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How Pokémon Is Dubbed From Japanese To English | Vanity Fair

Voice actor Sarah Natochenny takes us through her full process of dubbing 'Pokémon.' Cartoons like 'Pokémon' are often reinterpreted from one language to another and require fine-tuning, digital lengthening, and script alteration. From scene setting to the first run through, watch Sarah’s cartoon dubbing session with a voice director and engineer down to the completed scene. 'Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution' is streaming now on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/Title/81223075 Still haven’t subscribed to Vanity Fair on YouTube? ►► http://bit.ly/2z6Ya9M Want to stay in the know? Subscribe to Vanity Fair Magazine and be exquisitely informed ►► http://vntyfr.com/2RuQGW2 ABOUT VANITY FAIR Arts and entertainment, business and media, politics, and world affairs—Vanity Fair’s features and exclusive videos capture the people, places, and ideas that define modern culture.

Vanity Fair

3 years ago

I'm Ash Ketchum I came from Pallet Town in the Kanto region and this is my good buddy Pikachu nice to meet you hi I'm Sara nada Tony I'm a voice actor you probably know me best as Ash Ketchum on Pokemon I'm also taking a kitchen and start after and misdreavus today I'm gonna be showing you my process for dubbing Pokemon into English Pokemon is a show that's originally voiced and animated in Japan so when the show comes to me my job is to reinterpret it for an American audience we start every ses
sion with my director telling me all about the episode the turnaround time for these shows is extreme so sometimes we are working with scripts that were finished the night before I never get to see the script ahead of time it's always a cold read hi I'm Lisa the voice director and ashed today you're gonna be running down the beach yes some beach time my favorite I recorded a booth by myself so I very rarely get to hear the other actors performances my director is the dungeon master she knows how
everything is gonna sound she can predict all of their performances and she knows exactly how to direct me to get exactly what she wants next we watch the scene in Japanese let's take a look [Music] so a lot of stuff is happening in the scene he's running he's out of breath he's tripping over Litton and then he runs to his mom all excited and huffing and he's always huffing he's always excited and having so I want to do justice to that just with my voice so what I'm looking for when I see this
in Japanese is the mouth flap where he moves his mouth where he opens his mouth really wide where he has like that Oh like the clenched kind of teeth thing and that'll indicate to me where to put all the words on the page so first we're gonna do a whole run of the scene and then we're gonna go back and pick up all the parts where I messed up we are online 40502 3504 it's gonna be on there you won't beat me you are about to meet Linton for the first time so this is where you're gonna you're gonna
keep running through over there as you saw in the scene soon as you get there you're gonna step on his tail and then you'll go into sort of like the comic tumbles after that so awesome let's give it a whirl there are three beeps that Cumaean I come in on the fourth beep so Sara I'm gonna give you three beeps for the first Q and then one beep for the following you won't baby oh sorry so basically my eyes if you notice are darting back and forth from the page to the screen to make sure that I hav
e the line right and that I have the flap right at the same time so while I'm matching the flap and getting all the words out I have to match the emotion that's happening on-screen more so than the original performance so I'm looking at the animation and figuring out how to emot-- based on that so I look at his eyes I look at his eyebrows I look at his mouth I look at the way the animation is if it's like in a really crazy scene and the background changes that I know I have to get much bigger so
now that we've done one take of this long pass my director is gonna give me some notes and she'll have a lot of them let's give that another pass the line that you're I know it's I know it's a long set for you to sort of take on there is gonna be sorry as soon as you turn around and go on that so when you ramp yourself up after Pikachu get up a little bit you can even get in a little bit more with that so that you're sort of like pretty intense when by the time you actually step on Linton's tai
l so the sari is on screen the sari is on screen the turn around sorry yeah that turn around right there that you're seeing that's you having the reaction into the sari okay so while this happens our engineer moves the three beeps over to the spot where I need to punch in the oh sorry cool so we're looking at line 50 you got an open shock react and then a sari so you're gonna do the turn and then the double flap sorry sometimes I have to deliver a line in a way that doesn't feel natural to me so
metimes I have to go really really slow or really really fast sometimes a line will be really urgent but there's not enough mouth movement for me to say something really really fast and that can be a problem blue water fluffy white clouds and delicious pineapple juice I messed it up I was too early so I messed it up I was too early and I messed up the line it's not why it's not fluffy white clouds it's white fluffy clouds I'm bad at this let's do it again so long before the script ever even gets
to me an adapter has to take the Japanese translation and make it make sense in English and make it also fit into the mouth flaps that's how we get this the timing of my performance is really important because first of all you don't want to hear somebody talking when their mouth isn't moving secondly and this is the adapters job he has to make sure that everything he gets out of the translation makes sense in English and fits into the mouth flap so if a character has a big wide-open mouth halfw
ay through the sentence he has to justify that he has to write a script that justifies that blue water white fluffy cloud and delicious pineapple juice hmm it's so refreshing yeah all right great that's great I play many characters on this show usually I do them one at a time but for the purposes of this demonstration I'm gonna do them together ready for it I guess hey mom I'm back hope you had fun ash sure did we were diving with a Sharpedo saw lots of Pokemon I've never seen before yeah that w
as great we're just gonna stretch out one of the ones in the middle over there you give us enough time so that we can do it perfectly so that's perfect so sometimes my performance might be a little bit short and they can digitally lengthen it so that it fits the mouth flap perfectly sure did we were diving with a sharpie no so lots of Pokemon I've never seen before yeah sure did we went diving with a sharpie No so lots of Pokemon I've never seen before yeah all right that looks great coming to y
ou that sounds like fun we have my me to thank for winning the tickets for our vacation thanks very much my me that's short so sometimes the line in the script comes up a little bit short and we have to add a few syllables to make it fit the flap so Lisa what do you think let's take a look at what we've got why don't we add in have my me to thank for winning the tickets for our Lola vacation okay and how about that does sound like fun rather than that sounds like fun great awesome coming to you
that does sound like fun we have my knee to thank for winning the tickets for our aloha vacation thanks very much by me great that works all right let's see the completed scene [Music] you won't baby oh sorry oh man blue water white fluffy clouds and delicious pineapple juice hmm it's so refreshing hey mom I'm back hope you had fun ash sure did we were diving with a sharpie No so lots of Pokemon I've never seen before yeah that does sound like fun we have my knee to thank for winning the tickets
for our Aloha vacation thanks very much my me and that's how I dub Pokemon so because the English dub is so widespread I'm getting emails from people in India and Bangladesh and Russia and Japan and Brazil thanking me for helping them learn English it's amazing it's really an important thing that helps bridge cultures in 1931 a French actors union told its membership you cannot dub because it is beneath you and it is offensive to the original actor I disagree

Comments

@JavaDoodles

literally amazing.

@tsevere

This voice actor is incredible and her director is extremely impressive, as well. To have the vision for the scene and be able to communicate it to the artist, and then for the artist to bring it to life is truly outstanding.

@AverytheCubanAmerican

Fun fact, the voice director Lisa has voiced characters and Pokémon like Korrina, Mars, Flannery, Ash's Oshawott, and Ash's Naganadel! Thoroughly enjoyed seeing the whole process. And extremely well spoken at the end! You're not offending the original actor, you're enhancing their performance by bridging the gap closer so that more people can understand what's happening. Like she said, it also helps others pick up a new language. Tomáš Masaryk once said, "As many languages you know, as many times you are a human being"

@botguy2653

She's awesome. I do Voiceovers for commercials and it's very tough. They'll tell you to read lines in very specific seconds. Did one yesterday where I had to say one line in 6.7 seconds and another at 4.5 seconds.

@janedoe4491

When she starts voice acting it feels like ash is actually the one overdubbing her and shes just moving her mouth I can't wrap my head around it

@speedy_brennan

The voice acting job for her is probably a huge relief since it's pokémon and a consistent job for her since she has been doing it so long. How many voice actors have to take multiple jobs just to support themselves.

@khazms

She's been playing Ash since 2006, since she was like 19 years old. That's some dedication and talent.

@daftpunk_02

The voice of my childhood. I’m gonna miss Ash

@al_alemania

Its insane how the journey is coming to an end...but it was an amazing journey indeed

@thecaptainreaction

Salute to this talented woman! Thanks for keeping a character that's near and dear to my childhood entertaining as I remembered

@MissSassieee

This was so cool to watch!! Never knew this job was so difficult, you’re so talented

@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un

I feel like I couldn’t tell the difference between the digitally lengthened version and the original, and yet, the digitally lengthened version somehow fit better. These engineers really are good at their jobs. This girl is the truth, not only does one must have the skill, but you also need insane patience as well. I hope one day Ash visits Korea so I, the very best like no one ever was, could challenge him to a battle.

@rylomen7827

The first time Ash's voice came out of her I thought she was the one being dubbed by Ash.

@RezboaDog

This is so cool! Thank you to all the hard working voice actors, sound engineers and sound directors.

@michaelajustin3443

Fun fact: Not only does she voice Ash's mom but Dawn's mom as well.

@user-zf7ig4uu1p

Weird that she’s voiced Ash longer than Veronica Taylor. I remember hearing her Ash voice when the VAs first changed and found it so odd. She’s clearly been doing a solid job since then

@boop99

Wow! I've always been curious about voice-acting and anime dubbing. I love how she explains everything

@andaxton9405

I literally have seen this so many times!! I always loves Ash’s voice! It’s so cool to see all the behind the scene bits to it! Makes me appreciate the shows that much more! Bravo

@puffy6763

“I’m bad at this” Is literally one of the best known and amazing voice actors

@Shamuto7

I really have respect for voice actors specially when they dub. You just gotta match the energy of the original seiyus.