Americanisation?

[Sam.]

I've just been watching Harry Potter and TCOS and I have noticed something that really annoys me. In this film(and the books) many words or phrases have been changed to " make sure everbody understands the action". This seems really patronising to me. I am sure people fro america, Australia and othere egnlish speaking countries fully understand what the word "forbidden" means.  Where is the need to change it to dark?
This might be just me looking for arguments but it really annoys me. I mean the first books title was even changed wasn't it? Philospiher to Sorcerer. That just seems stupid. Why is it just sassumed that Nobody will understand what Philosipher means?
I could just take the british view that most americans can't find their arse with a torch but i don't. Just because you live over the ocean, does your intelligence drop so you don't understand  3 syllable words?

Sorry for ranting but does anyone else agree?

[00jon00]

Look man I'm American but I think you're right.Ã,  I mean they change all those words and make us look stupider than we really are.Ã,  When it comes to crap like that why can't we just leave it alone.


---Edit---

I mean we can fully understand the original words yet they they think they HAVE to change it...its gay

[Ishmael]

Everything keeps being changed to american... I was wondering about where had the forbidden forrest gone to in the movies too... (finnish version of the book, anyways...)

I've once seen the original intro sequence of pokemon, and numberous times the american version....

[evenwolf]

when I think of philosopher, I think of Socrates or Plato.  These men were full of thought but performed little magic.  Beyond Harry Potter, I have never been aware of philosophers performing magic.   Does that make me dumb or am I simply exposed to different word usages?

Right, so Hollywood felt its US demographic would see movie posters and be bored by the concept of Plato and his kidney. C'est la life.

[Robert Eric]

Part of what you would learn in film school is that the audience if full of idiots.  With that, you need to design the movie so that idiots could understand it.  But yes, what they did was very unneccesary.

[evenwolf]

What I'm learning is that the audience is full of people seeking entertainment.  If one word is keeping you from being entertained, you are a lost cause.

[Captain Mostly]

With regards to the comment "its gay"
Not only does "its" have an apostrophe in it (it's "it's" not "its") but this is also homophobic.

Perhaps it's because people feel it's ok to be bigoted (as demonstrated byÃ,  00jon00's feeling it's ok to use "gay" as a derogatory word) that they also feel it's ok to embrace stereotypes, and thus dumb things down for the American audience.

Mind you, as with ANY society, there will ALWAYS be more stupid people in America than clever people. And America is the biggest movie market in the west, and thus it's more important that the stupid people in America aren't alienated.

Now, obviously 00jon00 isn't one of these stupid people, but by making films stupid-friendly, clever people won't be put off, so it's not like companies have to chose if they want stupid OR clever people to see the film when they can have both!

THAT'S why films are made accessible for people like George Bush Jr.

EDIT:
This post seems a little redundant, since the three posts made while I was writing it explained it a lot better...

Although it IS probably worth noting that not everyone will have heard of "Philosopher's stones", so when they hear it in a title, they won't have a shared value to go with it, so they won't be as interested as they would be if it were a flashy word...

[00jon00]

You know Captain Mostly you make a very good point 8)

[Ishmael]

Seconded.

[00jon00]

I can see them changing Philosopher's stone to Sorcerer's ((spelling?) (I'm out of it)) stone, because when I think of Philosopher's stone then I think of some old hairy guy bent over examing a rock, but when I think of Sorcerer's stone then it brings to mind an evil wizard dude bent on world domination-which seems a lot more interesting

[Haddas]

I thought it was a porn movie. But then again, I've only read the swedish version of Harry Potter. Maybe I'm just a little perverted.

[GarageGothic]

we can fully understand the original words yet they they think they HAVE to change it...its gay

Actually that strikes me more as a straight thing to do. As we all know, gays are much more intellectual and sophisticated and use fancy foreign words all the time 

But really, the issue about the change is that "Sorceror's Stone" has no meaning. At least I've never heard that used anywhere else. "The Philosopher's Stone" on the other hand is an alchemist term for a legendary object that would, either in itself or as a vital ingredient, turn base metals like lead into gold. I don't really remember how it's related to the plot in the first Potter movie (not that I really care after playing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for 10-15 hours a day two months in a row), but nevertheless, a lot of people are familiar with the original term. I've even come across it in several games, like GK3 and Shadow of Memories.

I don't really think it was about Americans not understanding the word "philosopher" but rather the reference contained in the term "philosopher's stone". And well, most Americans probably think philosophy and philosophers sound pretty boring (imagine a movie called "Harry Potter and Heidegger, Kant and Hegel's Stone").

[Sam.]

thats my point. although sorcerors stone is easy to understand it does not carry the meaning of "Philosophes Stone". The PS is an mystical object but sorceors stone (as far as I know) has never been used before in any other stories. No dead english Kings went in search of it. Nobody has written a book about it (JK wrote the Philosophers ston) it has just been changed for ease of understanding. This to me is not necessary as it is just a name. IT does not require understanding as such. It is like changing Cyclops to one eyed guy just so you can understand it.

[Dart]

Please remember that this is a children's movie; some children can't understand the "high-tech" words, and the producer probably wants to ensure that every child can indeed watch this movie without any difficulty.

Random Fact: Did you know that the front page news articles on the newspaper are written at a 6th grade level? Not everyone can understand the more "syllable-y" words.

[DGMacphee]

I recenlty visited Hollywood and found this while going through a studio's garbage:


ATT: ALL PRODUCTION STAFF
FROM: THE GUYS AT THE TOP

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE HAVE DECIDED TO CHANGE THE FOLLOWING OCCUPATIONS IN ALL SCRIPTS IN ORDER NOT TO CONFUSE THE MOVIE-GOING PUBLIC.

PHILOSOPHER - SORCERER
SCIENTIST - NERD
ACTIVIST - HIPPY
ARCHAEOLOGIST - BULL FIGHTER
PIANIST - DJ
NOVELIST - FINGER PAINTER
NAVAL OFFICER - POOL CLEANER
CRIMINOLOGIST - BATMAN

ALSO PLEASE CHANGE THE FOLLOWING WORDS:

CARBURETOR - ENGINE
MATRIMONY - HITCHED
TRIGONOMETRY - MATHS
GASTROINTESTINAL - FARTING
EXISTENTIALISM - WHOA!

THANK YOU!

However, keep in mind that such Americanism are a product of Hollywood movies. Sometimes, production is different in other areas and in other media. Take these two examples from different production areas and different media sources:

EXAMPLE 1:

"Good lord, dear listeners! I seem to be suffering from some gastrointestial problems! Must have been that fillet mignon I had."

EXAMPLE 2:

"Dude! That fart was awesome! Must have been that steak you ate!"

Thus, we conclude the lesson for today.

[Nacho]

I think your post, Zoofruit (Which in essence is: "We're going to chang the worlds that the brittish understand into ones tha the stupid Americans will") should be more like "We're going to change words into something our audience (10-year old kids) will...

I agree that the world is "Americanising", and I'm opened to discuss if that is good or bad... But I don't think this is a good example.

[Barbarian]

I thought it was a porn movie. But then again, I've only read the swedish version of Harry Potter. Maybe I'm just a little perverted.

Haddas, I think you are thinking or the "X-rated" version of: "Harry PotHead and the Sorceress was Stoned!" 
  Heheh..

[00jon00]

I agree that the world is "Americanising", and I'm opened to discuss if that is good or bad... But I don't think this is a good example.

You know, the world is "Americanising", but whats so wrong with America???

[ElectricMonk]

Of course, the changing of the title didn't start with the movie.
The original book had its title changed to "...Sorcerer's Stone" (along with some things like "motorbike" to "motorcycle", or vice versa, I can't remember which is the British one). So I can't really blame the filmmakers for wanting to keep the title that many kids are already accustomed to in America.
All in all, I have to give the filmmakers credit for conforming to J K Rowling's wishes and using an almost all-British cast in the movie (unlike the cinematic abortion that "Constantine" will no doubts turn out to be).

[AGA]

It's not really that America is bad, it's just that the world shouldn't have to adjust itself to suit American audiences. There are other countries apart from America, after all...