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Advent Children in 2006
Gamespot reports that (maybe, possibly) Final Fantasy: Advent Children will be released in the U.S. sometime in 2006. From the article: "According to the author, 'it's taking a little extra time to work with the director to get all the supplemental elements finished, but the title is on track for release sometime later this year.' Mike Stradford, an executive at Sony's DVD division, is cited as the source of information." I'm sure that all the fansubbed Japanese language versions of the film floating the internets isn't making them hurry the thing out the door either.
If they're going to actually sync the characters' facial movements to the new English dubbed speech, it'll be worth the wait.
I'm probably one of three people in the country who haven't downloaded the subtitled version... I hope that doesn't hurt sales at all.
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I'm sure that all the fansubbed Japanese language versions of the film floating the internets isn't making them hurry the thing out the door either.
Nobody ever hurried translations back in the day before you could hop on the Internet and download the stuff. It was rough to get Japanese language films back in the day, at least in areas that didn't have a big anime following. I doubt the Internet is pushing them one way or the other.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
I'm sure that all the fansubbed Japanese language versions of the film floating the internets isn't making them hurry the thing out the door either.
How assinine is this comment? It's called supply and demand. If 10% of the people who download this purchase the DVD you've likely paid for translation costs. Then add in all the folks who love the game itself who aren't into downloading stuff off the net.
But wait... downloaders are pirates, and we never pay for anything I forgot. Where's my article moderation points.
I'll admit, I got the Japanese DVD on bittorrent. In a nutshell: I was blown away. The polish, cinematography, everything was so very very good. You can see how much time and painstaking detail goes into a film of this nature.
That being said, I fully understand Square-Enix taking their sweet time with this project, translating it to English. And keep in mind, it's not just the translation; they're re-doing all the facial expression animation as well. That's a pretty significant task.
Don't sell them short. I'll be buying whatever package they throw at us, and if it comes out in theatres, I'm sure there will be plenty of tickets sold to at least one person.
--- Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion -Lem
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Everybody who's anybody has already seen it.
My girlfriend prefers to watch media dubbed, but she will readily admit that the dubbing sucks. She's just lazy and would prefer not to read the subs. Sure, it annoys me, but I have to accept that not everyone is a speedreader (as I am) who can read subtitles with zero impact on their enjoyment of the movie/anime/whatever.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Square-Enix is going to try to appeal to the mass-market here, instead of the niche of hardcore Final Fantasy fans who have probably already downloaded this movie.
:)
It is very possible to do a GOOD job dubbing a foreign film. Any of Miyazaki's movies are prime examples. In most cases, the English dubs are done by talented well-known voice actors, and that only will contribute to the success of the film.
Also...
>There are a lot of foreign films that get released with subtitles
I can't think of any anime series off the top of my head that is released in America in mainstream markets (ie: you'll see it on the shelves of Best Buy) that has only English subtitles and no English dub track. Wait, I take that back... Sailor Moon, complete seasons 1 and 2, uncut. They went out of print after about a year, probably because only the hardest of hardcore fans bought them.
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Yes, basically that's the reason. Despite communities like Slashdot where people can read, subtitled films are largely snubbed by American audiences.
uhh, yes?!
on another note, i've given up on english translations. GITS season 2 had atrocious voice-dubbing, and without the original japanese the series loses so much of its meaning. Hearing a anti-tank helicopter pilot sound like the cocky "Mav" from top-gun destroys the ambiance of what is meant to be a complex, thoughtful series. It's like trying to watch a ferrelly brothers movie dubbed into german, it's stupid, AND it doesn't make any sense.
I have little hope for AD dubbed into english either, a lot of anime japanese is too complex to easily translate between cultures, and we don't exactly have attention spans over here.
The first rule of USENET is you do not talk about USENET.
The mass market who doesn't download the movie, but will buy a DVD-only release? That's no mass market.
Son, a woman is a lot like a refrigerator. They're six feet tall, 300 pounds... they make ice... umm...
I seem to be the only one among my friends who never has trouble following subtitles, but then again I have a lot more practice at it than them as they don't watch as many foreign films and shows. After a while it becomes a subconcious process.
Too bad the movie was worse than "Spirit Within". (and that's saying alot)
Purty graphics though.
I imagine the rational is very easy. When watching a subtitled movie, a large part of your attention is directed to the portion of the screen where the subtitles are located. Your mind is split between processing this information and the visual information of the screen image. You can't fully focus on the cinematography when part of your brain is being dedicated to reading text off the screen. And if you DO get distracted by the visuals and miss a line or two of the text, you have to stop and go back in order to not miss what might be a crucial plot detail.
Dubbing isn't inherently bad, it's just typically been done in piss poor quality where the original dialogue track coupled with subtitle provided a less intrusive experience on the viewing than horrible voice acting.
Except that I and many other people can watch a subtitled film without feeling that it detracts from the experience. After all, the visual pace of films tends to be very slow when it's not an action sequence.
The only problem I've ever had with subs is if I'm watching at home and the film is dull - I'll probably start doing something else whilst listening to the film in case something good happens: it's much harder to vaguely keep track of the film when it's not in English. But, obviously, no big loss.
Are you sure you just don't understand the series and are trying to blame it on something other than it's complexity. I have never in my life seen so many freaking appendices attached to a comic book. It is a horrible horrible method. I still have no idea how people have sex in the future. Yes it's in the comic book for those of you who actually own the old copy. I had fun rereading in my university's library.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
ahem, my point is the emotion and overall meaning come across better in the original japanese.
No, it is horrendously confusing, but that's because it's complex, and doesn't take the time to explain everything for the slowest kid in the class like american media. Takes a few passes to get most of the meaning, but I didn't understand most of the plot of the second season till i got a new fansub of the ending ep.
In Asia, being smart is something to be proud of, like being attractive, vs. here where it's something to hide so you can seem like everyone else. It's a different approach to social interaction and hierarchy, and took me completely off guard when I first noticed it, compared to growing up in rural indiana and tn.
The first rule of USENET is you do not talk about USENET.
Tokyo Godfathers (an very good anime movie) was released subtitled only, and I bought it in Target, all things being equal for somereason when it comes to anime, I far prefer to watch them with english dubbing, and if possible with the literal japanese translation if possible playing in subtitle.
Oddly enough, I prefer 'normal' --i.e. non-anime foreign movies-- in subtitled (with no dubbing)
------- Oh damn.... the Sigfile escaped... -Great OM
Anyone want to bet Sony is going to try to get this out on Blu-Ray before it hits DVD?
At least the Lip synch idea is more credible than my half-baked theory. Of course it does seem to be taking them an awful long time to get this out here. Wasn't Spirits Within released in Japan not long after the American release? Did they synch or use subs for that release?
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Unfortunately, I was not impressed with the animation and visual quality of the renderings. If you have at least an amateur's eye for video of this nature, you will notice many places here and there where just a little bit of touching up would have appeased the pickiest of us all.
Probably 60% of Advent Children is fight scenes, thankfully they talk rarely during these parts. If you take the anime FLCL for example, the talk is almost constant and the pace of the show is so face that just keeping up with the subtitiels as they flash on and off can bew a challenge at times, let alone catching enough of what else is going on that you understand why they're saying what they are. Some thing really do need to be dubbed.
The movie had lots of flashy graphics, and lots of "intense" swordfight scenes.
But that's all.
No plot, just a bunch of re-hashing of the themes in FF7.
They'd be better off not releasing it at all. I loved FF7 when it came out. I played the Japanese version because I couldn't wait. It's my favorite RPG of all time.
It's too bad Advent Children sucked so bad.
Ermmm... it doesn't take exactly a rocket scientist to figure out, based on the fact how many FF7 Fanboys (and how frigging many fangirls) there are, that it was a kind of a boneheaded move not to release the movie world-wide at the same time. Japanese release only meant that the aforementioned screaming hordes of fanboys ripped, subtitled and distributed the movie in an eyeblink - that's the obvious reaction. Had they done a simultaneous (or a near-simultaneous) world release, nobody would have bothered with that. They've only got themselves to blame for this situation.
And the fansubbed version isn't exactly going to hurt their sales - quite the contrary. That thing, as I've seen, has been the best marketing material I've seen so far. What we have here is a bunch of people who downloaded the movie, spout "omg best movie eva!!111!" and really want to grab the complete DVD set once it's out. (And as for those who downloaded the movie and said "this sucked" and arguably cause thus less profit - well, that's either a loss of a couple of DVD rental pennies, or one less DVD that ends up in the dreaded second-hand shelf!)
And if they release the DVD really, really late, and it sells dismally - well, again, it'd be their own fault for not pushing the movie while every potential buyer was still interested of it.
I downloaded a fansubbed version quite some time ago. Amazing movie, incredibly well done. I will buy the DVD as soon as I can just to see it in all its glory. I am sure there are plenty of freeloaders that just downloaded it and don't intend to purchase, but I would guess a very large chunk of the people who downloaded it will still want a copy on DVD.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.