Spotty availability of french dubbed soundtracks

[Deromax]

Hello! Despites the shortcomings of dubbed soundtracks, they are needed for a lot of people, otherwise they wouldn't be produced.

Recently, the studios are less than constant at the inclusion of dubbed soundtracks on new catalog releases, despite the existence of such soundtrack on DVDs and/or broadcasts. This is 2011, it should be a trivial task of copying a Dolby Digital file onto a BD master. A few recent examples of high profile movies that had french soundtrack on the DVD release but not on the BD : The river wild, Blue crush, Uncle Buck, Pleasantville, Johnny mnemonic, Lord of war, Fletch, Final destination, Crank, Purple rain, 3:10 to Yuma, Short circuit 2 and The hurt locker.

Even more bizzare, several titles do have a french soundtrack but it is obviously different than the one on VHS or DVD. The fugitive, Speed, Spiderman, Crimson tide dubbed tracks are not the same I know and love! I'd guess those shenanigans happens because of the France/Quebec dubbing industries debates.

Anyone have ideas as to why those issues exists and if measures are taken to take care of the situation?

PS, I'm in Quebec, Canada. YMMV in France.

[Ray_Rogers]

I really don't care about dubbing. Other language tracks should solely be devoted to subtitles. Yes I greatly prefer the original audio in lossless/best quality.
The Crimson Rivers 1 & 2, WASABI and many others with French audio or in the case of WASABI French AND Japanese, I turn on the subtitles since I loathe dubbing. Can't help you.

[OrlandoEastwood]

Ray, who knows when Sony will release those here in the US, I decided to get the Taiwanese of Crimson Rivers. 5.1 DTS-HD HR audio is pretty sweet. The subtitles were rough, they screwed up on punctuation on the release.

[Almadacr]

I have to say welcome to quebec and there ruling in any other way that dosen`t follow a certain status . This reminds me why Quebec is always left out in contests for Canadians , because Loto Quebec wants to say so

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by OrlandoEastwood

Ray, who knows when Sony will release those here in the US, I decided to get the Taiwanese of Crimson Rivers. 5.1 DTS-HD HR audio is pretty sweet. The subtitles were rough, they screwed up on punctuation on the release.

Oh I still have these on DVD. I do know about the Amazon France available for The Crimson Rivers 1 & 2 but no idea if the extras are subtitled. So I'll wait for a UK release. I don't even know if Wasabi is even available on the format though.
Jean Reno is always awesome.

[OrlandoEastwood]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

I do know about the Amazon France available for The Crimson Rivers 1 & 2 but no idea if the extras are subtitled.

Crimson Rivers has subtitles, the film does atleast. I cannot comment on the subs on extras since I don't have it. Crimson Rivers 2 doesn't have subtitles because it was done by a different studio. Crimson Rivers is a Gaumont film and Crimson Rivers 2 is a Studio Canal title. There's German Blu-rays of both films, but no English subtitles. The Taiwanese Blu-ray of Crimson Rivers is sourced from the German Blu-ray because the pop up menu says the title in German and has a German DTS-HD HR 5.1 dub track on the disc. Wasabi is out on Blu-ray in Italy, but no English subtitles on the disc.

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by OrlandoEastwood

Crimson Rivers has subtitles, the film does atleast. I cannot comment on the subs on extras since I don't have it. Crimson Rivers 2 doesn't have subtitles because it was done by a different studio. Crimson Rivers is a Gaumont film and Crimson Rivers 2 is a Studio Canal title. There's German Blu-rays of both films, but no English subtitles. The Taiwanese Blu-ray of Crimson Rivers is sourced from the German Blu-ray because the pop up menu says the title in German and has a German DTS-HD HR 5.1 dub track on the disc. Wasabi is out on Blu-ray in Italy, but no English subtitles on the disc.

Well that sucks. I wonder if I'll be patient enough for a UK release sinnce I own The Crimson Rivers UK PAL 2-Disc and the USA NTSC DVD for The Crimson Rivers II. WASABI is the USA DVD.
But I'd rather not derail the thread any longer and I still heavily stand by my stance of preferring subtitles over dubbing.

[Deromax]

OMG, Spiderman 2 french dub is SO BAD. There is heavy hiss in several scenes, like it come from a mono VHS on EP. The whole track have this gritty digital sound as something recorded on a cheap Soundblaster soundcard 15 years ago. What a mess...

How can I contact Columbia/Tristar about this?

I'm mad as hell!

[McCrutchy]

Hi Deromax,

I'm sympathetic to the need for DUB tracks, and I'm curious (since I'm no authority on the lingual differences) if a Parisian French DUB track on a French BD would be an acceptable substitute where those discs are not locked to Region B?

[F-Man]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Hi Deromax,

I'm sympathetic to the need for DUB tracks, and I'm curious (since I'm no authority on the lingual differences) if a Parisian French DUB track on a French BD would be an acceptable substitute where those discs are not locked to Region B?

That would work for the movies that didn't have a Quebecian dub, as the French track is used instead for those movies. But dub lovers in Quebec would not be glad to have to do title-by-title research to know if one exists or not, especially when you can't quite tell the origin country in many cases.

[manicsounds]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Hi Deromax,

I'm sympathetic to the need for DUB tracks, and I'm curious (since I'm no authority on the lingual differences) if a Parisian French DUB track on a French BD would be an acceptable substitute where those discs are not locked to Region B?

Wouldn't it be kinds like watching a foreign non-English language film, but dubbed by British English actors, or dubbed by American English actors?

[Deromax]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Hi Deromax,

I'm sympathetic to the need for DUB tracks, and I'm curious (since I'm no authority on the lingual differences) if a Parisian French DUB track on a French BD would be an acceptable substitute where those discs are not locked to Region B?

I hope I understand well what you are saying!

A movie produced in France, in french, is perfectly OK for viewing in its original soundtrack everywhere in the french world, including in Canada/Quebec. The basic language is indeed the same and the accent and local particularities of the dialogs are actually funny to listen!

I guess the same would be true for American viewers for movies with British english, like the Harry Potter franchise.

In Canada/Quebec, most of the movies made prior to the 90s have a Parisian Dub and we're used to those older movies as-is, and it's OK.

Problem is a movie that we know and love and are used to a given set of voices by repeat viewings, then they put out a release with another dub, different voices and even altered dialogs. This is baffling! Imagine you purchase the new Rocky release only to find Sly's voice is now dubbed by Keanu Reeves for some obscure administrative reasons!

My understanding of the situation is the dubbing industry in France have a very strict policy of "must be dubbed here" and here in Canada/Quebec, we like to have our own dubs as well. So Hollywood have to deal with this crap. Each studio act differently : They can produce two versions, or one, or the other, leading to the mess we are in.

What is perplexing is recent movies (Spiderman 2) having different dubs for releases seperated only by 4 years (DVD and BD).