Bad Santa — USA

"Lost in Tokyo"

A Not so Saintly Santa — Argentina

Santa is a Pervert — Czech Republic

With such a straight forward original title, is such a liberal (and odd) translation of a movie title necessary? Marketing research and recent trends say yes. The title may be changed to account for cultural differences, remove a double entendre or pun that doesn’t work in translation or, more commonly, for reasons apparently unknown…

Translations of movies can be quite vexing to someone more familiar with the original title. Here are a few examples of the more confusing, both translated into Spanish and into English

Movie Titles in Spanish

“Con la Muerte en Los Talones” (North by Northwest)

“Sonrisas y Lagrimas” (The Sound of Music)

Movie Titles in English

“Vanilla Sky” (Abre los ojos)

“Pan’s Labyrinth” (El laberinto del fauno)