New Hope dubs, also prequel trilogy Yoda. 1st Return of the Jedi dub Emperor is 3rd ROTJ dub Ackbar, and prequel Palpatine. Meanwhile, 1st ROTJ dub Ackbar is The Phantom Menace Darth Sidius (yeah, they thought Sidius and Palpatine were two guys at first, hence the two different actors)!

 

Off topic but interesting possible off shoot - Star Wars: Storm in the Glass:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GagDub

Dmitry Puchkov, also known as "Goblin", is a Russian film translator who is perhaps more famous for his hilarious, Russian pop culture-filled parody dubs (well, voice-overs in this case) of famous English-language movies rather than for his more serious translations. Namely:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Storm_in_the_Glass

Star Wars: Storm in the Glass (Russian: ???????? ?????: ???? ? ???????, refers to operation of Persian Gulf War "Desert Storm"), sometimes translated as Star Wars: Tempest in a Teapot, is a humorous 2004 English-to-Russian movie spoof of the 1999 science fantasy film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace by popular Russian movie translator Dmitry "Goblin" Puchkov. In dubbing the film into Russian, Puchkov altered the plotline, character names, music, and certain visual effects to provide a different (and funny) experience to Russian-speaking audiences.

 

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'Thanks Ben' international audio variation : Death Star's just blown up and there's a shot of Luke moving his lips while Ben says "The Force will be with you... always".

In Catalan, Czech, & Russian dubs Luke says 'Thanks Ben' before TFWBWYA line.

Luke doesn't say anything in English, 80s Spanish, Japanese, Hungarian, Ukraine, 80s Braz/Port, German and French so far.

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In my country it was very common (from 60's to middle 90's) dubbing studio credits narrated in the begining of the movie.

For example (dubbing studio credits ROTJ): http://youtu.be/RfMNDYybM8Y?t=1m49s

Translated narration to English: Presented by Fox Film Brazil - Brazilian dubbed version by: Herbert Richers (studio).

I would like to know if there is any other country that used to do this. You know... narrative credits in the beggining of the movie.

-Sorry for bad English.

 

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^ Your English is fine. 

Don't have any further examples of this voice-over dubber credit phenomenon.  Comes across as TV specific.  The GOUTs don't have any mention of the dubbers/subtitlers.  Some VHSs have an extra visual credit but no audio recognition.  The placement up front is curious, choice of the dubber perhaps?

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More on the hungarian dubs:

Among hungarian fans, there is no consensus on the artistic quality of the dubs. For older fans, the original dubs hold a special place, as these were the versions most of us had a copy of on VHS back in the 90s. Translations for the original dubs of Star Wars and Empire were written by András Schéry (translator of many great american films of that era), who thus laid down the basis of the hungarian Star Wars canon. His translations have minor differences from the original text, mainly making some of the most complicated lines more accessible. In my opinion, with these dubs the films are easier to take seriously.

The THX and the Special Edition dubs used the same translations, with some ridiculous changes (for example, C-3PO reffers to himself as "human-cyborg PR manager" in the SE).

The first dub for Jedi was made for the 93 rental VHS, in one of the then-recently-created sound studios. Both the translator and the director were well known names, but still the result is pretty much catastrophic. For the 1995 THX VHS the original translator (Schéry) returned with a new translation, which, although not as fresh as SW and Empire, was much better than the first Jedi translation. The Special Edition dub used this new translation as well.

Both the original and the THX dubs are available on hungarian torrent releases. The THX is sourced from either VHS or a TV broadcast as the quality is very good. The old ones are recordings made from the master tapes of the first (rental) VHS release, with lots of tape noise, but in pretty good quality either.

 

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csd79 said:

Both the original and the THX dubs are available on hungarian torrent releases.

Have either been synced to the GOUT?

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Thanks csd79.  Would you know the reason behind the late dubbing of RotJ?  Maybe the VHS releases (SW and ESB) were done as promo for the theatrical release of RotJ, so after that, time just passed the release over.

This Hungarian IMDB has cast list of the voice over people of the three versions:

SW84-94: http://iszdb.hu/?szinkron=810

SW95-96: http://iszdb.hu/?szinkron=1340

SW97-current: http://iszdb.hu/?szinkron=1341

SW Films: http://iszdb.hu/?oldal=ker_eredmeny&holkeres=0&mitkeres=csillagok%20h%C3%A1bor%C3%BAja

This info seems specific to a video release or TV broadcast, yet IMDB list Hungary as showing the film in 1979.  Would you know if the film was subtitled and/or dubbed in the 1979 release? or any of the films in general.

Public relations manager... pretty awkward.

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 (Edited)

Here's an article about the Hungarian dubs: http://www.starwarsklub.hu/14_egyeb/05_szinkron/01_trilogy/szinkron_trilogy.htm

(Attempting to work through the mechanical translation, if I misinterpret something please correct.)   ESB was the first in theaters with a dub. (szinkronjai)  In 1982.  (maybe SW was original subtitled in theaters, or is the IMDB 1979 premiere date incorrect?)  Then in 84 (christmas) Star Wars was shown on TV with a dub.  Jedi maybe never was broadcasted on tv so that's why it didn't get a dub.  [I don't think these two dubs got an official release, just tv recordings?]

The 1993 VHSs became the first official dub.  Mentions several oddities of the dubs, are they saying they dubbed the ewoks?  Chewbacca was called Harah.  Sounds like the (government sponsored?) dub facilities lacked funds and that party explains the multiple versions often cannibalizing from an early version.

RotJ hungarian voice-over : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd9WDYwvxRA

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 (Edited)

 

Further details on the hungarian Star Wars dubs:

Star Wars got released in theaters in Hungary in 1979, with subtitles. That was a somewhat liberal translation (where Chewbacca was called Harah). There was only one film distribution company in Hungary back then, and they were surely aware of the success of the film (it was released as a two-part feature with a short break after (I think) the third reel, so they could charge double fee). Since I was born in 1979 I wasn't there when the original theatrical run happened, but I actually saw a print from that releaase in around 1990 in a theatre that plays mostly classic films. They even had the break intact, haha.

Empire got released in 1982, and there was sort of a marketing campaign around it, which was very unusual back then: there was a cheap black&white booklet you could pick up at theaters, and a hungarian-made comic book version. Also, they made a hungarian dub, so TESB was the first Star Wars-film dubbed.

On Christmas evening 1984 the state television showed Star Wars (for public request, no less) with a dub made for this occasion. IMHO this is the best hungarian dub any SW film ever got. There weren't many VHS recorders in Hungary back then, so most fans made audio-only recordings of it. Also, this was the last time a hungarian TV channel showed any SW movie for almost 10 years. I heard rumors about a showing some years later on a regional channel, not sure if it was only SW or the whole trilogy, but it was allegedly the first dub. So, no TV showings for Empire or Jedi, not until the first hungarian commercional TV channels started in the 90s. I'm not sure if there were any showings of the trilogy before the Special Edition, but I guess if there were, they used the 2nd dubs, not the first ones.

Also in 1984, Jedi showed up in theaters, again with subtitles only. I saw it but sadly can't remember much about it.

There were privately traded versions on VHS with home-made narration. I don't know about SW but I remember seeing Empire this way at my friends place, and also Jedi had such a version, which is now available as a torrent (watching it today is a funny experience).

In 1993 Guild Home Video relased the trilogy on VHS for rental distribution. Since Jedi didn't have a dub at that point, they made one. This was shortly after Hungary became a republic. After the change, some of the crew of the state-owned studio started privately hold studios, one of which being the studio that made the dub for Jedi. Surely they were professionals, so I guess it came out so badly because it was a rush job. (Actually, this time was the start of a decline in artistic quality in hungarian dubs -- not just SW dubs :).)

(According to the hungarian SW Club's site, this first VHS set came out in 1993 but I have a vague recollection seeing them a couple of years earlier, maybe as early as 1989. At least one of the club's members agree with me on this. IMO that site is a reliable source of info, so I tend to believe that my memories are faulty on this, but… who knows. I just tried to find the scans of the tapes' covers on the club's site, but currently it's not availabe.)

I had home-made copies of SW and Empire with the first dubs, and I think back then many fans had them as well. (I couldn't get Jedi for some reason.) Other sources of SW VHS goodness were german satelite channels like Sat1 and Pro7. I remember at one point I had the whole trilogy in german on VHS - recorded by a friend because we didn't have a receiver.

Hungarian fans got the first retail VHS set in 1995, this was the "One last time" THX thing. For this, each film got a new dub with almost perfect consistency in VAs (the first dubs had mostly different VAs between each film). As I wrote earlier, Jedi also received a new translation at this point, made by the guy who translated the first two films in the 80s.

When the SE came out in 1997, they made another round of dubs, mostly with the same VAs as in 1995, and this was a theatrical quality dub in 5.1 or surround or whatever. Some theaters showed the films dubbed, and some with the original english audio and subtitles. These dub versions appeared on subsequent TV showings and the BD set as well (with some sweatening: TESB Vader & Emperor talk is extended, but I think Vader doesn't scream "Noooo" at the end of Jedi).

In 2006 InterCom, the hungarian distributor of Fox tried to convince Lucasfilm to allow them to release the GOUT with the original dubs in Hungary, but they failed, so they passed on the GOUT eventually. The DVD trilogy in 2004 came out without hungarian soundtracks either (as well as the DVDs of EpI and II), so the BDs are the first digital release of the Trilogy that have hungarian audio on them.

So, in terms of official home releases:

  • 1st round of dubs: 1993 rental VHS set
  • 2nd round of dubs: 1995 retail VHS set
  • 3rd round of dubs: 1997 SE VHS & 2011 BD set

 

Chewie was called Harah only in the 1979 theatrical subtitles of SW. The Ewoks were not dubbed in the first Jedi dub, but C-3PO's alien language parts (with the Ewoks and at the gate of Jabba's palace) were replaced with some random babbling which sounds very stupid. (In the later two dubs they tried to use the same alien words as the english track.) As for different versions cannibalizing each other, I don't know exactly what that means, each dub is a completely different recording.

* * *

Actually, Jedi's first dub isn't that bad, but it has many low points. The translation feels very raw, could use some refinement. Most of the VAs are very good for their part but some (especially C-3PO) just aren't. And some minor parts weren't voiced by real actors, resulting in some lines spoken by random pilots and soldiers sounding very flat and un-dramatic. Since Jedi is the film that could use the most "help" IMO, this is most unfortunate.

* * * 

CatBus & Harmy: both the 1st & 2nd round of dubs were cleaned up and synched to the GOUT multiple times. There are at least two different releases that have them, both from the same sources, with a 3rd version in the works.

* * *

One last addition: in 2005, I attended the midnight premiere of RotS which was organized by the Hungarian SW Fan Club in a multiplex in Budapest. The film started playing on multiple screens at midnight, and accidentally I ended up ín  the room that was "designated" to the hardcore fans, where the film was shown in english with subtitles. Also there was a short speech at the beginning by a club's leader and the trailers for TPM and AotC. And, as a special "treat", just before the film started, they played a hungarian-made abstract animated short that was originally played with Star Wars back in 1979. It had nothing to do with SW itself, or maybe there was some symbolic/reflective link, but the main thing is that it looked very good & not faded at all. I can't state that it was chopped off of a 1979 print but still...

Sorry for the long post & the off-topic ending.

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csd79 said:

CatBus & Harmy: both the 1st & 2nd round of dubs were cleaned up and synched to the GOUT multiple times. There are at least two different releases that have them, both from the same sources, with a 3rd version in the works.

PM sent! ;)

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)