Voice actor Sarah Natochenny takes us through her full process of dubbing 'Pokémon.'
Cartoons like 'Pokémon' are often reinterpreted from one language to another and require fine-tuning, digital lengthening, and script alteration.
From scene setting to the first run through, watch Sarah’s cartoon dubbing session with a voice director and engineer down to the completed scene.
- I'm Ash Ketchum, I came fromPallet Town in the Kanto Region.And this is my good buddy, Pikachu.[giggles]Nice to meet ya.[upbeat music]Hi, I'm Sarah Natochenny,I'm a voice actor.You probably know me bestas Ash Ketchum on Pokemon.I'm also Delia Ketchum, andStaraptor, and Misdreavus.Today I'm gonna be showing you my processfor dubbing Pokemon into English.Pokemon is a show that's originallyvoiced and animated in Japan.So when the show comes to me,my job is to reinterpret itfor an American audience.We start every session with my directortelling me all about the episode.The turnaround time forthese shows is extreme,so sometimes we are working with scriptsthat were finished the night before.I never get to see thescript ahead of time,it's always a cold read.- Hi, I'm Lisa, the voice director.And Ash, today you're gonnabe running down the beach.- Yes!- Gonna have some beach time.- My favorite.I record in a booth by myself.So I very rarely get to hearthe other actors' performances.My director is the dungeon master,she knows how everything is gonna sound,she can predict all of their performances,and she knows exactly how to direct meto get exactly what she wants.Next we watch the scene inJapanese, let's take a look.[speaking in foreign language]- [Pikachu] Pikachu.[yelling]- So a lot of stuff ishappening in this scene.He's running, he's out of breath,he's tripping over Litten.And then he runs to his momall excited and huffing.And he's always huffing, he'salways excited and huffing.So I wanna do justice tothat just with my voice.So what I'm looking forwhen I see this in Japaneseis the mouth flap, wherehe moves his mouth.Where he opens his mouth really wide,where he has a [groan] likea clenched kinda teeth thing.And that'll indicate to me whereto put all the words on the page.So first we're gonna doa whole run of the sceneand then we're gonna go backand pickup all theparts where I messed up.- We are on line 45.- 'Kay.- 023504.It's gonna be on there, you won't beat me.You are about to meetLitten for the first time.So this is where you'regonna keep running throughover there as you saw in the scene.As soon as you get thereyou're gonna step on his tailand then you'll go into sorta likethe comic tumbles after that.So let's give it a whirl.- There are three beeps that cue me in.I come in on the fourth beep.- So Sarah, I'm gonna give you three beepsfor the first cue, and thenone beep for the following.[beeping]- You won't beat me.[panting]Whoa.Oh sorry.So basically my eyes, if you notice,are darting back and forthfrom the page to the screento make sure that I have the line rightand that I have the flapright at the same time.So while I'm matching the flapand getting all the words out,I have to match the emotionthat's happening onscreen.More so than the original performance.So I'm looking at the animationand figuring out howto emote based on that.So I look at his eyes,I look at his eyebrows,I look at his mouth, I lookat the way the animation is.If it's like in a really crazy sceneand the background changes,then I know I have to get much bigger.So now that we've doneone take of this long passmy director's gonna give me some notes.And she'll have a lot of 'em.- Let's give that another pass.The line that you're,I know it's a long setfor you to sorta take on there,is gonna be, sorry, as soon as youturn around and go on that.So when you ramp yourself up after Pikachuget up a little bit, you can even get ina little bit more with that.So that you're sort of like pretty intenseby the time you actuallystep on Litten's tail.- So the sorry is onscreen?- The sorry is onscreen.The turnaround--- it's that.The turnaround, that's sorry?- Yeah.Okay.- That turnaround right there thatyou're seeing, that's you havingthe reaction into the sorry.- Okay.So while this happens our engineermoves the three beeps over to the spotwhere I need to punch in the uh, sorry.- Cool, so we're looking at line 50.You got an open shockreact and then a sorry.So you're gonna do the turnand then the double flap.[grunting]- Sorry.Oh man.[groaning][laughing]Sometimes I have todeliver a line in a waythat doesn't feel natural to me.Sometimes I have to go really really slowor really really fast.Sometimes a line will be really urgent,but there's not enough mouth movementfor me to say somethingreally really fast.And that can be a problem.Blue water, fluffy white clouds,and delicious Pinap juice.I messed it up.- Yeah, you got that, youcan hit that second line.- I was too early so I messed it up.I was too early and I messed up the line,it's not fluffy white cloudsit's white fluffy clouds.I'm bad at this.Let's do it again.So long before the scriptever even gets to mean adapter has to takethe Japanese translationand make it make sense in English.And make it also fit into the mouth flaps.That's how we get this.The timing of my performanceis really importantbecause first of all, you don't wanna hearsomebody talking whentheir mouth isn't moving.Secondly, and this is the adapter's job,he has to make sure that everythinghe gets out of the translationmakes sense in Englishand fits into the mouth flap.So if a character hasa big wide open mouthhalfway through the sentence,he has to justify that,he has to write a scriptthat justifies that.- Coming to ya.- Blue water, white fluffy clouds,[slurping]Mm.It's so refreshing.- Yeah, it's great.- Great.- It's great?I play many characters on the show.Usually I do them one at a time,but for the purposes of this demonstrationI'm gonna do them together.- Ready for it?- I guess.Hey Mom, I'm back!Hope you had fun, Ash.Sure did, we went diving with a Sharpedo,saw lots of Pokemon I'venever seen before, yeah!- That was great, we'rejust gonna stretch outone of the ones in the middle over there.You gave us enough time sothat we can do it perfectly.So that's perfect.- So sometimes my performancemight be a little bit shortand they can digitally lengthen itso that it fits the mouth flap perfectly.- All right, that looked great.- That sounds like fun!We have Mimey to thank for winningthe tickets for our vacation.Thanks very much, Mimey.Ooh, that's short.So sometimes the line in the scriptcomes up a little bit short and we have toadd a few syllables tomake it fit the flap.So Lisa, what do you think?- Well let's take alook at what we've got.Why don't we add in have Mimey to thankfor winning the ticketsfor our Alola vacation.And how about, that does sound like fun?Rather than that sounds like fun.- Great.- Awesome.- Coming to you.- That does sound like fun.We have Mimey to thankfor winning the ticketsfor our Alola vacation.- Great.- That works.All right, let's see the completed scene.- You won't beat me!Whoa!Sorry.Oh man!- Hey Mom, I'm back.- Hope you had fun, Ash.- Sure did, we wentdiving with a Sharpedo,- That does sound like fun!- And that's how I dub Pokemon.So because the Englishdub is so widespreadI'm getting emails from people in India,and Bangladesh, and Russia,and Japan, and Brazil,thanking me for helpingthem learn English.It's amazing.It's really an important thingthat helps bridge cultures.In 1931 a French actor's uniontold its membership, you cannot dubbecause it is beneath youand it is offensive to the original actor.I disagree.