Take a look at this old Korean SNES ad where Raphael shows up
 

Among other characters, that is. Goku, Super Mario, Ryu, Chun-Li, Buster Bunny, etc. all in the same commercial. I don't mean just game footage of the games they were in.



For the record, the SNES was named Hyundai Super Cowboy in Korea probably because Korea has had laws that sorta ban/limit Japanese products. It began getting lifted and less tight around the late 90s or so. Also, you probably know Hyundai as being a car company and thus wonder "wtf does Hyundai have to do with Nintendo?!" Well, according to wiki:

"Foreign companies like Sega and Nintendo had difficulty to enter the market, so they licensed out their consoles to Korean companies. Samsung took Sega's Master System, which was then released in April 1989 as the "Samsung Gam*Boy". Most of the games were released on Korea on their original languages, being Phantasy Star the first game to be fully translated to Hangul. One year later, the Mega Drive arrived with the name of "Super Gam*Boy", having on 1992 all Samsung consoles renamed to "Aladdin Boy". Samsung also produced its own game, a shoot 'em up called "Uju Geobukseon". Hyundai was the responsible for the releasing the NES, named Comboy. However, It didn't have any translated games.[7]"

So yeah. It seems strange to most of us but that's how it was.

Interesting commercial, eh?

Jesus Christ, the sound quality was a nightmare. Anyway, seems bizarre to have him stand right next to Ryu and Chun-Li in that one shot (the crowd shots seem less weird), it makes me want Nickelodeon vs Capcom.

This is a perfect document for what was popular by the late-1980's and early-1990's.

Well at least they aren't teaching us about drugs... :lol:

Was Raphael more popular among children in South Korea? (like Michelangelo was in the USA)

That I wouldn't know. Do we have any Korean users in here, anyway?

I wasn't even sure if the 1987 series aired in SK, but I was able to find the OP dubbed in Korean:



This is the only Korean stuff I could find of 1987 TMNT on youtube. I'm surprised the show didn't get censored there. Korea used to ban Japanese imports or heavily censor/edit Japanese entertainment in order to make consumers not realise said entertainment was from Japan. Granted TMNT is an American product, but Ninjas are a Japanese thing and TMNT had quite some Japanese cultural elements in it compared to most other American cartoons at the time.

Wikipedia in Korean
 

According to Wikipedia in Korean, it seemed to air in South Korea between 1992 and 1994

https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EA%B1...9D%B4%EC%85%98)

I think this might be the most unsettling rendition of the Fred Wolf theme song ever. What's with the woman laughing in the background? The slowed down pace is already weird, so why even add it?

Which of these (unofficial, fanmade) do you prefer in Swedish? :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr4drl39hZo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PXtIBDbKKg

First off, they make the same mistake of trying to directly translate the title. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is a pretty long title as is and the Swedish version of two words are actually compound words, if that's not awkward as is swedish grammar demands more compound words. "Tonårsmutantninjasköldpaddor" is the most ugly sounding title I can think of and it looks horrible in writing. If you had to, absolutely had to come up with a title in Swedish, you'd have to rethink it from the ground up. Here are just a few suggestions:

• Splinters Lärlingar (Splinter's Students)
• Kampen mot Fotklanen (Battle against the Foot Clan)
• Skölpadsklanen (The Turtle Clan)
• Muterade Ninjor (Mutated Ninjas)
• Under New York (Below New York)
• Sköldshinobi (I need to explain this one, the Swedish word for turtle directly translates to "Shield Toad", so literally "Shielded Shinobi")
• Mutanter och Ninjor (Mutants and Ninjas)

This leads in to another problem with the renditions of the song, they both try to stick too closely to the English lyrics. These lyrics were awkward nonsense in the original but they flowed with the song and make sense when spoken. Translating them directly into another language is always going to sound weird. If I try to simply say these without singing, I'll sound like a drunken three year old.

Anyway, the first one? The second has better mixing but the translation is even worse than the first one and I actually cringed listening to it. At least the first one made feel somewhat neutral towards the attempt.

If I had translate into Swedish, I would probably try to keep Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the title if possible.

Some attempts:

When the evil Shredder attacks = När den onde Shredder slår till

Michelangelo is a party dude = Michelangelo tycker bäst om fest

I don't think "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" sounds very good in other languages. That's why they're mostly known as Ninja Turtles worldwide. Here we just call them "As Tartarugas Ninja". Translating the full name would just make the title sound messy and too long.

An attempt for the 4 Kids song.

Turtles, living underground = Turtles (untranslated), lever under sta'n

This reminds of that anti-drug cartoon with Michelangelo and the Muppet Babies.

Hyundai is more than just a car company in Korea. It sells just about anything that can be sold. I used to pass by Hyundai and Samsung apartment buildings on my way to work. I was inside one once, too. They weren't too shabby in relation to the other places out there.

Both are delightfully cheesy, which kinda fits the 80's early 90's Scandinavian pop-culture when American properties got translated names in comics and such, like Batman being Läderlappen/Lynvingen (Leather Patch/Lightning Wing).

Funnily enough, Rise have a Norwegian-fied song, this is the official song :lol: as I heard it when I watched Mutant Mayhem or Mystiske tumulter on Nick.no

Sure but even shortening it in Swedish sounds awful. "Ninjasköldpaddor" is still long and awkward. Not to mention how it still means "Ninja Shield Toads", which just sounds weird. While trying to translate the title has thankfully never happened (it's always either been TMNT or TMHT) people do tend to simply call the franchise "Turtles" here, which is fine. You might confuse the franchise for the band in that case but typically people get it.

How come they haven't tried to branch out in the rest of the world?

Ninjasköldpaddorna
 

Ninjasköldpaddorna is what the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been called in Swedish-speaking parts of Finland.

I just looked it up and appearently Finland translated the entire title for the rest of the country.

"Teini-ikäiset mutanttininjakilpikonnat"

... If anyone here's from Finland, is it cringeworthy? It seems like it would be.

4 Kids
 

4 Kids intro in the Finnish language

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsAX795EGPE

Really? had no idea Hyundai were more than a car or motorcycle company. Then again the Japanese company Yamaha known for making motorcycles also makes... pianos. Does Hyundai also make pianos, by any chance?

Well, Superman and Spider-Man got their names literally translated here to Super-Homem and Homem-Aranha, respectively. But Batman never got his name translated. Dunno why, but calling him Homem-Morcego would just sound weird.

Daredevil has the oddest translation here. He's known as "Demolidor". which means... "he who demolishes" or something like that. I guess because the expression daredevil doesn't have an equivalent in Portuguese, and "demolidor" also has two "ds" like "daredevil" does, so they decided to name him that.

As for the turtles, here's their names in Portuguese:

Leonardo
Rafael
Miguel Ângelo(yes, two different given names)
Donatello

I've met guys with these names before, but never met a Donatello. It's not used here. Although Donatello is a nickname for guys named Donato, and Donato is certainly used in Portugal, but sounds like a reallyyyyy outdated name. Like a name a man over 60 years old would have. I've NEVER met a young man with such a name in my life :lol: