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12th Feb: A new policy is being put in place for TRS threads: Make your case that the name/page is broken in the Opening Post, or the thread will be nuked immediately. See Everything You Wanted To Know About Changing Names for what "Make your case" means.
5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
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If the film did any bit of business in America, if it did some decent bit of business, Hollywood would take it, and they would remake it and up the budget by fifty million and it would be called "A Room With a View of Hell!"''
Sometimes those in power decide that a show is golden, but not appropriate for their viewers because it contains foreign people with their strange and frightening habits, so they take the premise and make a Foreign Remake with all the other culture's influences firmly removed. While this can happen when something makes the leap from any culture to another, it seems to particularly happen when foreign products make the leap into the United States, hence the title.
Sometimes this can also be the result of differing series lengths — British TV shows, particularly, have series typically of six to thirteen episodes, rather than twenty to twenty-five as is common on the major US networks. Executives decide to make their own version in order to have enough episodes quickly to make a full TV season in the States.
A specific variant of Cultural Translation, and the supertrope of American Kirby Is Hardcore. When successful, may result in a Trans Atlantic Equivalent. Compare Bowdlerise, Cut-and-Paste Translation. See also Dub Name Change, Viewers Are Morons, We All Live In America. This is Serious Business. Of course, sometimes They Just Didn't Care.
Compare with Canada Does Not Exist.
Examples:
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Advertising
- In a Multigrain Cheerios commercial that ends with "The box says 'Shut up, Steve'" — the British-accented voices of the two actors are dubbed over into American English for American audiences (both versions are aired in Canada, which is surprising the first time you see whichever you haven't seen before). It's a word-for-word dub, so it's not like they were taking out local slang, and the actors do not have strong regional accents at all.
- They also poorly composited in an American Cheerio's box, at a different resolution and with a jarring electric green and purple color scheme.
- It can happen the other way around, too. This Just for Men commercial was given the British-English dub treatment. [1]
- In Australia, American-made advertisements are frequently redubbed with Australian accents. It's rarely very convincing.
- This is quite common in advertising. The same thing happens in Ireland with British ads.
Anime & Manga
- Sailor Moon: Forget the butchery that was the North American dub. Had certain parties gotten their way, the show would've been a mix of live action, western animation, and 1994 CGI with a painfully politically correct team including a black Sailor and one in a wheelchair, and they all would've gone sailing in space from the moon. On sailboards.
- When Gundam (specifically, the SD Gundam branch of the franchise) got the same sort of proposal; the United States almost got subjected to Doozy Bots. Yes, there really is a black guy in a wheelchair who turned into a Guntank.
- In the dub/recut of Card Captor Sakura, Card Captors, not only did they attempt to make the male secondary character the main character (incidentally, only in the U.S. broadcast and done primarily by cutting episodes), but they were quite stringent about avoiding any and all references to the series being set in Japan, including the unusually technical reference to Tokyo Tower as just a radio tower.
- The reincarnated super mage still came from Britain and still spoke Japanese, leading to the line "You must have had lots of Japanese speaking friends in England."
- In the English version, the main character was still very much Sakura but they just made it so that the first and every episode aired had Syaoran in it. This is probably an attempt to make it so that the male kids would have someone to identify with immediately.
- In the dub of the movie, which actually managed to change the storyline without altering the animation.
- Also Tomo being a lesbian and really liking Sakura. You'd be amazed at the animation-butchery they had to wreak to cut ''that'' out. Not that they really succeeded, mind you, what with all those costumes she made for her, and how she films her constantly....
- The crush Syaoran has on Yuki was removed, but Syaoran was still blushing every time he saw Yuki who he "didn't like." Also, Yuki and Toya getting together seemed pretty important to the plot...
- The dub of Pokémon has had several instances in which rice balls were edited out altogether and replaced by more American foods, like sandwiches and crackers. Other times, the rice balls were just called doughnuts or popcorn balls; one episode actually did call them rice balls, if only because that episode actually showed them being made. The show's creators also began toning down the specifically Japanese references once they realized they had a worldwide hit on their hands.
- One particularly painful example has James/Kojirou complaining that the giant traditional Japanese mansion in front of him looks like — a Japanese restaurant. Aaargh.
- When 4Kids got Ojamajo Doremi, they left the food in visually... but replaced references to overtly Japanese foods with those which westerners would understand. For example, goodbye takoyaki, hello cookies.
- Tokyo Mew Mew? Nuh-uh. Try HOLLYWOOD Mew Mew. The title never actually came to pass (when it finally came to the US it was Mew Mew Power instead), but it's a pretty clear example of this sort of thing.
- Comic Party had this happen in the English dub. Yen becomes Dollars, Kimonos become Prada dresses. What makes it worse is that the yen is shown and it is still called dollars.
- Futari Wa Pretty Cure: The dub names takoyaki something else entirely again: donuts. Maybe that has something to do with 4kids temporarily taking this series. That or they thought some slightly older kids would start making sophomoric jokes about "octopus balls".
- Which is still stupid, considering that takoyaki are octopus dumplings, and not "balls". If they really had nothing to do with it, they could've just translate it as "meat dumplings", which while not exactly accurate, is close enough if they wanted to translate it while getting rid of the "octopus" part.
- One Piece has plenty, such as a rice ball Zoro/Zolo is fed being changed to a cookie (that he somehow swallowed whole, which made a bit more sense with rice).
- Surprisingly enough for a 4Kids dub, most of the characters' names are not only left intact, but actually left in Japanese order of family name first, something that even the likes of VIZ or Funimation rarely do.
- Digimon Adventure has the scene when T.K. and Patamon read a note in Primary Village about rubbing an egg to make it hatch. It's clearly written in hiragana◊, but instead of translating it or simply cutting the shot and making the characters read it off-screen, they decided to say it's "digicode".
- It should be noted that there actually is a Digicode, even though it doesn't look anything like hiragana.
- A similar scene occurred in the Sailor Moon dub: Usagi/Serena's "funny squiggles" handwriting refers to the original Running Gag that Usagi never learns proper Kanji writing, even as an adult.
- Both official translations of Azumanga Daioh, manga and anime, choke on the Boke and Tsukkomi Routine jokes. The manga also makes the mistake early on of pretending Yukari is teaching Spanish. This is too awkward to stick with — she's teaching English again within the first volume. Both anime and manga make no attempt to hide the fact that the show is set in Japan, though, so it's not as bad as some.
- The manga is also just lazy sometimes, making no attempt to explain the strips where Tomo hassles Yomi by mispronouncing words so they sound obscene. The strip "Read Between the Lines", which is full of people calling Yomi by name, also goes unexplained. (Yomi's name hadn't been used yet and readers were wondering, so the author devoted a strip to it. The title is a pun — it suggests that Yomi's name had been left "between the lines", but it's also what "Mizuhara Koyomi" actually means.)
- Although almost everyone else in Hellsing has (or at least attempted) a British accent, Alucard spoke with a distinctively American tang. Interviews with the translation director revealed he made this decision because of a theory that people can relate to a protagonist better if he sounds like them.
- Gigantor ran into a problem when it was Americanized: one episode has the cast traveling to an American ranch from their native Japan. The dubbers changed the location to Australia and gave the American characters Australian accents. But the "Australian aborigines" sure didn't look like aborigines.
- Shin Chan characters in the English Gag Dub seem to know more about American pop culture than they know about Japanese pop culture to an extent that you might question whether the show takes place in a Universe where Japan is part of the United States instead of Asia.
- Detective Conan underwent Americanization, but this was specifically at the request of creator Gosho Aoyama, who thought foreign fans would better identify with local characters than Japanese ones. The name change to Case Closed, however, was purely a legal issue. However, Conan managed to keep his Japanese name.
- This however still doesn't explain why only the American release had to be changed and all the other releases in over 15 Countries were left completely intact...
- The English dub for Ranma ½ is mostly faithful in keeping the Japanese names and translations for attacks and food items, but they insert American pop culture in the characters' dialogue containing references to, among others, The X-Files and Power Rangers, neither of which was even around when the series was originally aired.
- The Bang Zoom dub of K-On! has changed the currency from yen to dollars.
- The English dub for the second Lupin III series they occasionally insert references to modern pop culture, like in one episode a fellow thief asks Lupin if he's seen the new James Bond with Halle Berry.
Films — Animation
Films — Live Action
- An adaptation of AKIRA is in the works. An early script review has indicated that it is now Manhattan that has been destroyed and rebuilt — although, via an incredibly contrived explanation (Japan buying what remained of Manhattan Island after the U.S. took a dive), it's still called "Neo Tokyo". Tetsuo is now Travis and half the characters are now American. And despite all of this, the review indicates that the plot itself remains faithful to the manga. Some fans are, however, not that optimistic.
- The Indian in the Cupboard's movie adaptation did this with a British work, changing the setting from England to New York and making the main characters all American. The American cowboy and Native-American action figures from the book remain American in the film.
- The American comedy Jungle 2 Jungle starring Tim Allen was a remake of the less slapstick-y French comedy Un Indien dans la ville (which was billed variously as Little Indian, Big City or An Indian in Paris for international release), but the American remake actually eventually found its way back into French theatres under the title Un Indien à New York.
- Countless kung fu movies get dubbed in English with the main character's name changed to something like "Freddy Chan" or "Ricky Lee". In China, and especially Hong Kong, where many of the films were originally made, it's fairly typical for people to have a western given name for use when talking to western people. For example, Jun-fan "Bruce" Lee.
- The live-action film version of Street Fighter made the All-American soldier Guile into the protagonist instead of Japanese warrior Ryu, the franchise's usual lead character. Somewhat justified since Guile was one of the few characters in the Street Fighter II series who was motivated by his grudge against the Big Bad M. Bison, whereas Ryu's rivalry was primarily with Sagat at the time. Ironically enough Jean-Claude Van Damme, the actor who played Guile, couldn't fake a convincing American accent if his life depended on it.
- The Hilary Swank film PS I Love You is set in New York, with an American heroine. The novel it is based on by Cecilia Ahern, is set in Dublin, with an Irish heroine. The husband remained Irish, though, but was played by Gerard Butler, whose Scottish accent never ceases to perplex. (To be fair, though, most Americans and even some Brits probably failed to notice).
- Shutter was apparently trying to make itself look like an Americanized J-horror remake (a pair of Americans move to Japan), when the original was actually Thai.
- Fever Pitch was originally a autobiography about a fan's obsession with the Arsenal Football Club in England (in fact, Nick Hornby's, who also wrote High Fidelity below). It was adapted into a American movie about a fictional person's obsession with baseball's Boston Red Sox. Conveniently, the word "pitch" applies to both football/soccer and baseball, so the title remained the same. The ending had to be changed at the last minute due to the Sox actually winning the World Series. The ending actually mirrors that of the British-made first film adaptation, in which Arsenal wins the First Division for the first time in 18 years. Unlike the Sox win, the Arsenal win was, at that time, historical fact.
- The 2007 film The Seeker, based on Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series of books, stayed in Britain but made the main character and his family Americans. For extra fun, it was filmed in Romania.
- Constantine changes the nationality and location of the UK-set (American-owned) comic Hellblazer to Los Angeles. Since the release of the movie, the comic book character of Constantine has stated that there's another guy with his name and a similar job in the US.
- The 2010 version of Death at a Funeral moves the action from Britain to America and makes all the characters Black.
- The film version of Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity moves the setting from London to Chicago (and changes the central character's name) while otherwise remaining fairly faithful. The Broadway musical shifts the location to Brooklyn.
- What makes the American remake of the Japanese film Shall We Dance? rather bizarre is the fact that part of the plot has to do with ballroom dancing being somewhat taboo in Japanese culture, something that doesn't translate into American culture. They dealt with this by making it about the male dance taboo in American (i.e., only gay men dance.) This gets reinforced as all the characters are paired off at the end except J.Lo's, though as she had a relationship with her previous pro partner perhaps that's implied, suggesting that the only reason to ballroom dance is to either find a mate or repair your extant relationship, while the Japanese version was simply about the social taboo around a sport requiring male/female contact.
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen added Tom Sawyer as a character because apparently Americans won't watch a movie that doesn't have an American character in a prominent role. Sawyer's character as a young adult was based on Mark Twain's less well-known novel Tom Sawyer, Detective.
- Yes Man is Very, Very Loosely Based on a True Story; the book of the same name by and about Danny Wallace, a Dundonian living in London. The film is set in LA and stars Jim Carrey. The film bears almost no resemblance to the original book.
- The 1963 movie The Great Escape tells the story of a group of Allied prisoners who in 1944 escaped a prison camp in Nazi-controlled Poland. While American prisoners were held in the real camp, none of them were among the escapers — but for the movie version two major characters are Americans (Steve McQueen's Hilts and James Garner's Hendley). Balanced to an extent by James Coburn's Aussie and Charles Bronson's Pole, and the fact that the there appear to be only three Americans in the whole camp. Eddie Izzard makes light of this in his Dressed To Kill show.
- It should be noted that none of the American characters succeeded in reaching freedom after the escape, but out of the three that did (Sedgwick, Danny, and Willy) only one was played by a British actor.
- U-571. How about taking a major British victory in military espionage that became one of the key factors to winning the war in Europe and turn it into a completely American event? Especially stupid since they could have just as easily used the even more dramatic story of U-505, which actually was captured by the U.S. Navy.
- The British film Enigma airbrushes away the Polish cryptanalyst foundation upon which British codebreaking relied.
- Biggles: Adventures in Time felt the need to introduce not just an American, but a time travelling American to the mix.
- When Godzilla, King of the Monsters was brought to the United States, scenes with an American reporter played by Raymond Burr were added into the film, with dialogue changes and edits used to make it seem like he was interacting with the Japanese cast. Interestingly, this version was later dubbed back into Japanese and shown in Japan under the name Monster King Gojira, and it was a hit, with future kaiju films including reporter characters inspired by Burr. The makers of Godzilla were suspicious of the poor dubbing of the time and thought American audiences wouldn't watch a subtitled version. Plus, they probably felt that more Americans would get the message about atomic weapons if it was in English.
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens was adapted into a film in the early 2000s, changing the location from 19th century England to 20th-century Southern California.
- The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells is set in Victorian England with the narrator traveling to London. In the 2005 film, the invasion begins in New Jersey and the narrator travels to Boston.
- The earlier 1953 film adaptation similarly moved the story to southern California, while the famous 1938 radio version by Orson Welles took place in New Jersey.
- Insomnia is a 2002 remake of a 1997 Norwegian film with substantially altered plot and characters from the harder, more cynical Film Noir original. The constant daylight of the Scandanavian summer was a crucial plot point and symbol in the original; so the American remake was located in Alaska in order to preserve that aspect of the story, while still managing a US location.
- The Birdcage, a 1996 remake of the French film La Cage aux folles (the American a direct translation of the original French). Unlike most American remakes of foreign films, it is not set in New York, but rather in Miami, Florida. The contrast between the LGBT-friendly South Beach and highly conservative (and religious) politics more closely reproduces the contrast between the Saint-Tropez nightclub scene and ultraconservative politics of the original.
- Point of No Return was a relatively faithful remake of Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita. The original featured locations in both France and Italy; while the American version remained entirely within the continental US, albeit moving from Washington D.C. to southern California (a shift arguably as great or greater, both geographically and culturally).
- Richard Gere has a film based on the legendary loyal dog Hachiko, set in the United States. Hachiko will keep most of his name ("Hachi") and remain an Akita; there's also at least one token Japanese guy (played by Brushogun).
- One Missed Call, the American remake of the Japanese horror film Chakushin Ari, changes the setting to America. The scene in which a famous TV evangelist tries to exorcise the ghost from an unfortunate victim was based on a similar scene with a Buddhist priest.
- Dark Water. The Japanese movie was based on a book written by the same author of The Ring. The constant raining (which is a major element of the movie and book) made more sense in the Japanese version, since Japan is a very wet country and it's not strange that more than one heavy rainfall occurs there daily. But in the American version, it takes place on an island in New York. While a lot of rainfall does occur there, it's not enough that it would permeate the entire movie.
- The second film adaption of Lord of the Flies changes every British reference into an American one.
- Inverted with Run Fatboy Run! which is actually a Britishized version of Michael Ian Black's original script.
- There has been suggestions of making a movie of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, but the producers (to everyone's complete surprise) insisted the plot be relocated to the United States and the characters be American. Pratchett and Gaiman refused. In a related example, they also wanted to film Mort; however after they ran the idea with some test audiences, they suggested removing the character of Death since he wouldn't do well with some demographics. Needless to say, Terry vetoed the project.
- For the US release of Mad Max, MGM felt that the Aussie accents would just be too much for the poor American theater-goers so they had the whole thing dubbed into "American". Thankfully this error was fixed for the DVD release of the movie.
- The Departed was a Martin Scorsese-directed adaptation of the Chinese mob thriller Infernal Affairs. To add injury to insult, there's a scene where Jack Nicholson makes every racist stereotype/insult about Asians to ever exist.
- The first movie in Luc Besson's French Taxi series proved to be so successful that it had to be made available to an American audience. Of course, this meant making an entirely new, thoroughly Americanized movie. It's not Samy Nacéri (actually famous European rally drivers hired as stunt drivers) speeding through Marseilles in a comparably nimble Peugeot 406 V6 with extractable upgrades that at least in the first movie actually make sense, it's Queen Latifah speeding through New York City in a rather heavy and cumbersome Ford Crown Victoria which looks nothing short of ridiculous and riced out in Super Pursuit Mode. Also, a cop who can't drive a car wasn't enough, it had to be a cop who knows absolutely nothing about automobiles and can't drive one. The baddies were changed from stereotypical Germans to hot Latinas; at least, they still drive something German (a BMW as opposed to two Mercedes-Benz).
- In the book that The Bridge on the River Kwai is based on, Major Shears is British. In the movie, he was made into an American and his British friend, Professor Warden, was made much less sympathetic.
- The Eye (2008 film) starring Jessica Alba is an American remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film by the same name. The setting is moved to the United States and the characters are given Western-sounding names.
- Matilda has its setting transferred to the United States, and all the characters are Americans — except the evil headmistress, making her an Evil Brit by default.
- This may be a borderline case since the cartoon series based on the original book was crammed with ethnically and racially ambiguous characters, but it's quite remarkable how populated the Wachowski Brothers' 2008 big-screen version of Speed Racer is with Occidental actors (mostly American and British) as the characters. There is only one major Asian character in the whole cast, and he is Korean rather than Japanese.
- The American film, Three Men And A Baby, was based on the French film, Trois hommes et un couffin. (Three Men and a Cradle)
- The French comedy The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe was remade in the US as The Man With One Red Shoe, with the humorous violence made more sadistic, the sexual content turned quite prudish, and the characters heavily defined as good guys or bad guys so the audience would know who to root for.
- French actor Pierre Richard could well be considered the patron saint of this trope: He starred in The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe mentioned above but also in Le Jouet (The Toy) which was remade as The Toy starting Richard Pryor, and Le Jumeau (The Twin) remade as Two Much starring Antonio Banderas (though both screenplays were based on an American novel called Two Much). With Gérard Depardieu he made Les Compères (Comdads) remade as Fathers' Day with Billy Crystal and Robin Williams, Les Fugitifs (The Fugitives) remade as Three Fugitives with Nick Nolte ans Martin Short and La Chèvre (The Goat)remade as Pure Luck with Danny Glover and Martin Short. He probably is the favorite French actor of the American public even though hardly anybody in the USA knows him.
- Averted in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World in spite of Executive Meddling attempts to relocate the movie from Toronto to a U.S. city such as Pittsburgh.
- An odd case with Straw Dogs and its 2011 remake. The original was directed by Sam Peckinpah and starred Dustin Hoffman, both Americans, but took place in the UK. The remake will take place in the Deep South, swapping the negative portrayals of rural Englishmen for negative portrayals of American rednecks.
Gamebooks
- Most of the Lone Wolf gamebooks were trimmed for US release. Since the books were set in a fantasy world anyway, one wonders what was so foreign that Brits could get it but not Americans.
- The implication was that most of the page trimming was more for purposes of cost-cutting to maximize profit (even if that meant creating an inferior product), not because of cultural editing. Later books in the series suffered from this far worse than earlier ones, because by that point, the series wasn't selling as well.
Literature
Live Action TV
- The British TV version of Kate Long's novel, The Bad Mother's Handbook, starred attractive but ordinary looking Catherine Tate, with respected actress Anne Reid playing her dementia-stricken elderly mother. The American version stars uber-glamorous (and notably younger) Alicia Silverstone, and "granny" is Megan Mulally (Karen from Will and Grace), who plays a 48-year-old "hippy" type. The Catherine/Alicia character's teenage daughter in the British version (and in the novel) got pregnant. By all accounts this won't be happening in the American version.
- How can they even take that out?? What's the point, then?
- The strength of Coupling's cast was convincingly demonstrated when the American version was decidedly lackluster, despite using nearly the exact same scripts.
- That, and the American version suffered from some serious Misaimed Marketing. The UK version aired on BBC Three, and actually resisted a move to BBC One, and was successful because it was something of a cult hit. The US version, however, was plunked down on Thursday night in NBC's "Must See TV" Block, and was in fact brought over as a potential replacement for Friends, which was winding down at the time. It might have done a little better if it were marketed as what it really was, a bawdy comedy about love, sex, and relationships, and would have been more comfortable either on cable (like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) or on a pay channel (like a gender-neutral Sex and the City.)
- Several Brit Coms have successfully undergone Americanization, including Man About The House (turned into Three's Company), Steptoe And Son (Sanford and Son), and most famously Till Death Us Do Part (All in the Family, and in Germany as Ein Herz und eine Seele). More recently, The Office has been as successful on the left side of the pond as the right. An American version of The IT Crowd was dropped after the first viewing. Queer As Folk (UK) was script-recycled into Queer as Folk (US).
- The British series Men Behaving Badly ran for six series. A US version was created, to mixed reviews, running for 35 episodes. To avoid a naming conflict, the British version was marketed in the US as British Men Behaving Badly.
- Similarly, many popular reality shows began abroad, such as Survivor (Sweden), Big Brother (The Netherlands), and American Idol (UK again, as Pop Idol). There are now national Idol versions in over fifty countries, from Argentina to Kazakhstan. After some arguments involving Simon Cowell the UK Pop Idol was re-invented as 'X Factor' - interestingly the same shift is now happening in the USA with Simon Cowell jumping ship to the new show. Same thing with other Game Shows such as Junkyard Wars/Scrapyard Challenge.
- Dragons Den, a British reality show about people trying to get wealthy entrepreneurs to invest in their business/invention, was recreated in Canada with great success. The American version, called Shark Tank, borrowed two panel members from the Canadian version, and they are the only thing worth watching on it.
- The American name is hilariously misleading for hockey fans living in San Jose...
- The original Dragons' Den actually borrows its format from a Japanese Show, Money Tigers, that aired from 2001 to 2004. The format has been sold to over 14 countries.
- Fawlty Towers was Americanized three times! The first was an unsold pilot called Chateau Snavely with Harvey Korman. The Bea Arthur series, Amanda's, ran a few weeks before getting canceled, as did the John LaRoquette series, Payne. What made all these fail spectacularly, by and large, is that they tried to make the Basil character sympathetic.
- Or, as in one case, wrote the Basil character out.
- Gender swapped, actually, since the Bea Arthur version turned the Basil Fawlty character into a woman
- There was an unsold pilot for an Americanized Are You Being Served? called Beane's of Boston, starring John Hillerman (Higgins of Magnum, P.I.) as Capt. Peacock, Charlotte Rae (yes, Mrs. Garrett) as Mrs. Slocombe, Alan Sues (from Laugh-In) as Mr. Humphries, and Tom Poston as their boss.
- An adaptation of AYBS that did make it to screen was the Australian version, which retained a "visiting" Mr. Humphries (played by John Inman, the original) but replaced the rest of the English cast with suspiciously similar Australian versions who got into INCREDIBLY similar situations. Making one wonder why Mr. Humphries never took a moment to mention a strange feeling of deja vu.
- There was talk of a live action Witch Hunter Robin set in Chicago with an American cast. It didn't pan out, though.
- Power Rangers does it a little differently. All of the action scenes are taken directly from the Japanese shows, but everything else, are re-shot in an American setting (though since Ninja Storm, it's been filmed in New Zealand). So each season will have the exact same villains, creating the exact same monsters, doing the exact same things, but with totally different dialogue, names and context.
- Famed Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea was remade in the US (and in many other countries) into Ugly Betty. Betty was changed from a Colombian-American into a Mexican-American.
- The show started its life Colombian, but was remade in Mexico prior to being recreated for the American market. The producer and cast were said to have watched at least portions of both versions, but were clearly heavily influenced by the Mexican version, to the point that the actress who starred as Betty's character in the Mexican version had a guest appearance in an episode of the American version. The fact that Betty and her family were Mexican in the American version may simply have just been a natural progression or homage. Remember too that in neither of the other versions is Betty's character of a foreign nationality. Betty could have been blond and blue eyed and still fit the role.
- Spaced was "adapted" by Adam Barr from Will and Grace while being produced by McG. It didn't make it past the pilot stage.
- For the curiosity of the morbid, some clips from the pilot can be found here
- The wonderful British show Blackpool was remade for American TV as Viva Laughlin, which only lasted for two episodes before it was canned. To its credit, it starred Hugh Jackman, fresh off his turn as Wolverine in the X-Men movies.
- To get the "gimmick" of the show, watch this. There's nothing funnier than watching the main character lip-synch to "I'm Still Standing" while dancing down an escalator.
- The short-lived American remake of the Australian show Kath And Kim made both Kath and Kim too attractive; the joke being that Kim isn't thin or attractive enough to wear the skimpy outfits she wears, and Kath hasn't changed her wardrobe since the 80s. But in the American remake...they both look great! Kim is supposed to be flabby and have a Muffin Top for example, but in the American version she doesn't, so the joke is lost.
- Also, Kath and Kim are "cashed-up bogans" (the American equivalent would be trailer-trash living in a flashy house) so the American version should have had My Name Is Earl type of characters, but they didn't.
- Life on Mars got the American treatment.
- The cerebral four-part ITV miniseries Eleventh Hour (UK, 2006), with Patrick Stewart as government scientist Professor Ian Hood, got an American remake in 2008. To judge by the available plot summaries and casting, they seem to have dumbed down the science to make space for action, removed every topic considered "controversial" in the USA (like global climate change) and apparently added a love story between the professor and his female bodyguard (who was played by Ashley Jensen in the UK version). Certainly the actor they cast for the scientist's role (Rufus Sewell of Dark City fame, as the protagonist Jacob Hood) is younger and "hotter" to draw female target viewers.
- Compare the IMDB plot outline for the US remake ("A government scientist and his attractive counterpart try to save people from deadly scientific experiments.") with the plot outline for the UK version ("Eleventh Hour is a new TV series which stars Patrick Stewart as a scientist who works for the Home Office"). Just saying...
- FOX had decided to produce an American version of South American soap La Lo La, about a playboy who ends up pissing off a witch and being turned into a beautiful woman for turnabout. Supposedly given the title Eva Adams, ths adaptation died with the complete failure of MyNetworkTV's "nothing but telenovelas" era.
- Low-key British (Channel 4) modern retelling of the vampire myth Ultraviolet was re-made by Fox Network with Eric Thal, Lisa Going and Mädchen Amick and Idris Elba reprising his role from the British series. It did not however progress beyond an unaired pilot episode, and even Howard Gordon, one of the producers contracted to develop the series, admitted in an interview for www.scifi.com that, "Frankly we screwed it up and it just didn't come out that well."
- The classic Japanese cooking competition Iron Chef, which got the Americanization treatment not once but twice: the short run Iron Chef USA (the one featuring William Shatner as "The Chairman") on UPN, and the more successful Iron Chef America (featuring Alton Brown's running commentary along with Japanese Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, and former competitor Bobby Flay) which is showing on Food Network.
- The Food Network seems to get that a lot of people watched the show for the cooking and the dramatic competition, with a dash of camp, rather than the other way around. Iron Chef USA didn't get that. At. All.
- Iron Chef America is unusual as it's more of a spin-off: the original "chairman" is mentioned as the new "chairman" is supposedly his nephew. Fuji Television, the network that broadcasted the original, helps produce it.
- CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie, from the far-off lands of Canada, has been picked up by Fox with plans to adapt the series into an American setting.
- There was supposed to be an American version of Black Adder. The project was scrapped even before they started to write the script (and figure out how the hell that would work).
- The British version of As If had four seasons, between 14 and 20 episodes each. The USA version was killed after only three episodes, supposedly because it wasn't an instant hit as expected. Emily Corrie alone (the only survivor from the original cast) wasn't enough, apparently.
- Actually American 'black adder' was all set to go and be produced until they realised USA didn't have a middle ages.
- An American version of Absolutely Fabulous would have starred Kristen Johnson as one of the party women. The pilot was not picked up.
- In an earlier version. Roseanne was set to produce, and the characters would have been played by Carrie Fisher and Barbara Carrera.
- When they imported Tales of the Unexpected to the United States, they replaced the opening narration. They got rid of the author and replaced him with John Houseman.
- ABC attempted to Americanise British political satire The Thick of It. They thought this Cluster F-Bomb-fest would work without the swearing. They were wrong.
- Being Human has an American remake, courtesy of SyFy. Which is strange, as SyFy doesn't usually have a problem with straight-up imports. (They've imported Merlin, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Doctor Who before it moved to BBC America.)
- Parodied by Matt Lucas and David Walliams, creators of Little Britain, when they did some sketches for American TV earlier on in their career. One of these was a spoof US remake of Only Fools And Horses, titled "Only Jerks and Horses." Rodney speaks with a London accent and is basically the same as his English counterpart, but all the other characters have been greatly mangled - Del is a slick stock market trader, Trigger a university professor, Boycie a wisecracking Token Black Guy ("Homeboycie") and Uncle Albert a porn-loving robot.
- The very British The Prisoner was recently remade for American television with an American lead (but British Ian McKellen as the villain). It was, predictably, less than good.
- Hope Island was an Americanization of the BBC dramady Ballykissangel. The setting for the American version was a Pacific Northwest resort village, that the male lead was switched from a Catholic priest to a Protestant pastor. Had the show lasted longer than a season (it didn't), that would have changed the main dynamic (the original series' main plot for the first three seasons was a Catholic priest slowly falling in love with an agnostic pub-owner), because Protestant ministers are allowed to marry.
- Before he became a big-name film director, Lars von Trier made a fantasy/horror TV series in Denmark about a haunted hospital called Riget that was one of the best shows of the genre. A US TV adaptation was made by von Trier in collaboration with Stephen King, Kingdom Hospital.
- While the TV Movie of Doctor Who has been accused by fans for this, Tim Buckley has made the argument that it could be a lot worse.
- Doctor Who is becoming an interesting case. Fans have been screaming accusations of this since the promotional material for Series 6 has been announcing that the premiere will take place (and be filmed in) America, despite several different factors:
- Having stories take place in America isn't new. Past episodes have taken place in Utah and New York, and this was before the show began picking up steam outside the UK.
- Filming in America was less Americanitis and more Scenery Porn. The show could have easily been put together on UK soil (like Daleks in Manhattan), but they figured they might as well get out of the BBC Quarry and let people look at the pretty Utah desert for a while.
- If you want to read something into the promotion of America on Doctor Who, it seems less like pandering to Americans and possibly more like an apology. Depictions of Americans on the show haven't exactly been favorable (See Henry Van Statten in Dalek and the President in The Sound of Drums.) They're not catering to their American audience, but they do seem to be acknowledging them.
- Considering the number of times they made the point that being American = a love of guns and shooting people, it feels like more of a (hopefully affectionate) teasing than an apology. It might possibly be a combination of both: it might be their way of saying, "Hi, we know you're out there. We don't think you're all terrible," and it would be best to think of it as their rebuttal to years of The Theme Park Version portrayals of the British.
- Finally, Steven Moffat has said that he believes that the Quintessentially British nature of the show is one of the reasons that Americans have taken to the show, and if they tried to Americanize the show, they would be some of the first to complain. Considering that Doctor Who is the most successful show in Britain and BBC America's most popular show, he realizes he would be crazy to mess with that.
- The American trailer of Dr. Who and the Daleks got a rugged, cowboy voice for the narrator instead of Peter Cushing's. Which is odd, considering that Dr. Who is doing the narrating!
- There is an American version of the UK Reality TV genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? (one of the first subjects is Sarah Jessica Parker). The major difference between the two version is that all the Americans featured have Incredibly inspirational and history-altering ancestors. Whereas the British celebrities take what they're given.
- The Icelandic comedy series Naeturvaktin (The Night Shift) has been announced to be remade in the United States, and the remake looks to be this to a T. It has been announced that the setting will be changed from Iceland to the Los Angeles suburbs, and that two of the main characters, Daniel and Georg will be revamped from a shy and insecure medical student and a Jerk Ass communist into "a hunk playing the field" and a "survivalist" respectively. Hilariously, the only main character who reportedly will go relatively unchanged (save for his name) is Ólafur, who's practically the embodiment of This Loser Is You, being a complete loser who finds that being thrown into prison is an improvement on his life. The writer of the original show remarked that he's unsurprised that Ólafur will be relatively "unpolluted" because he's "the American dream in the flesh".
- Gordon Ramsey first appeared on American shores as the cantankerous chef on Hell's Kitchen, making American Idol's Simon Cowell look like a pacifist in comparison. A few years later, Fox made a remake of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, but compared to the more docile, level headed British version, Fox forced Ramsey to act as chaotic as he did in Hell's Kitchen. As a result, the Fox remake feels really artificial and bombastic. Many viewers prefer the British original for this reason.
- They appear to have learned their lesson with the American version of Master Chef.
- Seeing as how many Americans can get BBC and they air the original uncensored version anyway, it seems kinda pointless that FOX even made a remake....
- Played for laughs on Two and a Half Men. Charlie is hired to write the Theme Tune for the American version of an anime Jake likes, and initially he makes a cheesy song that sounds like an advertising Jingle. Jake agrees to study for a test in exchange for Charlie studying up on the show and writing a better song. When the show finally airs, its theme song is...the same Jingle from before, because as Charlie explains to a mortified Jake, the executives liked it better.
- Possibly a subversion, as when Charlie put his mind to it, the song he wrote was accurate and powerful to a fan like Jake, thereby throwing all the blame on the executives.
- The wildlife documentary series Life was narrated by renowned British naturalist and presenter Sir David Attenborough. He also wrote the script. This is also the version shown in Canada and Australia. For the US version, they replaced his narration with the voice of Oprah Winfrey and changed the script "to suit an American audience".
- MTV is doing this with Skins.
- Not to be confused with the similarly named "Skin", about a police chief's son and a pornographer's daughter.
- Icelandic children's program LazyTown underwent a massive overhaul when it hit American shores. For example: the town itself was made brighter and more colorful, most of the live-action characters were turned into cute puppets (and some were gotten rid of alltogether), Sportacus was changed from an Elf to a superhero, and so on. While the show still retains some of it's weird/strange foreigness, its got nothing on the original Icelandic plays.
- Showtime is doing a twofer, premiering their version of Shameless the same night as Episodes, which deals with this subject in a Show Within a Show where a venerable British actor playing a wise headmaster is replaced by Matt "Joey" Lablanc as a wiseass football coach. Currently, Episodes is getting good reviews while Shameless is being described as "like the original, but minus everything that made the characters likable."
- The new FOX sitcom Mixed Signals is actually an example of this done to an Israeli sitcom named Traffic Light. The characters became less caricature-ish (for one, the one with the girlfriend was originally a choreographer who directed workers of medium-size businesses, using silly names for various dance moves), the show became more plot-focused than joke-focused, conservative values of marriage and whatnot got more emphasis, a fourth dead friend was added(?!), and, obviously, the plot was moved from Tel-Aviv to the States.
- The American version of "In Treatment" actually won just as many awards as the Original Israeli version.
Music
- Compare the Lyrics of Busted's original version of "What I Go To School For" with The Jonas Brother's cover which not only is laden with references to the American High School system not present in the original British song but also is about a Freshman crushing on a Senior, whereas the original was about a boy crushing on his teacher (and getting her despite her being 33!).
- Americans haven't been hot for teacher since 1984.
- Also compare the Busted (original) version of "Year 3000" with The Jonas Brothers' version, which exchanges the word "pretty" with the word "doing", "Michael Jackson" with "Kelly Clarkson" and removes all reference to naked, triple-breasted women. Presumably this was done to make it more suitable for children (see Disneyfication), even though the original version was already a song marketed to a fan-base composed mainly of young girls.
- The average Jonas Brothers fan probably hasn't seen Total Recall, so this kind of makes sense.
- And Stoo.
- It's a bad sign when a Busted song has to be toned down.
- This is packaging rather than content, but it still fits: Capitol Records' treatment of the pre-Revolver Beatles catalogue. Rather than just release the British albums as-is, they hacked them to pieces, sometimes crowding songs from three different British albums onto the same disc, then gave them really lame titles (The Beatles' Second Album, Beatles '65, Something New), and content-free liner notes that were obviously written by someone who hadn't actually heard the album. Then, to make matters worse, Capitol felt the need to remix the songs, mostly by adding tons of echo and eliminating a lot of the low end. The Capitol mix of "I Feel Fine" makes it sound like the song was recorded in a public lavatory with the mics set up outside the door. While it's not true that the "butcher" cover of Yesterday and Today was the lads' Take That to Capitol, no one would have blamed them if it were.
- Surprisingly, the American version of Rubber Soul was as well-received as its British counterpart, due to the executives' decision to make every song on the album sound folksy. Some, such as Brian Wilson, prefer it to the British version
- And then there's the surprising inversion: The British version of Magical Mystery Tour was a double-EP and a wash, while the LP American version is not only generally considered better but also definitive. It helps that the American LP included the band's 1967-68 singles (including "Strawberry Fields", "Penny Lane" and "Hello Goodbye"), which are frequently ranked among some of their best songs ever.
- If the CD re-issues had not included the US "album" of The Magical Mystery Tour, all of the tracks therein would have ended up on an additional Beatles - Past Masters CD (which were created to account for all the original non-album tracks in The Beatles' catalogue). As all the tracks are from 1967 singles (regular and EP), the songs would have been clustered together on one disc regardless. Using the US version allowed for a simple solution using a familiar track listing. The UK audience effectively gets The Magical Mystery Tour E Ps on CD with period-appropriate bonus tracks and the US audience gets the US "album".
- Similar catalogue renovations were done for many sixties rock bands, including The Rolling Stones. Their debut album was even retitled England's Newest Hitmakers for the American market.
- In another example of packaging, consider the case of the humble Gummib? His original 30-second video was a big hit and translated into several different languages (the one linked to being in the original Hungarian). Of course, when the extended mix was released, the video consisted largely of recycled footage from the original as well as bouncing around in a car in Hollywood, using gestures more appropriate for rap videos, dancing on a desert ranch in a ten-gallon hat (and later in Hollywood with the same hat), performing in a stadium concert, skateboarding on a half-pipe and in city streets, riding a mechanical bull, and venturing from the Eiffel Tower to the top of the Statue of Liberty. Much of this is repeated ad nauseum in no particular order.
- Likewise with the music of Basshunter. In the original Swedish, his songs were creative nerd fare, with lyrics about IRC bots and staying up all night playing DotA. When translated into English, they became standard lyrically-deficient post-breakup songs that happened to share the same melodies. Contrast "Boten Anna" (Anna the Bot) with "Now You're Gone", as shown here.
- A Dutch translation of "Boten Anna" was also made, only it is about a boat.
- The US version of BT's Movement in Still Life album was heavily edited by replacing four of the trance and breakbeat songs with four rock/hip-hop hybrids designed to cater to American college rock. The rest of the record had a different running order and was edited severely, taking out 17 minutes of music. The UK also got a bonus disc for a limited time which isn't available on US iTunes either, so you need a UK credit card to buy it legally.
- Inverted with the US version of Ima, which included the extra tracks "Poseidon", "Embracing the Sunshine", and "Blue Skies", as well as unmixed versions of "Embracing the Future", "Deeper Sunshine", and "Loving You More", which on the UK version were only available as part of the "Voyage of Ima" megamix.
- The differences between the original Australian '70s AC/DC albums and the later American releases, where tracks are rearranged, placed on different albums, inexplicably edited, or dropped altogether, are astounding. James Rolfe has you covered on that angle.
Physical Goods
- Ford managed to do this and avert it with the Fiesta; the just-launched USDM version has a somewhat tacked-on looking chrome grille....on the sedan model only. The hatchback (which someone who's into European-type cars will likely gravitate toward anyway) looks all-but identical to the car Jeremy Clarkson used for an amphibious assault. Considering the vehicular Macekre the US Focus has become in its' latest version, the sighs of relief were loud indeed.
Theater
- When Gilbert and Sullivan went to the United States in 1879 to produce an authorized version of H.M.S. Pinafore (and there were many unauthorized American productions given the state of international copyright law back then), one producer suggested Americanizing it and changing the title to "U.S.S. Pinafore". Gilbert replied to this suggestion by offering a sarcastic rewrite of the lyrics of "He Is An Englishman":
He is American!
Though he himself has said it,
'Tis not much to his credit,
That he is American.
For he might have been a Dutchman,
An Irish, Scotch or such man,
Or perhaps an Englishman!
But in spite of hanky-panky,
He remains a true-born Yankee,
A cute American.
- The Broadway version of Chess changed the ending, apparently without the approval of Tim Rice, to have the Russian player throw the final game to his American opponent, causing the crowd to break out in pro-American cheering. (In the original version, the American stopped playing chess altogether after losing in the first match, and the Russian went on to defeat another Russian.) The rewritten script also changed Florence from a naturalized Brit (hitherto played by Elaine Paige) to a naturalized American (played by Judy Kuhn), though still born in Hungary.
- The Full Monty musical had its setting moved from Sheffield to Buffalo for no particular reason. However, the plot, characters, and themes remained exactly the same, so it's a bit of a wash. If nothing else, it saved audiences from hearing a few inevitably lousy accents.
- The movie version of The Smurfs takes a Belgian cartoon that has the characters(probably) living in Belgium and literally just drops them in New York.
- And they take Colombian actress Sofia Vergara and via Americanization make her character a Mexican American because that's basically the only kind of Hispanics that Hollywood knows.
Video Games
- The Sonic the Hedgehog games could easily get away with renaming the villain "Robotnik" for the American releases. This was made more difficult when the word "Eggman" started appearing in the games themselves...
- Clock Tower: Ghost Head suffered big time. All that was done was name changes, like Yuu becoming Alyssa (causing problems when the next game had a protagonist named Alyssa) or Shou becoming Bates. The setting, however, while changed from Osaka to San Francisco, looked exactly the same: the first house you explore is very Japanese, the hospital you visit has signs in it written in Japanese, and the whole thing takes place during a endless thunder storm. Storms are normal occurrences for Japan during the summer, but they would be very rare for San Francisco.
- The Ace Attorney Series. All the names are anglicized, some of the names are changed to maintain certain Japanese puns. Most notably the main character's family name Naruhodou (from naruhodo meaning "I understand") is changed to Wright (phonetically sounding like "Right"). The setting is changed from an unnamed Japanese city to Los Angeles. Aside from the fact that Maya/Mayoi wears Japanese style clothing (explained as part of her odd profession) it's not really noticeable. Interestingly enough for the musical (yes, there is a musical) they opted to use the American name for the main character atleast.
- The changing of names is somewhat justified as some of the original Japanese names had clues regarding the cases. It would've been unfair if the English version didn't also include these clues.
- In the first Trauma Center game, all names were changed to English, and the series was relocated to "Angeles Bay", California. However, just about everything else remains the same.
- However there was a problem when a game came out that, even in the Japanese version, was set in the United States. Suddenly characters from the previous games are from Japan, and have always been, without an explanation.
- Similarly, the Ace Attorney series was also moved to California. Though, like most other changes, few really have a problem with it.
- After years of remaining Japan-only, the Pop'N Music series recently got this treatment with Beat 'N Groovy. It's gone over much less well than the above-mentioned Elite Beat Agents, at least in part because Pop'N Music was never impenetrably Japanese in the same way, so replacing the cast with more "Americanized" counterparts comes across as little more than a giant middle finger towards fans.
- Spelling out this example, Beat has only 9 songs, the hardest being a still-easy level 3 song, only 3- and 5-buttons modes (due to the game utilizing the 360 controller instead of a proprietary one, since not everyone wants to shell 200+ USD on an arcade-sized controller or even 50 on a controller for a game they've never heard of), and instead of using the more recognizable Pop'n Music characters, it instead uses new characters that many believe look bland and ugly compared to Pop'n 's characters. It makes the North American PS2 release of beatmania IIDX look as good as its Japanese counterparts.
- In Mega Man Battle Network 3, a family of NPCs is always talking about the game of gin rummy they're playing — when they're really playing is obviously mahjong. Similarly, Battle Network 6 identifies Dex's homepage with a "chess piece" which is from shogi (Japanese chess) and thus looks nothing like a Western chess piece.
- This, again, is somewhat understandable. Most people describe shogi as "Japanese chess". That being said, they probably didn't see much of a point in calling it "Japanese chess" when they could just call it "chess". Of course, it also doesn't help that technically "Japan" doesn't exist within the game's world (though Akihara/Electopia is clearly based on Japan). Calling something "Japanese chess" in a game with no Japan doesn't make much more sense.
- A great number of console games that are produced in Japan or Europe and released in North America get horrific box art slapped on instead of the often-excellent originals. Ico is probably the best example of this problem with the Japanese box art depicting the lonely mission in beautiful watercolour paint, while the NA release has some goofy action shot of the protagonist swinging away at one of the shadows. Seems to be a justified case of Executive Meddling and Viewers Are Goldfish.
- Dance Dance Revolution, hands down. It has more popular songs; remade ones and originals (sometimes both), than ANY of the other Bemani games. Only until Universe 3 (a console release that was released 10 years after the first game) did Konami decide to have some of their regulars make more original songs for DDR. Considering that DDR is the only game in their Bemani series of games to be released outside of Japan, it's rather unfair to the fans outside of Japan that wouldn't like to hack an ITG machine just to play songs by Beatmania artists.
- The North American arcade game Bust-A-Move Again is the regional name for Puzzle Bobble 2, but the iconic bubble dragons Bub and Bob have been replaced by hand sprites. The hand sprites were not in any release of the first Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move. Thankfully they kept Bub and Bob in the console/portable releases of PB2/BAM2 due to probable Canon Discontinuity... except the US release of Taito Legends 2. Please read this article for more info.
- Apparently this is why Disaster is not getting released in the US.
- A minor case occurs in Strange Journey. Interviews with the dev team have noted that the setting was originally Tokyo, the traditional setting for the Mega Ten games, but moved to the region neutral Antarctica because of the series's increasing number of western fans.
- Averted in Pump It Up; nearly every Korean pop song appears in both the Korean and international releases.
- The Japanese releases of the Giga Wing series use kanji to separate digits in the freaking huge scores that players often get. The non-Japanese versions lack any kind of digit separators (not even commas), making reading scores in those versions a little trickier.
- The Tokyo Xtreme Racer series (known as Shutokou Battle in Japan) changes all units from metric (the system used in many non-American countries, Japan included) to U.S. units. In other words, you're using miles and miles per hour in Japan. Tokyo Xtreme Racer 0 / Shutokou Battle 0 takes this further: most opponents, instead of bearing Japanese names, now have Western names, resulting in Tokyo's street racing scene being comprised of an unusual number of Western racers.
- Worse, one of the games became Unwinnable because they forgot to adjust the points/credits required to face one of the opponents.
- Police 911: In the Japanese version, you start in Tokyo, then travel to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. In the US version, it's the other way around, in addition to the stages being in a slightly different order. The US version has at least one exclusive stage (the warehouse, I think), though.
- The DiRT games have been accused of this by the more traditionalist Colin McRae Rally fans. If anything, they're certainly a much more Lighter and Softer Spin-Off of the original series (especially in the case of the second installment).
- In Pocky & Rocky 2, all of the names were changed to Western ones, references to Japanese folklore are changed (Momotaro became "Captain Peach", for example), Pocky's Ofuda and Gohei are called "magic cards" and a "magic wand", and the kanji on said cards are replaced with hearts (though the giant kanji in Bomber Bob's throw attack was left intact). It's still a relatively minor example, as the hearts were the only visual change and everything still looks and feels very Japanese.
- Tecmo's 1st Captain Tsubasa is translated into Tecmo Cup Soccer Game upon exporting. It features blondes and non-Japaneses who represent a strangely named national team instead of Japan.
- As a form of Cultural Translation most Rhythm Games change the songs languages to fit the localizations region. For games like Donkey Konga this works, but games like pop'n music.. Not so much.
- The WiiWare game known as Everyone's Pokemon Ranch in Japan was changed to My Pokémon Ranch for the international release due to the U.S.A.'s far more individualized culture.
Web Original
Western Animation
- Winx Club, an Italian cartoon series, has two English dubs: one that is pretty much faithful to the original (and available on the Italian DVD's), and the American one, which is strongly changed, reordering scenes, bowdlerising plots, and requiring the Magical Girl protagonists to recite nursery rhymes to perform their magic.
- Cinelume is even worse, with references added to Six Flags, Facebook, and the like. Pop culture references are rampant.
- Keep in mind, while there are a few changes in the 4kids dub, it is rarely due to cultural reasons (for one, 4kids still has the girls go to a disco in one episode).
- The American dub of the French series Code Lyoko avoids falling into this trap, mostly by removing all spoken references to the show's setting. The animation itself is unchanged, thus keeping the show pretty firmly in France.
- In the episode "Guided Missile", Jérémie gave the geographic coordinates of the fighter plane he was trapped in (N 47° 43' 13", E 01° 34' 45", Heading 042°).
- Other episodes involve a satellite zooming in on the hero's location. Funnily enough, they're in France.
- At another point in the show, one of the characters flips what is very clearly a €1 coin up at the camera.
- Sit Down, Shut Up is adapted from an Australian live action Sitcom, apparently with the help of the character designer for Code Name Kids Next Door. If it sounds a bit like Summer Heights High The Animated Series it's because both shows share a writer.
- The American animated adaptation of Street Fighter, being a pseudo continuation of the live-action movie, also had Guile as the main character, although later episodes would focus more on the franchise's iconic duo of Ryu and Ken. Even then, Ken (the American half of the pair) would often get the most attention in these episodes, to the point that he was the only character in the TV series to actually defeat Akuma in a one-on-one battle.
- Parodied in the "Reincarnation" episode of Futurama, where the final segment was done in the style of a badly-translated anime. In particular, one shot depicting a distinctly East Asian temple (clearly based on Kinkaku-ji) had a Japanese kanji caption at the bottom of the screen covered by "OMAHA, NEBRASKA".
Non-American Examples
Anime & Manga
- Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z is this process in reverse — an anime remake of a Western cartoon.
- This is a particularly special case, as The Powerpuff Girls was already translated and shown on the Japanese Cartoon Network prior to its creation. The DPPGZ OST comes with some supplementary materials that show some of the original designs, which were almost universally much more like the original series — the girls and the mayor especially before their facelifts. The look of the villains is more faithful, perhaps because they already resembled goofy kid show baddies.
- Ironically, the English dub of this ended up getting this treatment. Including making Snake a girl.
- There's also a Singapore English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh!. The quality is inconsistent (for example, they can't seem to decide whether to call Marik's right-hand man "Rishido" or "Odion") but for the most part it's much more faithful than the 4Kids version.
- The acting leaves much to be desired — Yami Yugi has No Indoor Voice, Kaiba sounds like a forty-years-old chain-smoker and the straight-up translations of Japanese Duel Monsters gameplay tends to sound stilted. The one high point is Marik Ishtar's voice, which is straight up sexy.
- The Swedish sub of Kimagure Orange Road attempted to pass the heavily stereotyped Japanese countryside as some village in Skåne — the localizers insisted that it all happened in Sweden, changing all the names and stuff.
- Following in the footsteps of Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z is Stitch!, a Japanese version of Lilo & Stitch: The Series. Most notably, the original's Hawaiian setting is transplanted over to Okinawa, and Lilo is replaced by a new girl named Yuna. (Interesting in that a significant portion of the people who live in Hawai'i are ethnically Japanese.) Extra points go to it for replacing Bleach in its time slot.
- Early examples of the Dutch Pokémon dub introduced the euro system to the currency world. Mind you this was YEARS before the euro was introduced as currency in the Dutch society, being late 90s and the euro entering the world as currency in 2002.
- The Hebrew dub of the anime キャッ党 忍伝 てやんでえ (Samurai Pizza Cats) was on par with, or even better than, the Japanese original, and more faithful than the American gag-dub. (Unfortunately this is limited to the first season only, as the second season was dubbed by a completely changed team — translations, voice actors — and that team completely missed the point....)
- When the City Hunter anime was dubbed to French, Ryo Saeba was renamed Nicky Larson and most of the other characters were given similar French names. The dub was actually shown on a French children program called Club Dorothee, which bowdlerised the anime by changing Larson's occupation from a hitman to a detective/bodyguard and downplaying his lecherous behavior by having Larson invite his female clients to "vegetarian restaurants" instead of love motels. Additionally, Larson never actually kills his targets; instead his gun fired "balls" which rendered his enemy unconscious.
- The french dub of Dragon Ball was rather inconsistent on the type of currency. The first time money was mentioned, it's referred to as Yen, but later instances often used Franc. Every name containing the word 'Maoh' (demon king) was changed to 'Satan', resulting in names like Satanirus (Chichi's father), Satan the Heartless (King Piccolo) and the young Satan (Piccolo junior). To balance the abundance of Satans, the one character called Satan in the original ended up as Hercule, and eventually Hercules.
- The Cloverfield prequel manga, which inserted a lot of weird pseudo-mysticism and science into the "mythos" (as it were). Near the end, its revealed the teenage protagonist is the result a cult experiment to create a human-monster hybrid; he Goes Mad From The Revelation and proceeds to start destroying Tokyo using some kind of quasi-mystical orb that is powered by emotions and is capable of controlling the monster. He's brought back to his senses by The Power of Friendship and defeats the monster by allowing it to consume him, causing it to be overwhelmed by his emotions, and sink into the sea.
Comics
- Early English translations of the Tintin comics tried to rehome the heroes away from their native Belgium. There are references to British currency, and Captain Haddock's mansion (Marlinspike Hall in English, originally Château de Moulinsart in French) is located in the fictional English county of "Marlinshire". The artwork betrays the non-English setting — cars drive on the right-hand side of the road, and police officers are seen wearing the uniforms of the Belgian Gendarmerie.
- I don't know if this is really this trope, but almost everywhere Tintin is named Tintin, but he is called Kuifje (tuft, a reference to his, well, tuft)in the dutch-speaking part of Belgium and the Netherlands. this may be because it was the first language to be translated to- hergé was a french-speaking belgian after all.
- This becomes particularly confusing in The Black Island, where Tintin travels to Britain by taking the ferry across the Channel.
- The portuguese version of Tintin in the Congo actually portrayed it as taking place in Portugal and instead of being in the Belgian Congo it was in Angola.
- Similarly, the Icelandic version of The Secret of the Unicorn briefly mentioned Tintin's address as being "Hverfisgata", an actual street in Reykjavík. This is particularly dumb since Tintin actually does visit Iceland in The Shooting Star. Thankfully, the recent Icelandic translation of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets features a clear reference to Tintin living in Bruxelles.
- Mostly averted in the Finnish editions of the Tintin books: almost all of the characters and locations retain the names used in the original Belgian comics. However, in the original Finnish translations Captain Haddock's favourite drink was given a made-up, nonsensical Finnish name, apparently because a character in a kids' comic shouldn't be drinking real alcohol. This was corrected in later editions, where Haddock promptly drinks whisky.
- Ah, Novas Aventuras de Megaman. Its writers would like you to know that Megaman is Brazilian, as is everyone else, and that the games apparently took place in Brazil. Mind you, this is only the beginning...
- There's an Indian version of Spider-Man which has an Indian version of Peter Parker augmenting his suit with traditional pants and shoes.
- This was a Marvel Miniseries, ostensibly for indian audiences, with a more indian flavor to his origin and a Rakshasa Green Goblin.
- In addition to the tokusatsu version of Spider-Man by Toei, there were also two manga versions as well. The first one, simply titled Spider-Man by Ryoichi Ikegami, more or less followed the same concept as its original counterpart, and featured Japanese counterparts to Spidey's supporting cast and rogue gallery (such as Electro and the Lizard). Towards the end of the series, it started featuring more original characters and villains.
- The second was Spider-Man J, which had a decidedly more cartoony art style and stars a different Japanese Spider-Man named Sho Amano.
- In 1966, when the Batman TV series was about to begin showing on Japanese television, Jiro Kuwata was commissioned to create a Batman manga series. The comics were recently reprinted in America under the title Bat-Manga and one of the series' original villains - "Lord Death Man" - has appeared in American comic Batman Incorporated.
- Douglas Adams regretted, until the end of his life, losing an argument with the American producers of the graphic novel version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In this most English of science-fiction stories, spelling and idioms were changed to American English throughout.
- The first translation of Astérix moved the village from Armorica to the Rhine, and and heavily referenced German politics of the time (1965-66). It was received badly all around, the publisher lost the rights after four volumes, and the current translation is closer to the original.
Films — Live Action
Live Action TV
- VRAK.TV in Canada copied much of Red Dwarf's mojo in their Dans une galaxie près de chez vous, and it was actually pretty good. The writers had the good sense to focus on the "atmosphere" of the original and the components that made it funny, and then translate those features instead of dialogue. Thus, where Dwarf lampshades the heck out of working-class English society, DUG does the same with Québécois society. In other words, the jokes are the same and completely different at the same time. Best example: the helmsman steers the ship with a 1970s-era deep-dish steering wheel.
- The Japanese Spider-Man toku series, which had a version of Spidey who got Power Rangers-style transform-into-suit powers from a dying alien and could summon a giant robot to fight People in Rubber Suits.
- It gets better. The Japanese Spider-Man was the first Tokusatsu show to have the hero summon a Giant Robot! This element was so popular that it was incorporated into every Super Sentai show from that point forward (the earliest sentai, such as Go Ranger and JAKQ, had no robot). In addition, the Japanese version of Peter Parker was not a geeky photographer, but instead a pro motorcyclist, presumably to capitalize on the popularity of Kamen Rider. Ahh, the seventies!
- Two French-language sitcoms have been inspired by The Office: one in France, and one in Quebec.
- The Office was also redone as Stromberg in Germany, set in an insurance company. The creators of The Office were not pleased when they found out. Until, that is, they got credit and royalties.
- There is a Chilean version now, as well as possible Russian and Indian ones.
- Law & Order: UK uses plots taken directly from the original US show, but often changes the endings, and a few plot points, to reflect British sensibilities. Oddly, it often removes ambiguities that exist in the original show, and adds messages, usually anvilicious ones. Sometimes, due to the fact that it is illegal to own a gun in the UK, any time there is a gun crime in the US version, something else must be substituted, which is usually much less dramatic. It is also currently recycling plots from the first season, which are 20 years old, without updating the investigative techniques, even though the US show evolved over its run to include better use of scientific forensic investigation, and more extensive use of the lab, and the medical examiner (even before CSI premiered).
- There's also a Russian version of SVU.
- And a French version of CI, an official spin-off of the franchise. Which doesn't stop the original Law & Order: Criminal Intent to also be aired in France dubbed.
- La Chica de Ayer (Yesterday's Girl), a Spanish remake of Life on Mars.
- And the upcoming Italian version 29 Settembre (September 29th).
- A few of Italy's most famous serials, like Un Medico In Famiglia and I Cesaroni are adaptations of Spanish formats (the aforementioned two are based respectively on Medico De Familia and Los Serranos). Italian procedural RIS (an acronym which means Reparto Investigazione Scientifica', Scientific Investigation Department, a Department in the Carabinieri, a branch of Italian police) is based on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (though manages the personal aspect better) and was itself redone in France, Spain and Germany.
- The IT Crowd was horribly redone in Germany, and cancelled after the second episode, which you can easily understand after watching this comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiAqfGSDDLQ
- More questionable German remakes: Who's the Boss? as Ein Job fürs Leben and Married... with Children as Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt! which even took over the original scripts and all of the dialogs from the German dub.
- The BBC partly re-dubbed the Icelandic children's program LazyTown, with British voice actors speaking for puppet characters originally voiced by Americans. However, the human characters' American and Icelandic accents were untouched. Additionally, they seem to have left them all alone for LazyTown Entertainment/BBC co-production LazyTown Extra.
- On the other hand, all the characters in Clifford the Big Red Dog, including Clifford himself, were redubbed with British actors, leaving Clifford's Really Big Movie as the only time UK viewers will have heard Clifford talking like John Ritter.
- Similarly, Oswald doesn't sound like Kevin Arnold on British airings.
- And Darby from My Friends Tigger And Pooh does not have the voice of Chloe Moretz in the UK.
- British satellite channel UK Gold (which mostly runs BBC sitcom repeats) made a series of joke adverts consisting of supposed foreign remakes of their fare. For example, The Royle Family was Americanized as The Royale Family (white trailer trash instead of council sink estate), Only Fools And Horses had a Japanese remake called Only Fools Eat Horses where the Uncle Albert analogue was an extremely unsuccessful kamikaze pilot, The Vicar of Dibley had an Australian adaptation called The Flying Vicar of Dibleroo, and so forth.
- The BBC is interested in remaking the CBC's quirky Being Erica and (obviously) placing it in a British setting.
- Yes Minister got two remakes, the Canadian Not My Department and the Indian Ji Mantriji (literally "Yes Minister" in Hindi). The transplant could have worked, given that both countries basically use the British Political System, but neither version lasted more than a season.
- As noted on Japanese Political System, we are awaiting the manga version, with the Hacker-equivalent being a member of the DPJ.
- A few Monty Python's Flying Circus sketches were redone by the German comedy duo of Harald Juhnke and Eddi Arent. The one sketch about the difficult book shop customer gets a justification tacked on: Because the salesman's mother owns the shop and has threatened him that she'll disinherit him and give the shop to his brother if he doesn't manage to sell at least one book - that's the explanation why he puts up with the customer neither being able to pay the book nor to read it. And the famous "Dead Parrot" sketch becomes... brace yourself... upped to eleven (this was probably the intention) with the dead parrot replaced by a plush parrot. And at the end, when the customer points out that the "parrot" he bought is "just a toy", the salesman states philosophically "Aren't we all but God's toys, somehow?", turning around and revealing that he's a wind-up android.
- The British Remake of Top Model, comparing the first seasons, shows the American one as far superior. The British Top Model felt more contrived, had less model-types, and a model who would have been booted off immediately in USA's version, didn't even get put in the bottom two in the British version.
- Face it, American women (including Canadians) are just hotter.
- Averted in the British Wallander series which is based on the Swedish crime novels written by Henning Mankell. The characters speak English but the series is filmed in Sweden, and it is actually following the books rather well.
- Korean and Chinese dramas in the Philippines are usually aired with the characters' names changed to Western names like "Jenny" and "Johnny", presumably so that it's easier for the dubbers to pronounce and for the audience to identify the characters. If the title contains the name of a character (e.g. "My Name is Kim Sam Soon"), however, the name of that character is retained. It is jarring, though, to hear one character going by a Korean name while the rest of the characters have Western names.
- ITV remade Maude, Good Times, The Golden Girls, Married... with Children, Mad About You, That '70s Show, and Who's the Boss? for British audiences as Nobody's Perfect (this version also starred an American, Elaine Stritch), The Fosters, Brighton Belles, Married For Life, Loved By You, Days Like These, and The Upper Hand respectively - and except for the last named, they all bombed.
- The Aforementioned BeTipul aside from the US version (In Treatment), also got Various European versions: Netherlands' In therapie, Romania's În Derivă, Serbia's Na terapiji, and more are rumoured.
Mythology
Video Games
- House of the Dead: Overkill can be considered an Americanitis spin-off done right. The original series (at least the first two parts of it) consisted of English VAs literally reading Engrish text, loads of "satanic" and Tarot Motifs, and a lot of zombies in jeans walking shirtless... For dessert, it got its inspiration from horror B-movies. Overkill... makes it even more of a B-movie, except it get inspirations from places where the original series didn't. Namely, the Grindhouse films. The Mutants now include a foul-mouthed two-headed beast, an extremely loud girl who holds an uncanny physical resemblance to the ghost from Chakushin Ari (to the extent that Caesar fed his phone to her), bloody nurses and, of course, a cussy prison warden called Clement MOTHERFUCKING Darling. Add a film grain and everything (well, almost everything) Grindhouse had, and you get Overkill. And all this was developed by the British company Headstrong Games.
- The Japanese version of Police Quest redraws the game to make everyone look like Anime characters.
Webcomics
Western Animation
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