Did you know that "Home Alone" in French is titled "Mom, I Missed the Plane"? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we’ll be looking at some of the worst foreign dubs and subtitles, which got facts wrong or completely changed the meaning of a line.
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00:00 "But I have a bad feeling about this."
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at some of the worst foreign dubs and subtitles,
00:09 which got facts wrong or completely changed the meaning of a line.
00:12 "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
00:15 Number 10.
00:16 What's in the dungeon?
00:17 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
00:19 Although Harry originally met Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger on the train to Hogwarts,
00:24 it wasn't until Harry and Ron saved Hermione from a rogue troll that the trio's bond was
00:28 truly solidified.
00:29 "If Harry and Ron hadn't come and found me, I'd probably be dead."
00:34 Of course, the troll they saved her from wasn't meant to be in the school at all.
00:39 He was let in by Professor Quirrell, who then attempted to distract the students and faculty
00:43 at Hogwarts by loudly announcing the troll's presence in the dungeon.
00:47 "Troll in the dungeon!
00:50 Troll in the dungeon!"
00:53 It's a significant scene in the franchise's first installment, but one that Malaysian
00:58 audiences saw a slightly different version of.
01:01 In that translation, the subtitles show Quirrell warning everyone about a tiny person instead
01:06 of a troll, which honestly seems like far less of a threat.
01:09 "Then you let the troll in."
01:11 "Very good, Potter, yes."
01:13 Number 9.
01:14 French translation errors and Castilian controversy.
01:17 Roma.
01:18 Netflix had a hit on their hands with Roma, which received a nomination for Best Picture
01:21 at the Academy Awards and took home gold in the Best Foreign Language Film, Director,
01:26 and Cinematography categories.
01:29 Nonetheless, the film was not without its controversies, primarily due to issues with
01:36 subtitling.
01:37 Director Alfonso Cuaron criticized the streaming platform for providing subtitles specific
01:41 to Castilian Spanish.
01:42 "What happened?
01:43 What happened?
01:44 Cleo, are you okay?
01:45 Yes.
01:46 Yes?
01:47 What's wrong?
01:48 Did you want to talk to me?"
01:54 He argued that the Mexican Spanish captions should suffice, and pointed out that the Castilian
01:59 translation even edited some lines to be more traditionally quote-unquote "proper," changing
02:04 "mum" to "mother."
02:06 This controversy inspired the French organization ATA to publish a list of issues with their
02:10 regional translation as well, describing some of its more egregious errors as quote "mistakes
02:15 worthy of grade school children."
02:16 "What happened to me?
02:17 I need to..."
02:20 Number 8.
02:21 I want to be a lawyer.
02:23 Death Becomes Her.
02:24 It can be easy to "mishear" dialogue, especially when an actor is putting on an accent.
02:29 "May I say that I've always thought yours to be one of the most beautiful faces ever
02:39 to grace the silver screen."
02:41 Unfortunately, in this case, a translator's misinterpretation resulted in a completely
02:46 different line for Russian audiences.
02:48 In Death Becomes Her, Liesel von Ruhmann implies that Greta Garbo may have been immortal, mimicking
02:53 the actress with the quote, "I want to be a lawyer."
02:57 Although this reference is immediately recognized by Madeline in the world of the film, it clearly
03:02 went over the heads of the Russian crew tasked with making the film's dub, as the line was
03:06 there changed to "I want to be a lawyer."
03:09 "Now a warning."
03:11 "Now a warning?"
03:13 "Take care of yourself."
03:16 We can only imagine the audience's confusion as they attempted to guess which lawyer she
03:20 could be referring to.
03:22 Number 7.
03:23 The tomato joke is lost in translation.
03:25 Pulp Fiction
03:26 Even if you've never seen Pulp Fiction, you're likely familiar with one of the jokes that
03:30 features in it.
03:31 "Vincent, do you want to hear my Fox Force 5 joke?"
03:37 "Sure, except I think I'm still a little too petrified to laugh."
03:43 A mama, papa, and baby tomato are walking down the street when the baby tomato begins
03:47 lagging behind.
03:49 Papa Tomato gets angry and squishes him, telling him to "catch up."
03:52 "Baby tomato starts lagging behind and Papa Tomato gets really angry, goes back and squishes
03:58 him, says 'catch up.'"
04:01 Obviously in English, the joke here is that "catch up" sounds like "ketchup."
04:04 It's a clever pun, but puns based on similar-sounding words and phrases are difficult to translate
04:10 literally into other languages.
04:12 While most translators would choose to replace a joke like this with a more culturally relevant
04:16 pun, Germany decided to go the anti-humor route for Pulp Fiction.
04:20 The line was left as is, meaning there was no punchline, just tomato violence.
04:27 "Ketchup.
04:30 See you around."
04:37 Number 6.
04:38 Anna and Hans no longer finish each other's sandwiches.
04:41 Frozen
04:42 Hans and Anna's mental synchronization did not seem to extend to Frozen's French translators.
04:47 "Okay, can I just say something crazy?"
04:49 "I love crazy."
04:51 In Love is an Open Door, the two characters have a quirky exchange in which Hans says
04:55 we finish each other's… before being interrupted by Anna, who fills in with sandwiches rather
05:00 than the expected sentences.
05:01 "I mean it's crazy, we finish each other's sandwiches.
05:04 That's what I was gonna say."
05:06 This is a fun wordplay joke that had previously featured in shows like The Simpsons and Arrested
05:11 Development.
05:12 "She's different, she's a little bit more like me.
05:13 It's like we finish each other's sandwiches.
05:16 Sentences.
05:17 Why would I say… sandwiches?
05:20 That time I was gonna say sandwiches."
05:23 Unfortunately, as we've learned, English wordplay can be difficult to express in other
05:27 languages.
05:28 Instead of coming up with a similarly alliterative joke, French translators opted to make Anna
05:32 just respond with sentences.
05:34 It doesn't ruin the purpose of the song, but we imagine Hans' surprised reaction doesn't
05:38 make quite as much sense in this version.
05:40 Number 5.
05:41 Incorrect Chinese captions.
05:43 Avengers Age of Ultron
05:45 More often than not, poor translations happen because of difficult dialogue.
05:49 Maybe a word doesn't exist in both languages or a pun just wouldn't make sense.
05:53 In the case of Age of Ultron, however, the Chinese subtitles are way off base, for seemingly
05:58 no reason.
05:59 "Shit!"
06:00 "Language!"
06:01 Instead of saying "I'm home," Captain America says "I'm good," and his uncharacteristic
06:06 swearing towards the film's end is inexplicably translated as "my old familiar partner."
06:12 "Fury, you son of a bitch."
06:14 "Ooh, you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
06:16 Not only does this completely change the tone of the scene, but it ruins the payoff from
06:20 an earlier exchange.
06:22 China even changed Steve's words of advice.
06:24 "You get hurt, hurt 'em back.
06:26 You get killed, walk it off."
06:30 To the far less eloquent, "Run fast if someone tries to kill you."
06:34 Number 4.
06:35 Spain doesn't call him Shirley.
06:37 Airplane
06:38 One of Airplane's most famous gags is an exchange between Ted Stryker and Dr. Rumack,
06:42 in which Ted says "Surely you can't be serious," and Dr. Rumack replies,
06:46 "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley."
06:49 As with all English wordplay jokes, this bit required some thinking on the part of translators.
06:54 In Latin America, Spanish translators opted for "God, you can't be serious," and "I am
06:59 serious, and I am not God."
07:01 But the European Spanish translation dropped the ball.
07:03 "You're the only chance we've got."
07:05 Rather than play with the line at all, they simply changed Rumack's response to "I am
07:09 serious."
07:10 I will repeat it if you want, completely upending the scene's unique humor.
07:14 [Dramatic music]
07:19 Number 3.
07:20 You are a baboon and I am not.
07:22 The Lion King
07:23 In its quest for authenticity, The Lion King features a wide array of African animals,
07:28 many of which animators studied firsthand.
07:31 One of the film's lesser-known animal stars is the meerkat, represented by Simba's friend
07:35 and makeshift parental figure Timon.
07:37 "You gotta put your past behind you.
07:40 Look kid, bad things happen, and you can't do anything about it, right?"
07:44 "Right."
07:45 "Wrong!"
07:46 Alas, the animal proved too obscure for Norwegian translators, who referred to the character
07:50 as a "mårekott," the Norwegian word for a guenon.
07:53 "Who told you something like that?
07:55 What mook made that up?"
07:57 If you're unaware, a guenon is a type of monkey in the same scientific family as the
08:02 baboon.
08:03 The species is definitely smaller than, say, Rafiki, but is a far cry from what Timon actually
08:08 is.
08:09 Thankfully, translators would eventually fix their mistake with the release of The Lion
08:13 King 1½, which featured Timon in a more prominent role.
08:16 "Well, now I'm convinced."
08:18 Number 2.
08:19 A view to Tokyo?
08:21 A view to a kill.
08:22 As James Bond's adversaries Max Zorin and Mayday enter San Francisco by air, Mayday
08:27 looks out at the Golden Gate Bridge and remarks,
08:29 "Wow.
08:33 What a view."
08:34 Zorin then leans over her, finishing the statement with "to a kill."
08:38 Given that this line serves as the English title of the movie, it seems like a no-brainer
08:43 to translate it literally.
08:44 "This'll hurt him more than me."
08:47 Sweden opted to go a different route.
08:50 Without editing around the clear San Francisco landmarks in frame, Swedish translators changed
08:55 Zorin's line to, yeah, Tokyo.
08:57 The line is so brazenly wrong and strange that it's difficult to understand why and
09:02 how it even came to be.
09:03 "There's never a cab when you want one."
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09:23 Number 1.
09:24 Inexplicable European Edits, the Star Wars franchise.
09:27 Who could forget George Lucas' classic tale of romance and revolution starring beloved
09:32 characters Princess Leila, Ian Solo, and D-3BO?
09:36 Is what you might be saying if your only knowledge of Star Wars came from its Italian dub.
09:40 "Hey!"
09:41 "Hey!"
09:42 "Hey!"
09:43 "Hey!"
09:44 "Hey!"
09:45 "Hey!"
09:46 "Hey!"
09:47 "I knew you'd come back, I just knew it."
09:48 A lot of the more well-known mistranslations of this franchise actually come from fan
09:52 dubs, but official translators seem to have just as much trouble reinterpreting the popular
09:57 space opera.
09:58 "I have a very bad feeling about this."
10:00 In addition to Italy's inexplicable renaming of characters, France gave many aliens less
10:05 compelling species names for seemingly no reason.
10:08 The Tuscan Raiders, for example, simply became Sand People.
10:19 Meanwhile, Finland was subjected to some very literal dialogue translations, including
10:24 a line where "drill" was changed to mean "the tool" rather than a word for a rehearsal.
10:28 Have you ever come across any funny movie translation errors?
10:32 Let us know in the comments.
10:33 "Garson, coffee!"
10:35 "What's place?"
10:37 "Garson means boy."
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10:49 [music]