I recall a line from "The 5th Element" movie:
- Are you classified as human ?
- Negative, I'm a meat popsicle
Well, not only Bruce Willis has a killer french voice actor, but they translated it to:
- Êtes-vous classifié comme humain ?
- Négatif, je suis un mite en pull-over
"Négatif, je suis un mite en pull-over" means "Negative, I'm a moth in a sweater". Which is nowhere close to the original, but equally funny and nonsensical, and matches the lips movement perfectly.
Now I just resolved myself to go to see a non french movie at the theater only if it's the original version. Dubbing became so bad, it's like they use the same 10 voice actors for all the movies, and the writers are bored junior interns.
That reminds me of the French traduction of Discworld, an amazing work by Patrick Couton.
I'm afraid you are very much mistaken here. Having had the chance to look at primary school history book in four different countries (FR, DE, JP, US), written in four different languages, they each tell a vastly different tale.
Which doesn't mean they were necessarily contradicting each other, but rather spoke of entirely different things, or shone a completely different light on a particular event.
To give two simplistic examples, try to compare what is taught about Napoleon in French history book (he's a national hero) vs. German ones (he's depicted as the Hitler of his time). And try to go read about the history of WWII in a Japanese history book, you'll be amazed.
I was really surprised to see a whole chapter dedicated to Ancient Gaul, a place I had never even heard of until then. Brits may begin their history with Rome, but us Americans seem to start our tale in England (with perhaps a very small nod to the native cultures that predated English colonization). Anyhow, it's fascinating from the American perspective how relatively "young" we really are as a national identity.