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The animated TV show The Simpsons is an American english language animated sitcom which has been broadcast in the United States since 1987 on FOX. In other countries, the TV show started broadcasting later than 1987 either in its original version or in a dubbed version.

By language

Arabic

The show was first broadcast in the area in its original language with Arabic subtitles on networks like Showtime Arabia and Dubai's One TV, where it received a following in the area.

The show was finally given an Arabic translation in September 2005, under a title that transliterates as "Al-Shamshoon" (In Arabic, آل شمشون) In addition to being dubbed in Arabic (with subtitles provided for shots including written English, such as the chalkboards), references to alcohol (Duff Beer & Moe's Tavern), pork (bacon & hot dogs), and numerous other themes have been deleted or significantly modified. For instance, Homer drinks soda-pop instead of beer and eats beef sausages as opposed to pork and all references to Moe's Tavern were cut. The characters were also given typical Arabic names such as Omar, Mona and Badr for Homer, Marge and Bart respectively as part of the retooling, while voices were provided by leading actors including Egyptian film star Mohamed Henedi as "Omar", and their hometown "Springfield" was called "Rabeea" (Arabic for Spring) and made it look like an American town with a major Arab population. The series did not fare very well and only 34 of the 52 adapted episodes aired.

The show in its unedited form currently airs on Fox Series with Arabic subtitles.

Catalan

The show was aired in Catalan by Antena 3.

French

The Simpsons has been dubbed into the French language twice, once in the Canadian province of Quebec and again in France. In both versions, the show is named Les Simpson, as last names are not pluralized in French. The French audio on the Region 1 DVDs is the Quebec dub.

It is one of only a handful of American television shows that have wholly separate versions in Quebec and France, and a number of studies have been made comparing them. In France all the characters speak standard French, with the exception of the ethnic minorities: Apu is given the Indian accent, while Carl, who has no accent in the American version, also speaks inflected French. Kirk Van Houten is given a stereotypical Belgian accent. In the Quebec version only the town élite, such as Principal Skinner and Reverend Lovejoy, speak International French. The Simpson family and most of the townsfolk speak Quebec French with strong Québécois accents. In the Quebec version the ethnic minorities also have accents. Apu speaks in a creole while Carl has the accent of a Black immigrant from Africa or the Caribbean.

Local idioms are occasionally adopted in place of direct translation. American cultural and political jokes are occasionally replaced with local references. For instance, a reference to Newt Gingrich in Quebec is generally replaced with one to Mike Harris. Most of the recurring characters keep their English names in each French version. Two exceptions are Sideshow Bob and Sideshow Mel, who are known as Tahiti Bob and Tahiti Mel in France, as the word sideshow has no direct translation. In Quebec, the title sideshow is kept as an Anglicism. Another exception is made for the Simpsons family's dog, Santa's Little Helper, who is called "Le p'tit renne au nez rouge" (the French name for the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which literally means "Little Red-Nosed Reindeer") in the Quebec version and "Petit Papa Noël" (name of a French Christmas song that literally means "Little Father Christmas") in the French one.

In addition, although the location and setting of the show are not changed in the Quebec dub (still takes place in the United States), many references to the characters watching American TV shows, movies, etc. are changed to references to Québécois ones. For example, a reference to Homer watching CSI: Miami in the original was changed to Fortier, a similar Québécois show. Although these changed references would be familiar to the French-Canadian viewer, in real life these would be awkward because almost all Québécois media is unknown in the USA- however, this may be a common practice in many foreign dubs of many TV shows. In addition, most instances of the word "English" are changed to "French". Due to this, in one episode where Homer visits Canada, the roles of anglophones and francophones are completely reversed, resulting in a stereotypical English Canadian speaking French and a stereotypical French Canadian speaking English. In another episode, English-Canadians were given stereotypical American accents speaking French, even when the main characters from the U.S.A. were not. The same practice is done in the Quebec dub of King of the Hill, done by the same company and many of the same actors, but to a greater extent: instead of taking place in Arlen, Texas, the show takes place in "Ste-Irène", a Québécois town, and many of the characters' names are changed. However, American flags and pictures of Texas state (such as on the side of police cars) are not edited.

The episodes are dubbed by a team of voice actors, similar to the one that does the original. The team does about two episodes per day. In general these voice actors also do the characters who were voiced by celebrities in the American version. In the French version, on occasion, official dubbers are brought in. For instance for the episode where Mulder and Scully from The X-Files appear the voice actors who do their voices on the French version of the X-Files guest starred.

Up to a certain point, the animation of the show was not changed, and what is written in English appears in English, either subtitled in French or pronounced by a character in French, in the two French versions. One important exception is the blackboard joke at the beginning of each episode. The Quebec and France versions share these french language blackboard scenes. However, for later episodes of the Quebec version, other text was changed as well, such as movie titles ("Cosmic Wars" became "La guerre de l'espace" in the episode Co-Dependent's Day).

Phillippe Peythieu, France's voice of Homer, and Véronique Augereau, France's voice of Marge, first met on the dubbing of the series and are now married, just like their animated counterparts. On April 8, 2007, Peythieu and Augereau hosted "in character" a special prime-time compilation of their favorite Simpsons episodes on French cable channel W9.

Most Québécois who know about the version produced in France are not too fond of it; the humor is completely different. Télétoon, which broadcasts the Quebec Simpsons dub, also once broadcast dubs from France of Futurama (also created by Matt Groening) and Family Guy, two shows similar to The Simpsons whose French dubs were also similar to The Simpsons' Parisian dub. Although The Simpsons has been on Télétoon for a much longer period than the other two shows, Futurama and Family Guy are no longer shown on the network, while The Simpsons continues to be aired. This could be because there were no more French episodes of Futurama and Family Guy to air (reruns were repeatedly aired), it could as well have been because of a lack of popularity- Télétoon airs many other shows that only repeatedly show reruns.

Catchphrases

In July 2007 Matt Groening said in an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that the actor (Phillippe Peythieu) who does the voice of France French Homer says "T'oh!" instead of Homer's trademark "D'oh!". This comes from the actor misreading the line the first time he did Homer's voice and has been that way ever since. In the Parisian version of the show, many other catch phrases are also translated: Bart's "Eat my shorts" becomes "Va te faire shampouiner" ("Go shampoo yourself", similar to "go to hell"). When Homer tries to throttle Bart, his phrase "Why you little..." becomes "espèce de sale petit...", literally "you dirty lil'...".

In the Québécois version of the show, "D'oh!" was a simple "Oh!" in the first few seasons, but became the standard "D'oh!" later on, Bart's "Eat my shorts" becomes "Mange de la crotte" (which could be translated by "Eat some shit" but is less offensive), Bart's "I didn't do it!" becomes "J'ai rien fait" (I did nothing). When Homer tries to throttle Bart, he says "Oh, Mon p'tit verrat" (a Quebec expression) instead of "Why you little...".

France

The French voice actors are:

Character Voice actor
Homer Simpson, Abraham Simpson, Otto Mann Philippe Peythieu
Marge Simpson, Selma Bouvier, Patty Bouvier, Jacqueline Bouvier Véronique Augereau
Bart Simpson, Jimbo Jones (since season 7) Joëlle Guigui
Lisa Simpson, Milhouse Van Houten, Maggie Simpson Aurélia Bruno
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Waylon Smithers, Carl, Barney Gumble, Lou, Troy McClure, Rainier Wolfcastle, Comic Book Guy, Snake, Lionel Hutz, Chalmers, Duffman, Herbert Powell (voice 1), Guibole, Roger Meyers (voice 4) Patrick Guillemin (seasons 1-9) Pierre Laurent (since season 10)
Moe Szyslak, Lenny, Willie, Cletus, Eddie, Arnie Pie, Louie, Database, Lance Murdock, Scratchy (voice 1), John Frink, Disco Stu, Murphy Gencives Sanglantes (voice 2) Roger Meyers (Voice 3) Roland Timsit (seasons 1-4) Gilbert Levy (since season 5)
Montgomery Burns, Krusty, Clancy Wiggum, principal Skinner, Dr Hibbert, Marvin Monroe, Kent Brockman, Joe Quimby, Tahiti Bob, captain McCallister, Hans Taupeman, Gil, Jasper, Kirk Van Houten, Snyder, Larry, Kang, Nick Riviera, Dewey Largo, Fat Tony (voice 2), Scratchy (voice 2), Herbert Powell (voice 2), Roger Meyers (voice 2), Marge's father (voice 2). Michel Modo† (seasons 1-19) Gérard Rinaldi (since season 19)
Edna Krapabelle (since season 7), Elizabeth Hoover, Sarah Wiggum, Maude Flanders, Agnes Skinner, Doris, Helen Lovejoy, Luann Van Houten, Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon, Bernice Hibbert, Mona Olsen, Itchy, Nelson, Jimbo Jones (seasons 2-6), Kearney, Dolph, Rod Flanders, Martin Prince, Wendell Borton, Lewis, Uter, Janey Powell, Sherri and Terri, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders (since season 2) Régine Teyssot

There are two important changes in Simpson french dub. First, the departure of Patrick Guillemin at the end of season 9 and secondly the French adapters and Michel Modo (who died recently) during season 19. The presence of Gerard Rinaldi is not yet ensured for the upcoming seasons.

Quebec

The Quebec voices are:

Character Voice actor
Homer Simpson Hubert Gagnon
Abraham Simpson
Marge Simpson Béatrice Picard
Bart Simpson Johanne Léveillée
Lisa Simpson Lisette Dufour

The speech of Homer, Lenny, Carl, and other lower-class characters in the Quebec version occasionally resembles joual, the working-class speech.

German

The Simpsons has been dubbed into one single German language version and is broadcast by ProSieben in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, ORF1 in Austria and SF 2 in Switzerland. The show is named Die Simpsons and the episodes appear uncut and dubbed, with written or sung English subtitled in German. The animation of the show is not changed. In the blackboard scene, Bart reads the phrase translated, before laughing when the bell rings and jumps on his skateboard (as seen in any other version). Homer's alveolar catch phrase "D'oh!" has been translated to "Nein!" (meaning "No!") rather than leaving it as the meaningless interjection that is his annoyed grunt. The translators often let Bart and Homer say 'Arsch' ('Ass') instead of 'Butt'; the language in general is a bit harsher and more swear words are used. In the earlier seasons signposts etc. were translated with a subtitle, but this is later replaced with a voiceover like in the Brazilian version. The show's nineteenth season is aired at Mondays, 8:15 pm, but they air two reruns every day at 6:10 pm. While things always get 'lost in translation' during any dubbing process, the German version of The Simpsons is infamous for countless mistakes as a result of poor translation. In most cases, the author of the German dialogue simply is not familiar with certain aspects of American pop culture or the meaning of phrases. This has gone so far as to pieces of dialogue only making sense when the viewer translates them back to English in his head. Before moving to commercial Pro Sieben, the show was initially shown on public broadcaster ZDF, before moving to now defunct pay-TV channel Teleclub and then Premiere, another pay-TV service. The team responsible for bringing the show to Germany clearly had a hard time imagining that an animated show was aimed primarily at a teenage and adult audience and early episodes from these seasons are 'toned down' to make them more appropriate for children.

Characters

Nearly all of the characters carry their American names; there are only just a few characters which are translated, especially animals. For example Reverend Lovejoy is still Reverend Lovejoy. Lovejoy's name seems to be the only one ever (partially) translated into German for some episodes (Reverend Gottlieb). Gottlieb is a real German first name - albeit outdated - meaning "to love God".

In earlier episodes, Homer was pronunciated Hoo-muh, because the German translators didn't know how to pronounce his name correctly. The same thing happened with Apu's surname; he became Apu Nahasapeemapetilan temporarily. Also in some episodes Troy McClure became Kevin McClure.

Translated characters:

  • Sideshow Bob: Tingeltangel Bob (literally "Honkytonk Bob"), Sideshow Bob
In early episodes solely translated as Tingeltangel Bob, afterwards taken over the original.
Reverend Gottlieb was used just a very few times, afterwards generally the original.
In the German version he is always a stereotypical Swiss in order to please the German audience and to avoid confusion.

The German voice actors are:

Character Voice actors
Homer Simpson Norbert Gastell
Marge Simpson Elisabeth Volkmann † (season 1 - HABF04)
Anke Engelke (HABF05 - *)
Bart Simpson Sandra Schwittau
Lisa Simpson Sabine Bohlmann
Maggie Simpson Sabine Bohlmann
Abraham Simpson 1. Walter Reichelt
2. Ulrich Bernsdorff
3. Horst Raspe
4. Michael Rüth
Patty Bouvier 1. Gudrun Vaupel
2. Elisabeth Volkmann
3. Angelika Bender
Selma Bouvier 1. Ursula Mellin
2. Elisabeth Volkmann
3. Angelika Bender
Ned Flanders Ulrich Frank
Maude Flanders Manuela Renard
Seymour Skinner 1. Fred Klaus
2. Klaus Guth
Agnes Skinner 1. Margit Weinert
2. Eva Maria Lahl
Edna Krabappel 1. Gudrun Vaupel
2. Inge Solbrig
Elizabeth Hoover Manuela Renard
Moe Szyslak Bernd Simon
Barney Gumble 1. Gernot Duda
2. Michael Rüth
Lenny Leonard Ulf-Jürgen Wagner
Carl Carlson Peter Musäus
Charles Montgomery Burns Reinhard Brock
Waylon Smithers Hans-Georg Panczak
Krusty Hans-Rainer Müller
Itchy & Scratchy Inge Solbrig
Milhouse Van Houten Michaela Amler
Martin Prince Michèle Tichawsky
Ralph Wiggum Beate Pfeiffer
Chief Clancy Wiggum Thomas Rau
Apu Tobias Lelle
Kent Brockman Donald Arthur
Narrator/Voice-over
used for English text passages
Butz Combrinck

Link with photos and sound samples:

List of English and German voice actors including all seasons:

Catchphrases

Character English German Translation
Homer Simpson D'oh! Nein! No!
Bart Simpson Eat my shorts! Friss meine Shorts! Guzzle my shorts!
Mr. Burns Excellent! Ausgezeichnet! Excellent!

Portuguese

Brazilian version

Translated character names:

Portugal

In Portugal the series itself is not dubbed but subtitled. The Simpsons Movie, however, did receive a dubbed version, in which José Jorge Duarte, Cláudia Cadima, Carla de Sá, and Manuela Couto provide the voice of Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa, respectively.

Spanish

The Simpsons is dubbed into the Spanish language twice, once in Latin America and again in Spain. In both versions, the show is named Los Simpson, as last names are not pluralized in Spanish. There are many differences between the two versions, as there are differences between the Spanish spoken in Spain and that spoken in Latin America. In Latin America Homer is translated as Homero, but in Spain it isn't translated. Other translations in Latin America but not in Spain are: Barney Gumble as Barney Gómez, Chief Wiggum as Jefe Gorgory, Ralph Wiggum as Ralf/Rafa Gorgory, Reverend Lovejoy as Reverendo Alegría, Sideshow Bob as Bob Patiño and Mayor "Diamond" Joe Quimby as Alcalde Diamante. Itchy and Scratchy are translated in the two versions: Tommy y Daly for Latin America, and Rasca y Pica for Spain.

The animation of the show is not changed, and what is written in English remains in English in the Spanish versions. In the blackboard scene, we hear Bart reading the phrase translated. After the introduction, in the Latin American version we hear the name of the episode, while this does not happen in the Spanish version. The region 1 DVDs include the Latin American audio.

Latin American Version

The Latin American Version is dubbed in Mexico by Grabaciones y Doblajes Internacionales. The DVD commentary for season 3's like Father, Like Clown states that writer Wallace Wolodarsky went to several countries, including Mexico and Germany, to cast the foreign versions. The most memorable cast dubbed from seasons 1 through 9 and was:

Translated character names:

During season 9, Huerta quit playing Bart over a pay dispute, and was replaced by Claudia Mota. Before season 16, the main cast had a legal issue with Grabaciones y Doblajes because it wanted the actors not to be in the National Association of Actors, and they were in that association, so as a result, the whole cast was fired. Beginning at season 16, they were replaced by new actors (in fact, they tried to "copy" the old actors's character voice so the change was not so drastic for the viewers, although the results were poor) and Huerta returned to do both Bart's and Marge's voice.

Spanish Version

The principal cast is the following:

Many fans of the series and the rest of the Spanish cast were very sad after the death of Carlos Revilla due to his excellent work, and Antena 3 had to find a substitute for Revilla's voice (as opposed to Dan Castellaneta's). Carlos Revilla also dubbed the appearance of KITT in the episode The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace, like he did in Knight Rider. There are other characters that conserve their frequent voice in Spain: like Mulder and Scully from The X-Files, or Sideshow Bob and his brother Cecil. They are dubbed by the same actors who dub Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce in Frasier.

The Spanish version of the Simpsons also distinguishes itself by using more literal translations of what the characters are saying. The Spanish translation would most likely seem very salacious to a Latin American audience, and viceversa. In both versions the guest stars are always voiced by that actor's particular Spanish voice counterpart. In this way if the Spanish public is expecting to hear Glenn Close they actually hear the voice they usually equate to that actress.

By country

China

In 2006, The Simpsons, along with other shows such as Pokémon and Mickey Mouse cartoons, were banned from being aired during primetime (5:00 to 8:00 PM) in China. This was done so that Chinese cartoons, which were having a hard time competing with foreign cartoons, would gain more viewers. The government had previously tried several things, such as ordering that networks cut down on the number of foreign animated series being aired in 2000 and in 2004, passed a rule that would ensure that 60 percent of cartoon content came from Chinese studios. The move was heavily criticized by Chinese media.

Bulgaria

In mid September 2005 dubbed in Bulgarian versions of the first four seasons of The Simpsons started airing on the Bulgarian branch of the cable television Fox Life. The show was named "Семейство Симпсън" (literally "Simpson Family"). There were rarely any mistranslations in the scripts, only the untranslatable word puns were changed to such in Bulgarian, albeit not nearly as creative as the originals. The dubbing, much like everythig else dubbed for Bulgarian television, was crude and the original voices could be heard in the background. In mid 2006 dubbed versions of seasons 5 through 7 started running on the Bulgarian Fox Life after numerous reruns of the previous seasons. The dub quality was a little lower than the one of the first four seasons and almost the entire voice cast had been replaced. Minor mistranslations occurred from time to time, but they were not anything significant. In early May 2007 dubbed versions of the 8th and 9th season started airing on the Bulgarian Fox Life with the same voice cast as in the previous three seasons. The quality of the dub had however greatly declined - the voice direction had become very poor and all the lines were read in pretty much the same fashion; the secondary characters' voices were very inconsistent; the scripts were poorly translated and most of the spoken humor was lost (not only the untranslatable word puns). In late September 2007 a dubbed version of the 10th season started running on the Bulgarian Fox Life. The dub quality was as worse as the previous two seasons'.

Czech Republic

The Simpsons has been dubbed into the Czech language and the show is named Simpsonovi. Directed by Zdeněk Štěpán. The movie is named Simpsonovi ve filmu.

The Czech voice actors are:

Character Voice actors
Homer Simpson: Vlastimil Bedrna (from 1st season)
Vlastimil Zavřel (from 13th season)
Marge Simpson: Jiří Lábus
Bart Simpson: Martin Dejdar
Lisa Simpson: Helena Štáchová
Maggie Simpson: Helena Štáchová / Jiří Lábus
Comic Book Guy: Stanislav Lehký
Kent Brockman: Vladimír Fišer
Barney: Miroslav Saic
Montgomery Burns: Bedřich Šetena
Patty Bouvier: Zdeněk Štěpán
Selma Bouvier: Jaroslava Kretschmerová
Jacqueline Bouvier: Jiří Lábus
Carl Carlson: Jaroslav Horák
Cletus: Ivo Novák
Dr. Julius Hibbert: Bohuslav Kalva
Ned Flanders: Jiří Havel
Edna Krabappel: Blanka Zdichyncová

Finland

In Finland, the actual series is subtitled, but The Simpsons Movie was released both dubbed and subtitled. The show is called Simpsonit (literally The Simpsons).

The Finnish voice actors of The Simpsons Movie are:

Translated character names:

Hungary

The Simpsons has been dubbed into the Hungarian language and the show is named A Simpson család, it means The Simpson family.

The Hungarian voice actors are:

Character Voice actors
Homer Simpson: Székhelyi József
Marge Simpson: Pálos Zsuzsa
Bart Simpson: Simonyi Balázs
Lisa Simpson: Bogdányi Titanilla

Translated character names:

Italy

The Simpsons has been dubbed in Italian since the very beginning of its broadcast run by Canale 5 (in the early 90s); now Italia 1 and Fox broadcast it. The show is named I Simpson - as foreign names are usually not pluralised in Italian. The animation of the show is slightly changed; whenever something written in English appears on screen, usually by blurring the original text and superimposition the translated Italian one. This was accomplished with a freeze frame effect and stock fonts in earlier seasons, delivering a rather crude result. Recent seasons show a definite improvement, with the translated text made to appear almost identical in style and design to the original.

The initial blackboard scene is not however graphically modified with a translation; Bart simply reads the phrase translated into Italian.

Another difference is that the ubiquitous "wooohaaah" exclaimed by Homer in the original version is replaced by the word "mitico" (with a long lasting pronunciation: meeeeeee teeeeee cooow), which literally means mythical.

Characters

Many secondary characters had their names translated or simply changed altogether.

  • Santa's Little Helper: Piccolo aiutante di Babbo Natale (literal translation);
  • Snowball: Palla di neve (literal translation);
  • Moe Szyslak: Boe Szyslak (his tavern's sign Moe has always superimposed Boe)
  • Fat Tony: Tony Ciccione (literal translation);
  • Clancy Wiggum: Clancy Winchester (in just one episode, Homer alone, his last name is left Wiggum)
  • Edna Krabappel: Edna Caprapall
  • "Bleeding gums" Murphy: "Gengive sanguinanti" Murphy (literal translation);
  • Itchy and Scratchy: Grattachecca e Fichetto (in one episode they are translated as Grattino e Pruritino)
  • Hans Moleman: Hans Uomo Talpa (literal translation);
  • Otto Mann: Otto Disc
  • Comic Book Guy: l'uomo fumetto (literal translation)
  • Sideshow Bob (Mel): Telespalla Bob (Mel) (literal translation)
  • Jimbo, Kearney, Dolph: Secco, Patata, Spada (literal translations: Slim, Potato, Sword)

Many characters are dubbed with strong local accents: Wiggum, Lou and Marvin Monroe speak with a Naples accent, Eddie talks like someone from Bari, Carl with a Venice accent, Reverend Lovejoy is a Calabrian, Otto Mann is from Milan, Fat Tony - obviously - a Sicilian, Willie is a Sardinian. Every reference to Willie's homeland is diverted to Sardinia.

The Italian voices:

Character Voice actors
Homer Simpson: Tonino Accolla
Marge Simpson: Liù Bosisio
Bart Simpson: Ilaria Stagni
Lisa Simpson: Monica Ward

Catchphrases

Many catchphrases are also translated: while Homer's "D'oh" remains the same in Italian, Bart's "Ay caramba" becomes "E che cacchio" (meaning "What the hell", where "cacchio" is actually a euphemism for "dick") and "Eat my shorts" becomes "Ciucciati il calzino" (lit. "Suck your sock"). When Homer tries to throttle Bart, his phrase "Why you little..." becomes "Brutto bacarospo...". "Brutto" means "ugly", while "bacarospo" is a non-existent word, a portmanteau of "bacarozzo", which is a Romanesco word for "scarafaggio" (Eng: "cockroach"), and Italian "rospo" which means "toad".

Guest Stars

The Italian version hosts many guest stars as occasional dubbers.
Among these personalities there are the Italian Minister of Defence Ignazio La Russa, other Italian politicians like Alessandra Mussolini and Vittorio Sgarbi, the Re del Quiz (Quiz King) Mike Bongiorno, anchor men and journalists like Emilio Fede and Paolo Liguori, soccer players like Gennaro Gattuso, Francesco Totti and Marco Materazzi, singers like Giorgia and Jovanotti, showmen like Fiorello and Corrado Guzzanti, plus various other TV and Cinema actresses and actors.

Japan

In Japan, The Simpsons has been dubbed into Japanese and were first broadcast by WOWOW until 2002 and later on the Fox Channel onwards.

Recurring characters

Character Voice actor
Homer Simpson Tōru Ōhira
George Tokoro (film)
Marge Simpson Miyuki Ichijō
Akiko Wada (film)
Bart Simpson Junko Hori
Atsushi Tamura (film)
Lisa Simpson Chie Kōjiro
Becky (film)

Poland

The show in Poland is named Simpsonowie. It has been dubbed into Polish and is broadcast by TV Puls since September 1, 2008. Written and sung English remain subtitled. Since Season 3, the show's logo at the beginning of each episode was replaced by a logo saying show's Polish name, but in Season 1 style.

Since the fall of Communism in Poland, dubbing has been used almost exclusively in movies and shows produced for children. Canal+ Poland is still broadcasting the show in "lectored" version just like TVP and Fox Kids Polska did in late 1990s.

The Simpsons Movie in Polish is known as Simpsonowie: Wersja kinowa. Much of the Polish fan community considered dubbing of the movie to be a sacrilege so that most of the post-premiere reviews found the localized version worse than the original one.

The recent TV Puls dubbing of the show itself initially received almost exclusively bad reviews amongst fans of the Simpsons - most of the reviewers point out the poor, frequently changing, and not matching their chraracters actors, technical faults, etc. It can be considered irony as Polish cartoons' dubbings are well-known all over the world and collect a lot of prizes (e.g. the Polish Wilma from The Flintstones show has been announced the best Wilma in the world). Also ironically, the bad reception of series' dubbed version caused massive change of opinion about movie's dub, now commonly referred to as "quite good".

After Rupert Murdoch sold his interests in TV Puls, the dubbing has stopped, as all the staff had signed contracts with Fox instead of TV Puls. For two weeks reruns were aired instead of new episodes; a few final Season 3 episodes, despite being dubbed (according to Homer's VA, Mikołaj Klimek), never aired. Currently TV Puls have no plans of getting the show back.

Despite the initial bad opinion, the show was one of most popular shows on TV Puls.

The Polish voice actors are:

Character Voice actors
Homer Simpson Andrzej Snarski (season 1)
Paweł Burczyk (season 2)
Mikołaj Klimek (season 3)
Miłogost Reczek (movie)
Marge Simpson Dorota Liliental (season 2 and 3)
Barbara Zielińska (movie)
Bart Simpson Gabriela Czyżewska
Joanna Wizmur (movie)
Lisa Simpson Gabriela Czyżewska
Dominika Kluźniak (movie)

Sweden

When TV3 started broadcasting The Simpsons the show was not dubbed. However, in 1993, the network decided to start dubbing The Simpsons and moved the show to a more child friendly time at 6:00 p.m. After a public outrage the dubbing was dropped after only six episodes and the show was moved to a more adult time. Bart was voiced by Annica Smedius and Homer by Per Sandborgh. A dub of the movie was released with the The Simpsons Movie DVD, with Annica Smedius providing the voice for Bart once again.

Ukraine

In Ukraine, The Simpsons is broadcast by M1 dubbed in Ukrainian, from 2004 to present. However, on Ukrainian television it might have previously appeared with Russian voice-over. The public tend to appreciate dubbing and translation.

Voice actors

The Ukrainian voice actors are:

Character Voice actor
Homer Simpson Yevhen Malukha (series)
Mykola Lutsenko (film)
Marge Simpson Iryna Doroshenko
Bart Simpson Hanna Levchenko
Lisa Simpson Iryna Doroshenko (series)
Kateryna Kachan (film)

Yuriy Kovalenko does Abraham Simpson, Moe Szyslak, Cletus Spuckler and Kent Brockman both in the series and film. In the series, he and other three actors do all other characters. Valeriy Legin appeared just in Season 1-2 (doing a number of characters including Montgomery Burns and Reverend Lovejoy), and in film (doing Krusty the Clown, Mayor Quimby, Fat Tony and Montgomery Burns).

References

  1. "D'oh! Arabized Simpsons not getting many laughs". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. October 14, 2005. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite news}}: Text "El-Rashidi, Yasmine" ignored (help)
  2. Richard Poplak (July 25, 2007). "Homer's odyssey - Why The Simpsons flopped in the Middle East". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  3. Actually, the Brussels accent generally associated with Belgium by the french public. "Van Houten" is a name which can be assumed to be Belgian.
  4. randomWalks: The Simpson clan lives in
  5. http://www.simpsonsweb.com/recherche-actualite-prime-p7 French dubbers host Simpsons Prime-time night Template:Fr
  6. Spanish dub cast list
  7. Spanish Carlos Revilla memorial
  8. Spanish Carlos Revilla memorial 2
  9. Spanish Carlos Revilla memorial 3
  10. Elsemanal.tv article about Revilla's substitute
  11. joe MacDonald (August 13, 2006). "China Bans 'Simpsons' From Prime-Time TV". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
  12. Josh Grossberg (August 14, 2006). "D'oh! China Bans Bart from Prime Time". E! News. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
  13. Sources from http://www.presstext.se/, a non-free online database of Swedish newspaper articles. Articles from Expressen and Dagens Nyheter, autumn 1993.
  14. DVD Komedi, Simpsons/Filmen (2 versioner/dts/87++) hittar du på Ginza Musik - CD, DVD, Filmer, Spel

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