Dubbed Movies

Generally speaking, I don't like watching movies dubbed from English into Japanese and vice versa, but there is at least one movie that I like in both English and Japanese: Toy Story. The puns work well, and they even manage to throw in an extra one in the Japanese, which is a plus. I think the way the story is structured helps in the translation. The dialogue is basically like people talking, and the story derives its interest from the situations therein, rather than cultural references and allusions.

Over the Hedge, in contrast, is great in English, but horrible in Japanese. It's too tied into American suburbia and culture. Also, the dialogue doesn't flow well in Japanese in my opinion. Finally, the characters are all pretty flat in the Japanese, because unlike the English, there are not varying accents among the characters, and there is no William Shatner factor. Although I have to say that Duane Fontaine, the exterminator, translates just fine. hahaha