The Simpsons has been broadcast in the United States since 1987 on FOX. In other countries, the TV show also started to be broadcast few times later 1987, either in its original version or in a dubbed version.

In addition to these non-English versions, The Simpsons Movie has also been dubbed in languages for which there is no TV series dubbed version. This is a list over the voice cast of all the different languages.

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By Language

Languages listed here are those broadcast by television channels of different countries





Arabic

The show was first broadcast in the area in its original language with Arabic subtitles on networks like Showtime Arabia and Dubai's One TV, where it received a following in the area.

The show was finally given an Arabic translation in September 2005, under a title that transliterates as "Al-Shamshoon" (In Arabic, الشمشون) In addition to being dubbed in Arabic (with subtitles provided for shots including written English, such as the chalkboards), references to alcohol (Duff Beer & Moe's Tavern), pork (bacon & hot dogs), and numerous other themes have been deleted or significantly modified. For instance, Homer drinks soda-pop instead of beer and eats beef sausages as opposed to pork and all references to Moe's Tavern were cut.[1] The characters were also given typical Arabic names such as Omar, Mona and Abar for Homer, Marge and Bart respectively as part of the retooling, while voices were provided by leading actors including Egyptian film star Mohamed Heneidi as "Omar", and their hometown "Springfield" was called "Rabeea" (Arabic for Spring) and made it look like an American town with a major Arab population. Another major modification was that the Simpsons attended mosque instead of church to reflect an Islamic theme of the show. The series did not fare very well in the Middle East nations and only 34 of the 52 adapted episodes aired.[2]

A subtitled version is broadcasted on the Fox Series middle-east network, but is slightly edited.

Catalan

The show was aired in Catalan by La 2, which was the first station that aired it in the whole Spain. It was an alternate track for the Catalan-speaking areas of Spain as opposed to the nationally distributed Spanish dub. However, less than a season was aired and it soon changed to the Spanish dub. No further episodes have been broadcasted in Catalan.

Dutch

The TV show is currently broadcast by Comedy Central, undubbed with subtitles, which is usual for foreign language TV shows and movies in The Netherlands. Accompanying the original movie version however, was a localised version in Dutch. Another version was recorded for Belgium, featuring Flemish actors. Names of the characters remain unchanged.

The Netherlands

The Dutch movie voice actors are:

Character Voice actors Homer Simpson Reinder van der Naalt Marge Simpson Ellen Egan Bart Simpson Sampson Ejau Lisa Simpson Brittany Elle Otto Mann, Waylon Smithers Fred Mejier-Lea

Belgium

The Flemish movie voice actors are:

Character Voice actors Homer Simpson Chris Van den Durpel Marge Simpson Tania Van der Sanden Bart Simpson Vicky Florus Lisa Simpson Mieke Laureys

French

The Simpsons has been dubbed into the French language twice, once in the Canadian province of Quebec and again in France. In both versions, the show is named Les Simpson, as last names are not pluralized in French. Matt Groening has stated that both Quebec and French versions of the series were the best translations of the show in another language in the world. The French audio on the Region 1 DVDs is the Quebec dub.

It is one of only a handful of American television shows that have wholly separate versions in Quebec and France, and a number of studies have been made comparing them. In France, all of the characters speak standard French with a strong Parisian accent, with the exception of the ethnic minorities: Apu is given the Portuguese accent common to French shop keepers while Carl, who has no accent in the American version, also speaks inflected French. Kirk Van Houten is given a stereotypical Belgian accent.[3]

In the Quebec version, only the town elite, such as Principal Skinner and Reverend Lovejoy, speak international French. The Simpson family and most of the townsfolk speak Quebec French with strong Québécois accents. Also in the Quebec version, the ethnic minorities also have accents. Apu speaks in a creole while Carl has the accent of a Black immigrant from Africa or the Caribbean.[4]

Local idioms are occasionally adopted in place of direct translation. American cultural and political jokes are occasionally replaced with local references. For instance, a reference to Newt Gingrich in Quebec is generally replaced with one to Mike Harris. Most of the recurring characters keep their English names in each French version. Two exceptions are Sideshow Bob and Sideshow Mel, who are known as Tahiti Bob and Tahiti Mel in France, as the word sideshow has no direct translation. In Quebec, the title sideshow is kept as an Anglicism. Another exception is made for Simpsons family's dog, Santa's Little Helper, who is called "Le p'tit renne au nez rouge" (Little Red-Nosed Reindeer) in the Quebec version and "Petit Papa Noël" (Little Santa) in the French one.

The episodes are dubbed by a team of voice actors, similar to the one that does the original. The team does about two episodes per day. In general these voice actors also do the characters who were voiced by celebrities in the American version. In the French version, on occasion, official dubbers are brought in. For instance for the episode where Mulder and Scully from the X-Files appear the voice actors who do their voices on the French version of the X-Files guest starred.

The animation of the show is not changed, and what is in writing in English appears in English, subtitled in French, in the two French versions. One important exception is the Chalkboard gag at the beginning of each episode. The Quebec and France versions share these French language chalkboard scenes.

In July 2007, Matt Groening said in an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that the actor (Phillippe Peythieu) who does the voice of France French Homer says "Toe!" instead of Homer's trademark "D'oh!". This comes from the actor misreading the line the first time he did Homer's voice and has been that way ever since.

Phillippe Peythieu, the France French voice of Homer, and Véronique Augereau, the France French voice of Marge, first met on the dubbing of the series and are now married, just like their animated counterparts. On April 8, 2007, Peythieu and Augereau hosted "in character" a special prime-time compilation of their favorite Simpsons episodes on French cable channel W9.[5]

Although the location and setting of the show are not changed in the Quebec dub (still takes place in the United States), many references to the characters watching American TV shows, movies, etc. are changed to references to Québécois ones (the same is done in the Quebec dub of King of the Hill, done by the same company). For example, a reference to Homer watching CSI: Miami in the original was changed to Fortier, a similar Québécois show. Although these changed references would be familiar to the French-Canadian viewer, in real life these would be awkward because almost all Québécois media is unknown in the United States. In addition, most instances of the word "English" are changed to "French". Due to this, in one episode where Homer visits Canada, the roles of anglophones and francophones are completely reversed, resulting in a stereotypical English Canadian speaking French and a stereotypical French Canadian speaking English.

Most Québécois who know about the France version are not too fond of it; the humor is completely different. The same goes with the Québécois version, when heard by French people, though. Télétoon, which broadcasts the Quebec Simpsons dub, also once broadcasted France dubs of Futurama (also created by Matt Groening) and Family Guy, two shows similar to The Simpsons whose French dubs were also similar to The Simpsons' Parisian dub. Although The Simpsons has been on Télétoon long before the other two shows, Futurama is no longer shown on the network, while The Simpsons continues to be aired and recent seasons of Family Guy are broadcasted with French Canadian dubbing . Although this could have been done because there were no more French episodes of Futurama and Family Guy to air (reruns were repeatedly aired), it could as well have been because of a lack of popularity- Télétoon airs many other shows that only repeatedly show reruns.

The French version of the show currently airs on W9 and Canal+, and the French version used to air on France 3 and M6.

Catchphrases

In the France version of the show, many catchphrases are also translated: Homer's "D'oh" becomes "T'oh", Bart's "Eat my shorts" becomes "Va te faire shampouiner" ("Go shampoo yourself", similar to "go to hell"). When Homer tries to throttle Bart, his phrase "Why you little!" becomes "espèce de sale petit...", literally "Kind of dirty lil'...!".

In the Quebec version of the show, "D'oh!" stays "D'oh!", Bart's "Eat my shorts" becomes "Mange de la crotte" (we could translate it by "Eat some shit" but in a censored way), Bart's "I didn't do it!" becomes "J'ai rien fait". When Homer tries to throttle Bart, he says "Oh, Mon p'tit verrat!" (a Quebec expression) instead of "Why you little!".

France

The French voice actors are:

The dialogue is adapted by Juliette Vigouroux and Alain Cassard until season 19, the dialogue was done by Regine Teyssot now.

Artistic direction by Christian Dura

There are two important changes in the French dub of the show. The first change being the departure of Patrick Guillemin at the end of Season 9, and now the French adapters and Michel Modo (who died recently) during season 19. The presence of Gerard Rinaldi is not ensured yet for the upcoming seasons.

Quebec

The Quebec voices are:

It is adapted by Benoit Rousseau with the help of Johanne Léveillée .

The speech of Homer, Lenny, Carl, and other lower-class characters in the Quebec version occasionally resembles joual, the working-class speech.

German

The Simpsons has been dubbed into one single German language and are broadcasted by ProSieben in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (formerly on ZDF), and ORF eins in Austria (formerly on ProSieben). The show is named Die Simpsons and the episodes appear uncut and dubbed, with written or sung English subtitled in German.

The animation of the show is not changed. In the Chalkboard gag, Bart reads the phrase translated. The dub does have their own title screen, however (which says "Die Simpsons" in the yellow letters with a different sky background, and just before the camera zooms through the "P", it fades into the rest of the intro).

Homer's alveolar catch phrase "D'oh!" has been translated to "Nein!" (meaning "No!") rather than leaving it as the meaningless interjection that is his annoyed grunt.

Characters

Nearly all of the characters carry their American names; there are only just a few characters which are translated, especially animals. For example, Reverend Lovejoy is still Reverend Lovejoy. Lovejoy's name seems to be the single one ever (partially) translated into German for some episodes ("Reverend Gottlieb"). Gottlieb is a real German first name - albeit outdated - meaning "to love God". In the earlier episodes, Homer is called 'Humor', because the German translators didn't know how to spell it.

Translated characters:

Sideshow Bob: Tingeltangel Bob, Sideshow Bob

In prior episodes solely translated as Tingeltangel Bob, afterwards taken over the original.

Reverend Lovejoy: Reverend Gottlieb, Reverend Lovejoy

Reverend Gottlieb was only used a very few times, afterwards generally the original.

Üter: Üter

In the German version he's always a stereotypical Swiss, because they wouldn't make fun of themselves.

The German voice actors are:

Link with photos and sound samples:

Portuguese

Brazilian version

In Brazil, the show is known as Os Simpsons, and currently airs only on Fox Channel (formerly on SBT, Rede Globo, and Rede Bandeirantes).

The Brazilian voice actors are:

Characters Voice actors Homer Simpson Waldyr Sant'anna † (season 1-8, season 15-18) Julio César Barreiros † (season 8-14) Carlos Alberto (season 18-) Marge Simpson Selma Lopes (season 1-8, season 13-24, season 26-) Mariangela Cantú (season 8-9, season 24-26) Nelly Amaral (season 9-13) Myriam Thereza (S22EP1 only) Bart Simpson Peterson Adriano (season 1-8) Rodrigo Antas (season 8-) Lisa Simpson Nair Amorim (season 1-8) Priscila Amorim (season 1-13) Flávia Saddy (season 14-)

Link for the voice actors full list

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_dubladores_brasileiros_de_Os_Simpsons

Portugal

In Portugal, the series itself is not dubbed, and currently airs on RTP. The Simpsons Movie, however, did receive a dubbed version, in which José Jorge Duarte, Cláudia Cadima, Carla de Sá, and Manuela Couto provide the voice of Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa, respectively.

Spanish

The Simpsons is also being dubbed into the Spanish language twice, once in Latin America and again in Spain. In both versions, the show is named Los Simpson, as last names are not pluralized in Spanish.

Between the two versions, there are many differences. In Latin America, Homer is translated as Homero, but in Spain, it isn't translated. Other translations in Latin America but not in Spain are: Barney Gumble as Barney Gómez, Clancy Wiggum as Jefe Gorgory, Ralph Wiggum as Ralph/Rafa Gorgory, Reverend Lovejoy as Reverendo Alegría, Sideshow Bob as Bob Patiño and Mayor "Diamond" Joe Quimby as Alcalde Diamante. Itchy and Scratchy are translated in the two versions: Tommy y Daly (roughly "Takey" and "Givey") for Latin America, and Rasca y Pica ("It itches" and "it scratches") for Spain.

The animation of the show is not changed, and what is written in English appears in English in the Spanish versions. In the Chalkboard gag, we hear Bart reading the phrase translated. After the introduction, in the Latin American version, we hear the name of the episode, while in the Spanish version, it appears subtitled when the episode starts. The region 1 DVDs (beginning with season 3) include the Latin American audio.

Latin American Version

The Latin American Version is dubbed in Mexico by Audiomaster 3000 (seasons 1-14) and New Art Dub (season 15, onwards). The DVD commentary for Season 3's like Father, Like Clown states that writer Wallace Wolodarsky went to several countries, including Mexico and Germany, to cast the foreign versions. The most memorable cast dubbed from seasons 1 through 9 and was:

During Season 9, Huerta quit playing Bart for not being well paid by the company, and was replaced by Claudia Motta. Before Season 16, the main cast had a legal issue with Grabaciones y Doblajes (now known as New Art Dub), because it wanted the actors to be in the National Actors Association of Mexico, and they were not in that association, so as a result, the whole cast was fired. Beginning with Season 16, they were replaced by new actors (in fact, they "copied" the old actors' character voices so the change is not so drastic for the viewers), Huerta returned to do Bart's voice and replaced Nancy McKenzie to make Marge's voice.

Spanish Version

The principal cast is the following:[6]

Many fans of the series and the rest of the Spanish cast were very sad after the death of Carlos Revilla due to his excellent work, and Antena 3 had to find a substitute for Revilla's voice (as opposed to Dan Castellaneta's).[7]

Carlos Revilla also dubbed the appearance of KITT in The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace, like he did in Knight Rider. There are other characters that conserve their frequent voice in Spain: like Mulder and Scully from the X-Files (Lorenzo Beteta and Laura Palacios), or Sideshow Bob and his brother Cecil. They are dubbed by the same actors who dub Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce in Frasier (Antonio Esquivias and José Padilla)

The Spanish version of the Simpsons also distinguishes itself by using more literal translations of what the characters are saying. The Spanish translation would most likely seem very salacious to a Latin American audience, and vice versa.

Another large difference between the two versions is that in the Spanish version, the guest stars are mostly of the time voiced by that actor's particular Spanish voice counterpart. Some songs are not translated , while others are (i.e. "See My Vest " or "Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?"). (All the songs from "All Singing, All Dancing" are dubbed even the ones that weren't dub for the episode itself, such as "We Do").

In 2000, the Spaniard version was awarded the Best Simpsons Dub in Europe by FOX.[8]

Los Simpson currently airs on Neox, and it used to air on Canal+ and Televisión Española. It was on Antena 3 from 1994 until 2018[9].

Lithuanian

The Lithuanian version of the Simpsons is known as Simpsonai. It currently airs on TV6, and used to air on TV3 Lithuania. The Simpsons Movie is also dubbed.

The voice actors in the movie:

Translated character names:

By country

Countries listed here are those broadcasting the original version or those whose dubbed version is broadcast in only one country





China

In 2006, The Simpsons, along with other shows such as Pokemon and Mickey Mouse cartoons, were barred from being aired during primetime (5:00 to 8:00 PM) in China. This was done so that Chinese cartoons, which were having a hard time competing with foreign cartoons, would gain more viewers. The government had previously tried several things, such as ordering that networks cut down on the number of foreign animated series being aired in 2000 and in 2004, passed a rule that would ensure that 60 percent of cartoon content came from Chinese studios.[10] The move was heavily criticized by Chinese media.[11]

The show is known as 辛普森一家 (Xīnpǔsēn yījiā), and currently airs in Hong Kong on Xing Kong.

Bulgaria

In mid September 2005, Bulgarian-dubbed versions of the first four seasons of The Simpsons started airing on the Bulgarian branch of the cable television FOX Life. The show was named "Семейство Симпсън" (literally "Simpson Family"). There were rarely any mistranslations in the scripts, only the untranslatable word puns were changed to such in Bulgarian, albeit not nearly as creative as the originals. The dubbing, much like everything else dubbed for Bulgarian television, was crude and the original voices could be heard in the background.

In mid 2006, dubbed versions of seasons 5 through 7 started running on the Bulgarian FOX Life after numerous reruns of the previous seasons. The dub quality was a little lower than the one of the first four seasons and almost the entire voice cast had been replaced. Minor mistranslations occurred from time to time, but they were not anything significant.

In early May 2007, dubbed versions of the 8th and 9th season started airing on the Bulgarian FOX Life with the same voice cast as in the previous three seasons. The quality of the dub had, however, greatly declined. The voice direction had become very poor and all the lines were read in pretty much the same fashion; the secondary characters' voices were very inconsistent; the scripts were poorly translated and most of the spoken humor was lost (not only the untranslatable word puns).

In late September 2007, a dubbed version of the 10th season started running on the Bulgarian FOX Life. The dub quality was as worse as the previous two seasons.

Chile

In Chile, The Simpsons is in Spanish, and is broadcasted on Canal 13's children's block, CuBox.

Colombia

In Colombia, The Simpsons was in Spanish, and used to be broadcasted on Canal Uno, Caracol Televisión, and Produccciones Cinevisión.

Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, The Simpsons is in Spanish, and is broadcasted on Repretel.

Czech Republic

The Simpsons has been dubbed into the Czech language and the show is named Simpsonovi. Directed by Zdeněk Štěpán. The movie is named Simpsonovi ve filmu, meaning "The Simpsons in the movie". Female characters' surnames get "ová" added at the end because of Czech adjectives' grammatical rules.

Simpsonovi is currently broadcasted on Prima Cool (formerly on ČT1 and ČT2).

The Czech voice actors are:

Translated character names:

Finland

In Finland, the actual series is subtitled, but The Simpsons Movie was released both dubbed and subtitled. The show is named Simpsonit, and currently airs on Sub (formerly on MTV3).

The Finnish voice actors of The Simpsons Movie are:

Translated character names:

Stampy: Tallari

Hungary

The Simpsons has been dubbed into the Hungarian language and the show is named A Simpson család. József Székhelyi's portrayal of Homer Simpson was so famously iconic in Hungary, that there had been an outrage after he was replaced for only one episode in Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife due to scheduling conflicts. After the passing of Székhelyi the series was put on a hiatus during Season 29, the last episode featuring Székhelyi's voice being Fears of a Clown. In October, 2018 - after a half-year hiatus - it was announced that the series would continue with János Háda replacing Székhelyi as Homer, and Tamás Markovics replacing Balázs Simonyi as the voice of Bart. Simonyi decided to leave because of Székhelyi's recent decease.

The Hungarian voice actors are:

Translated character names:

Italy

The Simpsons has been dubbed in Italian since the very beginning of the broadcasting by Italia 1, as subtitled shows are not common in Italy. The show is named I Simpson, as last names are not pluralized in Italian. The animation of the show is changed, however; whenever something written in English appears on screen, the Italian version superimposes the translated phrase. For example, in the Chalkboard gag, Bart reads the phrase translated but the blackboard itself still shows the English words.

Characters

Main characters carry their American names; many of the side characters, however, have their names translated:

Santa's Little Helper: Piccolo aiutante di Babbo Natale

Snowball: Palla di neve

Moe Szyslak: Boe Szyslak (his tavern's sign Moe has always superimposed Boe )

has always superimposed ) Fat Tony: Tony Ciccione

Clancy Wiggum: Clancy Winchester (in just one episode, Homer alone , his last name is left Wiggum)

, his last name is left Wiggum) Edna Krabappel: Edna Caprapall

"Bleeding gums" Murphy: "Gengive sanguinanti" Murphy

Itchy and Scratchy: Grattachecca e Fichetto (in one episode they are translated as Grattino e Pruritino)

Hans Moleman: Hans Uomo Talpa

Otto Mann: Otto Disc

Sideshow Bob (Mel): Telespalla Bob (Mel)

Jimbo, Kearney, Dolph: Secco, Patata, Spada (literal translations: Slim, Potato, Sword)

Many characters are dubbed with strong local accents: Wiggum, Lou, Nick Riviera and Marvin Monroe talk like men from Naples, Eddie talks like someone from Bari, Carl talks with a Venice accent, Reverend Lovejoy is a Calabrian, Snake Jailbird and Lionel Hutz speak with a Roman accent, Otto Mann talks Milanese, Fat Tony is obviously a Sicilian, and Willie is a Sardinian.

The Italian voices:

Catchphrases

Many catchphrases are also translated: while Homer's "D'oh" remains the same in Italian, Bart's "Ay caramba" becomes "E che cacchio" (meaning "What the hell", where "cacchio" is actually an euphemism for "penis") and "Eat my shorts" becomes "Ciucciati il calzino" (lit. "Suck your sock").

When Homer tries to throttle Bart, his phrase "Why you little!" becomes "Brutto bacarospo!" (literally: You ugly toadroach!). "Brutto" means "ugly", while "bacarospo" (literally: Toadroach) is a non-existent word, a portmanteau of "bacarozzo", which is a Romanesco word for "scarafaggio" (Eng: "cockroach") and Italian "rospo" which means "toad" and Homer's "Woohoo!" becomes "Mitico!". Homer's laugh is translated as "Deh-hee-hee-ho"

Japan

In Japan, The Simpsons has been dubbed into Japanese and were first broadcasted by WOWOW since September 19, 1992 until 2002 (season 1 - 12), and later on the Fox Channel (season 13 - 14) until 2007. The show is broadcast on Fox Sports and Entertainment in English with Japanese subtitles from 2008 (season 15 -) onwards.

Recurring characters

Guest stars

Poland

Although in Poland, The Simpsons (Simpsonowie) were lectored (by Janusz Szydłowski in Canal+) and dubbed (only in a version for PULS television), the movie was dubbed in Polish (as Simpsonowie: Wersja Kinowa).

The Polish voice actors of the movie are:

Translated character names:

Sweden

When TV3 started broadcasting The Simpsons, the show was not dubbed. However, in 1993, the network decided to start dubbing The Simpsons and moved the show to a more child friendly time at 6:00 p.m. After a public outrage, the dubbing was dropped after only six episodes and the show was moved to a more adult time.[12] Bart was voiced by Annica Smedius and Homer by Per Sandborgh.[1] A dub of the movie was released with the The Simpsons Movie DVD.[13]

In Sweden, the show is just known as "Simpsons", and currently airs on TV6 (formerly on TV3, TV4, and ZTV).

Ukraine

In Ukraine, The Simpsons is known as Сімпсони (Simpsony) and has been broadcasted by M1 dubbed in Ukrainian since 2004. Dubbing and the translations are mostly liked by the Ukrainian public.

The Ukrainian voice actors are: