The different versions of the English dub

[Moe]

Considering that the dub music thread was getting off topic with the discussion on the non-Cartoon Network version of the dub, I thought I'll take the charge in continuing that discussion.

Basically to summarise the discussion so far, there are two versions of the English dub, the one that airs on Cartoon Network in the US (and other Cartoon Networks around the world, like in Australia); and the one that airs on a variety of non-US channels in English (CITV in the UK, Channel Ten in Australia) and seems to form the basis for all the dubs derived from the English dub. The fact the Australian CN uses the US version seems to indicate it isn't simply a matter of NTSC vs PAL as an issue.

The changes they make seem to not make much sense, they change the font on the title sequence, do different title screens, move the reveal of the Who's that Pokemon segment to just before the end credits, change the to be continued text, and stuff around with the aspect ratio. Though at least the show is widescreen now in some airings.

I suppose another topic of discussion for this thread are things other than music that get changed for the dub, besides the opening/ending credits there seems to be very little modification beyond removing things like Pokemon Live Caster and the eyecatches.

Something I suppose we have to watch out for soon is whether the dub will use the same Who's that Pokemon as in the Dare Da now back in the original or whether they will make them up. For the most part they seem to be having good choices based on the content of the episodes, so I think they will use the ones from the original because they would probably have chosen the same ones anyway.

Um, so how are your local airings of Pokemon? Are they really far behind, cropped badly, dubbed badly, missing a lot of scenes?

 

[Jukain]

We've already had Excadrill in our "Who's That Pokemon?", in BW33. It's possible we'll get a different poke (maybe Boldore) once that ep is dubbed. I honestly have nothing else to say as I honestly don't know how many edits or other changes are made now.

 

[YamiiDenryuu]

Wait, there's another english dub? I've never heard about this. Does it have different voice actors or is it just a modified version of TPCI's dub?

 

[Iteru]

Wait, there's another english dub? I've never heard about this.

Exactly my own thoughts. Can we have some pictorial evidence or something?

Does it have different voice actors or is it just a modified version of TPCI's dub?

Certainly not different voice actors going by the episodes that debuted in the UK last week.

 

[AtoMan]

It's not a "different dub", it's just a different video track. SDI Media Poland basically produces video tracks for every (European, at least) dub, and they do an unnecessary UK version as well. Sometimes the titles get lines broken differently, although from what i heard, "Purrloin: Sweet or Sneaky?" got a cosmetic title change, removing colon and question mark (maybe because Windows doesn't allow using them in filenames, lol). They also move the sceond half of WTP to the end of the episode, probably because most TV stations in Europe seem to not air any commercial breaks during Pokemon. The different "To Be Continued" screen looks like in other dubs now.

Oh, and there's one more - Sinnoh League Victors. The 4:3 European version actually cuts the scenes repeated after the commercial break, sometimes adding a CM fadeout in different place, sometimes not.

Honestly? With the possibility of Season 14 being shorter than 52 eps, i suspect SDI Media may take over video and audio editing for the US dub (although DuArt may keep recording the dub).

 

[Moe]

Exactly my own thoughts. Can we have some pictorial evidence or something?

Here's the most obvious things, from The Beartic Mountain Feud episode:

Spoiler

Shots on the left are from CITV and the right from Cartoon Network US. Not frame accurate, but I'll note that the credits in the intro sequence don't match up by frame, so they would still be different.

There's the minor aspect issue for the intro (the slight black bars on the side that aren't there at other times), the font difference and the major one with the title screen and the to be continued text (which is on a big black background covering the bottom third of the screen, that isn't very obvious in these shots)

 

[HokageLuffy]

I've also noticed that in the European Version, the credits in the opening fades in and fades out, whereas in the US version, it simply appears and disappears.

Heres the Purrloin episode title, US version on the left and UK on the right:

 

[TaiChiChasers]

What's I'd like to know is why they do this. What's wrong with the original aspect ratio and text? Waste of edits.

 

[AtoMan]

The 4:3 edits are another matter. Apparently Disney prefers it that way?

 

[Thingamajig]

For its intended purpose, it isn't actually a waste of time - because the countries in Europe that don't speak English (I'm pretty sure there are a couple somewhere) need the credits and episode titles in their native languages, the video company just sees fit to make an English one too, for some reason (even though the audio is unchanged from the American dub in 99% of cases).

It's interesting how noticeable the differences are in the BW dub - with Galactic Battles and SLV, the big changes were the cropping of the video to 4:3, and moving the credits closer to the centre of the screen so that fit in a 4:3 window, and before the switch to widescreen, there didn't seem to be any differences at all. (were there? I'm not 100% certain)

 

[bluesun]

For its intended purpose, it isn't actually a waste of time - because the countries in Europe that don't speak English (I'm pretty sure there are a couple somewhere) need the credits and episode titles in their native languages, the video company just sees fit to make an English one too, for some reason (even though the audio is unchanged from the American dub in 99% of cases).

It's interesting how noticeable the differences are in the BW dub - with Galactic Battles and SLV, the big changes were the cropping of the video to 4:3, and moving the credits closer to the centre of the screen so that fit in a 4:3 window, and before the switch to widescreen, there didn't seem to be any differences at all. (were there? I'm not 100% certain)

As AtoMan explained, Sinnoh League Victors had repeated scenes removed for the international English version where they were repeated around advert breaks, and placed the advert breaks elsewhere.
Also, the Zoroark movie had all its credits retyped in a different font.

Ever since series 1 there have been slight differences between American airings and international English versions, some episodes have footage removed in America and only America, plus while I never saw AG while it was airing, I remember hearing about its infamous badge case edits being on and off internationally, though I could be misremembering.
It's only been since PUSA took over from 4Kids that they've started unifying international production, I believe, so most of the differences have been since then.

 

[Moe]

For its intended purpose, it isn't actually a waste of time - because the countries in Europe that don't speak English (I'm pretty sure there are a couple somewhere) need the credits and episode titles in their native languages

They are a bit inconsistent with that, from the clips on YouTube, the German dub and European Spanish dub keep the English credits, but the French one doesn't. Some of them translate 'Black and White', but others like the Dutch dub, and the Polish Dub don't.

Also in my previous post - try to spot the misspelt name.

 

[Dogasu]

Eh, Sigehiro is just as valid a romanization as Shigehiro is.

 

[AtoMan]

Well, previous DP seasons kept switching between Norihiko "Sudou", "Sodou" and "Sutou"...

Also, the Zoroark movie had all its credits retyped in a different font.

Not all, only two screens. That alternate font was also used for dubs where the english dub credits were replaced by local versions.

Ever since series 1 there have been slight differences between American airings and international English versions, some episodes have footage removed in America and only America, plus while I never saw AG while it was airing, I remember hearing about its infamous badge case edits being on and off internationally, though I could be misremembering.

That was all 4kids' doing though; especially Season 6 was a victim of that, with various scenes cut only in US airings/DVD releases and said "badge case edit", which became permanent for seasons 7-8 though.

It's only been since PUSA took over from 4Kids that they've started unifying international production, I believe, so most of the differences have been since then.

It happened a bit later though. I think first "symptomes" were seen during Season 12, when TPCI decided to order local dubs on their own, and decided to use SDI Media for that; gradually moving audio mixing to SDI Media Poland, and since season 13 even video edits (previously done mostly in Denmark branch of SDI). The "black bar" approach was, IIRC, first used in France during season 10? Not sure about that though.

It should be also noted that while many countries have local video tapes mass-produced since season 11 (as seen on pokemon.com local versions), RTLII (German FTA station) always was doing their own version, so there were two for most of DP - they switched to SDI edit starting from Black and White though.

A comparision between pokemon.com and RTLII versions of the same episode. The "To Be Continued" screen is zoomed in instead of covering the text with a bar.

 

[Sweenix]

in australia every episode starts with the opening them, and the credit fonts and any font's in that matter are quite larger and some of the music is replaced