Full transcript of “The BIGGEST Difference Between Pokemon Movie Subs and Dubs 🎶”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 [Music] like most english-speaking people that grew up watching and playing pokemon i had never really encountered a situation where i felt like i needed to watch pokemon in japanese i typically choose to watch anime in japanese nowadays but i have nothing against dubs and even used to watch dubs over subs when i started actively watching anime but pokemon and some other 90s anime like dragon ball z had always fallen in the same category of ghibli movies for me where watching in japanese was an option i never really opted for so i was kind of shocked to find that after watching the third pokemon movie in japanese for the first time the entire soundtrack was different
0:45 okay now for some people that may have been an obvious fact as the japanese version obviously wouldn't have the english theme song and credit roll songs or if we're talking the digimon movie smash mouth and barenaked ladies but in my head i had always imagined that only those songs would be different and that the actual music that i had fallen in love with as a six-year-old would still be there and the main thing to know about film music of any sort is that changing it has a huge impact on the atmosphere of the film in question and i was sitting at my computer constantly replaying scenes while switching the audio track back and forth just to hear the changes in music so where to begin i should start off by saying props to the four kids development team for hiring composers
1:31 that not only knew what they were doing but were able to convincingly make the soundtracks really good the dubs are okay at best and awful at worst but at least the movie music was always top tier i'll say it now i don't actually know if the original japanese soundtrack is a soundtrack or a score though i'm fairly sure it's not a score but given that the film was already completed by the time it got into the hands of the localization teams all the western composers had to do was treat it like a regular film score one that they wouldn't have to worry about editing their music to match the changes in the film since well there presumably wouldn't need to be any and in that sense i think it's a fair assessment to say that while the japanese soundtrack has much better quality having been recorded with an actual orchestra the music of the english
2:18 version's score is actually much more fitting and cinematic in most places to start with a completely unfair comparison the battle music when brock and misty face off against molly is the best example of what a score can do against a soundtrack the japanese version simply takes the battle theme from the original games and kind of just plops it into the scene to say well it's a pokemon battle and that means we need to play the pokemon battle theme it's certainly a safe choice and it isn't that it doesn't work but watching the english version it's clear that each part of music has been
3:08 there are also a number of scenes in the japanese version where things are just kind of silent this is what makes me believe that the original japanese soundtrack wasn't a score since some of these scenes benefited unimaginably from having music placed in them for the english version one that really stuck out to me was the moment where ash misty brock and lisa are running up the hill to get a glimpse of greenfield only to discover that it's become a barren crystal wasteland [Music] [Applause] it's easy to hear that the english version has a sense of joy and poorly transitioned sudden chalk
3:54 while the japanese one is just happening even trying to look at it without nostalgia goggles it just seems oddly silent for the kind of wide slow panning shot they had the main track i want to discuss though is molly's theme as this is arguably the track people remember best from the movie as well as one that is significantly different in both versions there are two main scenes where we hear this theme played out in the japanese version first in the film's opening scene where molly and her father are looking at a picture book and playing before she goes to bed and second when molly decides to put her trust in reality and end the dream world she has created
4:40 in the english version molly actually has two themes a sort of theme and antithesis the first theme being about her relationship with her father and the second being the track that plays when she is alone and just to clarify neither version's soundtrack refers to these as her theme but because it plays during some of her most critical moments in the movie as opposed to the track that the japanese version titles her theme this is the easiest way to refer to it now before anyone starts trying to predict which one i'm going to say is better there isn't really going to be an answer to that question both versions themes manage to get their points across in setting up the atmosphere albeit in very different ways and both are highly fitting for the scenes they accompany despite the differences in style my personal taste and nostalgia for this
5:26 as well as other pokemon movies makes me preferential towards the english versions because in fairness scores rarely lose to soundtracks and the western composers had the advantage of knowing every detail of what they would be writing for and how to best create a comprehensive ongoing musical presence and atmosphere starting with the opening scene let's have a look and listen to how the japanese version handles it [Music] for those of you who remember the english version this is completely different in almost every way the track sounds quite uplifting and almost romantic which is odd considering
6:13 molly is a five-year-old whose only remaining family is her father it's certainly a beautiful piece of music with a flowing delicate melody played out by the strings oboe and flutes and it manages to capture the very general idea of her as an innocent rich little girl exuding princessy vibes all throughout but it doesn't quite match well molly in that way it makes sense why this was not her canonical theme music but we'll touch a bit on that later now let's take a look at the english version these are legendary pokemon lots of people believe in them even though they've never seen them and in this book the artist imagined we're immediately presented with a
6:58 melancholic piano line not overtly sad or depressing but just a bit lonely with the high strings playing one long continuous pitch over the piano's melody as the other instruments come in we're introduced to hints of both entei and the unknowns themes in the harmony's encounter melodies in typical film scoring technique this now serves as an overture though molly is kept as the central figure as the melody carries along gradually becoming warmer until it ends with a lighthearted string flourish to match the scene of the two playing and laughing the main difference between these two tracks is what they are trying to get across with the western piece serving as a more classical musical overture with molly's characters the central piece while the japanese version is much more concerned with showing the scene in front of us instead
7:44 the japanese version is much more surface level but i can only really say that in hindsight and let's be honest not many people are going to pay that much attention to the musically thematic elements of a children's cartoon where the english version fades out on a lighthearted chord as the scene cuts to an incoming email the japanese version does the opposite suddenly shifting into an unresolving dissonant minor chord from this perspective we're given more of a hint as to what's to come in the japanese version with the incoming message perhaps that it will lead to the film's central conflict spoilers it does we first get a hint of molly's second english theme right after her father disappears as she runs downstairs to greet him there's a piano melody somewhat reminiscent of the lonely one we heard earlier it still has a slight
8:30 melancholic vibe but there's something a little more innocent and uplifting about it at least for the first three bars [Music] this is only the first taste however as it gets repeated many more times throughout the soundtrack with a longer more developed melody as it plays during times when molly is lonely or afraid [Music] in the japanese version this is another one of those weird silent scenes
9:17 now skipping to the main plot resolution about three quarters of the way into the film we get a reprise of the theme in both versions of the movie for a bit of context the music in both versions from the moment when molly's father goes missing until now is all either dramatic or melancholic but none of it is particularly uplifting there are some peaceful tracks yet they're usually shrouded in a sense of unease due to the mysteriousness of the unknown's power being influenced by molly's wishes in this scene molly has just stopped entei from obliterating ash's charizard and begins to understand that the world
10:02 she dreamed up will never allow her to grow as much as the real world and that even without her parents she still has people in pokemon to support her when we hear this reprisal in the japanese version it's actually a nice breath of fresh air as it's a very warm if not slightly on the nose way of saying that things will get better from here the oboe has a relaxing tone that accompanied again by the strings and flutes suits the listener as we watch the crystal palace begin to revert to its original state [Music] here we hear the opening notes of the antithesis playing the lonely melody on the piano like usual
10:47 however as the strings come in and push the melody along the harmonies begin to outline a more hopeful and uplifting finale to the conflict there is still an air of sadness as this also accompanies entei's explanation of how he cannot remain in this world if molly wishes to live life in reality and so these harmonies outline the fact that while her dreams cannot help her grow they still made her happy regardless now you might be thinking why did we even bother covering her first english theme if we were just going to focus on the antithesis that theme actually only comes up again once playing again when molly rides entei to meet ash's crew before the battle with brock again this is due to its presence representing molly's relationship with
11:32 her father and as a reference to the piggyback she received at the beginning being mirrored by actually riding entei the antithesis at this climactic moment is more emotional because it directly mirrors the structure of the theme in the opening moments reflecting the thematic nature of molly's character arc in the beginning she went from being a happy girl with her father to a lonesome girl using her dreams to fill the void in this instance she is forsaking the dreams that temporarily made her happy to make her way in the real world even if she must do so without her family this version of the antithesis begins much like the opening theme with a melancholic piano line accompanied only by a high string drone it then begins to evolve with the scene adding in more instruments to supplement the respective joyous and accepting feelings she has
12:18 before completely filling out with the rest of the orchestra in the final sections [Music] one interesting thing here as well is that in this scene the music in both versions fits the dialogue much better in their respective versions in the english ash's mom offers her hand and states that seeing molly live a happy regular life is what her father would have wanted which molly then takes and tearfully says that she wants things to be real again allowing the music to swell as the
13:04 mansion begins reverting to its original state in the japanese version however ash's mom simply says let's go together and as molly takes her hand she comments on how warm it feels this simple statement is much more tender and intimate and thus doesn't lend itself to a huge orchestral climax making the unchanging intensity and the music quite apt in the context of the scene both work equally as well as one another and it's amusingly typical that the japanese version approached this scene delicately while the western version was powerful and climactic [Music] i mentioned molly's official theme in
13:50 the japanese version earlier and to put it simply it's weird it kind of serves the same purpose as the antithesis in the english version playing in many of the same scenes but aside from the loneliness of the high reverberant piano it doesn't particularly capture her character that well it isn't exactly a tonal but there are lots of odd key shifts without warning and lends itself better to the idea of magic and mystery this does of course work in tandem with the power of the unknown bringing her dreams to life but with her character being more about simply wanting to live a happy life with her family once more this track feels very surface level i know i said that about the other theme as well but at least in that instance it didn't take away from the depth of her character the way this one seems to i'm also biased because of how much i
14:36 love the antithesis though so take all of this with a grain of salt i do want to point out again that neither version is really better than the other i'm sure that most people who are gonna watch this video are probably leaning more towards the english version mostly just because it's what they remember and i'm certainly no exception to that obviously music that's been scored to match every single scene of the movie is going to work a lot better than soundtrack music that just kind of gets put where it fits best but by no means did the japanese version fail to serve its purpose by setting up the atmosphere appropriate for the scene it was put in if anything there's even a moment at the end of the english version where the cheese factor gets turned up way too high
15:23 [Music] god it's so over the top i can't even tell if i like it ironically or not the japanese versions music fares a lot better but unfortunately it gets supplemented with well [Music] anyway what did you guys think about the differences between pokemon's localized and original music did anyone else not know that the soundtracks were different or am i just the one idiot out here that didn't realize four kids did this let me know if you want to see me do more of these older sub vs dub musical differences down in the comments below and if you enjoyed the video don't forget to like subscribe support me on patreon and follow my other social media accounts thanks as always for watching and i'll see you in the next
16:17 [Music] one you
