1. So, each episode of the Simpsons is dubbed into two different versions for French markets. There's a Quebec French version, and a France French version. Fans of the Quebec dub hate the European dub, and vice versa.
2. In the France dub, the Simpsons all speak in typical Parisian accents. A few other characters have regionalized accents, like the Van Houtens who speak with a Belgian accent, but it's mostly Parisian, and they don't try to regionalize the US-specific jokes.
3. In the Quebec dub, the Simpsons family speaks with a thick working-class dialect of Montreal French called joual. They also do something the France dub doesn't do: they regionalize the scripts, subbing in Quebecois politicians or places for the more US-centric references.
4. Here's an example of the Quebec French Simpsons dub localizing references: this is a scene you might know, but they added a local twist. (I've done my best to provide translated subtitles.)
5. Now, something I always wonder when I watch movies or TV where the plot revolves around a character speaking a second language: how do they handle dubbing it into that second language? This is where we get to the Quebec Simpsons' masterpiece.
6. Classic episode, season 1's "The Crepes of Wrath", Bart goes to France and foils an antifreeze wine scam by learning French. There's no way to dub around it being some other language Bart learns, it's very clearly France. Seems impossible to translate into French, right?
7. In the Quebec dub, Bart starts speaking to the French police officer in Quebecois slang, and can't be understood. (Bart: "I thought they spoke French in France"). It's only when he learns to talk like a stereotypical Parisian that he can get through to the cop. Perfection.
@matttomic How do you watch the French version of The Simpsons? I feel like this may be my best chance at learning French.
@LeBrunJames81 The DVDs (or at least, the ones sold in North America) all have Quebec French version available as an audio track. (Or, if you prefer to operate outside the law, a Google of "Simpsons vfq" should send you on the right path.)
@matttomic Fun fact about the French Simpsons: the man and woman who do the voices of Homer and Marge are married.
@matttomic Oh you mean Metropolitan French ...
@matttomic This is the end for the Simpson in French Canadian. @DisneyPlus can’t tell the difference between Quebec French and France French
@matttomic Very cool! Speaking of weirdly regionalized scripts, have you ever seen Ma Ch’tite Famille? When they’re speaking in Picard in the original, in the Russian dub it’s basically dubbed into the Russian equivalent of verlan slang.
@matttomic Is it different dialects?
@matttomic I watch only in English and I live in Quebec. Jokes and puns are better in their original form.
@matttomic @davidmackau (1/2) Yes!! In the 1998 Parent Trap, there’s a scene where Natasha Richardson’s character is speaking French into the phone in bed. Then later in the movie her daughter Annie (pretending to be Hallie) gets so annoyed she starts ranting in French.
@matttomic TBH the joual is quite tame 😂
@matttomic Je vais prendre une marche.
@matttomic @kyleve It’s very similar to Latin American Spanish versus European Spain Spanish dubs.
@matttomic For your next study, have a look at how Quebec dealt with translating and adapting Slap Shot in the seventies, making it basically a new film of its own.
@matttomic Thank you for this research
@matttomic @MENA_Conflict Like 🇪🇸 dubbing and 🇲🇽 dubbing (used for most of LatAm) and called “doblaje latino” here
@matttomic Please unroll @threadreaderapp
@matttomic "April Fish"? ??? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@matttomic Ey! Same thing with Castillan and Latin Spanish Simpsons. iirc there's an Argentinian dub as well.
@matttomic Amazing research, well done. I remember watching Home Alone in French in high school and the mom, in a French airport, screams “Je besoin quel’qun qui parle ANGLAIS!!!” Pissed me off.
@matttomic Here's a little Qc insight I can add: Simpsons was one of the first cartoon series to be fully adapted to our local language. To my knowledge, The Flintstones was the only one to do it previously, a long while before. Thus, The Simpsons felt "ours" in a way that few things did.
@matttomic @TroyGoodfellow There's a *huge* tradition of this between Spanish Spanish and Latinamerican Spanish :) cool to see that the 'hatred' between each other is also replicated in other countries haha.
@matttomic Quebecois Homer is my spirit animal
@matttomic I use to have a French boss based in Paris whose daughter went to uni in Montreal. When he visited Toronto he make a side trip to Montreal to see her. He told me he always spoke English in Montreal as he couldn’t understand Québécois.
@matttomic My favorite translation of a joke in the Euro French dub, one which improves on the original, is in “Duffless” when Marge makes Homer promise “No beer for a month” and he repeats it with “deer” in place of “beer”. In Euro-French, he says “prière” (prayer) instead of “bière”.
@matttomic there's a long tradition of dubbing American shows in Québécois, and some go as far as changing character names to preserve puns. I grew up with "Les Pierrafeu" and to this day, I still prefer Paul Berval's version of Fred Flintstone over the original https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
@matttomic @spacecoyotl My favorite is Mr Burns talking about how the box of puppies remind him of Gildor Roy