History Woolseyism / Film

** In ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'', the hero said when attacking the carnivorous plant: "It's harvest time, Adele!" ''Adéla ješte nevečeřela'' (''Adele hasn't had supper yet'') is a Czech movie, and the titular Adele is a man-eating plant created by a mad scientist.

* Also, this gem from the Polish version of ''Film/PulpFiction'':

** Not even mentioning turning the "I'm gonna get medieval on your ass!" line into highly {{meme}}tic "Zrobię ci z dupy jesień średniowiecza!" (''I'm gonna make The Autumn of the Middle Ages[[note]]reference to the title of Johan Huizinga's book[[/note]] out of your ass!'').

* The French dub for {{Shrek}} replaced Mongo for the giant gingerbread man with Cake Kong, raguably a funnier name.

-->'''Mack''': [[HypocriticalHumor Wait a minute here... they're just using the same actor over and over! What kind of a cut-rate production is this?]]

** The same song in the polish dub has the a line that tranlates roughly as "he never was one of us, in his heart he has (a) S/scar" (in the polish dub of Lion King, Scar's name (Skaza) means "defect" or "flaw", which introduces the nice double meaning);
frankly, makes much more sense than just rhyming 'us' with 'us' like in the original, especially since even this troper managed to come up with the above transation that still somewhat rhymes.

* In the Japanese dub of ''Disney/TheLionKingII'', the song "One of Us" is rendered as あいつはよそもの[[note]]Aitsu wa Yosomono[[/note]](roughly translated as "You are a Stranger", which is made harsher by the fact that "Aitsu" is also the equivalent of calling someone "That person/thing" to their face.

** In ''{{Jumanji}}'', the hero said when attacking the carnivorous plant: "It's harvest time, Adele!" ''Adéla ješte nevečeřela'' (''Adele hasn't had supper yet'') is a Czech movie, and the titular Adele is a man-eating plant created by a mad scientist.
** In the Czech version of the first ''{{Shrek}}'' movie, the translators have smuggled in a number of references to popular Czech fairy tales.
* Polish versions of ''{{Shrek}}'' are loaded with Woolseyisms, pretty much like all movies translated by Bartosz Wierzbieta.
* Also, this gem from the Polish version of ''PulpFiction'':

** Not even mentioning turning the "I'm gonna get medieval on your ass!" line into highly {{meme}}tic "Zrobię ci z dupy jesień średniowiecza!" (''I'm gonna make The Autumn of the Middle Ages[[hottip:* :reference to the title of Johan Huizinga's book]] out of your ass!'').
* Because of the ProductionPosse, ''FierceCreatures'' is known as ''A Lemur Called Rollo'' in Poland.
* Various dubs of ''RobinHoodMenInTights'' change the gag when Robin Hood tells the Sheriff, "unlike other Robin Hoods, I speak with an English accent" because foreign viewers who saw the dubbed 1991 Kevin Costner film ''Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' wouldn't get the joke. So, it is changed to another line deriding Costner. For example, the German dub changes the line into something like "because unlike that other Robin Hood, I do not cost the producers 5 million", putting stress on ''kosten'' (cost) as a pun on Costner.
** The French dub had "Unlike my predecessors, I [[KevinCostner do not]] [[DancesWithWolves dance with wolves]].
* The Italian version of ''YoungFrankenstein'' is full of these. One example; 'Werewolf?' 'There. There wolf, there castle!' Was translated with a mispronunciation of 'ulula' (howls) to sound like the sardinian dialect's 'u l'u là', 'it's there'. So, it became 'Là. Lupu u l'u là, e castellu, u l'u lì.' 'The wolf is there and the castle is here.', the single most famous line from the movie in Italy.

** That's just one out of hundreds of examples. The French version of "[[TheLionKing I just can't wait to be king]]" sees Zazu's pun on ''Out of Africa'' becomes a pro-democratic tirade, and of course to the French version of "Mine, Mine, Mine", which may well be one of the best Disney adaptation ever. Long story short: Disney understood sometime in the 1990's that bad adaptations ruin movies, so they created DCVI, a whole company dedicated to dubs. The French department somehow managed to recruit some of the most creative translators there are, and made them work with great dubbers. The result was crack.

** The translation of ''Beauty and the Beast'' is also pretty awesome. "The Mob Song" is already amazing in English but the French dub changes most of the lyrics to paint the Beast as a devilish soul-stealing monster and it's pretty damn effective.

** The French version of "[[TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Hellfire]]" has Frollo asking "Is this my fault?" rather than [[NeverMyFault outright saying so]].
* Dutch Disney translations tend to have these too. Most notable is probably the song "the bare necessities" from the jungle book. Since that pun doesn't work in Dutch it first got translated as a song about "Baloe de bruine beer" (Baloo the brown bear). Some years later people started noticing Baloo was actually not brown at all, so they retranslated it as "als je van beren leren kan" (if you can learn from bears). The text is still completely different from the original, but it works just as well. They've been doing it right ever since.

* The English dub of ''TheStoryOfRicky''.
* A lot of German film dubs from before the mid-nineties took liberties in translation. Blatant example in the first ''{{Terminator}}'' film. Arnold rudely interrupts a caller at a public phone booth to look up Sarah Connor's address in the book. Said caller mentions Arnold to have "a serious attitude problem". [[SarcasmMode Very witty indeed]]. Compare the German version:

* The French version of ''DirtyDancing'' has quite a few, which have become so cult that most viewers miss them when they watch the original version. For example, the very flat line "I'm sorry you had to see that, Baby... Sometimes in this world you see things you don't wanna see." became "Parfois, on assiste à des scènes terribles. Malheureusement le monde est une jungle, l’homme est un loup pour l’homme et surtout pour la femme..." ("Sometimes, we see horrible things. Unfortunately, the world is a jungle; man is a wolf to man, and especially to woman.") Some of the lines just have an irresistible NarmCharm that goes perfectly with the story.

* The French dub of ''AChristmasStory'' is widely considered by bilingual viewers to be far superior to the original thanks in large parts to the lively and emotional delivery of the narrator who has more lines than anyone else in the movie. Kudos to the snappy, catchy french version of the arc words "Tu vas te crever un oeil!" ("You'll put your eye out!")
* In ''{{Hero}}'' there are four scenes where the soldiers yell in unison: before the emperor appears, before the attack on the city Flying Snow and Broken Sword are staying in, [[spoiler:when Nameless is executed]], and [[spoiler:when Nameless is given a hero's burial]]. In the original Chinese the soldiers are simply yelling "Ha! Ha!", but the English subtitles transcribe it as "Hail! Hail!", creating a pun not found in the original work.

* French film LaHaine has a character nicknamed {{Asterix}}, famous to the French but likely to be lost on English and American viewers at the time of release. At least one release instead called him [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Snoopy]] in the subtitles. Another character later snarks that they have Obelix with them; he was localised as Charlie Brown.

* In the Japanese dub of ''[[TheLionKing The Lion King II]]'', the song ''One of Us'' is rendered as あいつはよそもの[[note]]Aitsu wa Yosomono[[/note]](roughly translated as "You are a Stranger", which is made harsher by the fact that "Aitsu" is also the equivalent of calling someone "That person/thing" to their face.
* Many Brazilian dubs. For instance, in ''TheIncredibles'', Dash's teacher which suffers a tack on his chair through SuperSpeed goes from a regular guy to a LargeHam [[NationalStereotypes Portuguese]].

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* An hilarious example in the French dub of ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}''. At one point, in the famous "Prince Ali" sequence, you see a group of pretty courtesans at a balcony, joined by the genie disguised as a courtesan too. What's the point ? Well, in French "Il y a du monde au balcon" ("it's crowded on the balcony") is an extremely popular, ironic euphemism used to say "wow, these breasts are big" - a holdover from the tradition of "precious language". And in ''Aladdin'', here's this little balcony with plenty of... [[MostCommonSuperpower well-built young ladies.]] This joke was just so good that the dubbers threw it in without any regard for the original line. HilarityEnsues.
** Most of the best lines in Disney dubs from the 90s are add-libs from the translators anyway (because there's no other way to "translate" humor).

-->'''[[MemeticBadass Col. James Braddock]]''': Je mets les pieds où je veux, Littlejohn. Et c'est souvent dans la gueule. (I put my feet where I want, Littlejohn. And it's often in faces.)

* The French dubs of Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger movies are prone to this. The dub of ''LastActionHero'' has Arnold call himself "Arnold Albertschweitzer" (a reference to famous medical doctor Albert Schweitzer) and great improvements on the original dialog, like when one of the mooks gets taken out by an ice cream cone to the head ("[[Literature/ForWhomTheBellTolls Pour qui sonne la glace!]] [[IncrediblyLamePun Celui-la j'ai refroidi!]]" - "[[Creator/ErnestHemingway For whom does the ice cream toll?]] That guy I just froze!") and during the Schwarzenhamlet scene ("Moi, doux? Tu veux rire!" - "Me, fair? You're kidding!")

* In the Japanese dub of ''[[TheLionKing The Lion King II]]'', the song ''One of Us'' is rendered as あいつはよそもの[[note]]Aitsu wa Yosomono[[/note]](roughly translated as "He is a Stranger", which is made harsher by the fact that "Aitsu" is also the equivalent of calling someone "That person/thing" to their face.

* In the Japanese dub of ''[[TheLionKing The Lion King II]]'', the song ''One of Us'' is rendered as あいつはよそもの[[note]]Aitsu wa Yosomono[[/note]](roughly translated as "He is a Stranger", which is made harsher by the fact that "Aitsu" is also the equivalent of calling someone "That person/thing".

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* In ''{{Cars}}'', John Ratzenberger, who's been in every single Pixar film to date, plays Mack. During the end credits, Mack goes to a drive-in featuring car versions of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'', ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc.'', and ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife''. Mack [[ButHeSoundsHandsome praises the John Ratzenberger characters]] at first, until [[HeyItsThatVoice he realizes...]]

* In the Japanese dub of Film/ThreeHundred, the famous ThisIsSparta line was translated as これはスパルタの流儀だ！[[note]]Kore wa Sparta no Ryuugi da![[/note]](Roughly translated as '''This Is The Spartan WAY!'''), possibly due of lip-synch issues between the original English line and the literal translation of the phrase, without the ''Ryuugi (Way/Style)'' part.

* The French version of ''BackToTheFuture'' even created a new expression. "Great Scott!" was changed to "Nom de Zeus!", a pun on "Nom de Dieu!" (literally "God's name", but it's more of a "Goddamnit"). I still don't know how or why this was changed, but I know I still watch the movies in French because of this expression.

* The French dub of ''AChristmasMovie'' is widely considered by bilingual viewers to be far superior to the original thanks in large parts to the lively and emotional delivery of the narrator who has more lines than anyone else in the movie. Kudos to the snappy, catchy french version of the arc words "Tu vas te crever un oeil!" ("You'll put your eye out!")

*** "Prends garde, lion! [[IncrediblyLamePun Ne te trompe pas de voie]]!"[[hottip:*:Means "Be careful, lion! Don't lose your path"; the word for "path" (voie) sounds the same as the word for "vote" (voix)]]
*** "Rebelle et lion font [[IncrediblyLamePun rébellion]]!"[[hottip:*:Wordplay with the French words for "rebel" and "lion" (describing Simba) that when put together form the word for "rebellion" (another pro-democratic pun)]]

* The French dubs of ArnoldSchwarzenegger movies are prone to this. The dub of ''LastActionHero'' has Arnold call himself "Arnold Albertschweitzer" (a reference to famous medical doctor Albert Schweitzer) and great improvements on the original dialog, like when one of the mooks gets taken out by an ice cream cone to the head ("[[Literature/ForWhomTheBellTolls Pour qui sonne la glace!]] [[IncrediblyLamePun Celui-la j'ai refroidi!]]" - "[[Creator/ErnestHemingway For whom does the ice cream toll?]] That guy I just froze!") and during the Schwarzenhamlet scene ("Moi, doux? Tu veux rire!" - "Me, fair? You're kidding!")

* In ''{{Cars}}'', John Ratzenberger, who's been in every single Pixar film to date, plays Mack. During the end credits, Mack goes to a drive-in featuring car versions of ''ToyStory'', ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc.'', and ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife''. Mack [[ButHeSoundsHandsome praises the John Ratzenberger characters]] at first, until [[HeyItsThatVoice he realizes...]]

* French film LaHaine has a character nicknamed {{Asterix}}, famous to the French but likely to be lost on English and American viewers at the time of release. At least one release instead called him [[{{ComicStrip/Peanuts}} Snoopy]] in the subtitles. Another character later snarks that they have Obelix with them; he was localised as Charlie Brown.
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* The Latin American dub of the 2008 ''Film/GetSmart'' movie got back [[AndTheFandomRejoiced the original voice actor for Smart]] and he ad-libbed many of the jokes, sometimes placing Mexican pop-culture references over the original ones and overall made the film much more true to the original series than the English version was.

* French film LaHaine has a character nicknamed ComicBooks/Asterix, famous to the French but likely to be lost on English and American viewers at the time. At least one release instead called him [[{{ComicStrip/Peanuts}} Snoopy]] in the subtitles. Another character later snarks that they have Obelix with them; he was localised as Charlie Brown.