I do mean stuff like removed scenes from international airings, replacing objects like cigarettes or vine with any other objects.
When Sailor Moon was airing on American TV back in the late 90’s, they completely censored out every aspect of romantic relationship between Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus. Turned them into cousins.
It was a shock to me when I bought the subtitled version and they were suddenly lesbians.
That’s so disappointing. To me, Sailor Moon is the OG all inclusive series. (It was my very favorite show ever as a kid and probably still is.) I kinda love how they didn’t make a big deal out of it. The star sailors change sex when they transform and it’s not even talked about. It just is how it is and nobody wonders about it. Neptune and Uranus having the hots for each other is portrayed as any other romance is and iirc no character ever addresses the “taboo” of it. Even the alien incest is somehow fine (I mean they are aliens and extinct so they do them).
I understand the LGBTQ+'s struggle for representation and acceptance, so probably they do need somewhat of an over accentuated representation on screen to eventually reach full acceptance. But Sailor Moon seems to be what comes “after” this, just normalization without it ever being a question. All the while sparking an interest in astronomy in kids who then know all the names of the dwarf planets in our solar system before they know the multiplication table.
Man I can’t wait till my kid reaches Sailor Moon watching age.
I hope your kids like it.
It has always seemed to me that my kids have gone out of their way to avoid liking anything I like. That’s fine, but I never could relate to them.
I adopted my son so it was different with him. We did everything together and he was happy to look into my interests sometimes. He and I played world of Warcraft together for a decade and I’d cut off a couple toes to go back and have that with him again.
Thanks, I hope so too. For now she’s very much into girls as main characters so maybe I’ll get lucky with the series.
I once heard that a teenager will act very similarly to how they acted at 3 years old. Extrapolating from that (my child is 3.5) it’s very likely that she will also not like anything I like or listen to anything I say. When she has the choice between A and B she suggests C. Her answer to the Sally-Anne test is wild. I’m pretty sure she’ll keep destroying metaphorical boxes or playing Schrödinger’s cat instead of just thinking inside or outside the box.
I also always dreamt of having music playing in the background and dancing to it. She hates recorded music. She likes singing and me/others singing (sometimes) but God beware I turn on a CD.
Also, time to call your son and invite him over for a WoW weekend I guess.
When I was a teenager, I bought a DVD that had a few Sailor Moon episodes that I had never seen before (being from the U.S.) In these episodes, Makoto (or “Lita” AKA Sailor Jupiter) develops a crush on Haruka (or “Amara” AKA Sailor Uranus) and has to cope with her being unattainable. The DVD included both an English dub and the original Japanese with English subtitles.
In the original Japanese version, the crush is treated as romantic in nature, with Makoto’s friends telling her that Haruka already has “a girlfriend” (Michiru AKA “Michelle” AKA Sailor Neptune.) In the English dub, Makoto wants Haruka to be her “best friend,” with the rest of the Sailor Scouts telling her that Haruka already has “a best friend.”
The visuals all stay the same, complete with roses and Makoto’s starry love-eyes. The romantic implications are so obvious it’s painful.
In France, advertising alcohool brands on TV is heavily restricted. It wasn’t a problem in the Simpsons since Duff was not a real brand of beer.
When Duff became a real brand, French TV had to blur every Duff logo and beep out every “Duff” pronounced on screen. Some episodes became unwatchable, Duffman became beepman, every beer became blurry…
Duffman became beepman, every beer became blurry…
Considering Duffman’s signature hip movements and the funky Ohhh yeaaah~ music that always plays whenever he arrives, someone who doesn’t know Duff is supposed to be a beer might get a very wrong idea about his job.
<bleep>-man, can’t breathe! Ohh no!
Clearly needs more state regulations. People can’t be trusted to know what they want to watch and see with their eyes
Idk man France seems to be doing better than us these days I wouldn’t knock em too hard
Yes, alcoholism isn’t real and if it were we shouldn’t make it easier for people who try to quit.
Nobody said that. Also shouldn’t it be up to the recovering alcoholic to not watch tv shows that often depict heavy drinking if that bothers them? Nobody is forcing alcoholics to watch The Simpsons.
As I understand it the ban in France seems to specifically target real brands. So you can still show people drinking but you’re not allowed to show the logo of e.g. Heineken.
Is this a good regulation? I don’t know, but it might not be as arbitrary as the other comment suggested.
The Welsh rugby team were at one point sponsored by a Cardiff brewery called “Brains” and when they played over in Paris the sponsors name was rendered as “Brawn”.
Also the cigarette brand “Benson and Hedges” were branded “Buzzing Hornets” when their F1 team were racing in countries that had already banned tobacco sponsorship.
The Invincible TV series is quite gory. Blood gets censored to be white in China which makes for some interesting scenes of hands dripping with white stuff. Or this:
c u m
Furry cum. Bravo China, you’ve fixed it!
it’s ok, because now everyone is having a good time!
Jesus they have their work cut out for them with that show lol. After a while, what’s the point. Also, isn’t anime just as bad or worse…
Anime as the west knows it primarily comes from Japan, not China.
*there are animated shows that come from China, but if there’s a popular anime with blood its probably Japan.
Koreans also make some amazing stuff. Lots of Asian countries have their own variation. But all of them are pretty adult content.
Oh god!!! That’s way worse!!!
Cat Bukake!
Why do I now want to make an AMV with THAT trilogy of songs and this censored cut.
What does the original look like?
Instead of being white it’s red
I can imagine, but do you have a video?
Not on my phone. I still haven’t even watched beyond season 1, I was just making a glib comment
I am very surprised they didn’t ban it instead, the blood isn’t the worst part, especially if you have a very creative mind.
Die Hard 2.
Original line: “Yippee ki-yay, mother fucker.”
Censorship line: “Yippee ki-yay, Mr. Falcon.”
There is no one named Mr. Falcon in the movie.
They chose something that was plausible with how his mouth moved to say mother fucker?
I think i remember a movie with that weird martial arts guy who lives in Russia now where they changed mother fucker to mother flipper lol
Yeah, they were trying to match the syntax, but mother flipper at least sorta makes sense. Mr. Falcon just made me think I had the bad guy’s name wrong the whole time.
Mr falcon is a way cooler replacement than mother flipper imo lol
For sure, 100%, but it’s more confusing as well. I remember the first time I heard it thinking, “Wait, why did they change it to Mr. Falcon? Is the general named Falcon? I thought he was Esperanza. Is his nickname Falcon? Did he make reference to falcons? Who is Mr. Falcon?”
I feel like even though there were probably instances of it before this, the “Yippee-ki-yay, Mr. Falcon” is kind of the OG, because it’s the first one I remember to become well-known on this new thing called “the internet”.
Yeah, i was either going to do Mr. Falcon or, “find a stranger in the Alps,” and someone beat me to the Alps. I think Falcon was first though.
I don’t remember if it was that movie or another Bruce Willis action movie, but there was a particular nonsensical line that sticks with me decades later. “I don’t care about any of this sweet tooth boot wash!” Like, wut?
What was the swear? I’m guessing bullshit for the last bit, but what’s sweet tooth?
Your guess is as good as mine.
There’s also the sign changing from “I Hate N-words” to “I Hate Everyone”
Ah, the Norwegian subtitle crew had creative freedom when translating that line. The official translation was “hipp hurra kølletryne” which would translate back to english as “hip hooray club face” (“club” as in golf club or hockey stick - which of course also is a goofy euphemism for penis).
It’s in the first film but yeah walking through glass barefoot, shooting people and throwing someone screaming from a ledge is all cool for the kids to watch.
I’ve only seen the first recently as a Xmas movie every year but it’s in them all I guess so we’re both right
I remember when Young Guns aired on a cable channel in the 90s there’s a scene at the climax when Billy the Kid actually says “Murphy, you son of a bitch…” and shoots the baddie in the head.
So this cable channel edited it for him to say “Murphy, you sorry old buzzard…”. But the headshot was still intact because this is America.
John McClain kills every member of a heist crew then throws the boss off a skyscraper to his doom and the only concession made for tv is “Yippee ki yay Mr Falcon.” America.
I thought he said melon farmer
4Kids dubs of anime removing guns and all mentions of death. I recently watched the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters and there’s a scene where I’m pretty sure Bandit Keith was originally threatening Pegasus with a gun. Without the gun, it just looks so ridiculous. And what did 4Kids have against rice balls? Arceus forbid American kids should learn anything about foreign culture, we must pretend these are donuts.
The original U.S. dub of Pokemon was the same re: riceballs. It didn’t make sense in the 90s, and it doesn’t make sense today. The worst thing that can happen is a kid asks their parents if they can try onigiri.
Oh no! Now we either have to tell our kids “no,” or we have to do the research to find somewhere that makes/sells it, or attempt to follow a new recipe ourselves. How will U.S. culture, composed of nationalities from across the globe, ever survive this tremendous upheaval!?
In all seriousness, onigiri is delicious and I wish there were greater demand for it across the U.S. Even in my ethnically-diverse blue state, I only know of one place that makes onigiri, but it’s far and a pain in the ass to travel to.
Onigiri is really easy to make yourself if you can get the ingredients. Tuna mayo onigiri is the bomb when you wake up with a hangover.
It was kind of a missed opportunity to sell onigiri in the west
In the Mexican Spanish dub the Onigiris became sandwiches lmao.
Perhaps my favorite example of this is the 4kids One Piece dub. They couldn’t get rid of the scene where Helmeppo threatens Koby with a gun, so they turned the gun into…well.
This is my favorite example. They replaced all guns with finger guns, so they were all just pointing at each other menacingly
I’m currently watching the second season of Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters. There’s an episode where Yugi and Kaiba are in a double duel and the threat is if they lose they’ll fall through a glass floor to the shadow realm. Somehow I strongly suspect the threat in the Japanese version was they’ll fall to their deaths. The ludicrously replace all threats of death with the shadow realm.
Let’s not forget the time Yugi and a magician were chained to the floor with buzzsaws inching closer each time they lost life points that would “send them to the shadow realm”
Yup, watched that one recently too
4kids one piece broke me lol
All those Monday to Friday snakes on this Monday to Friday plane.
Money fighting snakes
Someone else said it’s monkey fighting snakes
Who?
Monke
?
Reminds me of watching the TV version of The Thing. They change “bullshit” to “bull stuff” but all the gore is left uncensored
The US are sometimes very puzzling to us on the rest of the planet.
That quote has stuck with me forever lol, also:
Matrix TV edit.
When agents take Neo away in the beginning and bug his belly. Then later when they do a little surgery in the back of the sedan, Neo says “jeepers creepers, that things real?!”
TV censored version of Kill Bill hands down.
His name is buck, and he’s here to party.
How the hell did they tv sensor kill Bill? Jesus. That’s the point of the movie!
It was legendarily bad. I remember watching it on TV laughing the entire time.
His name is bart-y and he’s here to part-y
I’m old, and I saw the Breakfast Club back in the 80’s on like, channel 11. For years I couldn’t figure out why Principal Vernon and Carl the Janitor went from hating each other to being friends.
Years later I saw it unedited and realized they cut out the whole scene with the two of them bonding and smoking weed. So much made sense at that point.
Oh my gosh. I think Ive only ever watched this movie on TV. Going to have to change that now after reading this comment!
I have HAD it with these monkey-fightin’ snakes, on this Monday-Friday plane!
This city is a big chicken, just waiting for me to pluck it.
There is a famous US tv edit of Snakes On A Plane where Samuel L Jackson shouts at a pivitol moment, “I’ve had it with these monkey eating snakes on this Monday to Friday plane!”
on this Monday to Friday plane!
If I were stuck on a plane (let alone one with monkey-eating snakes) for 5 days straight, I’d reach a breaking point, too.
This is what happen when you find a stranger in the Alps!
That’s the one! Do you see what happens Larry?!
Warriors of the Wind (edited Nausicaä from the Valley of the Wind), can’t have ecological and pacifist messages, must replace it with dumb good against bad. This was one of the major mask down moments of the US for me.
Edit: my bad, tv show, not film.
Wait - I had this on DVD and loved it as a kid. I watched the English dub of course because my 10yo brain didn’t have the patience for reading subs.
I remember a strong ecological and pacifistic message. What was changed?
Machine translated from german wikipedia (english one is less comprehensive on that but has other details):
New World Pictures acquired the US rights to Nausicaä in 1985. For a children’s film release under the title Warriors of the Wind, they shortened the anime by more than 23 minutes, or about a fifth of its total length. The ecological and pacifist message was removed and replaced with a battle of good against evil.[11] The names were also changed, with “Princess Sandra” now fighting against evil “Gorgon monsters.” This US version also made its way to Europe, where it was released in France by Aprovision as La Princesse des Etoiles and in German by UFA in 1986 as Sternenkrieger, both on VHS.
English Wikipedia;
The Manson cut was derided by Miyazaki, and led to Ghibli’s “no cuts” rule for future international releases. It was eventually replaced in circulation by an uncut, redubbed version produced by Walt Disney Pictures in 2005.
It was eventually replaced in circulation by an uncut, redubbed version produced by Walt Disney Pictures in 2005.
Okay thank the gods, I must have had this one. That would place me about 10yo, and I definitely don’t remember any “gorgon monsters”. Thanks for the context! I’m relieved now haha
Suzuki knew of a small, hard-to-find store in Tokyo hidden away underneath the train tracks between Shinbashi and Yurakucho. It was where Japanese film studios bought the realistic-looking weapons used in Japanese samurai movies. Suzuki picked out a sword there and brought it with him to New York for our meeting with Harvey. It was a very convincing replica of a Japanese samurai sword. It was realistic in every detail except that the blade was not sharp, which you could not tell unless you got a good, close look at it.
These were still the days when you could bring a samurai sword with you in your carry-on luggage on a commercial flight from Tokyo to New York. Suzuki presented the sword to Harvey in a conference room full of horrified Miramax employees. One of them later approached me and said, “You gave Harvey a SWORD? Are you CRAZY?”
When Suzuki presented Harvey with the sword, Suzuki shouted in English and in a loud voice, “Mononoke Hime, NO CUT!”
Something very similar happened to Angel’s Egg/Tenshi no Tomago. This slow, meandering, beautiful existential art film about how hopeless it is to be alive. (Like, the only real talking in the story is a telling of the Noah’s Ark story where God leaves and the bird doesn’t come back)
It’s probably one of the best films ever made - as profound as anything by Tarkovsky.
I read some years ago that in the Arabian version of Simpsons, Homer drinks lemonade instead of beer.
Moe is such a talented lemonade merchant he has to stay open till the early hours to sate the townsfolk’s addiction to his citrus crack.
That’s kinda sweet but also completely steam rolls a very big part of Homer’s character.
My name is Buck… And I’m here to- PARTY!
also the most famous one:
This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps
I’m glad someone else remembers the hilarious travesty of TV censored kill bill
