Australian ABC erased Mr Popo from DB Super

[coola]

https://x.com/JusT1N_Dash/status/200695 ... release%2F Blue Popo doesn't look so bad now But yes, i heard Australia is one of most strict countries in terms of censorship

[Tian]

They better don't bother to get Daima's broadcasting rights if they are pulling shit like this.

[MasenkoHA]

It’s the fact that he’s still there but not for me. I haven’t watched Super since like 2020 so someone remind me how pivotal was that scene? Could they have not just given that scene the ol snippety snip? I don’t recall Popo’s appearance in Super being as important as the original trilogy. If if was too important to cut…why didn’t they just paint him blue?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I saw this scene, it was so jarring. Cutting the scene wholesale or painting Mr Popo blue definitely would have been the lesser of two evils.

[Tian]

I saw this scene, it was so jarring. Cutting the scene wholesale or painting Mr Popo blue definitely would have been the lesser of two evils.

Even though it sucks to exclude our good pal Mr. Popo, I think it would've been for the best to remove the scene since Australia doesn't seem to have a good record regarding this kind of thing.

Repainting wouldn't really have helped matters because it would have seen as lazy as the pathetic croping.

[Yellow Flower King]

https://x.com/JusT1N_Dash/status/200695 ... release%2F Blue Popo doesn't look so bad now But yes, i heard Australia is one of most strict countries in terms of censorship

Why is the music so ominous? There is an eerie sound effect that I have heard on horror movies... And Scooby Doo.

Blue Popo was vindicated in the end.

[LostTimeLord]

ABC's version is specifically aimed at kids, so of course they're not going to want an offensive design like Mr Popo's showing up, but such obvious cropping isn't exactly a great solution. It must be a little confusing to anyone who's not aware of Mr. Popo!
Surprisingly, the UK broadcast on Pop actually left that scene intact (at least, when it first aired in March 2020). But a few years later, in 2023, the BBC added it to iPlayer and cut it to the bare minimum of necessary dialogue. Personally, I think that their cut is better since it's relatively seamless.
Here's the BBC version, as a comparison.

Spoiler:

Goku: yo!
Mr. Popo: Goku.
Dende: Long time no see. Welcome.
Goku: Wow, I leave you alone for a little bit and you just keep getting bigger and bigger, dude.
Mr. Popo: Hey now, show him some respect!
Dende: It's all right. So what brought you here, Goku? I'm guessing it has something to do with Grand Zeno's big tournament?
Goku: What? You know about that?
Dende: Well, Supreme Kai and the Destroyer stopped by here earlier, and I may have overheard a few things.

One shot is zoomed in, and Goku arriving replaced is with the establishing shot... which admittedly does still have Popo on it.

As for why they didn't turn him blue, or whatever - the people making these edits won't be a localisation team or VFX artists, they'll be the same editors that would normally check licensed programmes for compliance issues. I doubt they normally buy kids' programmes as extreme as Dragon Ball Super. To some extent, the purpose of companies like 4Kids and early Funimation was to handle "production" tasks, like painting over problematic animation, that a broadcaster wouldn't normally deal with.

[Kenji]

It is jarring, but Popo is a racist blackface caricature.
And he's not really an important character to the story, so... whatever.

[PowerPhantom245]

What an awkward edit.
lol

[Hellspawn28]

You can clearly still see him next to Dende when he is talking.