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This great movie has actually the most stupid German title ever!

posted 17 years ago by sklose32
26 replies | jump to latest

Stripes.. Good name for a movie.. In Germany they thought to make it funny an gave it the name (retranslated into English): "I think I am being canoodled by an elk".. They messed up a lot of titles in Germany, but than one I think is the worst of all. They don't do it so much anymore, even though they still are adding an extra line to almost any title but back then it was pure horror.
Or can anyone remember a movie title the Germans messed up more?

[–] SirEdmund 17 years ago

I must've missed the elk part.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] catjoescreed 16 years ago

Holey moley! That's really freakin' awful!!!

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[–] theverylastboyscout 16 years ago

Speaking of bad german titles:
"Escape from New York" became "Die Klapperschlange" which means "The Rattlesnake".
Plissken always calls himself just "Snake" during the entire movie.
Nobody knows why they came up with a "Rattlesnake"

"Return of the Jedi" got into "Die Rückkehr der Jedi-Ritter", which means "The Return of the Jedi-Knights".
Nobody is able to explain, why the plural is used, especialy since it´s just one Jedi, who returns in that movie.

"Smokey and the Bandit" became "Ein ausgekochtes Schlitzohr" which means "A dodgy rascal"

I´ve got some hundred of these more
None of the original titles was untranslatable

[–] dopeyharp0 16 years ago

"Die Rückkehr der Jedi-Ritter"

I sort of like that one. Kind of looks like it might be "The Funnyman, John Ritter"

"What time is Recess?"

[–] Studman_Productions 16 years ago

what the hell?

[–] de_brinker 16 years ago

Yeah, know what you mean. Although I believe your native tongue and the relationship your country has with German(y/s) is of great influence on the humor. Came across some DVD's in Germany last year on the way to the Stuttgarter Frühlingsfest (Oktoberfest's lil' bro), where the translation of "The Bone Collector" was "Der Knochenjäger" (The Bonehunter), "Under Siege" translated "Alarmstufe: Rot" (something like "DEFCON: Red"), "Dodgeball" was "Voll Auf Die Nüsse" (Full In The Nuts), and "Die Hard", which was "Stirb Langsam" (Die Slowly).

Making up new ones gave some good laughs over some of those beautifull hangover-free German one liter beers... ;-)

[–] Doomschild-1 16 years ago

That's awful.
In Denmark it's "Røven af 4. Division" which roughly means "The Ass of 4th Platoon"

[–] BlondeVixen 16 years ago

<That's awful.
In Denmark it's "Røven af 4. Division" which roughly means "The Ass of 4th Platoon">

Hmmm......I like that one!

[–] citizenofdis 10 years ago

Wouldn't division still be division (one of the biggest units), not platoon (2nd smallest unit if I'm not mistaken) in Danish?

[–] Chromium_five 16 years ago

This thread is amazing. I can't stop laughing.

[–] theverylastboyscout 16 years ago

Want some more?

"Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" became "The last one gets bitten by the dogs"
"Groundhog Day" became "... and everyday the Groundhog greets"
"Return of the Jedi" became "The Return of the Jedi-Knights" (KnightS with an "S" at the end, because there were so many of them returning)
"Pirates of the Caribbean" became "Curse of the Caribbean"
"Animal House" became "I think, I am kicked by a horse" (these titles with "I think, I am ...." were very popular in the 80ies)
"Trading Places" became "The Soldiers of Fortune"
"Logan´s Run" became "Escape into the 23rd Century" (yes, "INTO". Don´t ask why)
"For your eyes only" became "On lethal mission"

and "First Blood" was called "Rambo"

And I could give you a couple of dozens more

[–] citizenofdis 10 years ago

Groundhog Day one is pretty justifiable as there is no such thing in Germany so it would be pretty confusing and the title fits the theme of the movie with the repetition of the groundhog ceremony.

The "Animal House" title means exactly the same thing as the "Stripes" title - an expression of bewilderment. It literally would have made no difference if these two titles
I get why they could not just translate many of these titles literally as "Streifen" or "Tierhaus" would not have made much sense in German, especially as there is no such thing as the Greek system. Another good example is "Miss Congeniality" which doesn't really work in German so it became "Miss FBI".

However, their choices of titles were often very strange and stupid.