Dale V. Fry Comparison-Intrerim Report IV: Revisions, retractions, conclusions

[Haggridd]

No: HPFGUIDX 20930

Well, I've finally finished the Fry reading of PoA, and I have come 
to reverse myself on some previous opinions.  I have come to like 
Fry's Hagrid much better.  His is equally as good as Dale's.  I also 
have changed my mind on Fry's Ron.  It has grown on me.  In general, 
I find that Fry succeeds better with human or part human beings.  
Dale draws his characters too broadly, and they become caricatures of 
whatever attribute Dale wants to emphasize.  Dale has the better 
trained voice, with more range of expression, but he uses it without 
restraint, and his Snape becomes a slavering fool, rather than the 
extremely intelligent and proud wizard that Fry makes him.  

There are two humans whose voice I find are better read by Dale, 
however:  Fudge, whom Dale gives a fussy, "sniffy" bureaucratic 
intonation that works well for me, and Lupin, who seems somehow more 
empathetic in the Dale rendering than that of Fry.  I also confess to 
liking Dale's Dumbledore.  Dale gives Albus his skewed sense of humor 
as JKR wrote it. Fry has much less range. Many of his characters 
sound alike, and if it weren't for context, I would confuse one with 
another. I would love to have him influence a second Dale reading to 
exercise some restraint. 

As for new characters introduced in PoA,  I love Fry's Sirius Black; 
while Peter Pettigrew is poorly read and too, too similar to other 
voices.  I also think that his voice breaks here unintentionally.

Because of Dale's greater range, I think that he succeeds better with 
the nonhuman beings:  the Centaurs, Aragog, Dobby, Winky.  I look 
forward to comparing Fry's Mme. Maxime to Dale's.  Also the other 
foreign accents:  Fleur, Karkaroff, Krum, and Moody. *grin*

I would also like to commend Fry for pronouncing "animagus" with a 
hard "g".  I can only surmise that Dale's editors told him to 
mispronounce it in order not to confuse American readers because of 
the soft "g" (correct, this time) in the plural, "animagi".  

I must take issue with Fry for the sound effects.  His use of echo 
for the Howlers works well, but he also used it for all of Harry's 
dreams and for the fears engendered by the Dementors, where I do not 
like its use.  Less would be more.  

One thing that I have not encountered is an occasion where a reading 
from either man has changed my understanding of the meaning of the 
story.  I mention this because I remember a thread about Crouch which 
asserts this-- I cannot wait until GoF.  I have said before that I 
really like Dale's Winky, and his reading clarified much of the plot 
for me, but it didn't change what I thought was happening or what 
portended.

We shall see.  We shall see.

Haggridd