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.
