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Como desées

Image from the video cover of Princess Bride.

Sherylyn is studying Spanish. A friend who’s studying with her suggested she watch Dora the Explorer in that language.

“It’s a children’s movie,” she said, “And they give the child who is viewing time to answer the characters, so it helps you to learn.”

Unfortunately for us, Dora the Explorer isn’t on Netflix Australia, and that’s the only streaming we subscribe to.

I suggested we try something similar with Princess Bride, given it’s one of those movies we can almost quote off by heart. So we sat down in front of the television, set the language to Spanish with English subtitles, and watched the movie.

I don’t know if anyone here has watched the movie in a language other than English, but I have to say, if I had watched Princess Bride first as a sub-titled show, I have no idea how many times I would have returned to the story. A lot of the subtlety was lost and as a result a lot of the humour, as well. Vizzini’s “Inconcibible” doesn’t work as well as Wallace Shaun’s slightly lisping, “Inconceivable.” Westley’s fight with Fezzik loses a lot when you don’t hear Westley’s grunts each time he is slammed back against the rock, and so on.

It was interesting, to say the least. I think I prefer to listen to any show in the original language and go for English subtitles. So much is conveyed on the screen non-verbally that words are less important than hearing the rest.

Now, I think I might go watch the English language version of Princess Bride.

One reply on “Como desées”

I’ve enjoyed reading books in Spanish to keep my hand in (old familiar friends like The Hobbit, and YA books like Harry Potter and Twilight). I agree about dubbed movies – they’re terrible!

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