versión original

When it comes to the cinematic arts, I am a self-proclaimed snob. And I don't mean in the "oh look at me. I wear all black and have funky eyeglasses and speak in monotone and only shop in organic grocery stores and only watch artsy films in independent film theaters " way. No, no, no. I'm way too much of a goof to get myself involved in that world. Plus, I thrive on celebrity gossip and I think that'd be way too mainstream for them.

The jist of it is just that I can't stand dubbed movies. With the exception of cartoons, watching an American movie dubbed into Spanish (or vice versa) is like putting yourself through a multilingual ventriloquism act in which the ventriloquist and his puppet friend never quite seem to be surfing on the same wave. A voiceless mouth moves and then a mouthless voice speaks, but they just can't ever seem to coincide. Everything is a half-beat off, the pubescent voice just doesn't match the beefy actor and, like fat kids at military boot camp, the jokes just don't quite make it over that tricky language barrier.

Needless to say, I insist on going to the theaters that show movies in "versión original," ie in their original language.

However, shouldn't I be more sympathetic to them? Is it hypocritical of me to reject dubbed movies so much if technically I am the personification of one? To the best of my mediocre abilities (I love self deprecation), I dub my words, my jokes and my mannerisms into Spanish, but in the end does my personality really make it across or do I just subconsciously create a new, slightly modified version of me?