Hilarious Russian shot-for-shot remake of Malcolm in the Middle!

Richiepiep

Administrator
Our friends at Malcolm France reported this some years ago, but of course their discovery, as always, is more than welcome on our site!

In 2013, the Russian TV channel CTC started airing a MITM remake, often shot-for-shot, under the title of Супер Макс (Super Max). So Malcolm has become Maxim in this version, and other names have been Russified too: their still elusive family name has become Jdanov, and we have Valera for Francis, Denis for Reese and Alex for Dewey.

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'Valera' apologizes for wrecking the car

Still, the remake suffers from budget limitations, like fewer exterior scenes, simple sets, lack of special effects and fewer extras (in the sense of bit players).

Some modifications were made for socio-cultural reasons: no black actors ('Stevie' is white), Hal's obsession with Nascar stock-car racing has turned into weight-lifting, of all things, and rollerskate hockey has become the more common ice hockey!

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No Hairy Hal this time!

By the way, there's nothing illegal about this version. CTC bought the rights from Fox to adapt the series. It's part of a fairly recent Russian trend: there have also been remakes of shows like The Nanny, Married with Children, Who's the Boss, Prison Break and Homeland.

Malcolm France made this brilliant compilation of similar scenes:


(you have to double-click this video to watch it in full widescreen, as intended)

Of course, you have to allow for French dubbing of the 'original' in this case.

Look what happened to the Hal and the 'bees' in the 'bots' episode!

Best,

Rich
 
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