Cut and Paste Translation: Difference between revisions

Compare [[Woolseyism]] (changes are made for things that actually won't translate, and the changes are simply the most pragmatic), [[Gag Dub]] (script changes based on [[Rule of Funny]]), [[Difficulty by Region]], [[Dolled-Up Installment]].

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== Card Games ==

** Ironic, since the one with skin was a ''lot'' creepier...

*** This is due to Chinese laws prohibiting the display of bones to encourage positive behaviour in society or the like. ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has its models altered for the Chinese servers (the exposed bones on the playable Undead faction are covered with skin) and has led to problems getting the latest expansion, primarily focused on defeating a giant army of Undead, past the censors.

== Films -- Animation ==

== Literature ==

* The translation of [[The Bible]] directed by King James the 1st of England is the [[Ur Example]]. Instructions were given to the translators to make sure the translation supported the views of the Church of England.

** The King James Version wasn't [[Macekre]]d enough, apparently. For instance, the original New Testament denounces ''malakoi''. ''Malakos'' is Greek for "soft". Many Greeks saw luxury as "weakening", while spartan conditions made men strong, hence the word "spartan". It's denouncing the rich! The KJV translated it as "effeminate". 20th-century translations, being what they were, further [[Macekre]]d "effeminate" into "homosexual", keeping with [[Science Marches On|the psychiatric theories of the time]]. The Old Testament still denounces men who "lie with men [[Uke|as with women]]"; take what you will from that. Of course, many fundamentalists have no problem citing different Bibles to fit their political views, making for a ''literal'' Cut and Paste Translation.

** There's also teetotaller translations which selectively translate the same word as either "wine" or "unfermented grape juice" depending on whether the context of the rest of the line is speaking of it as pleasurable or warning against the dangers of overindulging (where "overindulging" is, for these congregations, defined as "imbibing at all").

* The German translation of Terry Pratchett's ''[[Good Omens]]'' completely omits the homosexual content about Aziraphale: "gayer than a tree full of monkeys high on nitrous oxide" becomes "whimsical (verschmitzt) as a tree full of monkeys" which doesn't really make sense. Also, Shadwell's "Southern Pansy" becomes something else entirely. It's not really clear why, because neither are those lines likely to be offensive nor is German society extra sensitive about homosexuality.

* ''[[Super Sentai]]'' to ''[[Power Rangers]]'', with the battle footage spliced into entirely new stories. The first three seasons of the latter took three completely seperate seasons of the former and reworked it into one "[[Story Arc|mega-arc]]", and the later incarnations seem to only be superficially similar to their originals, with the motives of the characters and some story elements being completely changed. Of course, ''[[Power Rangers]]'' was never intended and doesn't claim to be a dub/reenactment of its ''[[Super Sentai]]'' parent, despite borrowing suits and battle footage.

** It should also be noted that certain ''Power Rangers'' seasons have stuck decidedly close to their source material, like ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'' sticking to ''[[Mirai Sentai Timeranger]]'''s original plot or more drastically, the [[Shot for Shot Remake|Shot For Shot Remakes]] ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]'' and ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]''. Others have had varying levels of similarity, such as ''[[Gekisou Sentai Carranger]]'' into ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]'' and ''[[Denji Sentai Megaranger]]'' into ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]''. ''Carranger'' was a '''parody''' Sentai show, and ''Turbo'' suffered from many reasons on top of that footage (seriously, the Rangers were once ''[[Never Live It Down|baked into a pizza]]''); such is that Disney was wiser when adaptating the equally campy ''[[Engine Sentai Go-onger]]'' into the apocalyptic ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'', and mostly [[Lampshaded]] and moved right past some of the inescapably Go-Ongery elements (such as mech designs). ''In Space,'' on the other hand, was a drastic variation upon the ''Sentai'' version; ''Megaranger'' never even left the Earth, instead literally surfing the web!<ref>Mainly because Saban already did the "Rangers surfing the web" thing with ''[[VR Troopers]]''.</ref> ''In Space'' was [[Tropes Are Not Bad|a smash hit, though]].

* In one of several early, unsuccessful atempts to introduce ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' to American audiences (unrelated to ''And Now For Something Completely Different''), American network [[ABC]] bought some episodes from the John Cleese-less final season with the sole intention of cutting out separate sketches and inserting them as filler into a different show, called ''The Wide World of Comedy''. This was done very clumsily, with rampant censorship, and the result was reportedly incomprehensible. The Pythons, who had in their contract a clause that their show would not be re-cut without their permission, used this as grounds for a breach of contract lawsuit against the BBC, who held the rights to series. The result was that all material produced by Pythons for the BBC became their intellectual property, which was unprecedented at the time.

* The HBO broadcast of the ''[[Extras]]'' Christmas special did this with some jokes, cutting or replacing references to British celebrities who aren't known in America. It was mild but still silly, because the show in general is still full of Britishisms that don't necessarily translate. It also makes a scene about talking celebrity dolls very jarring. The original one has a Jade Goody doll that says a catchphrase and then the racist remark she made about Shilpa Shetty's name on ''[[Big Brother]]''. The American version replaces it with a Kramer doll that does a ''[[Seinfeld]]'' quote followed by the part of Michael Richards's notorious onstage rant about the black members of his stand-up audience where he reminded the white people present them that in the past they could have lynched them—which is less [[Never Live It Down]] and more [[Dude, Not Funny]].

== Music ==

== Puppet Shows ==

* This happened to ''[[Thunderbirds]]'' ''twice''. First when it was run on FOX Kids with redubbed voices, rock music, and cuts to remove content deemed inappropriate for children and also to cram the plots into half-hour episodes, rendering most of them incomprehensible. After that bombed, the rights holder released another half-hour version, ''[[Totally Radical|Turbocharged]] Thunderbirds'', which further altered the original episodes to be taking place on the planet "Thunder World", redubbed the dialog yet again to add more "post-modern" jokes, had the Tracy family taking orders from a pair of live-action teenagers who called Jeff Tracy "Mr. T", and referred to the teenagers as Hackers who lived aboard ''Thunderbird 5'', now dubbed "Hack Command". This version so enraged original creator Gerry Anderson that it was quickly pulled from syndication and supposedly destroyed at his request.

== Video Games ==

* The U.S. version of the NES game ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' cut out two levels from the Japanese version and replaced them with copies of other stages, which makes the Japanese version better. "[[The Angry Video Game Nerd|Kind of like eating a skunk versus eating a skunk with a little salt on it.]]"

* When ''[[Magical Doropie]]'' was translated as ''The Krion Conquest'', the story stopped at the intro, beyond which all cutscenes were removed and the ending became [[A Winner Is You]]. This only made the game look even more like a ripoff of ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' than it already was.

== Web Comics ==

== Web Animation ==

* Parodied in this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmc6TRPQnYU&feature=relmfu "4kids version"] of ''[[Neko Sugar Girls]]''.

== Western Animation ==

* The Japanese dub of ''[[Beast Wars]]'' transformed it into a goofy comedy show with many characters' personalities becoming completely altered. Examples can be found on [http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Beast_Wars_(cartoon)#Japanese_version the Transformers wiki].

* ''Yoohoo & Friends'' was originally a Korean cartoon about [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]s going on wacky adventures. The US version, created by David Feiss, threw in a subplot about the titular characters being [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]s who were turned into animals as punishment for their crimes against the environment. The contrast between the original footage and the new footage is very noticable and jarring.

== Other ==

** It happens in the Latin American Spanish dub of ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', too.