Grease renamed VASELINE in Argentina… and that’s just the start
MOVIE titles are on a slippery slope when it comes to translations for foreign audiences.
The 1978 musical favourite Grease was renamed for Argentines as, er, Vaseline.
Film-making is moving on apace, with new dubbing technology Flawless meaning actors will soon appear to speak perfectly in foreign tongues, lips and words no longer out of synch.
But reimagining titles is the next must-do-better, it seems, with Grease far from the only project lost in translation.
Here are some of the most comical, unfortunate or plain daft mash-ups . . .
The 2007 comedy Knocked Up, starring Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl, about a woman who gets pregnant after a one-night stand, got even funnier in China, as One Night, Big Belly. It also took a funny turn in Peru, as Slightly Pregnant.
Things got barking mad in Spain, too, as 1961 animated doggy adventure One Hundred And One Dalmatians turned into The Night Of The Cold Noses.
The leap from English to Spanish-speaking countries is clearly tricky, judging from the fate of Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
But export to China is problematic too. Male strip-per romp The Full Monty in 1997 became Six Naked Pigs. A bit harsh on actors Robert Carlyle, Hugo Speer and Co.
The Chinese take on Bruce Willis thriller The Sixth Sense, in 1999, was outright other-worldly. Hold on to your seats for the spoiler: He’s A Ghost.
It was Chinese whispers again when 1997 rom-com As Good As It Gets — yielding an Oscar for Jack Nicholson — got all rather unpleasant as Mr Cat Poop.
Likewise, you might think the Chinese wouldn’t dare mess with Arnold Schwarzenegger. But his 1994 sci-fi comedy Junior changed, most alarmingly, to Son Of Devil.
Things also got sinister in Russia, too, when goofy 1994 Jim Carrey comedy Ace Ventura: Pete Detective took on a disturbing new life as A Hunter Of Domestic Animals.
By contrast, in Malaysia, 1999’s Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me came out in the wash as a far more palatable The Spy Who Behaved Very Nicely Around Me.
But things ran amok in the Czech Republic when 2003’s Bad Santa, with Billy Bob Thornton as an alcoholic, swindling St Nick, became Santa Is A Pervert.
For sheer lunacy, though, try this.
In France, 1999 sci-fi flick The Matrix, with Keanu Reeves, was magicked into The Young People Who Traverse Dimensions While Wearing Sunglasses.