why are disney movies dubbed in both LA and Spain Spanish if they're mutually understandable? They don't dub movies into British or Australian English. . .?
Because English between English-speaking countries is not as radically different as it is between Spanish-speaking countries.
First, Spain tends to use vosotros which isn’t common at all in Latin America.
Second, the use of regionalisms would make a universal dub very difficult. For instance, Spain uses the verb coger for “to grab” or “to take” or “to catch”. In Latin America, coger is a vulgar way of saying “to have sex”. There are other regionalisms and regional accents that make it harder to have a universal dub.
That being said, a movie made in Spain is not “re-dubbed” in Mexican Spanish when it comes over, and the same is true in reverse. Spanish-speaking audiences just notice that there’s an accent from wherever the movie is made / whatever dialect the actors are speaking in.
Third, Spain and Latin America operate on different levels of translation and dubbing. A movie made in the U.S. like a Disney movie that will reach MANY children is dubbed in both languages to make sure that they’re suitable for the audience.
But it’s more common for a show more famous in the UK to be dubbed into Spain’s Spanish, while shows made in the U.S. typically receive a Latin American (usually Mexican) dub. That’s a question of marketing.
So for instance Downton Abbey’s Spanish dub is in Spain’s dub, while a show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer will likely have a Latin American dub. Regionally, there might be a Spain-version of a U.S. show but a U.S. DVD typically operates with a Latin American dub because of marketing reasons.
On a U.S. DVD you’re more likely to find an English dub, the Latin American dub, and maybe a French dub which is probably Canadian instead of France’s French… though Canadian French and France’s French aren’t as wildly different as Spanish-speaking countries in terms of vocab.
This is all assuming that the actors themselves aren’t doing the dub.
So for instance… Gwyneth Paltrow, or Viggo Mortensen, or Antonio Banderas, who speak Spanish fluently, might request to do their own dubbing so that the languages match.
But the most common thing that’ll happen is what happens with Antonio Banderas.
Since he’s multilingual he dubs things in Latin American Spanish, Spain’s Spanish, Italian, and Catalan.
Because there are marketing teams all over the world, people have to do various dubs.
That’s actually very common; Jodi Foster has done French dubs of her roles, Sandra Bullock has done German dubs of herself. Jackie Chan often does his roles in English, Mandarin, and also Cantonese.
But sometimes that’s not the case. Like Phil Collins did the songs for Tarzan in lots of different languages, but I believe the Spanish songs are the same in both dubs when he does them.
I think if I had to guess, it would be because U.S. media is so prevalent in terms of movies that the UK and Australia don’t have a hard time understanding them, and vice versa.
The U.S. also has friendlier relations with the UK (and also Australia) than most Latin American countries and Spain.
But it isn’t just Spanish.
Portuguese typically is divided into European Portuguese (Portugal) and Brazilian Portuguese.
French is sometimes Canadian French and France’s French.
Chinese is Mandarin and Cantonese.
The most common complaint of Arabic dubs of things is that they’re frequently in Egypt’s dialect and no other.
Other languages like Italian, German, or Russian don’t have the same kind of… diaspora in terms of languages and dialectic offshoots all over the world, so they typically only get one dub for all.
Usually it’s just marketing and understanding how diverse the intended audience is, or breaking it down by region.
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