Originally posted by DrFrag@May 29 2005, 12:56 PM
I watched a few minutes of The Greatest Robot in the World in French and I was surprised at how much was cut. Uran getting electrocuted by Bruton's hand, Xeron getting torn apart after being immune to the electric horns, Brondo flying out of the sea and landing back in the whirlpool, etc.
I'm impressed by the consistently good voice acting though (both series).
Hahaha! This was one episode I had recorded 15 years ago, so I watched it many times.
The thing is they didn't want any robot to be destroyed forever, so that's why they cut almost all the fights. After Bruton got out off the sea, he says Brondo is "asleep"; since Xeron isn't torn apart, we are left to think he is only "asleep" too. And at the end of part 2, Astro asks Elefun if he can repair Bruton and Elefun says he'd rather put time and work so that the robots "sleeping" because of Bruton can be repaired.
But they really made one stupid change to the scenario: instead of putting a suicide bomb inside Bruton, Abra says it's a device allowing Bruton to increase his power if needed. So at the end of the episode, Bruton is becoming friend with Astro, then mysteriously disappear to reappear as Bora, but no, Bora isn't a new robot, it's Bruton again... And since Bruton didn't commit suicide, Astro can hope he can be repaired...
For anyone who had seen the French version before the English version, had you ever noticed that some things were wrong?
I have to admit that although I wasn't a child anymore when I watched it again, it had never crossed my mind that Bruton's transformation was due to cuts in the episodes... I did wonder how a robot could transform itself that way, but I could only accept it as such. I also wondered why Astro, who had fallen so many times without a scratch before, could be so badly injured because of a fall in "The Death Balloon" (they cut the scene in which the mayor shot him and left us thinking Astro got hurt when he rushed after the balloon). But if I hadn't recorded those episodes and watched them more than once, I probably wouldn't have had such questions.
FYI, I also remember where the cuts were in "Atlas Forever" and "The Hijacked Airship", and although I was frustrated to see what I had missed, from what I remember, the stories were alright. Atlas even dies at the end: how could they do that to us, poor french children?!???!! Really, those of you who watched the series as it was must all have been totally traumatized after watching so many deaths!

I wonder how "The Lightray Robot" ends...!
BTW, Goliath too is alive at the end of his episode since it ends with Astro giving him his head back. [Side note: it's obvious that the same man who did Goliath's voice in English also did Atlas, so each time I hear a desperate Goliath saying "My own head attacking me!!!!!", I can't help it, I see Atlas saying it and it so doesn't fit him that it make me laugh each time!]
I also like the voices in French. I don't know why, but Astro comes out more mature in French, and not only because of his voice; but maybe it's just me. It was a woman who did his voice in French too.