GERMAN DUBBING VOICES for HOLLYWOOD MOVIES

If you have seen Finding Nemo, you may know that the voice of the regal blue tang fish Dory was provided by Ellen DeGeneres and Nemo's orange clownfish father had the voice of Albert Brooks. But when Findet Nemo was released in German cinemas in November 2003, whose voices did German filmgoers hear?

In FINDET NEMO, Dory and Marlin speak German
spoken by two well-known German actors.
© Buena Vista/Disney/Pixar

Germany has a long tradition of dubbing non-German movies into German. There is an entire industry built around Synchronisation, or dubbing, for British, French, or Hollywood feature films and for television. Many German voice actors (Synchronsprecher) are unknown to the general public except when they speak the parts of actors and stars in American and other movies. German moviegoers are used to hearing Sandra Bullock or Sean Connery speaking fluent German — with someone else's voice.

In fact, except for a few superstars, the voice of a Hollywood actor or actress may sound different from one film to another! Even a fairly big star like Harvey Keitel had the German voice of Christian Bückner in Pulp Fiction (1994) but the voice of Joachim Kerzel in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). To add to the confusion, in Jackie Brown, Christian Bückner was the voice for Robert DeNiro, so even huge stars may have different voices in different films. Since the death of Gert-Günther Hoffmann (1929-1997), the longtime German Synchronsprecher for Sean Connery, the Scottish actor has had five different German voices. Joachim Tennstedt alone has been the German voice of over two dozen Hollywood actors, including Billie Crystal, C3PO (Anthony Daniels), Kevin Costner, and Mel Gibson.

FINDET NEMO von Disney und Pixar
© Buena Vista/Disney/Pixar

Well-known German movie stars rarely do voice work for foreign films. One exception is animated films (Trickfilme in German). For the German version of Finding Nemo, Disney wanted the voices of recognized German stars. For the German Ellen DeGeneres/Dory voice they selected the popular German actress and comedian Anke Engelke, best known for her work on German television (“Ladykracher” on Sat.1). Engelke — born in Montreal, Canada in 1965 — was also the German voice of Jane in Disney's animated Tarzan (1999). She appeared in the 2000 German film Liebesluder

For the Albert Brooks/Marlin role in Nemo, Disney picked Christian Tramitz (1955- ), who starred in the German western comedy Der Schuh des Manitu (2001) and has appeared in many other German movies and TV shows. Tramitz has previous dubbing experience, including various voices for the German version of the “Alf” television series in the 1980s.

Often the German voice sounds similar to the original actor, but that is not always the case. I remember watching the old “Bonanza” TV series many years ago in Germany and being impressed by how close the German voice for Hoss was. But the first time I heard Humphrey Bogart in German (in The Caine Mutiny/Die Caine war ihr Schicksal), it was terrible. O.E. Hasse didn't even come close to Bogart's distinctive voice. I later discovered that over a dozen different people have done Bogart's German voice in various films, but it would be hard to find one that really matched. (Hasse, who died in 1978, also did the voices for Charles Laughton and Spencer Tracy.)

Even though Sandra Bullock has a German mother and speaks German, her German movie voice is usually spoken by Bettina Weiß. But in The Net/Das Netz Bullock's voice was rendered by Michaela Greuer.

Many German film viewers avoid the entire problem by listening to the original English soundtrack included on most DVDs of Hollywood films. In larger German cities it is also possible to see movies in the original language (usually without subtitles) in a cinema.

NEXT > Part 2: Hollywood Actors and their German voices (soon)

German Dubbing Web Links

Deutsche Synchronkartei
A German site with an extensive illustrated list of the people who do Hollywood's German voices - with audio. In German.

SynchronWorld.de
A German site devoted to the world of German dubbing for non-German films.

SynchronWorld - Harry Potter
The German voices for the Harry Potter films. In German from SynchronWorld.de (above).

James Bond - Synchronsprecher
The German voices for the James Bond films (Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan). In German.

Synchronsprecher
A voice actor site by Peter Hoffmann with lists by film or actor (Schauspieler). In German.

More links for German movies on DVD or video:

DVD Guide for German
A guide to playing and using Region 2 DVDs from Germany in North America - About.com.

The German-Hollywood Connection
Are you aware of the many influences on Hollywood by people from German Europe? Do you know that Leonardo DiCaprio has a German connection?

German Culture
Tatyana Gordeeva's site about life in German Europe.

The German Way
Our sister site related to living in German Europe.

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