Upon TMNT's first arrival in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, Austria, Germany, and some other countries in Europe, the name was changed to "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" (or TMHT, for short), since local censorship policies deemed the word ninja to have excessively violent connotations for a children's program... The lyrics were also changed, such as changing "Splinter taught them to be ninja teens" to the "Splinter taught them to be fighting teens."
The policies also had other effects, such as removing use of Michelangelo's nunchaku (which were at the time banned from appearing in 18-rated movies) and generally toning down the usage of all the turtles' weapons. After many seasons of never using his nunchaku, they eventually disappeared entirely, replaced by a turtle shell shaped grappling hook called the "Turtle Line".
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005
From: Anagram | #001 The lyrics were also changed, such as changing "Splinter taught them to be ninja teens" to the "Splinter taught them to be fighting teens."
deemed the word ninja to have excessively violent connotations for a children's program.
So just to be clear, ninja is more violent than...fighting?
Anagram, violence is okay in Europe. Unless it's associated with somehting Japanese. Then it's bad. Explanation given.
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"Principally I hate and detest the animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth" - Jonathan Swift BT with the victory!
ChichiriMuyo posted... FAHnboy posted... Yeah, censorship used to be pretty bad back in the day. But at least we can say ass on TV without it getting bleeped out.
I think you can show bare ass on TV without censorship, for that matter, given the country. Hell, I've watched Misftis twice now and I still can't quite wrap my head around the idea that t**s and f***ing got aired on TV in the UK. But is did. And I saw that after seeing a number of European ads that featured t**s, Good on you for the sexual liberalization, but damn your governments are excessively afraid of violence. It's like they've never stopped living the day after world war 2.
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"Principally I hate and detest the animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth" - Jonathan Swift BT with the victory!
I think this only happened in the original broadcast because I remember watching the uncensored version in the 90s, so they must have fixed it for later reruns
metaIslugg posted... I think this only happened in the original broadcast because I remember watching the uncensored version in the 90s, so they must have fixed it for later reruns
That would make this slightly less awful, but that it happened at all is hilarious.
-- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005