Today, the American Library Association announced their winners for the year’s top books, videos and audiobooks for children and young adults. In the first ever Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production, the audiobook of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows narrated by Jim Dale was named an honor title, with the winning title going to Jazz. The US audiobooks of the Harry Potter series are produced by Listening Library, and you can hear excerpts of all seven of the narrations by Jim Dale via this link.
WOW i must say congratz Jim, you earned it, i must say i never listen to something so amazing the way you play each person is great, i would never be able to read HP without you great help yeah great men Jim dale..
IDK, I never really liked the way he read the books. Maybe I just don’t like being read to but sometimes he was good, other times he kind of annoyed me. I’m glad that the potter series was honored though.
Like the rest of the world, Jim Dale’s reading is a mystery to us in the UK where we have, thankfully for textual reasons, the peerless Stephen Fry. So I thought I would give the US reader a chance when I was recently on holiday over there.
Well it is certainly very different to the Fry versions and Mr Dale does not do the voices anywhere near as well as Mr Fry who has the rather priceless advantage of having the author in the studio with him. But I still enjoyed his reading of “Deathly Hallows” and to my surprise found it beneficial to have heard two versions. He has a nice tempo (albeit a bit too one paced) and is good at the action sequences.
I find it strange that Jim Dale’s legacy in US is the voice of Harry Potter books where as here in UK, he is the legendary star of many Carry on Films in the 60s and hilarious he was too. We have the great Stephen Fry as the voice of Harry Potter and i find it a shame that US listeners do not get to hear him. Fry is as close to hearing God as you can get. Jim Dale is rather too frenetic in his reading for my liking whereas Fry is music to the ears. But it is still wonderful that Jim Dale is honoured.
Posted by Professor Potter on January 15, 2008, 06:16 AM
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Prof Potter – Yes – it has never been explained to me just how and why the US missed out on Stephen Fry. I have always assumed it was down to the textual changes but surely that could be easily arranged. I do not want to be overly critical on the subject of Jim Dale as our American friends (rightly in my view) are very sensitive to being patronised by us smug Brits, but they do seem to have got a raw deal in this respect. Jim speeds through the passages at breakneck speed and when he does attempt to use character voices…well, lets just say, he is no Stephen Fry ! Stephen’s Dumbledore is so definitive that he leaps out of one’s IPOD at regular interval.
We in Britain should never forget however, that if it were not for Amercian money and enthusiasm and yes, creativity, we would never have had the films which so well compliment Jo’s books. Now if only someone would shake Warner’s trees and tell them to release extended DVDs, I would be happy !
sorry to say but Dale sucks. Ever hear his Tonks voice? That explains it all. A mid-twenties woman really shouldn’t sound like that or I’d be concerned.
I love HP Audio Books!!! Jim Dale’s voice’s are wonderful, they really are relaxing and enjoyable. Does any one know when Deathly Hallows will be on iTunes? The wait is killing me. I have it on CD but I want to complete my iTunes collection!!!!
"Harry, I've left a letter telling your aunt and uncle not to worry --"[br]"They won't," said Harry.[br]"That you're safe --"[br]"That'll just depress them."[br]"--and you'll see them next summer."[br]"Do I have to?"[br]Lupin smiled but made no answer.
Good for the publishers and Jim Dale! I sure enjoy listening to these books on audio. Bloody ‘ell!