Recently, I remembered a pet peeve that I had almost forgot: The silliness of changing Flash Gordon’s name in Latin America for the comics: It was re-titled as “Roldan el Temerario”!, literally: “Roldan the Courageous” :rolleyes:
It is true that there are name changes that make sense: Jaws was known as “Tiburon” (Shark) (believe me: “Mandibulas” was not going to scare anyone) in Spanish speaking countries.
However, more often than not, you always wondered what the people in charge of traducing names were smoking! Years later, when the silly but enjoyably campy Flash Gordon movie appeared, I bet thousands in Latin American currency were lost by having no chance of synergy with the comics. Very late, they put a second title to the movie, so it ended up being: Flash Gordon – [sub]Roldan el Temerario al rescate![/sub] (Flash Gordon - Roldan the Courageous to the rescue!) :rolleyes:
So, as this board reaches the world, what are your tales of silliness and/or misguided efforts at title traducing from your local entertainment industry?
Of course, examples coming from overseas to the US are Ok too!
Vanyel: Yep, only later I found the real superhero that got the Mystery Science 3000 treatment, on what I think it was “Samson vs the vampire women”, and I missed the experiment because it was not named right!! :smack:
GIGObuster, the it was episode 624, which was also the one where TV’s Frank died. Go to the Digital Archive Project, and you can download that episode!
The Fat Controller in Thomas the Tank Engine got changed to Sir Toppam Hat for the American market, “Fat” being too un-PC.
And, infamously, Harry Potter and the Philosoper’s Stone became Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for America, because “Philosoper” suggested “thinking” and that wouldn’t sell in the US!
(-Hey don’t flame me, it was an American company that thought that one up!)
I also heard that “Grease” got called “Vaseline” in one country. and by God I hope it’s true!
Thanks Vanyel! Unfortunately, I will merely save the link because I only have dial-up access, in a couple of months, I hope, “El Enmascarado de Plata” (That is “The Silver masked one” for you English limited ones) will be in my HD.
Wank-Ka: in Latin America Laurel & Hardy were known as “El Gordo y El Flaco” (The Fat one and the Thin one)…. Yes, that also deserves a :rolleyes:
I can only shudder to think what they would have done with Dracula and Frankenstein! (Thankfully, they left those names alone, could it be because they came from Europe and not the US? (The original names/books not the movies))
Regarding Star Trek: I do remember also that George Takai reported that his name in Japan was not Sulu, but Kato!!
Capt B. Phart: Yes! It was true: Grease was released in Venezuela as “Vaselina” (Vaseline)
I heard somewhere that “The Shawshank Redemption” was called “Excitment 1995” in China.
Now, I could understand the word “Shawshank” perhaps being a “bad” title in some other language…but why not, say “The Prisoner’s Redemption,” or something?
The swedes are great at this. They too had “The Shark” instead of Jaws, and Laurel & Hardy are called “The whole and the half”!
They also have a tendancy to name movies with the same star in a similar manner. They have done this for amongst others, Whoopi Goldberg and Goldie Hawn. Private Benjamin became “The girl who did national service” ( :rolleyes: ), and subsequent films were similarly named, Overboard became “The girl who fell overboard”, etc. Whoopi Goldbergs movies after Sister Act (A badass sister) have included the “badass” tie-in (A badass on Wall Street, etc).
Okay. In Japan, as far as I can tell, “Pretty Woman” was named “Pretty Woman.” Fine. Later, when “Runaway Bride” came out here, it was re-named “Pretty Bride.” I suppose I can understand that.
Now, when “The Princess Diaries” came out here last year, it was re-named “Pretty Princess.” That’s a bit more of a stretch, I think.
One of the movies I have in my collection is the remake of “Bedazzled,” with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley. The Japanese name for this movie is “Waruikoto shimasho!” which translates to “Let’s do bad things!”
For some reason (presumably copyright - I’m guessing WRT a cat food brand), the cartoon “Top Cat” was renamed “Boss Cat” when it was broadcast in the UK. Except the theme song was still “Top Cat”, and the characters all called him “TC”.
Let’s start with one of the classics, Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind). This was the first movie made by Miyazaki Hayao, based on his manga of the same name. It was an epic work, with a pro-environment, anti-war message. It was brought over to the United States as Warriors of the Wind with all of the exposition between fight scenes cut out. Legend has it that the American producer watched it with the sound turned off, and wrote an entirely new story to match the pretty pictures. (Because of this, Miyazaki refused to allow any of Studio Ghibli’s movies to be licensed abroad for many years. Now, Disney has worldwide distribution rights, but Miyazaki insisted on a no-cut, final approval of foreign versions clause in the contract.)
A few years ago, a series named Card Captor Sakura was popular in Japan. It was aimed at the young girl audience, with the title character as a strong heroine. The American TV version was re-named CardCaptors, and they skipped the first few episodes to get to where the boy card captor, Sakura’s rival, is introduced. They apparently edited the script to make him a more major character…
Another popular older series was Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. This series was about a team of superheroes flying around the globe in a custom aircraft, battling an international group of terrorists. The first American version was re-named Battle of the Planets, and gave us such wonderful character names such as “Dirk Daring,” “Ace Goodheart,” “Professor Brighthead,” and “Pee-wee.” The series was heavily edited, so much so that in order to make the episodes fit a half-hour time slot, space travel scenes were added to make it look like the team was visiting different planets – which just happened to have the same continents as Earth.
Tetsuwan Atomu (Mighty Atom) became Astro Boy, probably because DC had the Atom name in the States. Interestingly, a lot of Atomu merchandise here has the “Astro Boy” logo on it.
In Pokemon, all the names of the human characters, and most of the Pokemon, are changed.
Space Cruiser Yamato, featuring the Japanese WWII battleship raised from the ocean floor and converted into a space crusier, became America’s Starblazers.
Another example: There’s a show named Yu-Gi-Oh (King of Games) that just recently began in the states. The characters are:
Yugi Muto (can’t change him, he’s the title character)
Téa Gardner
Joey Wheeler
Tristan Taylor
And then there’s Robotech…
…maybe I’d better stop now…
On an unrelated note: The Aerosmith song “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” was popular in Japan under the name “Miss a Thing.” And, in the other direction, the 1960’s Japanese hit “Ue o Muite Arukou” went to #1 in the states under the name “Sukiyaki.”
Science ninja team gatchaman sounds pretty damn stupid in the first place…
And there’s a good reason for the namechanges of pokemon.
(I think)In japan, the names of pokemon are random puns. Puns that sound rather KEWELE to an amurrican(Typo intended), but puns. same thing over here. at least with most names of either people or pokemon.
But…
WHAT THE HELL DOES RALTS/KIRILIA MEAN?
What’s inexcusable is that as a general rule, over in canada/toronto unlucky bastards get introduced to pokemon/other animes with homogenized pap and a person who sounds like she inhaled 200 litres of helium.
Same thing with the edited version of most cartoons, which leads to this question…
Well, what’s wrong with hot, naked women? I LIKE hot naked women…
