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International Audio (including Voice-Over Translations)

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General thread for the information/discussion related to the international versions of the Star Wars films.  From official in theater dubs, official release dubs, television dubs and unofficial voice-over translations.

Listing of when a country first aired a Star Wars film in theaters:
Info from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/releaseinfo & http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=starwars4se.htm

First showing Date : Country
1977.05 : USA
1977.08-10 : Philippines, France, Italy, Australia
1977.11-12 : Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Mexico, Argentina, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, UK
1978.01-02 : Uruguay, Hong Kong, West Germany
1978.06-10 : South Korea, Japan, India, Iceland, Poland
1979-1980 : Hungary, Turkey
1982 : Bulgaria
1991 : Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia
1997 : Taiwan, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Austria, Colombia, Israel, Romania, South Africa, Switzerland, Bolivia, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Peru, Slovenia, Greece, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Panama, Thailand, Jamaica, Egypt, Malaysia, Singapore, Estonia, Indonesia
1999 : Puerto Rico, Singapore, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Kenya, Seychelles, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Suriname, Slovakia, Estonia, Morocco, China, Kuwait
2002 : Jordan, Kazakhstan, Netherlands Antilles, Syria, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Belize, Barbados, El Salvador
2005 : Bahrain, Republic of Macedonia
2012 : Bosnia and Hezegovina, Malta

Countries which may have not had Star Wars shown:
Most of Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Afganistan

 

Official International Variations
Countries with Dub and Subtitles

Countries with Subtitles Only

Uncertain

Countries with UnOfficial Voice-Over Translations

 

 

 

 

List of possibilities:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_foreign_language_translations_of_Star_Wars_titles

and

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/releaseinfo

La guerra de las galaxias Argentina / Chile / Colombia / Mexico / Panama / Peru / Spain (imdb display title) / Venezuela
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope International (imdb display title) (English title) / Netherlands (imdb display title) / Netherlands / UK (imdb display title) / USA (reissue title)
???????? ?????. ?????? 4: ????? ??????? Russia / Soviet Union (Russian title)
La guerre des étoiles Canada (French title) / France
Star Wars: Epizoda IV - Nová nadeje Czech Republic (imdb display title) / Czechoslovakia (long title) (Czech title)
Stjärnornas krig Finland (Swedish title) / Sweden
Ο Π?λεμος των ?στρων Greece
???????? ????? Soviet Union (Russian title)
???????????? ????? Bulgaria (Bulgarian title)
A Guerra das Estrelas Portugal
Adventures of the Starkiller: Episode 1 - The Star Wars USA (working title)
Csillagok háborúja Hungary
Guerra nas Estrelas Brazil
Guerre stellari Italy (imdb display title)
Gwiezdne wojny Poland
Gwiezdne wojny, czesc IV: Nowa nadzieja Poland (reissue title)
Hvezdné války Czechoslovakia (Czech title)
Hviezdne vojny Czechoslovakia (Slovak title)
Hviezdne vojny IV - Nová nádej Czechoslovakia (long title) (Slovak title)
Krieg der Sterne West Germany (imdb display title)
La guerra de las estrellas USA (Spanish title)
La guerra de les galàxies Spain (Catalan title)
La guerra de les galàxies: Una nova esperança Spain (reissue title) (Catalan title)
La guerre des étoiles - Un nouvel éspoir Canada (TV title) (French title)
O polemos ton astron Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
Ratovi zvezda - Nova nada Serbia
Ratovi zvijezda Croatia (video title)
Razboiul stelelor Romania (imdb display title)
Star Wars - Episode IV: Eine neue Hoffnung Germany (new title)
Star Wars IV. - Egy új remény Hungary
Star Wars IV: A New Hope USA (video box title)
Star Wars: ?????? IV - ???? ??????? Bulgaria (Bulgarian title)
Star Wars: Episódio IV - Uma Nova Esperança Brazil (DVD box title)
Star Wars: Episodi IV - Uusi toivo Finland (imdb display title)
Star Wars: Episodio IV - Una nueva esperanza Spain (new title)
Star Wars: Episodio IV - Una nuova speranza Italy (new title)
Star wars: Épisode IV, la guerre des étoiles France (TV title)
Star wars: Osa IV - Uus lootus Estonia (imdb display title)
Stjörnustríð Iceland
Stjernekrigen Denmark
Sutâ wôzu episoddo 4: Aratanaru kibô Japan
Tähtede sõda Estonia
Tähtien sota Finland (short title)
The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as Taken from the 'Journal of the Whills': Saga I - Star Wars USA (working title)
The Star Wars USA (original script title)
The Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Starkiller USA (working title)
Yildiz savaslari Turkey (Turkish title)

 

Listening to an 80s La Guerra de las Galaxias VHS and noticed the Stormtrooper who falls just before the Luke/Leia's swing doesn't have a Wilhelm. Checked out some other versions:

La Guerra de las Galaxias 80s VHS - no scream

Guerra Nas Estrelas - Portuguese Dub (Brazilian) Pre-SE TV - no scream

GOUT Espanol - no scream

GOUT French - Wilhelm

GOUT Deutsch German - new scream

SWSE GKar Deutsch - Wilhelm

SWSE REIVAX Francais - Wilhelm

German'07 HD Broadcast Deutsch - no scream

 

 

 

Semi-related threads:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Preservations-with-non-English-tracks/topic/13539/page/1/

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/The-Definitive-tractor-beam-Close-the-blast-doors-Blast-it-Biggs-Wedge-you-dont-taste-very-good-Noooooo-Preservation-Guide/topic/13428/

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/How-Star-Wars-names-are-translated-in-non-english-countries/topic/4532/

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Looking-for-people-who-speak-German-French-Spanish-or-Brazilian-Portuguese/topic/13463/

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Non-English-versions/topic/2421/

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Announcing-Project-Threepio-Star-Wars-OOT-subtitles/topic/13794/

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The Brazilian dubbing was made for TV broadcasting, but Fox liked enough to release a dubbed version in VHS (midle 80's).

There is some "mistakes" in this dubbing, like R2 and Chewbacca's sound effects being missing sometimes.

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Before you get to specifics, I think a list of different languages from VHS, TV, LD, DVD, GOUT, HDTV, Blu Ray - OT and SE would be a good start.

It would also be quite a list........

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russs15 said:

Before you get to specifics, I think a list of different languages from VHS, TV, LD, DVD, GOUT, HDTV, Blu Ray - OT and SE would be a good start.

It would also be quite a list........

i guess the CED's were only in english.

why did you list GOUT? that's not a format.

later

-1

[no GOUT in CED?-> GOUT CED]

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I was thinking more along the lines of different sources and not formats as such.

DVD SE and GOUT are different sources...

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russs15 wrote: Before you get to specifics, I think a list of different languages from VHS, TV, LD, DVD, GOUT, HDTV, Blu Ray - OT and SE would be a good start.

Yeah this was more of an impulse topic as I had a specific instance.  Had a similar thought along the way which was in draft a year or so ago so here it is:

---------draft----------

What are the different Language Versions of these movies?  Audio and Visuals, Hearing and Visual Impaired (Audio Description) versions as well.

Generally : English (Anglais), Latin America, Deutsch (German), Spanish, Portuguese, Français (French), Italiano (Italian), Polish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norwegian, Estonia, Greece, Russian, Japanese, Thai, Cantonese, Mandarin, India, Turkey, Romania, Arabic, ???? (some of these may just be title translations)

As SW didn't enter the Russian market until the late 80s, was there ever a version done or was it created later?  Same idea for Cantonese and Mandarin, as China's copyright policies often limit films going over, are the versions created for a TV broadcast?

 

Can eventually discuss the variations or split out each language into their own thread.  For example - German:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Preserving-German-Original-Trilogy/topic/5765/

 

Articles on dubbing or subtitling:

 

An International Phantom Menace - Dubbing Episode I

http://www.starwars.com/episode-i/bts/production/news19990818.html

Tentative International Trailer and Release Dates (of TPM)

http://www.starwars.com/themovies/episode-i/theaterlist_intl.html

 

Clones, Klónok and Klonkrieger

http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/release/promo/news20011102.html (offline)

http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/release/promo/news20011102.html" target="_blank" title="web.archive.org/web/20080116080253/http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/release/promo/news20011102.html">http://web.archive.org/web/20080116080253/http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/release/promo/news20011102.html

 

Audio Description:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-films-with-audio-description-Can-anyone-help-out/topic/4933/

 

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I had a much smaller topic idea of simply listing all the different country audio varieties of the GOUT along with whatever subtitles they contain. This is a follow on from my "GOUT synced" and "PAL GOUT synced" topic

By default, I expect that this research would also tell me what audio and subtitles the 2004 SE contains.

I have a few details that I will dig out and post here soon........

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These are the releases I have found so far of the GOUT 2 disc set only.

US Widescreen and Fullscreen

UK

Australia

Sweden

France

Germany

Japan

Italy

Are there any more that I have missed so far?? Portugal, Brazil, South America, Canada etc???? Links or catalogue numbers would be appreciated to help me track down those I have missed.

Once I have all the info I need, I will compile it together with full details (inc ASIN and EAN numbers) of the releases and what I can prove to be the various audio and subtitles on each disc. As helpful as Amazon listings are, they do not split the audio and subtitles per disc and just have a general listing so I need other sources as well.

 

EDIT: A quick search of the Blu Ray releases brings up 11 different country audio's and 26 different country subtitles. Pretty impressive

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***TRIPLE POST ALERT***

 

Update on my investigations so far. I have found proof of the following GOUT releases.

NTSC - US (Wide and Full), Canada (Wide and Full) and Japan

PAL - UK, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and Australia


in turn, these releases contain the following

 

NTSC Audio - English, French, Spanish and Japanese

NTSC Subtitles - English and Japanese

PAL Audio - English, French, Spanish, German and Italian

PAL Subtitles - English, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, English (hard of hearing) and German (hard of hearing)

Still looking for others if anyone can help........

 

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There is a Brazilian GOUT release with official Brazilian Portuguese subs, no Portuguese audio.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Do you have any links to information or back cover scans that you can point me towards??

It is a shame that there is no audio.....

Thanks

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CatBus said:

There is a Brazilian GOUT release with official Brazilian Portuguese subs, no Portuguese audio.

It's true. Later I can upload 300dpi scans of the DVD covers. The pre-SE dub is ripped from an old 80's VHS. This dubbing is pretty rare nowdays and the older fans seems to really like it.

russs15 said:

It is a shame that there is no audio.....

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I look forward to seeing your scans.

I cannot believe how hard it it to track down information on these releases considering they are not even six years old!!

Are there any more GOUT versions for me to log??

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As well as a Brazilian version, there are more.....

Brazilian

Uma Nova Esperança

O Império Contra-Ataca

O Retorno de Jedi

 

Spanish

Una Nueva Esperanza

El Imperio Contraataca

El Retorno del Jedi


Turkish

Yeni Bir Umut EAN 8697333064933

?mparator EAN 8697333064940

Jedi'in Dönü?ü EAN 8697333064957

 

The content of the Brazilian release will be confirmed should scans be posted and the Spanish release looks to be the same as the German release.

However, I am struggling to see what audio and subtitles are on Disc 1 and 2 of the Turkish release. I have added the barcode number in the hope that someone has more luck than me finding info.....

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Czech TV Dub
Hv?zdné Války RARE (Ond?ej Neff) rychlodabing VHS 80s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXaRAzEtOwU
    Jóo kdyby 80. léta. :) Premiéra na SAT1? 01.04.1990

Hv?zdné Války p?vodní titulky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvOK5WbuZcU

Italian : Guerre Stellari Pre-ANH VHS Crawl
Guerre Stellari (1977) - Titoli di apertura originali
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ao5qqXMxXI

Italian : Episode 1 crawl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3TYCRLvlLQ

German - Pre-ANH VHS (*recreation*)
Krieg der Sterne Eröffnungssequenz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3THFc9ocbI

French/Canada - Pre-ANH VHS
La Guerre des Etoiles - Texte déroulant d'ouverture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFg6iMK3ikM

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Oh my God, THANKS A LOT for the Czech dubs :-) It brings back some really nice memories :-)

 

Just a little explanation what "rychlodabing" is - it was pretty common in the late 80's / early 90's that they used the original audio (usually mono downconverted from stereo), and overlaid over it were new dialogues in Czech. Usually one man was speaking for all male characters, and one woman was speaking for all female characters. Usually the czech "actors" didn't ACT, but only read the text from the paper, without any emotion. That was quite funny in porn movies especially :-)

BTW I have the Ewok movie in this type of dubbing.

And Ond?ej Neff is a Czech sci-fi writer and translator of all Star Wars novels

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pittrek said:

Oh my God, THANKS A LOT for the Czech dubs :-) It brings back some really nice memories :-)

 

Just a little explanation what "rychlodabing" is - it was pretty common in the late 80's / early 90's that they used the original audio (usually mono downconverted from stereo), and overlaid over it were new dialogues in Czech. Usually one man was speaking for all male characters, and one woman was speaking for all female characters. Usually the czech "actors" didn't ACT, but only read the text from the paper, without any emotion. That was quite funny in porn movies especially :-)

BTW I have the Ewok movie in this type of dubbing.

And Ond?ej Neff is a Czech sci-fi writer and translator of all Star Wars novels

Not too different from what they often do in Poland.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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pittrek wrote: THANKS A LOT for the Czech dubs

Please consider thanking the youtube poster.   Maybe with enough interest (and explanation of what we do round here) the full recording could make it out.  (nudge nudge wink wink)  That's interesting about the rychlodabing (voice-over translation), and especially who did it.  Are both videos, Neff?  I'd be interested in the Ewok rychlodab. 

Cool this leads to another version:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-over_translation

Mentions that in Russia, the voice over was done by Leonid Volodarskiy.

Quote: "Volodarskiy, who is most readily associated not with a particular genre, but with the nasal intonation of his voice, is best remembered for his dubbing of Star Wars."

Article about the phenomenon: http://web.archive.org/web/20051024024810/http://kinofond.narod.ru/Perevod.html

This is great, reminds me of conversions with people about a Russian bootleg where they mentioned a voice over, over the normal audio, this is a why and a possible who.  Also there's a chinese artifact of SW which has a voice-over Mandarin translation.

Laserschwert wrote: I'm pretty sure that's a recreation and not the original.

Yeah thought it looked bright, should have checked the comments closer, amended the previous post.

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It's funny, Sat.1 is a German TV station, and the logo in the corner is the one they used in the 90s. So it's obviously just a recording of the German TV-broadcast, dubbed with the English audio and over-dubbed with Czech...

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Laserschwert said:

It's funny, Sat.1 is a German TV station, and the logo in the corner is the one they used in the 90s. So it's obviously just a recording of the German TV-broadcast, dubbed with the English audio and over-dubbed with Czech...

Yes, that's exactly the uploader's comment under the youtube video :-)

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None - I'll try to put the Ewok dub somewhere this weekend

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I always wanted those old Neff dubs, since they'd be quite an interesting curiosity. I'm too young to have seen the films this way but from what I understand, these translations were made during the communism (in the 80s) and certainly weren't official; mr. Neff was just doing these translations secretly from home and he didn't have the tech to make subtitles, so he just recorded the translation like you see it in the video and then bootleg VHS and Betamax were spread among people; for quite a while during communism, it was the only way for non-english-speaking Czechoslovaks to watch most American films. Star Wars didn't come out on VHS here until 1992 (a year after it came to cinemas here), so I expect that what you see in that video is someone having one of those something like 5th generation copy bootlegs from the 80s and   to get better picture quality than the copy they had, they re-recorded the film from German Sat1 (many people receive German TV stations here in West Bohemia) and added the narration (you can hear it's quite out of sync). Not that many people would have seen those dubs before the 90s either, because I only know one or two families who had a VCR before the 90s :-)

As to the other Czech video, that is the very same 1992 VHS Czech dub that is on my Despecialized Edition, just like this video I uploaded ages ago.

 

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Yes, the 80's dubs are unofficial, but official dubs were made like this too. But thank god they stopped doing it very soon :-)