Going to the Movies - Turning Tuscan: A Step-by-Step Guide to Going Native - page 161

out. And sometimes the translation into English was so bad that it was almost funny. So,
when there's a choice offered between dubbing and sub-titles, Americans quickly learn to
choose the sub-titled version.
Italian dubbing has nothing in common with these tawdry efforts. It's a refined art form
withadegreeofsophistication andstylethatalwayspleases andsometimes astonishes. The
lip-syncing is done flawlessly; Meryl Streep and Harrison Ford look like natives speaking
their mother tongue. The dialogue is perfectly coordinated with body language and facial
expressions, but this is the least of it. Where Italian dubbing truly shines is in capturing the
essence of the actor's personality and his or her portrayal of character in the film.
One of the first movies I saw in Italy was a Woody Allen film, The Curse of the Jade
Scorpion . Hearing Woody speaking Italian in his own inimitable way, I was flabbergasted.
There was Woody—traipsing around, waving his arms, babbling his self-deprecating ironic
babble—and doing it all in Italian. The inimitable had been imitated. After five minutes
you simply got caught up in the movie and forgot that it wasn't really Woody Allen. And,
when you thought about the film afterwards, you remained convinced that you had seen a
performance in Italian by Woody Allen.
***
Ask an American to name a famous dubber, and he'll think you're pulling his leg. It's a
question that sounds like a setup line for a joke. Ask an Italian, on the other hand, and he'll
nametwoorthreeofhisfavoritedubbersinaflash.Whenthedubber,FerruccioAmendola,
died in 2001, his passing was reported on the front page of every major Italian newspaper.
This was the man who had done the Italian voices for Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone and
Robert De Niro for more than thirty years. His death was a national tragedy.
The dubbers of cartoons are low profile compared to those who do the major movie stars,
but there are some works of genius being produced by these unsung heroes. Before I saw
Shrek in Italian I would have wagered that no one could capture Eddie Murphy's rapid-
fire wit in his portrayal of Shrek's sidekick, the obnoxious talking donkey. Trust me—the
donkey speaks Italian as well as he speaks English, and he is no less quick or funny. And,
amazingly enough, he sounds just like Eddie Murphy if Eddie Murphy could speak Italian.
Other dubbed cartoons are often no less spectacular. When you're raising little girls, you
watch more Walt Disney classics for a few years than you ever thought possible. When
your kids are growing up in Tuscany, you watch Snow White and Sleeping Beauty in Italian
(again and again). The translations are flawless, including the songs—which certainly can't