The Foreign Dubbing Thread

This is a thread for discussing any of the foreign language dubs of MLP, mainly for G4, but foreign language dubs of other gens can be discussed too. To start things off, I’m currently watching foreign language dubs of G4 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of when said dubs started airing on TV. I started on August 27th, because on that day in 2011, the French dub, the first foreign language dub, started airing. As of this writing, I’m between S4 and S5 of the Italian dub. I’m watching 13 episodes a day, but towards the end of October, it’ll be 7 and 6 episodes alternating, before slowing down further to 2 episodes a day at the start of 2022 so I don’t have any gaps between dubs. This is due to the Ukrainian dub having started on January 28th, 2013, and of course I will start watching it (well, again, cos I have watched my foreign language dub collection a good few times) on that date in 2023. I have the following foreign language dubs on me (listed in order of when they first aired):  

@Blissful690  
Interesting, i obly watched the LA Spanish dub.

@Blissful690  
I also watched:  
-French  
-Durch  
-Portuguese (Brazilian)  
-German

One thing I forgot to mention is that I’m watching these foreign dubbed episodes with my custom “marathon mode” edits (which I’ve also done to the original English version). It basically means that the intros and credits are removed from all episodes, as well as the “Previously on My Little Pony” recaps on 2-parters. However, I haven’t applied the marathon mode edits to the Iberian Portuguese and Ukrainian episodes, since I originally intended to watch every foreign language dub I have in 13-episode daily doses. Now, as for the intros and credits from the marathon mode edited dubs, I have them saved in a special folder, one intro and outro per dub, unless there is more than one version of the theme song. I even have the foreign dubbed Stranger Than Fan Fiction outros in the same folder.

I listen to some foreign dub in my little pony a new generation

@Blissful690  
I think they should’ve finished the Japanese dub for the entire series. It’s a shame they didn’t.

And Jewish

@Background Pony #CED1  
You mean Hebrew.

@DaddyMakesMeEUHH  
Yeah, sad.
 
Btw, Fluttershy’s voice is the most kawaii.

@Background Pony #CB12  
It’s surprising that she voices her as well. So different in personality.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAF1Qkgs4Xc I’ll start my participation in this thread posting the Brazilian Portuguese version of The Midnight In Me. I chose this song because Twilight Sparkle’s singing VA in Legend Of Everfree is going to voice Sunny Starscout in My Little Pony: A New Generation (who’s premiering in a few hours from now). Some countries got awful dubs for G4, I hope that doesn’t happen in G5!

One thing I’d like to point out is that most, if not all foreign language versions of the MLP theme song don’t actually feature the singing voices of the characters.

@Blissful690  
The Brazilian Portuguese dub is somewhat of an exception. The theme song’s singer (Mônica Toniolo) was the main singing voice for the Mane 6 in both season 1 and the first Equestria Girls movie… I’m glad she eventually was replaced, her voice was too high-pitched and old-sounding for the Mane 6.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgoGw24FTlo Danger, Danger (Angry Mob) in Brazilian Portuguese. Here “Angry Mob” had two different translations that actually made the song’s lyrics less repetitive: “Turba em Turbilhão” (Mob in Turmoil) and “Turba Revoltada” (Revolted Mob).

Speaking of movies, I know watching the G4 movie is important to watch, seeing as events from it are mentioned in the final two seasons, but I only watch foreign language versions of it if they have the same voice cast as the series. Out of the foreign language versions I watch, these versions of the G4 movie have the same voice cast as the series: (European) French*, Italian, Iberian Spanish, German, Polish, Hungarian, Iberian Portuguese and Ukrainian**.
 
*There are two French dubs of the G4 movie, one for Europe, and the other for Quebec, despite the fact that the French dub of the series that airs in Quebec is the same as the one that airs in Europe, but with a different dubbed theme song.
 
**This version, the last time I checked, only had a cinematic release and no home media release. I’m not sure if it’s had a TV airing yet, but if and when it does, I’ll be sure to get it.

@Blissful690  

 
Oh yeah, the Canadian French version was strange to hear.
 
Their dubs tend to be more word-for-word accurate than the European French ones, which usually take more liberties. Kinda nice to have two versions of Disney songs really. Quebec’s version of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame’s God Help the Outcasts is leagues ahead of France’s in my opinion. Same for the movie’s Open Up Your Eyes… Mind, in that case they’re both inferior to the English version, maybe because the song couldn’t be translated right; French isn’t a practical language. At all.
 
Mind again, I think those two songs are better in CF because they’re poor in EF. Subjective, and I did live my whole life in France rather than Quebec. Obviously influences me. Despite the childish “NO UR FRNCH IS WORSE” relationship I’ve noticed between the two sides, I do realize they’re both good. The Notre-Dame de Paris musical is out of this world… and it shows that the writers were fluent in both French and English because both versions of lyrics are great. In addition to being the original writers for both languages, which obviously help the songs accurately keep their meaning.
 
That said, I do have two issues with the movie’s CF dub. First is that, well, they translated all the names that come from the movie. And some names aren’t exactly translatable…
 
So Commandante Tempête is obviously close to Commandante Tempest, but Fizzlepop Berrytwist… yeah. Constellation Céleste is actually great, save for the redundancy since it means “sky constellation.” Grubber is Glouton in CF (“Glutton”), the Storm King dances between le roi Storm in France (the king whose actual name is Storm) and le Roi Tonnerre in Quebec (the “Thunder King”) and I don’t remember the others.
 
By the way, CF name for him is way cooler. And we’ve also got two versions of his “Get with the program! I used you! It’s kind of what I do~” too. “Open up your ears. _{(oh the irony)} I’ve been lying to you from the start! It’s one of my greatest skills~” (CF) versus “I changed the program. In truth, I used you. Yup, I do that kind of thing~” (EF)
 
It’s fitting that he’s a pirate king because he made out like a bandit with those two dubs!
 
Might not sound like an issue, but first it’s weird to see names suddenly translated when we had no name translated before. Save for Nightmare Moon→ la Jument Séléniaque (a selene/demonic mare pun), Wonderbolts→ les Flèches de l’Air (the Air Arrows) and the Everfree Forest→ la Forêt Désenchantée (the Unenchanted Forest, maybe a pun to make it mean Undelighted too), and that was only in the first seasons. I think they redubbed the episodes with the English names since then actually.
 
And second is, well. Names like Twilight Sparkle, Superman and various other NounVerbers may work in English, but not in French. At all.
 
The other issue is that, from what I remember, the voice acting in CF sounded… bad. As in, they sounded like amateurs. I actually wondered if they were professionals. You know, compared to the cast of the musical I mentioned.
 
That was then though, in 2017. I should watch it again to see if I still think the same or if it was only dissonnance from getting used to the EF voices for five years or so.
 
And while I’m at it, loved the dubbing for the G5 movie. Pretty great.
 
@Blissful690  

 
Yeah, like you mentioned, the French have dubbed the intro song. Even the Equestria Girls one… if that counts as singing. Or as a translation at all, since they (obviously) kept “Equestria Girls” in English…

Applejack is voiced by a male in the Hungarian dub of A New Generation. I don’t know what to say…

@GoodVibesGorgeous  
Wut??

@GoodVibesGorgeous  
Also in Macedonia. She is even called a ‘he’.

Back to the G4 movie, and the German and European French dubs each have their own credits song that replaces “Off To See the World”. In the German dub, since they got a pop star to do the voice of Tempest, they had her song “Herzbeat”, and in the European French dub, they had a redone version of “Les liens de l’amitié”, which, for those not in the know, is a French My Little Pony-inspired song originally done by a group of children going under the name Kids United.

@Blissful690  
Really?

@Background Pony #BA51  
Yep.

@Background Pony #BA51  
Yup! The French Blu-Ray even has this clip among the bonuses.

So there’s an inconsistancy between the Italian dub of the movie and the series. In the movie, the Storm King’s name is translated as Re Tornado (Tornado King), but in the series, they translate it as Re Tempesta (Storm King). This is due to the movie and the series having different translators/dialogue adaptors. I can only imagine the target demographic who watched both the movie and the series shouting at their TV that they’re saying the wrong name.

@Blissful690  
Brazilian Portuguese dub did the same thing. In the movie, he was called Rei Storm. In School Daze - Part 1 he initially was referred to as Rei Storm as well, but a few scenes later his name is suddenly changed to Rei Tempestade.