KloKei07
07-02-2007, 09:24 AM
Probably you haven't heard of this, but from quite some years there's have been a serious conflict involving this series here in Latin American with one of his most important elements: the Spanish dub. You see The Simpson was originally broadcasted as a pilot show here in Mexico and some parts of the South America, mostly because the networks believed that the public wouldn't get the “American humor”. Instead they decided to "localize" the dub, making it this way more accessible to the public: the result was immediate success and contrary to what you think the essence of the show to this day has been kept.
The problem here was mainly the salary and contract of this voice actors, something managed completely different here than in the US. For example, if in the US they pay something like 30,000 (just a number don't mind me..) here the higher payment "per-show" can be up to 200 dollars (that if your counting that the actor is dubbing a stellar character like Bart or Homer), the result was obviously expected: the actors demanded a higher salary and better conditions in their contract just to be fired a the next season by Fox.
About the boycott, this is something much more complicated: after Fox ignored the critics of enraged fans after they changed the voice actors for "similar voices" the leading actors of the movement Humberto Velez (voice of Homer) and Gabriel Chavez (voice of Mr. Burns) initiated a campaign that started in South America and would end in Mexico (I think) the object is to gather the larger number of fans or at least convince them of not seeing the movie making it "the biggest flop in the Hollywood industry".
As you can see this is not a simple problem, and probably you wouldn't understand it being an outsider, but mostly I wanted to let you know this, since it any case it's really interesting and exciting. On the other hand, although I myself I'm not a huge fan of the show (and I will see the movie :P) I always have appreciate the work of this actors which for almost 15 years have been icons for the entire dubbing industry (I think something like this would happen in the US if all of a sudden the original actor were changed, right?). As a side note, I would point out that this is the general attitude going through the entire industry of voice acting (at least here in Mexico and Latin America): since we aren't dealing with "famous actors and actresses" the studios don't see a point in making fair contracts and the problem is this have affected the dubbing of movies, animes and even television series.
The problem here was mainly the salary and contract of this voice actors, something managed completely different here than in the US. For example, if in the US they pay something like 30,000 (just a number don't mind me..) here the higher payment "per-show" can be up to 200 dollars (that if your counting that the actor is dubbing a stellar character like Bart or Homer), the result was obviously expected: the actors demanded a higher salary and better conditions in their contract just to be fired a the next season by Fox.
About the boycott, this is something much more complicated: after Fox ignored the critics of enraged fans after they changed the voice actors for "similar voices" the leading actors of the movement Humberto Velez (voice of Homer) and Gabriel Chavez (voice of Mr. Burns) initiated a campaign that started in South America and would end in Mexico (I think) the object is to gather the larger number of fans or at least convince them of not seeing the movie making it "the biggest flop in the Hollywood industry".
As you can see this is not a simple problem, and probably you wouldn't understand it being an outsider, but mostly I wanted to let you know this, since it any case it's really interesting and exciting. On the other hand, although I myself I'm not a huge fan of the show (and I will see the movie :P) I always have appreciate the work of this actors which for almost 15 years have been icons for the entire dubbing industry (I think something like this would happen in the US if all of a sudden the original actor were changed, right?). As a side note, I would point out that this is the general attitude going through the entire industry of voice acting (at least here in Mexico and Latin America): since we aren't dealing with "famous actors and actresses" the studios don't see a point in making fair contracts and the problem is this have affected the dubbing of movies, animes and even television series.