In Poland, foreign films on television are almost always watched with a «lektor»: one male voice, always the same, reading every line on top of the original audio. Full dubbing exists, but mainly for children's films. It is a deep-rooted habit, but filmmakers and film clubs know that dubbing with one voice per character is a different experience. MovieCineLab does it automatically.
Listen: Charade in Polish
Three minutes of Charade (1963) dubbed into Polish, untouched: four characters, four voices.
Real lines, from English to Polish
| Character | Original (English) | Dubbed · Polish |
|---|---|---|
| Regina Lampert Charade (1963) | He's hiding something from me, Sylvie, something terrible, and it frightens me. | Coś przede mną ukrywa, Sylvie, coś strasznego, i to mnie przeraża. |
| Peter Joshua Charade (1963) | Do we know each other? | Znamy się? |
| Regina Lampert Charade (1963) | Why, do you think we're going to? | Poznamy się, myślisz? |
| Regina Lampert Charade (1963) | Until one of them dies, I couldn't possibly meet anyone else. | Dopóki ktoś z nich nie umrze, nie mogłabym poznać nikogo nowego. |
| Peter Joshua Charade (1963) | Shakespeare never said that. | Szekspir tego nie mówił. |
| Peter Joshua Charade (1963) | You just made it up. | Zmyśliłaś. |
| Johnny Night of the Living Dead (1968) | They're coming to get you, Barbara. | Idą po ciebie, Barbara. |
| Popeye Popeye: Assault and Flattery (1956) | Your Honor, I'm innocent. | Wysoki Sądzie, jestem niewinny. |
Lines exactly as they came out of the automatic dubbing of the example films, untouched.
Popeye's judge becomes «Wysoki Sądzie», the formula actually used to address the court in Poland, not a literal «Your Honor». And the translation accounts for what English leaves unsaid: in «Zmyśliłaś», «you made it up», the ending shows that Peter is speaking to a woman.
Native Polish voices
For Polish, the dubbing doesn't use the same voices as the other languages. It starts from native Polish voices, which read the lines with the right pronunciation, and then gives each one the timbre of the actor it replaces, taken from a few seconds of that actor's voice in the film. So the Polish sounds Polish, and every character stays recognisable.
What you get
- The film dubbed into Polish, in full, as MP4.
- Subtitles as SRT in the film's language and in Polish, included.
- The screenplay as PDF and Fountain, included with the dubbing. It is written in Italian, English, French, Spanish or German: not in Polish.
Who it's for
For filmmakers who want to replace the lektor on a classic with real dubbing. For Polish film clubs and schools. For learners of Polish who want to rewatch a familiar film with Polish subtitles.
What it costs
One minute from your pack for every minute of film: a 90-minute film dubbed into Polish uses 90 minutes. If the job fails, the minutes go back into your pack.
They don't expireYour minutes stay in your account until you use them.
10 free minutesWhen you sign up we dub 10 minutes of one of your films for free, in one language.
If a job failsThe minutes go back into your pack.
Other languages: Russian, Romanian, German. The method is explained on the multi-voice dubbing page.