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01/26/2003: rant ahead...
I sort of zapped through Sunday morning programming and came across a dubbed episode of Disney's Recess, and I watched for a while, because I thought it was funny that they were showing a Christmas episode at the end of January, but whatever. I looked it up in an episode guide, the ep was actually Yes, Mikey, Santa Does Shave. Anyway, there is this Christmas performance at the school, and the kids appear as seasonal characters, and sing a line. There are some reindeer, then a green-clad elf, some druids, then comes a kid in sort of traditional African clothing for Kwanzaa, then a kid dressed as menorah, and the climax is Santa Claus. What pissed me off was that they translated the singing line of the menorah-clad kid with "I am a shining Christmas tree" or something to that effect. I couldn't believe this. The costume had no resemblance whatsoever to a tree. I guess in the original the line was something about Chanukah. And okay, maybe menorahs and Chanukah references aren't as common here as in the US, and maybe some kids wouldn't have been familiar with it, but they had no problem leaving Kwanzaa as Kwanzaa in their translation, and that holiday is far less known here. Why the fuck did they edit out the Jewish holiday? And in a totally ridiculous way too, I mean a Christmas tree?!? And nobody, who was connected to dubbing this episode, occurred that this might be seen as offensive?! Aargh. Am I overreacting? I mean, I'm really thinking about writing the tv station about this.
