Victurtle wrote:I did a presentation (for Japanese class) how Japan promotional material differs greatly from the US. In Japan, where femininity is embraced by both men and women, Elsa and Rapunzel clipart is much softer (notice the lack of raise eyebrows, the lack of staring straight at the audience). Japanese, and other Asian promotional material is probably the kind of promotion many members here wish were used generally.
Yeah, I hated the raised eyebrows clipart. It's especially weird considering Rapunzel never even makes such an expression in the film. It's good to see that it the clipart for
Frozen has been softened a bit, though Elsa still has that unnecessary smirk.
I think
Shrek had a fair audience in Japan, but that whole "attitude" thing never really caught on in Japan (and aside from a few notable exceptions, Dreamworks doesn't do too hot there). In general, they're more into "inspirational," "touching," or "moving" side of things--almost to the point where it's annoying and even forced onto the audience.
As for the titles, you'll notice that the trend for a lot of Disney and Pixar flicks is to have the one-word titles. Most of these one-word titles are changed to be more descriptive for their Japanese titles. Not sure of what their "official" translations would be, but off the top of my head, there's:
Frozen - アナと雪の女王 - Anna and the Snow Queen
Tangled - 塔の上のラプンツェル- Rapunzel of the Top of the Tower (this one doesn't translate well into English)
Enchanted - 魔法にかけられて - Cast Under a Magic Spell
Brave - メリダとおそろしの森 - Merida and the Terrifying Forest
Up - カールじいさんの空飛ぶ家 - Grandpa Carl's Flying House
Ratatouille - レミーのおいしいレストラン - Remy's Delicious Restaurant
Other interesting title changes from Disney/Pixar include:
The Princess and the Frog - プリンセスと魔法のキス - The Princess and the Magic Kiss
Meet the Robinsons - ルイスと未来泥棒 - Lewis and the Future Thief (This doesn't translate well either. "Future Thief" implies the act of "stealing" the future, and does not indicate a thief
from the future; think "jewelry thief" - a thief that steals jewels.
The Emperor's New Groove - ラマになった王様 - The King Who Became A Llama
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - ノートラダムの鐘 - The Bells of Notre Dame (This one's an interesting one, because the Japanese title of the novel is actually a direct translation of the English title, and not the French title. Yet, I remember reading that the movie title was changed in order comply with broadcast law that censors certain words from being used in the media--in this case, the Japanese equivalent of the word "hunchback.")
The Great Mouse Detective - オリビアちゃんの大冒険 - Olivia's Great Adventure
The Black Cauldron - コルドロン - Cauldron (Interestingly changed to one word.... Maybe they just didn't care? lol)
The Rescuers - ビアンカの大冒険 - Bianca's Great Adventure
There are a few others as well...
Most of the older Pixar films remained under their English titles in Japan, but interestingly
The Incredibles was changed to Mr.インクレディブル (
Mr. Incredible).
The thing is, this really isn't something limited to Disney. Japan has always been changing titles of imported films, TV shows, and
even songs and music albums! Honestly, some of them don't even makes sense. The Beatles'
I Want To Hold Your Hand, for some reason is titled 抱きしめたい, which essentially translates to "I want to Hug/Embrace You."
