Alex Carson
#1 Zootopia
For the film Zootopia to be relevant in other countries, the filmmakers swapped out the moose for an animal that was relevant based on the country where the film was released. For example, in the United States, there was a moose. In China, the moose was swapped out for a panda. Since pandas are the Chinese national animal, it made more sense to the Chinese people to watch a panda rather than a moose.
#2 Up
When a cartoon is played in a country where English is not the primary language, they often change the voices in the cartoons so that the primary language is spoken. This can be a bit more difficult when it comes to written words and signs in the film. In the movie up, there was a glass jar with a label on it that read, “Paradise Falls.” Since viewers in other countries would not be able to read and understand these words, it was replaced with a picture of the location. This made it easier for people in foreign countries to understand what it meant.
#3 Toy Story 2
Toy Story 2 is the sequel to Toy Story, an adorable movie where the child’s toys in their bedroom come to life when there are no humans around. In Toy Story 2, Buzz Lightyear was a toy of an American astronaut. In order for the movie to work in other countries, certain changes to be made. In this scene, Buzz Lightyear is standing in front of the American flag while the Star Spangled Banner was playing, which is the United States national anthem. To make the movie relevant in other countries, the American Flag was replaced with a photo of the world to associate Buzz Lightyear with the space program of the world rather than the space program in the United States. They even changed the song in other countries to make the film more relatable.
#4 Inside Out
In the United States, kids are often forced to eat their broccoli. Most kids don’t like it and they spend their meals pushing the vegetables around their plates. Finally, their parents force their children to eat the broccoli. In this scene in Inside Out, you can see the father trying to get his daughter to eat her broccoli. For some reason, children in Japan love broccoli. If the filmmakers were to use broccoli in the scene, it wouldn’t make sense for the Japanese audience. To make the scene make sense, the filmmakers use green pepper instead. In the rest of the world, the broccoli was used.
#5 Inside Out
In the United States and Canada, ice hockey is a very popular sport. It is played in high school, college, and professionally. People in the United States and Canada watch professional hockey on television, they buy the jersey of the favorite players, and the arenas are sold out every night due to the number of die-hard hockey fans in North America. In other countries, however, hockey is not a popular sport at all. In the version of Inside Out that was released in the US and Canada, a hockey game was used. In other countries, however, hockey wouldn’t have made much sense so the filmmaker had to change the scene with soccer. Soccer is a very popular sport in most places around the world, therefore, this was the best the more relatable option.
#6 Monsters University
Monsters University is another case where the filmmakers had to change the written words on a sign to make it understandable in all countries. In the version released in the United States, “Scare Games” was painted on the wall of the auditorium. This film was released all over the world where many, many different languages are spoken. The make the Scare Games understandable for all countries, the filmmakers would have had to change the writing for every language. Since this would be far too much work, they decided to go Greek. Greek symbols are very common in fraternities and sororities at most universities, therefore, it would work in any country that speaks any language.
#7 Monsters University, Again
This is another instance where Monsters University had to change the writing on something so that the audience would understand what was going on. In the United States version, the cupcake on the platter spelled out, “Be My Pal.” Since the film was released in many countries where many languages were spoken, they switched out the words with pictures of little minions. This was much easier than changing the words to fit for every language. Some languages wouldn’t even make sense with one letter on each cupcake.
#8 Monsters University, Yes, Again
In many cases, filmmakers make the right decision by making changes to vary from country to country. Each of the previous famous cartoons that were changed in other countries made the films make more sense and they were more relatable. This is a case where making generic changes ruined the scene rather than helping. The characters started throwing cupcakes at another character. Some of the cupcakes fell on the ground. The only ones that stuck to the character spelled the word, “Lame.” In the version that was released in other countries, the letters on the cupcakes were replaced with the faces of minions. In other countries, the audience wouldn’t have seen this funny part in the movie.
