One of the things I actually think is really cool about some streamers now is that they offer you the chance to watch international shows that are dubbed in your own language.
Now look, I get it. Subtitles are there, and you should just be fine reading along.
But when I’m exhausted at the end of typing all day or trying to share things with my parents, who can’t read as fast or need glasses to see the words on the TV, that’s far away; dubbing comes in handy.
Dubbing has also gotten so much better than when I was watching Jackie Chan movies in the 90s.
Well, in a new study, Kapwing analyzed the entire Dubbing Database (which includes 2,221 movies, 5,384 TV series, and 21,153 actor profiles) to reveal which series, films, and actors have been dubbed the most.
Let’s unpack their findings.
What Are The Most Dubbed Movies and TV Shows?
I love studies like this because you can see which movies and TV shows have traveled across the globe with lots of viewers.
Not sure why I didn’t guess this, but it turns out animated family films travel. There are kids all over the world looking for quality entertainment, and out of the top ten films, 9 of them are animated.
The funny thing is, religion also travels, and the number one film was seen dubbed 17 times more than the rest and is the only live-action one on the list.
That 1979 Jesus movie I had never heard of, and yet people are watching it dubbed all over the globe. Apparently, it’s an evangelical production from the Campus Crusade organization (Cru) and they made it a mission to get it in front of billions of people in every country worldwide.
So they kind of rigged this whole thing!
Credit: Kapwing
When it comes to TV shows and their dubbing, we see the same trends. These are all children’s TV shows that get watched by kids over and over.
I was surprised not to see any adult animation on here, or even something like Squid Game, but it makes sense these categories would be all family.
Credit: Kapwing
In order to unpack a little deeper, I wanted to look at the movie franchises tat get dubbed the most.
This has more of a smattering I expected. Sure, we have kids’ stuff in here, but we also see things like The Terminator, Spiderman, and Jurassic Park, which have broad appeal.
When considering the entire movie series instead of just single films, the Terminator franchise replaces the movie Jesus as the only highly dubbed property not primarily for kids. Each Terminator film has been translated into an average of 24 languages.
Interestingly, while Arnold Schwarzenegger’s voice is iconic, he wasn’t allowed to dub his own lines for the German release. Despite German being his native tongue, producers felt his Austrian accent sounded too “rural” and unsuitable for a sophisticated cyborg from the future.
That’s a pretty funny trivia item.
His part was instead voiced by Thomas Danneberg, a respected German voice actor also known for dubbing characters like John McClane (Die Hard) and David Banner (The Incredible Hulk).
Credit: Kapwing
Summing It All Up
Dubbing is an interesting process, and it’s fun to see how the world has embraced it in order to watch shows that may not be in their native tongue.
As a fan of martial arts movies, I’m pretty used to it. I think more people should seek out stuff and watch in any way they feel comfortable.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
