Cultural Translation: Difference between revisions

** This is quite common in advertising. The same thing happens in Ireland with British ads.

** The same in Switzerland, where advertisements originally from Germany (and in Standard German) are often redubbed to Alemannic German.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* 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.

 

* The [[Neil Gaiman]] novel ''[[Coraline (novel)|Coraline]]'', in its adaption to [[Coraline (animation)|film]], has been remodeled from an England-based storyline to one based in the United States.

* In ''[[Fantastic Mr. Fox]]'' the animal characters are all played by Americans - but the setting is still in the English countryside. Presumably this is a form of [[Translation Convention]] for [[Talking Animal]]s. Interestingly, [[Evil Brit|the human villains are English accented]].

* In the Japanese version of ''[[Inside Out]]'', green peppers are being fed to Riley, who hates them, while in the Western version, it was broccoli… a favorite among Japanese children.

* In one ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'', Buzz has the American flag behind him during one of his speech, while in the international it’s the planet Earth.

* The American sub of ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]'' replaced an offhand reference to two beautiful lovers Chinese mythology with Paris and Helen of Troy. The sub script is Woolseyed in other areas as well, while the dub is more straightforward, including keeping the reference to Xiaolongnu. The French dub preferred the less subtle Romeo and Juliet.

* A rare example in which only cultural references were changed. In the European versions of ''[[Demolition Man]]'', all references to Taco Bell were re-dubbed as Pizza Hut, due to Taco Bell's relatively small foreign penetration.

* The [[Live Action Adaptation|live-action film version]] of ''[[Street Fighter (film)|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 American|fake a convincing American accent]] if his life depended on it.

** The fact that the [[Big Bad]] is called "M.Bison" is this trope plain and true.

* ''[[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 [[Real Life Writes the Plot|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.

* 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 Wachowskis]]' [[Speed Racer (film)|2008 big-screen version]] of ''[[Speed Racer]]'' is with Occidental actors (mostly American and British) as the characters.

* The American film, ''[[Three Men and a Baby]]'', was based on the French film, ''Three Men and a Cradle''.

* 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.

 

== Literature ==

* After [http://nesztelencsiga.hu/archives/2009/07/15/megint_konyv_sot_Pratchett/ some deliberation on her blog], one of the Hungarian translators of [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novels decided to translate the name of the character Susan to Hungarian ''Zsuzsa''. This hasn't met with universal approval among fans, some of whom pointed out that Sto Helit (where Susan is from) was so obviously unlike Hungary that giving her a Hungarian name was jarring. To be fair, the translator really made a heroic effort to get most of the puns translated, and leaving Susan's name alone would have displeased the other half of the fandom.

* The Spanish language versions of Lee Iacocca's books ''Iacocca: An Autobiography'' and ''Talking Straight'' also do this, but to [[Blind Idiot Translation|retarded levels:]] All the references about American-style football are replaced as ''American Rugby'' (since the translators [[Viewers are Morons|thought that Spanish-speaking audiences would not know what American-style football is.]])

** Not to mention the translation of those books are the Spanish-language version of [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe]], despise the books ''not being fiction literature and not taking taking place in the Middle Ages or Ancient Times.''

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Translation Tropes]]

[[Category:Localization Tropes]]