Language barriers, cultural differences and even politics can prompt film names to change around the world. The task of translating a movie script and shortening the words to a minimum amount to fit it each movie caption seems pretty. Good movie title translations quicksilver translate. Over 100,000 spanish translations of english words and phrases. Translators try to match the title to the movies content and the culture of the audience, and sometimes that translation fails in hilarious ways. Googles free service instantly translates words, phrases, and web pages between english and over 100 other languages. These are far from all of the horrible translations of movie titles. The task of translating a film title for overseas audiences would seem. Pet detective, the chinese title used the characters wangpai, which literally mean king card. Oct 06, 2017 this spanish movie s title literally means the hidden face. Many of the titles explain literally what happens in the movie, some dont have exact translations back into english, and a few have a.
Where the subtitles of a movie are split into small section, so anyone who has 1 minute can translate it. If youve ever taken a close look at the spanishlanguage titles of popular american films, chances are youve noticed that theyre called. Doc difficulties in translation of movie titles aidana. That is fair enough and made sense for the first movie. The 28 funniest englishspanish movie title translations on. In all the spanish speaking countries, the movies are named differently. Mar 18, 2016 sometimes a good pun used in a movie can become a big part of the movie title interpretations process and turn into a new title.
Here are a few examples of the more confusing, both translated into spanish and into english. The 28 funniest englishspanish movie title translations is it humanly impossible to translate a movie title well i could try to defend translators everywhere by pointing out, for the umptenth time, that marketing departments not translators have the last word when it comes to deciding on the titles that are used to market a film abroad. For every movie they release, there is a global strategy. Jun 26, 2019 5 of the weirdest movie title translations movie titles play a crucial role in the success and popularity of films. Most movies distributed internationally are produced in english, and then the marketing and localization departments assign new titles to them according to the culture and sensibility of the target market. There have already been wackiest spanish translation of a movie title, weirdest italian title translation and sacrebleu. The worst translations of movie titles into spanish celebcover. Im a little obsessed with bad translations of movie titles so much so i named my book after one of them. The worst translations of movie titles into spanish. Translations of foreign titles of american movies complex. Title in spanish english to spanish translation spanishdict. Aug 24, 2017 the 10 most hilarious movie title translations posted on august 24, 2017 august 24, 2017 by brian oaster the only thing better than an intentionally funny movie is an unintentionally funny movie title translation. Translations of movies can be quite vexing to someone more familiar with the original title. Wackiest spanish translation of a movie title imdb imdb.
English movie titles in spanish flashcards quizlet. Here are some english movie titles that i got translated into spanish. Lewis carrolls 1865 novel alices adventures in wonderland has been translated into 174 languages. The 10 most hilarious movie title translations taste of. Rate 5 stars rate 4 stars rate 3 stars rate 2 stars rate 1 star. Sometimes, though, the spanish titles are way off, to the point of making you laugh out loud. On the translation of english movie titles the film, a popular art with both artistic and commercial values, is one of the most influential mass media. Where the monsters live somehow, it just seems less interesting. On the translation of english movie titles yin asian. If you are in latinamerica and you want to rent a movie we dont have netflix yet, you must be careful with the title. The films title is a lot like the cover of a bookit extends the story, adds flavor to the content, and serves as the final stroke of the directors intentions. Spanish translation of title collins englishspanish. Nov 24, 2019 can you name the movie titles from their spanish translations. Translate the movie titles from spanish back to english.
Apr 28, 2015 many of the titles explain literally what happens in the movie, some dont have exact translations back into english, and a few have a little more style than their american counterpart. Character and place names derived from common english usage tend to be rendered into japanese, while those invented by tolkien or difficult to translate are often transliterated directly into katakana spellings. Try and identify these english movie titles translated to spanish. Were not sure why, but the french localized version uses both an english translation, and one that is different from the original meaning. If youve ever taken a close look at the spanishlanguage titles of popular american films, chances are youve noticed that theyre called something. Aug 03, 2017 movie title translations are a significant intersection of the film and translation industries, and translating movie and tv titles properly is a complex process. The worst spanish movie title translations in the worldever there is nothing like and extremely niche blog subject to guarantee no one ever will bother to read it.
Look up words and phrases in comprehensive, reliable bilingual dictionaries and search through billions of online translations. After the observation published thursday in mouse on the translations of the names of heroes and villains of the comics of superheroes into spanish, on the subject of the jokes, a parallel theme emerged on twitter. Spanish words for movie include pelicula, filme, film, camara cinematografica and pelicula. Jan 11, 2010 the worst englishto spanish movie title translations of 2009 1. This spanish movies title literally means the hidden face. Inspired by my travels around latin america where i started to notice some very odd film titles on well known films i decided to put together a few of my favourites. When american movies get sent abroad, foreign markets often have a difficult time with the cultural context, making the movie fit into their particular. You can go for a literal wordforword translation, try to describe. Here are some of the translation errors over the years that caused disastrous results. Runes on thrors map are left in english, but absent altogether from the title page.
Some of these are classic examples of why you have to pay a premium for translation services to ensure that you are presenting cultureappropriate and accurate translations every time. Spanish speakers know that very well, because movie titles are usually transformed into something completely different compared to the original version. Movies in latin america get translated to what some consider a more accurate version of the title. Can you name the movie titles from their spanish translations. The french translation of the matrix is up there with nyan cat and nicholas cage memes for wellknown internet jokes, but for the sheer ridiculous nature of it, we had to include it on this list. Here are some of the funniest and most surreal examples. Some translations, with the first date of publishing and of reprints or reeditions by other publishers, are. May 11, 2012 the worst spanish movie title translations in the worldever there is nothing like and extremely niche blog subject to guarantee no one ever will bother to read it. The 28 funniest englishspanish movie title translations. The 28 funniest englishspanish movie title translations on the. And dont get me started on the titles of nonenglish movies in sweden, the translations of some modern french movies are as horrendous as the 80s. Note that a lot of these have proper spanish titles, and these are just translations. Very often translators remove and replace them by an innocent phrase. I know there is a book with the translation of the movie titles.
Movie title translations are a significant intersection of the film and translation industries, and translating movie and tv titles properly is a complex process. See 12 authoritative translations of title in spanish with example sentences, phrases and audio pronunciations. Spanish translation of title the official collins englishspanish dictionary online. There seem to be several strategies when translating the name of a film into another language, and none of them work perfectly. Usually when an englishlanguage movie is released in a spanishspeaking country, the original title is kept. Translate these movie titles from spanish to english. But these guys need to hire someone else to translate movie titles.
Funny english to spanish movie title translations posted on april 25, 2012 by living language a few days ago, i was discussing with a student how movie subtitles arent usually very accurate. Test your knowledge on this movies quiz to see how you do and compare your score to others. Well, germany, youve explained this movie with characteristic precision. How movie titles get lost in translation atlas obscura. The task of translating a film title for overseas audiences would seem like a fairly simple one, handled by one of those fancy types who speaks more than one language.
When film titles get translated into other languages, the results can get downright weird. Jun 22, 2016 when film titles get translated into other languages, the results can get downright weird. The language with the most editions of the alice in wonderland novels in translation is japanese, with 1,271 editions. I wont even begin to talk about some of the terrible dubbing or subtitling i have seen but lets take a look at some titles. See 5 authoritative translations of movie in spanish with example sentences, phrases and audio pronunciations. A title about zaniness that doesnt sound zany itself is like a dad joke thats only funny because it falls so.
Hollywood movie titles in france are often given easier english substitutes to make them more accessible to french audiences, instead of simply being translated into french. Here are ten of the weirdest, most hilarious movie title translations to date. English to spanish conversion of 14 movie titles that went wrong. Translations of alices adventures in wonderland wikipedia. Not only does it feature in the title of almost every jim carey movie. Hilarious french translations of hollywood movie titles. Film looks like a piece of mirror, which reflects all the respects of human society, including the. One of the strangest movie title translations ever. I thought the movie was entirely uninteresting as well, so maybe the spanish translation is the better of the two.
More logic problem than knowledge quiz, which may well be more fun. Jun 24, 2009 translations of movies can be quite vexing to someone more familiar with the original title. What are the worst movie translations like the theme of comics, there are multiple examples in spain, but latin america is not exactly exempt. English to spanish conversion of 14 movie titles that went. Film title, as one of the essential element of the film, also builds a convenient bridge for crosscultural communications. Difficulties in translation of movie titles aidana smagul, b. Why do movie titles in spain end up with such strange translations. The worst englishtospanish movie title translations of 2009. A similar trend happened with the word ace and its all jim carreys fault.
Im sure you have some of your own, please share them in the comments. Movie titles translation in all the spanish speaking countries, the movies are named differently. Wackiest spanish translation of a movie title imdb. The unbelievable trip in a crazy airplane german release of airplane. At universal pictures, translating movie titles makes up part of our everyday work, said a spokesperson from the companys spanish division. The worst spanish movie title translations in the worldever. I did try mermaid though forgot little 3 man and a. Youd think the people in charge of these things would be a little more focused on conveying the right message, but many of these movie title translations in spanish fell short. If you are a film lover who enjoys watching foreign films, you may have realized by now that movie titles change a lot when translated into another language. Movie title translations can have amusing results, as studios juggle linguistic and cultural details to create locallyappropriate titles. Thus, it is necessary for us to take the cultural differences into consideration and make a right choice of film title translation. Oct 16, 2014 im a bit more ok with these translations as its reasonable that a book in swedish has a swedish title, and for the sake of marketing its probably good that the movie retains the books title. Keep on reading to find out the reason behind this metamorphosis and have a laugh with some of the seventh arts funniest translations.
English movie titles translated to spanish proprofs quiz. Of all the movie title translations on this list, this is probably the one youre most familiar with. Translators and localizers must take into account a variety of conditions to determine how to present a film title to foreign language audiences. Oct 04, 2019 after the observation published thursday in mouse on the translations of the names of heroes and villains of the comics of superheroes into spanish, on the subject of the jokes, a parallel theme emerged on twitter. Movie title interpretations and dubbing translateshark. Keep on reading to find out the reason behind this metamorphosis and have a laugh. Translate texts with the worlds best machine translation technology, developed by the creators of linguee. The 37 worst translated movie titles ever buzzfeed. Why movie translations are the most important of all. And that one earns double points for the sexist subtext. We translated them back to english and this is what the movies are now titled. German movie title translations which of these german translations, even if far from the original, works best as a movie title. Like the theme of comics, there are multiple examples in spain, but latin.