When it comes to translations, there is always room for error. I won’t even begin to talk about some of the terrible dubbing or subtitling I have seen – but let’s look at some titles. You’d think the people in charge of these things would be a little more focused on conveying the right message, but many of these movie title translations in Spanish fell short.
These are far from all the horrible translations of movie titles. I’m sure you have some of your own, please share them in the comments!
English to Spanish Conversion of Movie Titles That Went Wrong
1. The Hangover | ¿Qué pasó ayer?
Instead of using one of the many words that mean hangover (such as resaca), this title translates to “What happened yesterday?”
2. Knocked Up | Lío embarazoso
Roughly translated to “Awkward mess” Perhaps they were trying to play with the words embarazoso (embarrassing) and embarazada (pregnant) to get pregnancy mess?
3. Superbad | Supercool
I’m not even sure what to say about this. How do you change from bad to cool?!
4. Mrs. Doubtfire | Papá por siempre
“Dad forever” or “Always Dad.” What was wrong with just Sra. Doubtfire?
5. Home Alone | Mi pobre angelito
“My poor little angel” What?! I hardly think Kevin was a little angel, and this title doesn’t give you any hint to the plot.
6. The Good Son | El ángel malvado
Again, with the angel? This translates to “the wicked angel” which is nothing like “The Good Son.”
7. Jingle All the Way | El regalo prometido
While I will cut them some slack here due to the lack of translation for “Jingle all the way,” I hardly think “The promised present” was the best choice.
8. Die Hard: With a Vengeance | La jungla de cristal
The crystal jungle? Really guys? Really?
9. Point Break | Le llaman Bodhi
How do you get “they call him Bodhi” from something as “Pointbreak”?
10. Blues Brothers | Los hermanos Caradura
Translates to “The Sassy Brothers” or “The Cheeky Brothers.” It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as Blues Brothers.
11. Chasing Amy | La otra cara del amor
Again, instead of going the obvious route and just using the verb chase, or even one of the euphemisms that means to chase a girl (such as andan detrás de Amy or persiguiendo Amy), they went a different route and used “The Other Face of Love.”
12. Mallrats | Banda en fuga
This translates to “Escape crew,” which doesn’t really give you a proper idea of what the movie entails.
13. Jimmy the Kid | El súper agente 86 rescata a Arnold
Whoa – what a mouthful! Instead of just saying Jimmy el niño, they decided on “Super Agent 86 Rescues Arnold.” Yeah, seems legit.
14. Sound of Music | La novicia rebelde and Sonrisas y lágrimas (Spain)
Neither of these translations makes much sense. The first translates to “The Rebel Novice” while the other means “Smiles and Tears.” Kind of all over the place with that one, eh?
If you want to learn how other stuff are translated to Spanish, check out the articles:
• 5 Classic Board Games with Their English Names in Spanish
• 76 Classic Cartoon Character Names in Spanish
• Spanish NFL: English Names in Spanish of the NFL Teams
Check out these other English Spanish articles.
