Dubbed means the actors say the lines while watching the characters lips move. The Disney way is exactly the opposite. The animators animate while charting and studying the audio.
I wonder what kind of challenges this introduces to the production - like what are the pros and cons of each method?
I also wonder if 3d animation changes anything about this approach. I enjoy watching Japanese anime but 3d productions can be hard to watch with an English dub because it's very apparent that mouth movements don't match, whereas with more traditional 2d-style animation the mouth flaps match more easily in the mind. Video games made by Japanese studios for Japanese audiences can be particularly hard to watch with an English dub.
The Japanese way is faster and cheaper, which is important when you're on a tight schedule. Simple mouth animations are easier to draw. They also have the benefit of looking less jarring when dubbed multiple languages, which is important as a lot of Anime is just as popular outside Japan as within.
There is a middle ground, seen in 2D western animation made on a lower budget than your typical Disney fare. Artists will create a mouth chart which includes drawings for a wide range of English phonemes. They are then used as a guide for drawing. There are software tools that assist in this process, making it a lot easier to do in a short amount of time. This is probably how South Park manages to do real accurate lip syncing while working on a 6 day production cycle.
