A question for all international pony fans · 5:12am Apr 27th, 2017
I love accents. Dialects, argots, cants, pigins, all forms of alternative speech, the different mutations of the "main" pronunciation. I'm not super good at identifying most of them but I can pick some out. And we all know some of our favorite ponies have accents. Applejack's drawl, Rarity's probably affected mid-Atlantic, Luna's anemic but game attempt at Elizabethan. These accents were chosen because of how they fall on the ear of the American viewer and what they seem to imply about the character.
I would assume this happens in other countries, and I'm familiar with the way some dialects sound to different regional types, like Geordie falls on London ears like New Jersey does to Americans, RP makes one sound like a Toff and Cockney/Estuary is looked on with suspicion. And any Irish person makes people think of Roy. I also know that in Spain Galicians are seen as backwards hicks, like a combination of a hillbilly and a Maine fisherman.
For all those international viewers, please tell me about your dub. Did they give the ponies obvious accents? Which ones? And what do those accents "mean" to your nation? In French, does Rainbow Dash sound Gascon? In German is AJ Ostfriesen and does she spout a lot of Bauernregeln? Does Spanish Twilight have a Toledo accent and does Princess Celestia lisp? I really would love to know.
Just checked the German version. It's rather bland, the voices are all generic girly without any accents whatsoever. Luna at least sounds like an adult, but Celestia doesn't really. Spike is fine but generic as well. The one thing that's pretty good is Nightmare's laugh, but that's about it. All in all a bit sad... German has such a wealth of accents that you could make a wonderful dub here.
The international voices aren't very good. They don't have any personality. Must be doing it on the cheap.
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4511618
Awww, that really sucks. They need to take pride in their work, like Japanese voice actors.
4511776
Yeah but in Japan VAs are considered celebrities. American VAs kinda are too among certain groups.
4511777
I certainly think so, and I have my favorites. Patrick Warburton tops the male list, maybe followed by Jack McBrayer (is it just me, or should that name be the name of a donkey OC? I mean... he could play a Southern sweetheart donkey and just use his name as the character name. I so wish that would happen.) Tara Strong is right there at the top for me, followed VERY closely by a tie between Tabitha St. Germain and Asleigh Ball, mostly because I like Martha Speaks and Littlest Pet Shop, and I think that doing the two distinct voices for AJ and Dash is impressive.
4511776 That would be nice, yes. I guess MLP is just another imported cartoon with no real connection other than being a vehicle for Hasbro Europe to sell their stuff over here. If they weren't doing it on the cheap, Applejack would be Bavarian (or Swabian) and Rarity would use the formal textbook German as one might hear around Hannover. Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie would be rather non-descript (Pinkie might have a touch of 'Koelsch', the dialect around Cologne though) and Dash would definitively be from Berlin.
Someone should do a dub like that.
4511795
Bavarian? A nice choice. I knew a Lower Saxon and he had a very friendly sound to him. I should check all the other ones you mentioned too.
The french version is generic there's nothing special to it.
Anyway in France we have a tradition of fucking up all our dubs.
But I hear that the Japanese have made something nice.
I could try to explain the different regions Latin America have. But I rather show you how they sound. It neutral on purpose but fits them.
Have a look:
4512248
Being of Hispanic descent (Mexican) I have some awareness of the differences but getting more is always good. I mostly just know the traditional stereotypes about how other people speak. I can usually pick out a Cubano because they talk so fast and slur sometimes. And a Spaniard is usually easy to hear even when they try to be subtle, because they usually keep using Vosotros forms, and lisp at least a little.
Thanks for the link!
Mh, I actually watch MLP in English. Might give the German dub a look to see how they did it, but I usually don't like dubs.
4512248
The Spanish dub seems nice. Maybe I'll watch that to build on the Spanish lessons I'm taking. The dialogue in MLP isn't too complicated, so that might work out. It's altogether a good way to practice a language: Watch movies and TV shows in that language. My English improved greatly due to the fact that I watch everything from the US and UK in English. It doesn't replace actual learning, of course, but it adds to it.