Transcreation

This is quite an interesting concept that I've been working on for quite a while but I didn't think there was a perfect term to discribe it.

This article from the Wall Street Journal brings up a great point in character designing. Cartoon CharactersGet Big MakeoverFor Overseas Fans Read this before you read the rest of my article please. (Note; If this article get deleted by Wall Street without my knowing, I really can't fix it for you, so hopefully it'll last a long while.)


Now some of these "Transcreations" we've known about for a while (I have anyway), Sesame Street has been using different characters in thier forien shows for many years, Brazilian SS having more sexual untertones (as paroded by Simpsons) and an African version introducing an HIV positive character (I don't know if he's a puppet or a real kid though.) Minnie's Hello Kitty make over is something I'm surprised Disney hasn't done already, being ones of little creativity. In an anime store in my mall, the Mickey and Minnie stuff they sell is the Two Toned versions of them. Not saying that they don't make the 1950s Mickey in japan but you can't hardly find any Mickey and Minnie stuff at the Disney store on the opposite side of the mall, let alone the 1930s versions. And well all know asians love to rape little girls (sarcasim), so the PPG makeover is not surprising, but one thing that confused me was that didn't they show the original PPG in japan? Otherwise they wouldn't have gotten the idea to make an anime version at all.
I'd say the Indians seem to fuck up our characters the most. With Ballywood being able to produce movies faster then the porn industry, there is a lack of quality control in thier market. One of the reasons the US edits forien cartoons is because their subject matter is to far fetched and doesn't make since if not either stated in an exposistion or remade with a theme americans are familiar with. The Ring is a good excample of the US remaking an Asian movie. Must've been that american's wouldn't understand that being scared to death is a logical and scarier method of dieing, so they rewrote the scene so the girl looks more digital then an acaul person coming out of the screen, and then having it so the guys face has been melted off. The Indians must rewrite origin stories or change the characters so that it matches the relgious and social trends of teh culture and not seem to bizzare (Why would a spider bite cause Peter Parker to turn into a spider, all animales are sacred in hinduism right?)Well reglardless of what the US does here's some Indian mackoffs.


India needs quality control.

Just in time for Halloween

Here's a great Mickey Mouse transcreation. Not Indian but still really messed up.

This is not something that's new to our own culture. If there is anybody guilty of distroying cartoons from a different country, it's the US. Back in the 90s (and to this day) anime's are torn apart limb from limb and all traces of it's origin's were stripped away. I remember watching Sailor Moon and being currious as to why they called those white triangle things (riceballs) Dohnuts. Those arn't dohnuts, and is this cartoon supposed to be in Japan or the US? All the words are in english and the characters clearly look american, but they talk about Tokyo and other sorts of weird japaness culture traits added in there.
Pokemon was a huge butcher by having all the japaness pokemon names stripped and given english versions. This was an improovement because there are some really awkward pokemon that would tack forever to pronouce right for a little 6 year old. I still don't know how to say Lugia right, but some names they should've kept (Like Stunky was Skunkapu, that sounds cuter). The anime was butchered as well, having the japaness characters stripped from the backgrounds, the japaness theme songs rewriten, and japaness culture showdowed and unexplained. There were a couple of episodes deleted because of cencorship issues (One with James having double D size boobs, and a Trigger happy warden), but episodes that were about japaness holidays like Kid's Day and Women's Day were at risk of being deleted because they were not US holidays. IMO they should be US holiday's, we have secritary's day, why not Kid's day?
Sonic the Hedghog might be the most fucked up and saddest story out there (that I can express here). A japaness character, baised off of Mikey Mouse, comes to the US and given two separate and completely different cartoons that don't relate to the games original storyline. The Game's storyline had been edited to fit an american audiance as well, making Sonic from another planet and forgetting details like where he was born and making up that his powers come from his shoes. Well we know how messed up the fandom has gotten because of this, I don't think I need t go into it.

Next time I write a blog I'll go into into this a little more, and talk about how americans 'Transcreate' their own shows with time.