[News] when 4-fingered animation just won't "cut it"

   "Bob the Builder fixed for Japan"
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/720419.stm

   Television favourite Bob the Builder is to have his fingers
   doctored for the Japanese market - because he looks like a
   gangster.

   In Japan the country's most feared mafia - the Yakuza -
   cut off their little fingers as a sign they can be trusted
   and have strength of character.

   Bob's creators, Hit Entertainment, have also decided
   to give all merchandising of four-fingered Bob
   an extra digit so children will not be alarmed.

   He is not the first animated character to be altered
   - in 1994 Postman Pat was considered too scary
   for export and got the same treatment.

   'Too sensitive'

   But Japanese journalist Chika Miyatake said she thought
   the cartoon creators were being too sensitive.

   "If Japanese kids saw this cartoon with the character
   having four instead of five fingers then they might make
   a joke that he is in the mafia but they wouldn't be
   scared of it.

   "With Pokemon and other Japanese cartoons being much more
   violent they are much more used to seeing frightening
   animation on the TV and anyway parents in Japan
   don't monitor what their children are watching
   in the same way as in Britain."

   Nicholas Durbridge from the Copyrights Group Limited,
   which represents Postman Pat, said animated characters
   tended to have four fingers for technical reasons.

   "Animators find less digits are easier for gripping
   and holding," he said.

   But in the case of Postman Pat the actual animation
   was not touched.

   Children's hit

   Mr Durbridge said that would have meant re-filming
   all the episodes and that would have been too expensive.

   Bob the Builder and his friends Scoop the Digger,
   Dizzy the Cement Mixer and Pilchard the Cat made their
   debuts on BBC One a year ago and have been a big hit.

   The 10-minute programme for pre-school children stars
   the cheerful and trustworthy Bob going about
   his business, helped by his talking vehicles.

   His shortage of fingers does not seem to give him any
   bother in the building trade.


Laters. =)

                Stan
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 /   _   | |/ Stanlee  stanlee[at]cif[dot]rochester[dot]edu
|  ( _|  |    Dometita   http://cif.rochester.edu/~stanlee/
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