What idiots did the subtitles on the DVD?

POSTED BY: Mantichorus
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 17:30
VIEWED: 9492
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MANTICHORUS

Monday, June 14, 2004 8:49 AM

Okay- time to bash the people who did the sub's on the DVD...

One springs to mind- in The Train Job, when Mal says "Drunks are so cute." the subtitles say... "Drugs are so cute."

And another- Safe: "MAL: Gotta say, doctor, your talent for alienatin' folk is near miraculous."
DVD: "MAL: Gotta say, doctor, the town's [forgotten what it said...] an' the folk are near miraculous."

In the words of Jubal Early: "Does that seem right to you?"

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"BADGER: You think you're better than other people.
MAL: Just the ones I'm better than."
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"MAL: Gotta say, doctor, your talent for alienatin' folk is near miraculous.
SIMON: Yes, I'm very proud."

SLOWSMURF

Monday, June 14, 2004 9:23 AM

I forget for sure, but I believe its on The Message.

Jayne says "You're a rabbit, Mal!"(obviously the real line was Gorrammit Mal)

I just wish they'd translated the chinese. Lazy Fox or whoever did the DVD sub's(should've gotten scripts for some stuff like that!)

MANTICHORUS

Monday, June 14, 2004 9:26 AM

Yeah, definately translate the Chinese...
I'd forgotten the "You're a rabbit, Mal" line.

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"BADGER: You think you're better than other people.
MAL: Just the ones I'm better than."
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"MAL: Gotta say, doctor, your talent for alienatin' folk is near miraculous.
SIMON: Yes, I'm very proud."

SASJA

Monday, June 14, 2004 11:58 AM

Doing subtitles is a thankless task - you subtitle 15 hours of a show, make three mistakes, and guess what everyone remembers

While errors like the ones pointed out are quite terrible (especially "You're a rabbit, Mal!" - hilarious), I generally thought the subtitles were comparatively high standard. Three things spring to mind when I compare them with Buffy:

1) They contain relatively few errors (I know you've pointed some out, but even so)
2) They only spoil jokes rarely - you know, when you can read the punchline in the subtext while the actor is putting in that beat which just makes it all the more funny.
3) They correctly distinguishes between chinese words that you learn the meaning of and therefore should be in the subs ("mei mei", "dong ma") and those that are just there for the fun and would be confusing to have in the subs (they're just subbed with "[speaking in chinese]").

I agree a translation would be fun, but it would change the tone of the episodes, too.

MANTICHORUS

Monday, June 14, 2004 3:16 PM

Now, I ain't bein' thankless!
It's just as several websites can get their hands on an accurate script, surely the people paid to do the subtitles can too.

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"BADGER: You think you're better than other people.
MAL: Just the ones I'm better than." -Shindig.
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"MAL: Gotta say, doctor, your talent for alienatin' folk is near miraculous.
SIMON: Yes, I'm very proud." -Safe.

SASJA

Monday, June 14, 2004 3:24 PM

Heh, I know - and good job on reporting the errors

Just thought I'd put the whole thing in perspective!

DARKSKY

Monday, June 14, 2004 4:44 PM

In 'Out Of Gas', the chinese computer warning about low oxigen levels is subtitled [Computer speaks in galactic language].

ANNIK

Monday, June 14, 2004 5:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Mantichorus:
Now, I ain't bein' thankless!
It's just as several websites can get their hands on an accurate script, surely the people paid to do the subtitles can too.

Well, lots of shows provide scripts for the captioning. For those of us who watch everything with CC on, it's amazing at how often what is actually said on the show is different than what the script originally said. Working from the script is imperfect.

Working from hearing the soundtrack is also imperfect: captioners use the same device that court reporters do. Their transcripts often end up with little errors. I don't do captioning myself, so I'm not certain how much opportunity they have to correct those transcripts before they become part of the show.

Some captioners clearly don't have a good vocabulary or ear for what they're hearing ... I know if I want a good laugh, I can watch Oprah on captioning ... they're among the worst I've seen. Best I've seen is CTV news (in Canada) ... live, real-time captioning that is amazingly accurate. (And "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" was always impressive because although only a *comedy* news show, they also used real-time captioning, making it 'feel' more newslike in the caption feed.)

My favourite bad caption so far is from a TV commercial in Canada for A&W ... a fast-food restaurant. Two ladies are sitting in the lunchroom of a business, chatting about their low-fat, low-whatever creations they're munching on. A guy at a different table unwraps his Papa Burger and the two women end up drooling and lusting after it.

At the beginning of the commercial, the food the women are discussing is this great recipe for "tofu casserole". Except that the captioner didn't include the "c", so they were discussing the "tofu ASSerole" ... something I think Jayne and his "smells like crotch" might appreciate.

Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.

FIREFLEW

Monday, June 14, 2004 6:14 PM

In England, they didn't even bother to work out that it was Chinese; instead we get, "[Speaking in Galactic Language]"

Those crazy subtitlers .

Jayne: "Know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I beat you with till you understand who's in command."

WEERWOLF

Monday, June 14, 2004 6:50 PM

Believe me, nothing can be worse than having subtitles translated from english to Dutch by a person who has absolutely no affinity or interest with the source material. The worst were the superhero cartoons a couple of years back, but sci-fi shows rank high on the cringe scale too.

Except maybe dubbing into German. That'll be worse than a bad subtitle translation. At least we Dutch haven't sunk that low. Yet.

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"Damn it Mal... You're a rabbit!"

*snigger*

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