Pixar changed multiple scenes in 'Inside Out' to cater to International Audiences
What you see depends on the country you live in.
If you walk into a movie theater somewhere else in the world, Pixar's 'Inside Out' may look a little different from the American version you saw back at home. From the food to the sports to the cultural mannerisms, some things are slightly different. Pixar created 28 graphics for 45 uniquely different shots to be inserted for local audiences. So far Pixar has made over $553 million to date spanning multiple countries across the world.
Director Pete Docter said they wanted the film to remain complex and emotional while making sense with the foreign audience's culture. Sometimes Pixar films aren't strictly perfect domestically so they make some tweaks to create the best product. This isn't the first company to change it's movie for a foreign audience. Marvel with "Iron Man 3" added scenes for Chinese audiences to incorporate Gu Li Duo, a popular Chinese milk drink, and a scene where Iron Man is saved by a famous Chinese character. In Adam Sandler's "Pixels", a scene was taken out so that Chinese audiences would not see the Great Wall of China destroyed. As you can see, your country has a huge influence.
Doctor said for 'Inside Out', “We learned that some of our content wouldn’t make sense in other countries. For example, in Japan, broccoli is not considered gross. Kids love it. So we asked them, ‘What’s gross to you?’ They said green bell peppers, so we remodeled and reanimated three separate scenes replacing our broccoli with green peppers.” In this scene, Riley's dad is having a hard time getting her to eat broccoli. She squirms and turns away in disgust as he continuously attempts to have her eat it. In the United States, it is a normal thing for a child to dislike broccoli. But in Japan, broccoli is substituted by bell peppers since Japanese children think those are gross instead. That slight cultural difference changed an entire scene in the film to be more relatable and to evoke EMOTION. Though Hockey is traditionally a Canadian pastime, Hockey is still largely popular in the northern parts of the United States such as US state, Minnesota. Hockey is still just as American for many people however most of the world isn't exposed to hockey frequently which is why Pixar changed it to soccer. Soccer is the world's most popular sport.
Docter also mentioned,“We offered a version with soccer instead of hockey since soccer is huge in so many parts of the world. But some countries that are into soccer actually decided to stick with hockey since the characters in the movie are from Minnesota and it makes sense that they’d be hockey fans.” Did you know that even how we read words is different in various parts of the world? Well Pixar took note of that being noted by Docter, "Bing Bong reads a sign in the film to Joy and Sadness. He points at the letters, D-A-N-G-E-R, saying ‘it’s a shortcut.’ Not only did we translate the sign, but we even went so far as to reanimate Bing Bong so that he points to the letters from right to left, instead of left to right to accommodate certain languages.”
Do you think it's necessary to change a movie for a foreign audience?
