our accent not good enough 4 ya?

**danno** · Posted On: 4/02/2006 10:51am

i watched the original mad max movie today. then i decided to find out more about the film, when i came across this:

When the film was first released in America, all the voices, including that of Mel Gibson's character, were dubbed with U.S. accents at the behest of the distributor, American International Pictures, for fear that audiences would not take warmly to actors speaking entirely with Australian accents. The only exception was the singing voice of the singer in the Sugartown Cabaret, played by Robina Chaffey. The original Australian dialogue track was finally released in the U.S. in 2000 in a limited theatrical reissue by MGM, the film's current rights holders (it has since been released in the U.S. on DVD).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max

what the hell? does anyone know if this sort of thing still happens nowadays?

it kinda reminds of all the robin hood characters in movies who had american accents... it's also weird when characters who are meant to be from non - british places have british accents, etc.

but DUBBING over the SAME LANGUAGE? blimey!

**Cymro** · Posted On: 4/02/2006 10:58am

Are you sure about that? The version I saw back in the 90's had everybody talking like Aussies...

I'm not saying that you're lying. Just that this is the kind of thing that 'everybody knows', and noone's checked out.

**danno** · Posted On: 4/02/2006 11:03am

if i'm wrong, then it's wikipedia lying, not me.

**Cymro** · Posted On: 4/02/2006 11:07am

That's exactly my point.

Wikipedia articles are user written, and they tend to contain a lot of apocrypha. So, is there someone out there who can confirm or deny?

ETA: From my experiance, most americans really like Australian accents.

**crowey** · Posted On: 4/02/2006 11:36am

IMDB says it's true: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079501/plotsummary
if it is true (I'm not convinced of the accuracy of IMDB) it's a really wierd thing to do.

**Cymro** · Posted On: 4/02/2006 11:45am

Again, we run into the same problem. IMDB entries are user written. I'm curious to get to the bottom of this; does anyone have an older VHS copy?

***JohnnyCache*** · Posted On: 4/02/2006 11:55am

I have the 2000 version. I don't remember what the old home video has on it.

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 4/02/2006 12:10pm

It happens all the time. For the most part you don't hear about it unless it has an unusual circumstance.

Darth Maul was dubbed.
Little Nicky was redubbed.

I think I read or saw on a show Arnold was redubbed a few times early in his career.

These are some that come immediatetly to mind.

**Cymro** · Posted On: 4/02/2006 12:21pm

Little Nicky? The Adam Sandler Catastrophy?

I can believe that movies are redubbed from time to time, but this one is just...bizarre. It's not like Australian accents are hard for Americans to understand.

Hell, most of Sergio Leone's stuff was dubbed, but that was from Italy and Spain.

Does anyone know for sure about MM?

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 4/02/2006 1:49pm

Originally Posted by Cymro

Little Nicky? The Adam Sandler Catastrophy?

I can believe that movies are redubbed from time to time, but this one is just...bizarre. It's not like Australian accents are hard for Americans to understand.

Hell, most of Sergio Leone's stuff was dubbed, but that was from Italy and Spain.

Does anyone know for sure about MM?

I'll have to find examples but when I took a couple of film classes, as electives, it is strictly a monetary issue. So, if test audiences were irritated by the accent they'll redub a film.

It has nothing to do with understanding the language.