Germany:
“Airplane” = The Incredible Journey On A Crazy Airplane
Then there’s The Incredible Journey On A Crazy Spaceship (original “Airplane II: The Sequel”)
and The Outragious Journey On A Crazy Bus (original: “The Big Bus”, in no way related to the other movies)But one scene in the first movie is even funnier than the original in the German dubbed version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEkI0cH_rK4
(The 2 black guys speak a thick Bavarian dialect, which is the closest thing in Germany to Hillbilly slang. The subtitles say something completely different)I remember in a high school german class we watched the dubbed version of The Karate Kid.
The teacher warned us not to take notes from Mr. Miyagi’s dialogue. “His German is terrible.”
The airplane one drove me crazy for over a decade. I used to always stay up late and zapped through late night movies and tried to remember the ones that looked good. I asked everyone i knew about a movie with that crazy airplane, and no one knew what i meant.
All the “German Jive” sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger!
Good ear. Schwarzenegger’s birthplace is so far into Hillbilly territory, he’s a mountain goat.
In french it’s Y a-t-il un pilote dans l’avion ? or Is there a pilot on the plane?
Brazilian translation studios have a fair bit of those:
Portuguese Literal translation Original title O Poderoso Chefão The Powerful Big Boss The Godfather A Noviça Rebelde The Rebellious Novice The Sound of Music Noivo Neurótico, Noiva Nervosa Neurotic Fiancé, Nervous Fiancée Annie Hall O Tiro Que Não Saiu Pela Culatra The Shot that Didn’t Backfire Parenthood Those four are representative examples because they don’t just adapt the original title; they do it without regard of what the original title is conveying, just to throw it into a “this is a movie title!” template.
Not that bad, but there was a serious lack of creativity:
The Shining - Hotel of Evil
House on the Haunted Hill - House of EvilI’ll start with a classic: in French "the Hangover"has been changed to “Very bad trip”
Possibly as a consolation, the French film “Une hirondelle à fait le printemps” (A swallow that made the spring) was called “The Girl From Paris” in English.
TIL!
Brazilian translation studios butchered this one too. It became Se Beber, Não Case (If Drinking, Don’t Marry).
In the meantime the ones in Portugal translated it literally as A Ressaca, showing that the “creativity” of the above was 100% unnecessary.
And Hot Tub Time Machine was titled The Hangover
Oh, I have a doozy for ya. I’ve got a beauty!
THELMA & LOUISE
in theaters in Mexico, back in the early 90s
was
(wait for it…)
UN FINAL INESPERADO (AN UNEXPECTED ENDING)Seriously… how dumb do you think your audiences are if you feel the need to hold their hand and spoon-feed them like this? This is taken to a level that doesn’t make sense anymore, the so-called “solution” is so much worse than the perceived “problem”.
Book and Movie “To Kill a Mockingbird” is translated in German to “Wer die Nachtigall Stört” - “To disturb a Nightingale”.
They were like “something, something with a bird- close enough.”
This bothered me even before reading the book, but after reading the scene in the backyard where Miss Maudie explains to the kids that you never shoot at a mockingbird because they do no harm to anyone or anything ever, a metaphor the whole book is build on, this translation drives me crazy.
I wish someone would re-publish it with a more fitting german title.
This stuff never bothered me when i was younger, now it kinda does. I always imagine some guy trying to put his own spin on things. “Oh i can do better.” But it’s just a title at least.
What bothered me even as a child was when they advertised for a movie like Antz in germany as: starring Sylvester Stallone. No he’s not, it has a german voice actor who pretends to be Sylvester Stallone.
I wish they’d market the names of the voice actors a lot more.
Some voice actors dub for an impressive number of famous actors, and I hate for them to be mentioned (if at all) as “Sylvester Stallone’s voice actor” instead of their real name.
The Shawshank Redemption in Finnish: Rita Hayworth - avain pakoon. (=key to freedom). Only a minor spoiler…
You should see the French title…
If anyone is wondering:
Spoiler
Les Évadés = The Escaped
Thanks for that, wanted to do that little spoiler thing but was not able to do so hahaha
Japan tends to go for very descriptive titles in media. My favorite one of these is when Pixar’s Up became Old Man Carl’s Flying House.
Most InuYasha episode titles sound like first draft fairy tale titles.
