Comments on: Dubbing the Simpsons

Dubbing the Simpsons

joeclark — Thu, 04 Jan 2001 16:28:07 -0800

Dubbing the Simpsons Should The Simpsons in French be egalitarian or classist? Depends on whether you use Quebec or national French, apparently. (Second article.)

By: mikel

mikel — Thu, 04 Jan 2001 20:17:46 -0800

Joe, do you know Al (the author of the first article)?

By: kristin

kristin — Thu, 04 Jan 2001 20:30:35 -0800

Which version of Quebecois? It sure sounds different in Chicoutimi than it does in Montreal.

By: cCranium

cCranium — Fri, 05 Jan 2001 05:41:11 -0800

The second article mentions the occasional use of joual, but otherwise it's just referred to as Quebecois. I would imagine the translation uses Montreal-style, since that's where the translators and voice-actors are, but that's just a guess.

By: mikel

mikel — Fri, 05 Jan 2001 08:26:25 -0800

I've seen it, and it's hard to say for sure - it's a very broad joual, for sure, very nasal and clipped. I've never heard anything quite like it, whether in Temiskaming, Chicoutimi, Gatineau or here in Montreal. Both articles miss the fact that portraying the "France-French" accent for some characters but not others isn't necessarily self-loathing or classist - many if not most people in Quebec don't think of Parisien French as better, really, just different - and that the French are insufferable about the whole issue. Making the distinction might be just as much taking the piss out of people who think it's important or indicative of general braininess or whatever. French people in Quebec have a very love-hate relationship with France. They're not awed or cowed by it though, that's for sure. And many, many french Quebeckers prefer London to Paris - even devout separatists like Bernard Landry or Jacques Parizeau are big time Anglophiles (anglo as in England, not English).