These 19 Movies Had To Be Changed When They Were Released In Different Countries
Whether it's cultural differences or reactions to an ending, movies can be re-edited for all sorts of reasons.
IMDb / giphy.com
With studios like Disney and Pixar being notorious for re-cutting their films to maximize their appeal outside of the United States, there are plenty of movies we all know and love that look a little different depending on where you're watching them.
1.In Toy Story 2, a stirring speech from Buzz was delivered in front of a globe rather than an American flag to be more inclusive.
Buzz Lightyear giving an impassioned speech as a waving flag slowly materializes behind him is a pretty funny joke for American audiences, but it could've left some international viewers feeling alienated.
To make the joke a bit more accessible, Pixar changed the stars and stripes to a spinning globe with fireworks going off behind it.
2.Taco Bell was changed to Pizza Hut for the international release of Demolition Man.
In Demolition Man, an event called the "franchise wars" saw the end of food variety in America. It's used as a quick joke, the punchline being that, in 2032, all restaurants have become Taco Bells.
Executives were worried that international audiences wouldn't be as familiar with the chain, so every mention and logo of Taco Bell was replaced with Pizza Hut.
You can check out this video comparing the two versions of the scene.
3.The UK version of Pride and Prejudice gets rid of some kisses that were considered "blasphemous" to Jane Austen's source material.
Working Title Film / giphy.com
**Spoilers for Pride and Prejudice**
In the US and Canadian release of the British movie, Pride and Prejudice, the ending sees Keira Knightley's Elizabeth and Matthew Macfadyen's Mr. Darcy smooching in a classic romance movie ending.
But in the UK, purists of the book were not happy. Many considered the kissy ending not only unfaithful to the book (the two never kiss), but also too sexed-up. So the international version of the film had the PDA cut.
4.Some clever CGI was used to "clean up" Talladega Nights for its Iranian release.
Sony / giphy.com
The main scene in question was allegedly the one shown above, in which Will Ferrell runs around in his underwear thinking he's on fire.
Rather than cut out the scene completely, a CGI wall was inserted into the scene to cover Ferrell's tighty whities.
This article from the Atlantic dives deeper into the ways Iranian censors cover up certain images, and it contains a screenshot of the CGI wall used in Talladega Nights' Iranian release.
5.Broccoli was swapped out for green peppers in Inside Out's Japanese release because kids in Japan don't mind broccoli as much.
If you're an American, you're probably familiar with the joke that kids and broccoli just don't mix. But in Japan, that joke doesn't land quite as well.
But one of the vegetables most often picked by Japanese kids as the most disgusting is green peppers, so the filmmakers swapped out one vegetable for the other.
6.Lincoln was given a new opening to contextualize some American history for international audiences.
Making a movie about an influential American president requires the audience to know a bit about American history, but not everyone who saw Lincoln went to middle school in the United States.
To make the film more accessible to overseas audiences, a slideshow of images was used to teach some fast facts about the world in which Abraham Lincoln lived. You can check out this opening here.
7.Steve Rogers' references were altered to be more country-specific in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Cap keeps a list of references, trends, and pieces of history that he missed while he was frozen for 70 years.
But you might notice that a lot of the references in his book are pretty American (Steve Jobs, Nirvana, I Love Lucy). While plenty of people outside the US would be familiar with these things, Disney knew audiences would connect even more with their own nation's references.
For example, in Russia, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was included in the list. And Dance Dance Revolution was added in the South Korean release due to the game's popularity in that country.
8.Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle was released as Harold & Kumar Get the Munchies internationally.
New Line Cinema / giphy.com
This one's pretty straightforward: White Castle is a uniquely American franchise. Even though it's the oldest fast food chain in the country, some places in the United States aren't familiar with the spot.
9.Region-specific animals were chosen for minor characters in different cuts of Zootopia
Zootopia was universally loved, but not all animals are universal. For different audiences, animals that were more popular in their countries were used for characters like the anchors on the CNN parody show, ZNN.
Instead of a moose, these animals were featured in other countries:
—Japan: Tanuki
—China: Panda
—Australia/New Zealand: Koala
10.In The Shining, the huge stack of pages reading "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy" were translated and re-typed into four different languages.
Warner Bros. / giphy.com
Stanley Kubrick's assistant — who was probably the hardest-working assistant in Hollywood considering her boss was notoriously demanding — had to type up the pages in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
11.The German terrorists in Die Hard were turned into Irish terrorist for the film's German release.
20th Century Fox / giphy.com
At the time of Die Hard's release, Germany was being terrorized by groups like the Red Army Faction and the Baader-Meinhof Gang, so sitting down for a movie where the enemies were German terrorists hit way too close to home.
To help with this unfortunate coincidence, the filmmakers changed the villains to be former members of the Irish Republican Army and gave them all English names.
So Hans Gruber became Jack Gruber, who sounds like he should be an action hero in his own movie.
12.The Wolf of Wall Street is a full 45 minutes shorter in the Dubai cut, but it's unclear who ordered the cuts.
Paramount / giphy.com
If you've never seen The Wolf of Wall Street, just know that it's pretty understandable some would find it too profane. There are 506 uses of the f-word, near-constant drug use, and plenty of nudity to go around.
The version of The Wolf of Wall Street that was shown in Dubai has a lot of the more graphic images cut out. It was initially assumed that Juma Obaid Al Leem, Director of Media Content at the National Media Council, ordered the cuts to be made.
But Al Leem later made a statement that the movie's distributor, Gulf Films, made the cuts before handing it over to Dubai. Whoever decided to cut down on the movie, must've had their work cut out for them.
13.The character of Dr. Wu was given additional scenes for Iron Man 3's Chinese release.
In addition to more screen time for Wang Xueqi (who played Dr. Wu), there is also a new character introduced in the Chinese cut played by Fan Bingbing and some product placement for Gu Li Duo milk (which Dr. Wu is drinking in the image above).
14.Airplane! was called Flying High? in New Zealand.
Paramount / giphy.com
The Concorde... Airport '79 was an American movie released in 1979 domestically, but didn't make it to New Zealand until 1980.
So with both Airplane! and The Concorde... Airport '79 being two American films released in the same year, executives thought Kiwi audiences might get the two confused.
15.The entire third act of The Sound of Music (which included lots of Nazis) was removed for the German release, though this decision was reversed when the director found out.
The Sound of Music features the Von Trapp family escaping from Nazis, which received mixed responses in Germany. The decision to cut out the third act is attributed to a Munich branch manager for 20th Century Fox who never got approval.
The newly edited film was played in Germany for some time, but once director Robert Wise found out about the edit, the original version was restored.
16.A Streetcar Named Desire was edited for its Irish release to cut down on the sexuality.
Warner Bros. / giphy.com
A Streetcar Named Desire is already a movie that is technically an "alternate version" of its source material. In the original play by Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire is a complex story that touched on themes of homosexuality and assault. In the adapted movie, Stanley's homosexuality was cut out.
But the film was further truncated when it came to the Irish release of the film. Scenes in which there is sexual tension between Stanley and Stella were removed for being too horny, and a total of 27 cuts were made.
This turned the nuanced story of domestic abuse and manipulation into a confusing movie about a woman getting increasingly frustrated by seemingly nothing.
17.The original ending of Fatal Attraction was much different, but only ever released in Japan.
**Spoilers for Fatal Attraction**
In the ending of Fatal Attraction we all know, Anne Archer's character shoots Glenn Close's Alex. But this was shot six months after the film had already wrapped filming.
In the original ending, Alex kills herself, making it look like Michael Douglas' character, Dan, murdered her.
Glen Close was apparently not too happy with the updated ending, as it made her character seem far more unhinged and hysteric:
"I wasn't playing a generality, I wasn't playing a cliché. I was playing a very specific, deeply disturbed, fragile human being, whom I had grown to love."
But in the end, audiences got a wildly different climax.
18.13 Going on 30 was retitled to Suddenly 30 in Australia.
Sony / giphy.com
Saying that you're one age "going on" another age is a pretty American expression that doesn't translate to Australian lingo. So to avoid any misunderstanding of what the film's about, Suddenly 30 was chosen as the new title.
19.An alternate ending of 28 Days Later was filmed and almost released to American audiences, but the director ultimately decided it was too bleak.
**Spoilers for 28 Days Later**
In the final release of 28 Days Later the three surviving characters at the end of the film escape to an idyllic cottage. They are eventually rescued by making a massive banner, but this was not the script's original finale.
In a different version that was filmed, Jim dies in a hospital after Selena and Hannah try to rescue him. While this alternate ending was included in the US printings of the film, they ultimately were not played in theaters.
There are even two more endings, neither of which were actually filmed. One reveals that the zombie outbreak was all a dream, and the other sees Jim undergo a blood transfusion to save an infected Frank.
But the director decided, "We can't do this to people, because it was such a tough journey anyway." So the upbeat ending stayed in the final cut.
