Dubbing Differences: Toy Story

I'm running out of Disney classics to analyze dubs for, so let's go with a Pixar one today. Toy Story was a lot of fun to watch in Brazilian Portuguese, and there were quite a few notable differences:

• The title in Portuguese is “Toy Story - A World of Adventures.”

• Andy’s voice is older. It sounds like he’s at least 12 or 13.

• Mr. Potato Head says “This is an assault!” instead of “This is a stick-up!”

• Instead of “Reach for the sky,” Woody says “Hands up!”

• Andy (as Woody) just says “Say goodbye to your wife and kids.” Come to think of it, I don’t think they have tater tots in Brazil.

• The singer of the songs sounds remarkably similar to Randy Newman. I’m impressed.

• ⭐Woody doesn’t say “Pull my string”; he just says “Puxa vida,” which is a generic Portuguese exclamation. Funnily enough though (possibly intentionally), puxa means “to pull,” so there’s an interesting overlap in meaning.

• Mr. Potato Head seems to refer to the hockey puck as a “dark zero.” I’m probably hearing wrong, but he definitely doesn’t say hockey puck.

• Rex’s voice is hilariously and unsuitably young and high-pitched.

• Etch’s name is Magic Screen.

• Mike’s name is Sound.

• Bo Peep’s name is Betty.

• Woody: “Hey, listen, nobody’s getting substituted.”

• Woody and the sergeant refer to Code Red as “maximum priority.”

• ⭐Instead of talking about two flavors of chips, the mom lists salad, barbecue (I assume meaning grilled meats) and something else inaudible as options for food.

• Hamm says “Sorry, Big Potato” instead of calling him Ol’ Spud Head.

• Strangely, sometimes Sarge uses the code name “Mother Bird,” and other times “Bird Mother.”

• Star Command is called Stellar Command. Same meaning, but a small noticeable English difference.

• “Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!” is changed to “Buzz Lightyear to action!”

• ⭐Not sure why, but Buzz calls in his mission log as running off course en route to sector 19, not 12. I guess the word for 19 in Portuguese has a V in it like twelve does, so maybe it was for lip syncing purposes.

• Buzz addresses Woody as “local police” instead of law enforcement.

• Woody says they have “large batteries” instead of “double-A’s.”

• It’s hard to tell because he says it so fast, but I think instead of saying Woody’s sound system sounds like a car ran over it, Mr. Potato Head says it sounds like splitting bamboo.

• ⭐Instead of saying he’s from Playskool, Potato Head says he’s from a free trade zone. Rex says he was made in Paraguay, then rambles on about how he’s not sure if he’s from there per se, perhaps some of his parts came from other places.

• Buzz: “I think the word you’re searching for is ‘Special Patrol Officer.’”

• Woody calls Buzz “Mr. Liar” instead of “Mr. Light Beer.”

• Instead of “Golly Bob Howdy,” Slinky just says “That was unbelievable!”

• Instead of “Howdy howdy howdy,” Mr. Shark says “Everybody out of bed!”

• Woody says “You want to complicate things, eh?” instead of “You wanna do it the hard way, huh?”

• Lenny’s name translates basically to Watchful Eye or something similar.

• Scud’s name is Brute.

• Pizza Planet’s name is left untranslated.

• Mr. Potato Head refers to Buzz as “Egghead” instead of Humpty-Dumpty.

• Instead of “I don’t like confrontations!” Rex says “Leave me out of this!”

• A small detail, but instead of saying “You!” as in accusing him of being the cause of his trouble, Woody says “You…!” as in he was going to call him an insult.

• Woody sarcastically bids Buzz a nice trip instead of saying “good riddance.”

• The countdown voice at Pizza Planet is untranslated. I never noticed before, but it might be an actual recorded countdown of Neil Armstrong or something.

• Instead of saying “astro… uh, turf,” Woody says “astro…uh, labe.” 😀

• The aliens’ voices are remarkably similar to the English ones. I always thought their way of talking was just the actor, but it may be a vocal effect.

• Woody: “Oh, great. Great. Yeah, if anyone attacks us, we can blink a light in their eyes. That’ll destroy them.”

• Sid’s mom generalizes his Pop Tarts, just saying his “snack” is ready.

• Instead of “There’s no place like home,” Woody says “I want my house!”

• Hannah calls Buzz “Lady Marocas” instead of Mrs. Nesbitt.

• Instead of saying “Did you all take stupid pills this morning?” Mr. Potato Head says “Did you all have a silliness attack?”

• Woody: “Your helmet does that, that incredible movement.”

• Sid tells Woody they’ll “Converse later” instead of “Have a cookout later.”

• Instead of saying “It’s busted,” Sid says “It has a defect.”

• Woody tells Sid to “play properly” instead of “play nice.”

• Hamm: “Swine attack!”

• It’s hard to hear what the Sarge changes his code name from Myrrh to, but instead of the toys' codename as Franckinsense, he calls them “Santa Claus.”

• ⭐This is a weird one: Instead of Woody noticing mistletoe, he says “Isn’t that an orange tree branch?” There’s nothing cultural about orange branches in Brazil, especially around Christmastime. I think the tradition of mistletoe is just completely foreign and they chose a more recognizable plant.

• The “Way to go, Idaho” joke is lost. Instead Hamm just cheers him on and calls him “Big Potato” again.

• Woody: “What could Andy possibly get that is more important than you?”