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MichaelKatsuro Since: Apr, 2011
8th Mar, 2021 12:18:08 PM

Aren't these technically two movies, then?

Edited by MichaelKatsuro
Zuxtron (On A Trope Odyssey)
8th Mar, 2021 12:19:41 PM

^ Maybe, but if they're both identical aside from a handful of scenes, it's not worth giving them two pages.

laserviking42 Since: Oct, 2015
8th Mar, 2021 12:20:16 PM

IMDB redirects Too Cool For Christmas to A Very Cool Christmas as the official title.

I didn't choose the troping life, the troping life chose me
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
8th Mar, 2021 12:21:23 PM

^^ Right. There's zero point to make two pages for the same exact movie, where the only difference is if it's gay or not. The parents aren't major characters or anything; they're just sort if in a few scenes.

^ Huh...interesting.

Edited by WarJay77 Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
mightymewtron Since: Oct, 2012
8th Mar, 2021 12:54:21 PM

Pokémon: The Movie Black/White has a similar situation going on. Maybe it should be "Too Cool For Christmas and A Very Cool Christmas"?

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Synchronicity MOD (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
8th Mar, 2021 01:35:36 PM

Pokemon BW was marketed as two complementary films from the beginning... hmm. I guess since both are in English, either one would be acceptable. Just note the alternate version in the description and keep the alternate title as a redirect.

MichaelKatsuro Since: Apr, 2011
8th Mar, 2021 01:50:59 PM

About that Pokemon thing—do the movies use the same footage, at any point? Or is it completely different frames? Or is it some of them that are similar but slightly edited?

Twiddler MOD (On A Trope Odyssey)
8th Mar, 2021 05:34:28 PM

According to this article:

But according to Irvin, the filmmakers didn’t create two versions of the same film for different audiences in Canada and the US. The director said in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he worked closely with Here TV, an American television network for LGBTQ audiences, on original content and projects. According to Irvin, Here TV didn’t have the funding to finance an entire TV movie in the same way a channel like Lifetime could because their “subscriber base was still in its infancy.” So they created two versions of the movie to help make the project financially feasible.

“The executives at these companies decided, if we could have some gay content in a movie that could run on Here TV that would satisfy our subscribers that are expecting gay content, but we could also repurpose it and do a quote-unquote straight version and try to sell that to Lifetime or those types of networks, that would be beneficial,” he said.

Both movies were filmed at the same time, back-to-back on the same set. […] While filming scenes, they would swap out Ingrid Torrance, who played Lindsay’s mom in one version, and Adam J. Harrington, who played Lindsay’s other dad in the second version.

“We would shoot a scene with the mom and the dad, and when we’d get a good take I would say, ‘Okay, let's have the mom set aside and bring in the alternate dad’ and we’d shoot another take,” Irvin said.

The director said he was approached by the producers to change some of the dialogue between the two dads so that it differed from the dialogue in the movie between the mom and the dad, but he pushed back. Irvin said he wanted “everything exactly the same” in both films.

“I'm an openly gay director and they said, ‘Why don't you tweak the dialogue for the dads to make it more gay or whatever?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely not. The whole point would be that there is no difference at all, and it shouldn’t matter.’ I wouldn’t do it.”

As planned, Too Cool For Christmas ended up airing on Here TV and A Very Cool Christmas was sold to Lifetime.

RobertTYL Since: Oct, 2019
8th Mar, 2021 05:46:45 PM

Maybe just make a page for both movies at once, and place both versions in two folders like this?

WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
8th Mar, 2021 05:51:18 PM

^ the issue is the name, not which movie to trope (since they're literally the same movie).

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
mightymewtron Since: Oct, 2012
8th Mar, 2021 06:07:52 PM

Regarding the Pokemon thing: it's almost entirely superficial differences, which seems comparable to this movie where there's only one real difference that barely affects the story.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Zyffyr Since: Apr, 2010
8th Mar, 2021 06:57:01 PM

Based on the quoted article, I would put the article at Film.Too Cool For Christmas as it was the intended version and the other only exists for marketing reasons.

Tabs MOD Since: Jan, 2001
8th Mar, 2021 07:00:00 PM

Maybe pick the name with more Google hits as the article title? (Which'll be "Too Cool for Christmas")

WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
8th Mar, 2021 07:10:53 PM

Alright, that all makes sense. It'll be Too Cool For Christmas then with the other title as a redirect.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
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