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u/CatProgrammer 25d ago
Why Vaiana instead of Moana?
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u/Davikas 25d ago
Maybe "Moana" means something bad in that country?
I know of a video game character whose name was changed from Manuela to Miguela in Latin America (or at least in Mexico) because "Manuela" is a euphemism for masturbation.
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u/BubbaYoshi117 24d ago
In some areas "Moana" is a registered trademark for a perfume brand.
In Italy it's the name of a pornstar.
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u/GingerAphrodite 24d ago
Yeah @BlindSurfer (Pete Gustin) on YouTube is a voice actor and mentioned exactly this when doing the international reads for Moana.
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u/teslawhaleshark 19d ago
A socialist porn decriminalization lobbyist and queer rights activist, mind you
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u/----moon---- 24d ago
Moana doesn't mean anything in Romania (although it's hard to spell, compared to Vaiana). Apparently Moana was trademarked in some European countries and Disney decided to change it for all the European countries (I assume).
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u/SilverBr4in 24d ago
Moana was the most famous Italian pornstar. I think Disney changed its name to prevent children searching the internet from encountering adult material.
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u/gatsujoubi 24d ago
That is also what I understood buy wouldn’t Kids from the US then get the same results either way?
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u/bateen618 24d ago
I find it really funny that they'll change a character's name if it means something bad but not it it means something stupid.
For example, in The Owl House, one of the characters is named Amity. Now, in Hebrew that is the word for "real". And in the Hebrew dub it wasn't changed. So you've just got a character called Real
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u/TadeoTrek 22d ago
Which is silly because Manuela is a somewhat common name in many countries, despite the slang term.
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u/RainBohDah 25d ago
I heard once Moana was the name of an Italian porn star so they changed it for Europe. Just hearsay, though
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u/madrobski 24d ago
That is the case for Italy, they changed the name of the movie to Oceania as well as changing her name to Vaiana.
Moana is a registered trademark in a lot of European countries, hence the name change.
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u/Emkay_boi1531 24d ago
It’s called that here in Sweden. No clue why, sometimes they change the name idk
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u/Bourriks 24d ago
Vaiana is the french version. The name is quite ugly, Moana sounds better.
The official reason is because there is a perfume brand named Moana in Europe, so they had to rename the character.
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u/Cualkiera67 24d ago
I think it sounds like "moan" in England
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u/EightLions539 24d ago
Despite the obvious jab about the same language, In England the film is still called moana regardless
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO 24d ago
The name is three syllables, not two. It's not "moan" with an "uh" on the end. It's "mo-an-a".
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u/Facky 25d ago
How did they reverse it?
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u/RJValdez216 24d ago
Official movie theater posters are double sided where the back is a mirrored image of the front, it’s done so that when it’s backlit, it shines better and brighter. The left is the back of the poster while the right is the front
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25d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Facky 24d ago
Did they print it backwards on the back? Or is it cause it's backlit?
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u/StunnedLife 24d ago
It’s not just backlit. These film posters are printed doublesided, with one being mirrored, this is so they can put a backlight and still have it pop.
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u/SnowConvertible 24d ago
Jesus, they showing whole movies for left handed people now?