Hola,
I want to go to the cinema here in Madrid, but the movie I want to see is version original - this SOUNDS like it would be subtitled, but I thought subtitled movies were called something else?

I don´t want to take the Metro over there to find that it´s all been dubbed over.

muchas gracias,
balise

V.O. means that it is in the original language with Spanish subtitles at the bottom of the screen. Any U.S. movie will be the same as in the U.S.

I loved watching dubbed movies. It seems to me that they have 1 guy and 1 woman that do the voices for every movie. I watched enemy of the state on the bus from Malaga to Madrid and hearing that guys voice coming out of Will Smith's mouth was hilarious! I guess if you don't speak much Spanish it would be no fun but I found it was a great way to pick up some interesting expressions but then so is reading the Spanish subtitles.

Well, they have more than 2 people dubbing films here in Spain. However, it's true that some of them dub 4 o 5 different american actors.

The problem is that acting just with your voice in front of a microphone is much more complicated than acting in a real film or theathre. It takes them years to become a good dubbing actor.

By the way, Spanish dubbing actors are considered to be among the best in the world. I heard that recently the Fox awarded the Spanish version of The Simpsons as the best dubbing.

Anyway, you won't get the same as you you were watching the original version (vo.) but it's very convenient for us.

Antonio...good post! I know that I became aware of the dubbing thing after seeing Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown (Almodóvar). I started to pay more attention to the voices and noticed that the same dubber will dub the same actor for continuity...makes sense...but I hadn't noticed. I agree that some voices don't match the actor (Will Smith) but I agree with Antonio when he says that the business of dubbing is difficult.

On the topic of the Simpsons...when I was in Spain in 1999 I videoed an episode off TVE and brought it home to my AP students. They thought it was hilarious, but also noticed that the dubbing was VERY accurate. Even Apu's voice sounded like an Arab Spanish-speaker...Bart and Homer's voices were good as was Marge's...a spitting image. I can see how they won award on that.