Lost/Found Media that didn't live up to the hype

 I was just about to bring up Horrid Henry, Mr Enter did a video on it and mentioned how uncomfortable the grandmother repeatedly calling Henry a girl made him, I can't believe something like that was allowed in 2018 over there(then again given how the BBC has repeatedly platformed transphobic stuff I guess it's not too surprising sadly).

There was actually an attempt to bring over the popular UK animated series "Stressed Eric" to the U.S., it got redubbed with voice-actors like Hank Azaria and was aired in prime-time back when adult animated shows on network TV were popular in the late 90s, but it didn't last very long and I can't say i'm surprised as even with different voice-actors there's still no getting past how dark and unpleasant Stressed Eric is to watch for most Americans as we just don't find the idea of sympathetic characters like Eric constantly getting fucked over for no reason to be remotely compelling or entertaining and no amount of redubbing was going to make audiences over here watch that sort of thing(Life and Times of Tim I have similar issues with, but at least in that show Tim is supposed be unlikable and is often the cause of his own misery, but Eric is just a nice guy in a shitty situation who never gets a break). I just genuinely do not understand how that show ever became popular or critically acclaimed, it's legitimately baffling to me.

Even when UK animated shows try to compete with US animated shows in terms of filthy humor it falls flat(Popetown being a good example, despite the premise it's just kinda dull and unfunny most of the time).

Yeah Europeans can come across as condescending in their media and media tastes (especially where American portrayals are concerned), which doesn't always suit American tastes. I am definitely very critical of my own country but it can be exhausting having to defend it when it does come up in European media. European media can be just as guilty as American media of whitewashing their own sins within the world-say you're watching a documentary on the Congo which simps for King Leopold, and claims that it wasn't "that bad" (BTW, objectively, it WAS that bad). Or European media as a whole just leans too artsy, which also isn't to American tastes or sensibilities and then Europeans can get weird and claim "Oh dumb Americans just don't get it and only want to watch comic book movies hurrr durrrr." Like, no, some media is just TOO ARTSY or TOO FOREIGN and viewers can't connect and that's valid. You see a fair bit of this stuff on Reddit IMO. Japanese anime is still not fully mainstream here IMO but at least there's enough variety of genre here to attract a wide audience and it doesn't talk down to audiences the way smug European entertainment can. 

I do think that European movies and TV shows and books are still "popular" here though too, and viewed as "more friendly" to Americans than a lot of anime in a sense, particularly if they are co-productions, or things that people don't even KNOW are made in Europe, or the Europe...ness isn't too overwhelming. Look at Peppa Pig or Harry Potter or Thomas the Tank Engine for example. And Europe STILL ranks as the place that most Americans want to visit and/or live, so it can't be all bad views of Europe here in the states. In fact, Europe is (sadly) often considered the only "non 3rd world" (UGH) place in the world by a fair bit of Americans, with the possible exception of Canada. Europe is still viewed as sophisticated, rich in history and "culture," and first world, and the "civilized" place to live in comparison to Latin America, South America, Africa, the Middle East, or Southeast Asia (Japan is the exception of course). I know plenty of people who seem to think "Asia" NEVER progressed beyond Japan in 1985, nevermind that it's among the fastest growing regions in the world. The deent base of infrastructure alone is enough to attract tons of digital nomads who have to explain to family, that no, they won't be living in a dirt hut with no electricity, and yes, they can access clean water and food and a toilet and medicines!!! Yes there are convenience stores, and McDonalds. Yes, that place does have internet. Yadda yadda. 

I should also note that Korean media has started to compete with Japanese media to the point that there are now Kpop conventions, entire tables of Korean media at other conventions, Korean dramas rank high in streaming, Kpop concerts sell out quickly, and Korean makeup is all the rage and found in mainstream stores here. Plus Korean festivals are PACKED in the Southeast USA at least(an old friend tried to go to one recently and gave up, they literally were breaking fire safety codes and had to turn away any more ticket sales).

Well said, that's the primary reason Knights of the Zodiac failed in the U.S. by the time it came out it looked outdated(it was the oldest show on Cartoon Network's short-lived SVES block)and shows directly inspired by it like Ronin Warriors had already been dubbed into English and aired in both syndication and Toonami to great ratings success so people thought KOTZ was a rip-off despite coming first.

People also suspected that was the real reason why Cartoon Network stopped airing the original Mobile Suit Gundam(as opposed to their questionable 9/11 related excuse they gave)as it was showing it's age compared to every other anime on Toonami at the time.

There was actually one time the UK tried to do a remake of an American show-Days Like These, a pretty lousy remake of That 70s Show that came out mere months after season 1 premiered in the U.S. and it was such a flop that it actually got cancelled with a number of episodes unaired which for a UK show is virtually unheard of(seriously I can't think of any other UK shows with unaired episodes). I'd argue that was way worse then any of the American remakes of UK shows like Life on Mars, Skins, Coupling and Men Behaving Badly. Days Like These worst sin was that it followed the scripts almost exactly except it swapped out American cultural stuff with British stuff even when it didn't make any logical sense.


I did a Patreon request for Rowdy C to review that show a few years ago and he explained it pretty well:  

Thing is, I could easily see some European media not go well in Asian countries. Japan for example, despite its government, has a lot of LGBT+ representation in their works, quite a bit of which is very respectable, so I would definitely see Henry's grandma being a problem for a lot of people over there. Really the show in general would likely raise a LOT of controversy just from the parents ALONE.

Swedish cartoon The Three Friends... and Jerry had a character who looked like a stereotypical Asian character(this was a kids' show in the late '90s. It even aired on Fox Family in the US with no controversy SOMEHOW) & thus most Asian countries refused to broadcast it, with Japan & Israel being the only known exceptions. Even Peppa Pig had a banned episode due to it saying that spiders are friendly, which in Australia, where the episode was banned off TV, this is NOT AT ALL the case.

Then there's this Spanish animated kids' film called Elcano & Magellan: The First Voyage Around the World, which is a VERY inaccurate depiction of the events in the movie, with a poster that showed Lapu Lapu, a Filipino hero, in a way similar to how a villain would look on a movie poster. Do I need to explain why THIS FILM was considered offensive in the Philippines? We Americans already hate Christopher Columbus praisers as they are, we do NOT want to add inaccurate & distasteful portrayals of Filipino natives as well. Saberspark talked about this war crime that they call a movie here:

Hot Take: The Nicktoons zombified bumpers were kind of underwhelming to me.

You would not like Helluva Boss… not in the sense that it’s transphobic (it isn’t, at least not that I’m aware of), but in the sense it has one of those “nice guy punching bag running gag” jokes that aren’t remotely funny. 

helluva boss is mid, but if you look into vivziepop you will see a LOT of terrible stuff from unfair work environments to uhh.... I can't say this here..
tldr vivziepop is not a good person