Monday, May 8, 2006

Advent Children English Version Review
I've finally seen the english dubbed version of Advent Children after finishing up my dragging semester of college. Now, I saw the Japanese with English subs a long time ago. The movie was fantastic. Voices were perfect other than Red XIII's who I feel should have a deeper more Native American/American Indian sounding voice. So watching the english dub, I'm going to keep this as brief as I can and mainly comment on the translation and voice acting since the movie itself didn't change.

First of all, the lip syncing wasn't the best which is usually a given with dubs. There were some times when it was obviously off, but other times when it fit pretty well.

Most of the translation was good, but there were a few places where it wasn't as good. Tifa's line, "Zuru zuru, zuru zuru" was translated to "Dilly dally, shilly shally" which just sounds silly and was a very disappointing solution to the translation. I was also disappointed in the translation of some of Reno's lines. I personally liked the yo added to many of his lines in the Japanese version. It was kind of like Square throwing an inside joke to players who've been through the games and witnessed the characters that repeat themselves, like Raijin's "ya know" in FFVIII. He also has other lines that are more amusing in the japanese version.

In general, the English voice acting was pretty good but there were a few who did not fit the characters or were flat out bad actors.

Mena Suvari was just horrible as Aerith. If she could act, her voice would have fit for Aerith, but she was completely lifeless and obviously does not know how to voice act.

Cid's voice actor on the other hand didn't fit him. I can understand a slight accent, but the strong southern drawl was just awful. Since when did he become a complete hick?

And again, I didn't like Red's voice because it was too soft and I would have liked a Native American accent for him.

Sephiroth's voice was good as far as depth and acting ability, but he didn't sound very evil.

Steve Blum is a great actor, but he didn't fit so well for Vincent. His voice seemed too harsh and not deep enough. And beings as he'll probably be cast again for Dirge of the Cerberus, this disappoints me more than the others. It doesn't help that Vincent is one of my favorite Final Fantasy characters and I absolutely loved his voice in the Japanese version.

Now that I've gone through the negatives, I do think they nailed the rest of the characters. I'd say Steve Burton as Cloud was my favorite, but I'd be lying. I love Steve Burton more than words can say and for approximately 11 years, but there was someone else's voice that really stood out to me. My favorite was the voice of Reeve, even though he has only one brief line that was unimportant to the story. It just made me go wow. There's something really wonderful about his voice that I can't put my finger on. But it makes me look forward to playing Dirge of the Cerberus with him playing Reeve.

All of that being said, I definitely prefer the Japanese version, but the English isn't bad either and gives you a chance to enjoy the amazing visuals even more if you can get past the negatives.
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