Thursday, March 26, 2015

Foreign Dukes of Hazzard Releases: TV Show, Movie, Video Games, Soundtrack, & Beginning


I always try to find unique Dukes of Hazzard items.  I had a few foreign items in the past, but recently I went crazy and bought as many as I could find.  They took a long time to arrive, but now I have a bunch of outside the USA Dukes releases.  These are fun,so let's take a look.


Sherif, fais-moi peur! means Dukes of Hazzard in French.  Actually it means Sheriff do I fear, which is weird.  I've discussed this before.  This is a single disc from the Season 1 release of the Dukes.  It has the same image as the American release.  


The American version of the 2005 movie was released on DVD in two main versions.  The theatrical and unrated version.  I don't know why, but in the United Kingdom it was not unrated, but unseen. Besides the different word on the license plate, the U.K. version is very similar to the American version.  The small red and blue circles signify a rating system similar to our PG, PG13, R, and Unrated.  This movie is apparently appropriate for a 15 year old.


While buying these different foreign versions, I bought two of this version.  One is sealed and one is open.


I also bought a Rental Copy version of the movie.  It is has basically the same case, aside from the red bar on top.


Another Unseen version of the movie comes from Australia.  It has the same picture on the front, but the word unseen is bolder.  It has an M rating for mature.  It also lists why the movie is for mature audiences.  It has an orange bar on top that displays this DVD being a Rowdier and Raunchier Special Edition.


The Australian version is the only version of the Dukes movie I've ever seen to come in a slip cover. It is sealed.


Seeing "Unseen" instead of "Unrated" is fun, but wouldn't make the average Dukes fan take notice.  Seeing Ein Duke Kommt Selten Allein where you are expecting to see The Dukes of Hazzard would make anyone look twice.  Google tells me that this literally translates to from German to Dukes of Hazzard.  The Germans don't fear the sheriff like the French.  Instead of Unrated, this DVD reads Unzensiert, which means uncensored.  The tagline "Cousins, Outlaws, Thrillbillies, is replaced by "Die Version, Die Zu Heiss Furs Kino War."  Um, that seems to mean "The Version Leading To Hot Furs War Movies."  I'm guessing something got lost in translation.  Too hot for theaters, maybe?


The back of all of these releases are pretty similar.


I don't exactly know why there is a standard movie poster and a international poster.  The first few DVD releases shown above are based on the standard poster.  This DVD depicts the international poster.  I'm not sure what country this version comes from.  It is a PAL release.  I've had it for several years.


This is a French release.  It has the international artwork.  I have so many questions about these releases.  Why does the German version have the standard artwork and the French have the international?  Is this version Unrated, Unseen, or Uncensored?  The tagline on this release says "A Fond La Caisse. Pas De Limites" which seems to translate to Full Fun, No Limits.


I've also had this Greek version of the movie for some time.  The Dukes of Hazzard in Greece (I think) is only one word: Ntioyke, if that last letter is an "E."  It has the same international artwork.  It doesn't have a tagline.  I like how strikingly different this one is.



The back of the English language and the French versions are similar but the Greek one is pretty much blank.


For some reason, the Greek version is in a thin case.  All of the other versions are in standard cases. The French version reads the opposite direction than the other ones.


The discs of the ones that aren't sealed are oddly different.



While searching, I stumbled across foreign versions of the Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning.  I've talked at length in the past about how much I don't like this movie and wish it was never produced. But because it does exist, I have it in the collection.  Here are the German and French versions.  They use the same artwork.  I think it's funny how the French versions say "Unrated" in English and it is across this "Daisy's" chest.  The German version says it in German, "Unzensiert" on the bottom. "Unzensiert" actually translates to uncensored.  I hate "The Beginning."


It is fun to compare the French and German versions.


Most of this post so far has been about the movie.  It is the ten year anniversary of the movie, but I know everyone loves the TV show and only likes the movie.  That may be generous.  Inside the French version of the movie is this cool advertisement for the the show DVDs.  Is uses background artwork that I've never seen before.  I like it a lot.


The other side of the add-in has Boss Hogg and pictures of the French DVDs of seasons 1-3.  They look a little different than the American versions.


I also found some French version of the video games.  To read all about the different Dukes video games, check out this big ol' post.  This is the first Playstation game that came out in 1999.


This is a Ubisoft Exclusive version of the same game.  I don't know what that means.  Maybe it is similar to a greatest hits.


I also found the sequel "Dukes of Hazzard 2: Daisy Dukes It Out" in French form.  It is only called Sherid Fair-Moi Peur 2.  It doesn't have the Daisy subtitle in French.  Just like the one above, it uses the same artwork as the American version.


What I completely don't understand about this release is the inclusion of Cartoon Network's logo. My best guess is that Dukes reruns were shown on Cartoon Network in France.  That is amazing, but I don't know why they would do that.  I guess they don't have cable stations devoted to country music in France.


The regular and Ubisoft versions of the first game have the same backs.  The sequel is on top.


All of these games are in thicker cases than standard American Playstation games.  The American ones came in cases similar to standard CD cases.


I also picked up the French version of the XBox game.  This one does have the subtitle "The Return of the General Lee" in French.  General has two tildes!



The instruction manual is in French, but the disc is in English.


The only indication that is different than the American version is the PAL marker.


Back to the movie.  This is the British version of the PSP UMD.  Playstation Portable was a handheld video game cosole that used little discs.  They convinced movie studios to release their movies in these tiny discs that only worked on these tiny screens.  PSP UMDs were quickly made obsolete by a little thing called the Internet and streaming.  But along the way, they released two Dukes movie UMDs, the standard and this European version.  Note the "Unseen" license plate.  The American version had "Unrated" and had black bars where this one has grey.


My final piece in this exposition doesn't come from Europe.  This one comes all the way from Asia. This is a Japanese Dukes of Hazzard Movie Soundtrack.  It is basically the American version with an extra flap with Japanese writing.


Ah, so that's how you write "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" in Japanese.  I've always wondered. It is cool to see The Dukes of Hazzard in Japanese.



That is a lot of info in Japanese.  I wonder which words say "Waylon Jennings" and "Good Ol' Boys."  The second line that has 1979 and 1985 in it must explain when the original show was on the air.


I enjoyed sharing this unique collection of Dukes of Hazzard items.  I love finding off the wall items that you don't see everyday.  Jeff mentioned that I could spend a lot of time and money on more of these foreign releases.  I haven't searched for any others since I purchased all these.  Maybe down the road I'll search again and write a sequel to this post.

3 comments:

  1. Oh man...I think I need stitches, I laughed so damn hard!! Thank you Germans, I needed a good laugh!!

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  2. The French title is more accurately translated as, "Sheriff, Sacre Me,", which makes it sound like an appropriately I,pertinent dare.

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