Animation: American Vs. Foreign Trailers

The work of Miyazaki

 

The reading mentioned that the trailer for the French film "Amelie" was much different in France then it is in America. I believe that American

To elaborate on the ideas presented in this reading, I would like to take a look at another series of trailers that I have noticed this particular phenomenon in. I am a fan of Hayao Miyazaki, the famed Japanese director, writer and animator (as I will go into more detail about in Blog 10) and had recently watched the movie “Howl’s Moving Castle” (which I highly recommend to anyone who has never seen it!) I looked up a trailer for the film, and I found something very similar about the English dubbed trailers vs. the Japanese movie trailer.

 
Here is the English trailer (top) and the Japanese trailer (bottom):

 

 

I don’t think that people believed, at the time, that the films would appeal to Americans if not only were they Japanese animated feature lengths, but if the complex and, quite frankly bizarre, storylines were left completely untranslated by the narrator. So if you watch the Japanese version of the “Howls moving castle” the voice acting is very subtle. There is some mystery and excitement about what is happening. I like when trailers don’t reveal everything right away, so that not only does it peak interest but it doesn’t ruin the whole story.

The American trailer of this film was narrated heavily and, as someone who has seen the Japanese version of the film with subtitles, the synopsis is waters the plot down so badly, it makes it as if the trailer were only for children, which I think is intentional.

I think that Disney, who distributes Studio Ghibli films in the States, believes that it’s safer and more marketable to go with a more spelled out method of storytelling through the trailer. Rather than rely on scenes and dialogue put together, they need a narrator to make it as simple as possible, when I think this is unnecessary. I’ve found this often in not only Japanese films vs. American films, but in many foreign films against American features (as is the case with “Amelie,” a French picture.)

I think that this is done to market to children in the US by explaining what is happening, which I think is a little insulting to children by treating them like they can’t piece together without having a voice telling them what’s going on, and to adults to explain something that might come across as too bizarre.

I think the concept of subtly in American filmmaking, especially regarding trailers, is often overlooked in favor of in-your-face action and spelling everything out. I think that trailers that treat the audience like they’ve got a brain and can value a little mystery in a film trailer should be encouraged and I hope to see more of.