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The Russian Winnie The Pooh
The Hollywood Original: Winnie The Pooh
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Vinni Pukh (1969)
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Despite opting not to use E.H. Shepard's famous illustrations and going for a distinctly less fluffy depiction, this version of the character stays true to A.A. Milne's original text. Only, rather than being spoken in Winnie's familiar, lilting voice, they are barked out in Vinni's intimidating, militant shouts.
The Indian Hitch
The Hollywood Original: Hitch
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Partner (2007)
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Hitch is replaced by Prem, a supposed ‘love guru’, who falls in love with a widowed, single mother but can’t win her over. Judging purely on the picture above, we can see why.
The Turkish Hamlet
The Hollywood Original: Hamlet (hardly a ‘Hollywood original’, but still)
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: ntikam Melei – Kadn Hamlet (1977), which translates as “The Angel Of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet”
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Apart from the obvious, you mean? Well, at one point a female Rosencrantz and Guildenstern take Hamlet to the beach, where they all play volleyball in their bikinis. Now, stick this version on the secondary school syllabus and you get kids learning.
The Thai Beauty And The Beast
The Hollywood Original: Beauty And The Beast
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Also called Beauty And The Beast, but it’s probably a coincidence.
Biggest Deviation From Canon: It’s virtually a shot-for-shot remake of the Disney classic animation, apart from Beast looks more like Simba from The Lion King . Maybe he was easier to draw?
The Japanese Planet Of The Apes
The Hollywood Original: Planet Of The Apes
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Saru No Gundan (1987) - "Time Of The Apes"
Biggest Deviation From Canon: For all the effort spent on creating similar ape costumes, they might as well be ventriloquists because none of their mouths move when they speak.
The Turkish Mad Max
The Hollywood Original: Mad Max
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Ölüme son Adim (1986) – “Last Stop To Death”
Biggest Deviation From Canon: In this version, Mad Max (actually named Kahan here) brings along his best friend Ali for the ride, as well as female friend Leyla, whose only skill seems to be the ability to kick ass while wearing almost zero clothing.
The Korean King Kong
The Hollywood Original: King Kong
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: The brilliantly named A*P*E (1976).
Biggest Deviation From Canon: After swatting down a couple of toy helicopters, our A*P*E - in a shocking flash of implausible intelligence - flips his attackers the bird. Andy Serkis would have loved filming that.
The Turkish Death Wish
The Hollywood Original: Death Wish
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Cellat (1975) – “The Executioner”
Biggest Deviation From Canon: In the original, Charles Bronson’s vigilante never manages to find the thugs that killed his wife and raped his daughter, but here, our anti-hero tracks them down and finishes them off one-by-one. He still carries a sockful or coins though.
The Indian Bruce Almighty
The Hollywood Original: Bruce Almighty
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: God Tussi Great Ho (2008) – “God, You Are Great”.
Biggest Deviation From Canon: It’s all exactly the same as Bruce Almighty , although our protagonist Arun has a love rival in the form of Rocky, who won the TV anchor position he wanted. In Hollywood terms, that means that Jim Carrey and Steve Carell would have been competing for Jennifer Aniston’s love.
The Turkish Rocky
The Hollywood Original: Rocky
The Amazing Foreign Rip-Off: Kara Simsek (1985), which translates as the awesome “Black Thunder”.
Biggest Deviation From Canon: Here, our underdog champion is a strongman who only becomes a boxer in order to avenge the death of his brother, who was killed during a bout. Really, it’s the kind of motivation our Rocky could have really needed to spur him on and win a little earlier.
