History Main / ImportationExpansion

* Toho's {{Bigfoot}} movie ''Jû jin yuki otoko'' was brought to the US as ''Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman'', with over 40 minutes cut and and scenes added of John Carradine and other American actors spouting TechnoBabble and (in a rather [[{{Squick}} squicky]] scene) dissecting one of the monsters.

* The UrExample of this trope is probably ''GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters'', the American version of ''Film/{{Gojira}}'', which was completely re-edited to tell the story from the perspective of [[PerryMason Raymond Burr]] as [[HilariousInHindsight Steve Martin]], a foreign correspondent who had been following the story. Notable for actually being very well done, as far as these things go, with considerable care taken to match the Burr footage and the original film.

* ''VRTroopers''

* ''[[{{Gamera}} Gammera the Invincible]]''

* The GodfreyHoNinjaMovies. Godfrey Ho was pretty much the king of this - by his own account he made about 40-50 movies this way. He and producer Joseph Lai would buy up the rights to various 70s/80s Asian films which would usually be unmarketable elsewhere, shoot about 15 minutes of original footage with Western actors (usually as TechnicolorNinjas) then attempt to tie the whole thing together into an vaguely coherent plot via a HongKongDub. Needless to say this was [[SoBadItsGood usually unsuccessful]].

* The GodfreyHoNinjaMovies. Godfrey Ho was pretty much the king of this - by his own account he made about 40-50 movies this way. He and producer Joseph Lai would buy up the rights to various 70s/80s Asian films which would usually be unmarketable elsewhere, shoot about 15 minutes of original footage with Western actors (usually as HighlyVisibleNinja) then attempt to tie the whole thing together into an vaguely coherent plot via a HongKongDub. Needless to say this was [[SoBadItsGood usually unsuccessful]].

* Godfrey Ho was pretty much the king of this - by his own account he made about 40-50 movies this way. He and producer Joseph Lai would buy up the rights to various 70s/80s Asian films which would usually be unmarketable elsewhere, shoot about 15 minutes of original footage with Western actors (usually as HighlyVisibleNinja) then attempt to tie the whole thing together into an vaguely coherent plot via a HongKongDub. Needless to say this was [[SoBadItsGood usually unsuccessful]].

* The UrExample of this trope is probably ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', the American version of ''{{Gojira}}'', which was completely re-edited to tell the story from the perspective of [[PerryMason Raymond Burr]] as [[HilariousInHindsight Steve Martin]], a foreign correspondent who had been following the story. Notable for actually being very well done, as far as these things go, with considerable care taken to match the Burr footage and the original film.
* The second Godzilla film, ''Godzilla Raids Again'' (released in the United States as ''[[MarketBasedTitle Gigantis the Fire Monster]]''), managed to avoid this, suffering only the addition of considerable amounts of StockFootage. However, it was almost turned into a film called ''The Volcano Monsters'' that would have been a prime example of this trope. Read about it [[http://www.tohokingdom.com/web_pages/lost_projects/volcano_monsters.htm here]].
* ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'' had scenes with "U.N. News Reporters" talking about whatever had previously occurred.
* ''Godzilla 1985'', in keeping with its status as a direct sequel to the original film, had Raymond Burr reprise his role as Steve Martin, as well as product placement-laden scenes where American military personnel crack wise about Godzilla.

* ''Varan the Unbelievable'' was subjected to a particularly extreme case of this. Its American version was completely rewritten around newly shot American footage with Myron Healey. ''Varan'' is an excellent example of a film that ended up ''shorter'' despite its ImportationExpansion; the original Japanese version runs 87 minutes, while the American version, despite adding 40 minutes of newly shot footage, runs only 70 minutes.

A subtrope of CutAndPasteTranslation. Compare to the PALBonus of video games.

A subtrope of CutAndPasteTranslation. Compare to the PALBonus of videogames.

* The Soviet animated film ''TheSnowQueen'' had a live-action prologue added featuring Art Linkletter "reading" the original story to some children.

[[AC:Eastern Animation]]
* The [[EasternAnimation Soviet animated]] film ''TheSnowQueen'' had a live-action prologue added featuring Art Linkletter "reading" the original story to some children.

[[AC:Western Animation]]

* Albums released in Japan usually have Bonus Tracks, a lyric booklet in Japanese and an exclusive Obi Strip. This is to justify the high cost of new CDs (and previously vinyl records) in Japan. Record companies quickly discovered this was a lucrative business and albums in Australia and the UK often have bonus tracks as well (albeit without the additional booklet and obi strip). It rarely happens in the US and mainland Europe, but has been known to on occasion.

A subtrope of CutAndPasteTranslation. Related to {{Americanitis}}. Compare to the PALBonus of videogames.

* When ''Journey to the Beginning of Time'' was released in the United States, it got an entirely new beginning for the film. The new footage featured lookalike actors (carefully shot to avoid showing their faces) going to the [[{{Americanitis}} New York Museum of Natural History and taking a boat ride in Central Park]] before segueing to the original Czech footage.

* The 4th ''Pokemon'' film, Celebi: The Voice of the Forest added three scenes to the English version. Two of them [[ViewersAreMorons served to over-explain a plot point in the story]]. The other was a comedic Team Rocket scene that served no purpose to the plot.

* When [[RogerCorman New World Pictures]] picked up the rights to the disaster epic ''Japan Sinks'', they cut it down by 40 minutes, added scenes of [[{{Bonanza}} Lorne Greene]] sitting at a desk, and released the resulting mess as the [[SoBadItsHorrible legendarily awful]] ''Tidal Wave''.

* The 4th ''Pokemon'' film, Celebi: The Voice of the Forest added three scenes to the English version. Two of them [[ViewersAreMorons served to over-explain a plot point in the story]]. t\The other was a comedic Team Rocket scene that served no purpose to the plot.

* The 4th ''Pokemon'' film, Celebi: The Voice of the Forest added three scenes to the English version. Two of them [[ViewersAreMorons served to over-explain a plot point in the story]] the other was a comedic Team Rocket scene that served no purpose to the plot.

* Godfrey Ho

* The main 4th ''Pokemon'' film, Celebi: The Voice of the Forest added three scenes to the English version. Two of them [[ViewersAreMorons served to over-explain a plot point in the story]] the other was a comedic Team Rocket scene that served no purpose to the plot.

* ''FraggleRock'' - various markets (including the UK, which didn't redub the Fraggles) had their own version of Doc. They all had Sprocket, though.

* The Soviet animated film ''TheSnowQueen'' had a live-action prologue added featuring Art Linkletter "reading" the original story to some children.

* ''Horror of the Blood Monsters'' also has the distinction of being 3 movies merged into one.