Airplane! doesn’t have a dumb name, but the German dubbed version does: “Die unglaubliche Reise in einem verrückten Flugzeug” (The Incredible Journey On a Crazy Airplane)
And The Big Bus was called “The Hair-Raising Journey On a Crazy Bus”.
Even though the movies have nothing to do with each other, apart from being comedies set in vehicles.
Yeah and German->English translations have the same problem
There’s no reason that ‘Fuck you, Goethe!’ had to be Anglo-washed into “Suck me, Shakespeare” which isn’t even how we’d put that phrase in English. “Suck it, Shakespeare” would make more sense - “suck me” is an invitation.
Interesting film, btw. But English speaking people have probably heard of Goethe - and even if they haven’t, knowing about Goethe is not in the slightest critical to understanding the movie.
Funnily, it is not a cultural quirk. It was usually part of regional marketing. Copyright and distribution deals of exported movies are very complex. Many countries have laws with mandatory dubbing. Contracts sometimes includes local translation, marketing, and theater distribution deals all in one. So, they would do all that they could to promote the movie for the local culture. It’s akin to how some voice actors have dubbing contracts, so only they are allowed to dub a particular actor for a particular market. Because that market associated the voice with the actor. If it is a big celebrity, changing the voice could sour audiences to the new film. Mix that with a pre-Internet era and you get that sort of quirky name translations. It simply sold more tickets in that market, according to marketers at least.
Airplane! doesn’t have a dumb name, but the German dubbed version does:
“Die unglaubliche Reise in einem verrückten Flugzeug” (The Incredible Journey On a Crazy Airplane)
And The Big Bus was called “The Hair-Raising Journey On a Crazy Bus”.
Even though the movies have nothing to do with each other, apart from being comedies set in vehicles.
German movie Titel Translations are so bad, I feel like it could be its own community
Yeah and German->English translations have the same problem
There’s no reason that ‘Fuck you, Goethe!’ had to be Anglo-washed into “Suck me, Shakespeare” which isn’t even how we’d put that phrase in English. “Suck it, Shakespeare” would make more sense - “suck me” is an invitation.
Interesting film, btw. But English speaking people have probably heard of Goethe - and even if they haven’t, knowing about Goethe is not in the slightest critical to understanding the movie.
That’s hilarious!
Hey, we sometimes avoid translation by giving the movie a completely different English title!
(See Crossroads -> Not a Girl)
In Spain, if it had Leslie Nielsen on it, it would be “(whatever action summarizing the movie) however you can!”
Naked Gun - Agárralo como puedas (catch it however you can)
Airplane! - Aterriza como puedas (land however you can)
… And so on. I think it applies to all of the movies with Nielsen.
Funnily, it is not a cultural quirk. It was usually part of regional marketing. Copyright and distribution deals of exported movies are very complex. Many countries have laws with mandatory dubbing. Contracts sometimes includes local translation, marketing, and theater distribution deals all in one. So, they would do all that they could to promote the movie for the local culture. It’s akin to how some voice actors have dubbing contracts, so only they are allowed to dub a particular actor for a particular market. Because that market associated the voice with the actor. If it is a big celebrity, changing the voice could sour audiences to the new film. Mix that with a pre-Internet era and you get that sort of quirky name translations. It simply sold more tickets in that market, according to marketers at least.