Kooky: Sverak & Dvorský Film Now In English
You may remember that back in April Alec brought us news of a film - now named just Kooky - featuring the work of Amanita Design's Jakub Dvorský. The Czech film, from Oscar winning director Jan Sverak, looked unbelievably gorgeous in its trailer, but of course a little linguistically impenetrable by those not of Czech descent. The film, which isn't a game but we don't care because Dvorský is involved, has now received a dubbing into English.
But before you scream out, "But subtitles are better than dubbing!", Sverak explains that "Kooky is too packed with visuals for these to work." There's a few more details, and the freshly dubbed trailer below. And gosh, who is that providing the trailer narration? It's only Jeremy Irons.
Being mostly animation, dubbing isn't nearly the offensive crime it might usually be when we watch everyone's mouths moving in all the wrong directions. (French and German readers, how on Earth do you cope with all the dubbing your US TV shows receive? That's not Gregory House's voice! That's not what Marge Simpson sounds like!) It also is a dubbing that's been supervised by the director, and splendidly uses Czech actors to maintain the film's atmosphere. Sverak explains,
"I supervised the dub myself working with some of the actors from the Czech version of the film. But this time they speak in English -- or do their best to. I decided to use Czech actors, with their heavy Central European accents, to retain the film's authenticity and its connection with the fantasy world we created in the Bohemian forests."
Dvorský's design is clear throughout to anyone who's played Samorost or Machinarium. Just take a look:
The film will be available for distributors to acquire at the Berlin Film Festival, which is taking place now. Hopefully we'll be able to watch the full thing very soon.
Huge thanks to Phill for the tip. And now: back to games.