Pumpkins & dubbed voices

[spaebrun]

Hi!

As it seems the time of the lurkers speaking up, I thought I'd throw in a few remarks as 
well.

For the record, I liked the movie, despite some complaints (all of which have already been 
addressed and discussed here) and I liked it better the second time I watched it, like 
several people here did.
In my case the reason for this (except for the big got-over-all-the-changes-and-just-
watched-what-they-did issue) was also that I watched it in German the first time and in 
English the second time. I had a striking experience there I just have to share:

I didn't plan to watch the movie in the dubbed version in the first place, but the original 
version wasn't showing in my town (really quite a shock, as I'm not really living in cultural 
backwater) and as some friends decided to go 2 days after the movie was released, I just 
*had* to join them ;-) Well, it was fair enough (though I missed Alan Rickman's voice, of 
course! You just can't copy that sound.), but I was severely disappointed by Professor 
Trelawney. I found her entrance scene quite silly, like from some over the top slapstick 
comedy. When I later read the reviews all praising Emma Thompson, I just kept wondering 
about people's taste - until I finally herded some different (more purist ;-)) friends and 
travelled to the next town for a viewing of the original version. And there I suddenly really 
enjoyed that scene. It was *funny*! It was Trelawney like I imagined her! I'd never thought 
that a voice could make such a difference, but it did. For me, it changed the entire feel of 
the scene. 
So all you Germans out there, go watch the original, it's worth it. And all you others 
beware of dubbed films in general  (though I think other nations are not quite as big 
dubbers as the Germans - thank God!)

One other remark: Has anyone wondered about the pumpkins in the final scenes? These 
scenes are supposed to take place in June, right?  Isn't that a bit early for pumpkins? I 
thought they were harvested in fall. They look really cool in the scene and it didn't really 
bother me much, but it made me wonder...

Reed