Japanese to English Episode Comparisons
Eps 37-45
There were no cuts and no painting on this episode.
^_^
The whole thing was cut! I'm sure
you know what I'm talking about. This is the Porygon
episode, and to find out more you should check the episode
guide, and the campaign sections. Maybe even call or fax
4Kids if you want to see it dubbed.
Inside Santa's boot, you see a
picture of him inside a snowflake shape. On the Japanese
version it simply reads 'Santa Claus'. 4Kids continues their
obsession with misplaced graphics, yeah like Santa's going
to keep a decorative picture of himself inside his
boot. Just thought I'd mention how 4Kids decided to take it
upon themselves to add their own Christmas-sounding music
just to make this episode seem more, um, "festive"? Anyway,
in doing this they displaced a *LOT* of original music, far
more than usual. They still kept a little, but this had to
be the worst case episode for changing background music for
this dub.
There is only one thing that was done to this episode,
but it happened in the form of numerous cuts and censors,
all to eliminate one element of the episode the censors
didn't like. In order, let me explain what happens. Also,
you can download a video clip of the original scene from the
Japanese version in my video clips section to see what
exactly I'm explaining. First, as we start inside the tiny
igloo Team Rocket is chilling in, we pan over to Meowth
holding.... a candle! That was originally a match, and
it's most certainly not their "last" bit of heat. He's got
more matches, but we'll get to that later. Cut -16 seconds- After Jessie puts
down the snow rolls, she begins to talk more about them to
James while in the background, we see Meowth go through
about 3 or 4 matches, each one flickering out 2-3 seconds
after lighting it. Really is cold in there isn't
it? Then, the dialogue in the English
version is changed so the three remaining matches from his
pack are in fact 'burnt out' and they proceed to use their
imagination to 'pretend' it is warm. In fact Meowth is a tad
worried because those are his last 3 unused matches, and so
they split them to all have a last burst of warmth and they
begin to imagine the things around them that could be making
them warm. Cut -2 seconds-Meowth lights his
last match holding the flame to his face just as the hot
spring image pops into his head as they begin to imagine the
hot places they're in. Cut -2 seconds- Upon coming out of
the sequence here, we see Jessie holding her match to her
face and feeling warm. When it blows out is when she looks
to see the other two sleeping. Just thought I'd mention when she's
slapping Jessie and Meowth, it seems a lot more vicious
because she's just sort of screaming at them. In the English
version, it makes it less harsh as they give her explanatory
dialogue thus giving her an excuse for slapping
them.
There was only one thing to mention that is odd about
this episode. I don't know whether to place it under a cut
or a digital paint. Maybe it's a bit of both. The flashback
sequence of images from past episodes was different in the
Japanese version. I can imagine this is simply to make it go
with the new English song they used. They mixed it around
and basically made their own flashback for the English
version and it looks exactly the same! I didn't notice
it until I watched both versions side by side. 4Kids got the
white flashback border thing perfect.
Comparisons for eps 40-43 are also unavailable until I get copies of the Japanese versions...
There is a kanji on the front of
the Cassandra and her grandmother's tent. I don't know what
it means, but it is funny how on the English version it
looks like a spotlight shining on that part of the tent.
^_^ As Meowth explains how they'll get rich when he becomes
company mascot for Cassandra, on the original version he
turns into a white maneki neko, or "Beckoning Cat" For
cultural reasons not to in their minds confuse everyone,
they froze the image of Meowth standing there and kept his
mouth moving and made his dialogue a little longer. I don't
know whether to call this a cut or a paint, again it's a bit
of both.
Throughout the whole episode
various Japanese signs in town are painted to either have
nothing on them, or stupid looking graphics. 4Kids really
goofed on this one, I don't think any self respecting
music store would go nameless and simply have a design on
their sign. And, there's also the restaurant with no name! A
totally blank sign which originally said Poppo. So, they
couldn't just call it the 'Pidgey' restaurant or
something? More of 4Kids' laziness combined with an
obsession for Americanization. This episode marks the first occurance of the Kids
WB phenomenon. When the long-armed guy and James
bump into each other, the Kids WB version shows
constant star effects and such as we are supposed to imagine
James is somehow getting beaten up. -Cut- 3 seconds -
Upon Jessie colliding with the
fat lady, she makes the threat of 'making her pay for that!'
On the original version, she
follows through on that threat, and lays Jessie over her lap
spanking her numerous times. This happens as James is still
getting punched in the head by the long-armed guy.
These modifications only are on the
Kids WB airing of this episode. This entire scene was not
altered for airing in the rest of the world, and not altered
on the video tape version.