Funny Translations: Movie Titles

Oh I see a mini series coming out of funny translations, but I'm going to start with movie titles. I don't know if it's someone using google translate, or just thinking they're apt at Japanese, but movie titles can get seriously twisted when sent to other countries from the US. Of course some titles are changed when they contain an American reference that wouldn't make sense in another country (Harold and Kumar go to White Castle was changed to Harold and Kumar get the Munchies in London, since they don't have White Castles...then again, does the US?!), or if a country might find our US title offensive. Either way...check out these title changes.

• Knocked Up - Slightly Pregnant, Peru (slightly...are you kidding)
• Grease - Vaseline, Argentina (I attribute this one to google translate)
• The Full Monty - Six Naked Pigs, China (accurate though wrong)
• American Pie - American Virgin Man, Hong Kong (ha!)
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - It's Raining Falafel, Israel (no meatballs for them)
• Die Hard with a Vengeance - Die Hard: Mega Hard, Denmark (don't just die...DIE!)
• Airplane! - The Unbelievable Trip in a Wacky Aeroplane, Germany (not going for simplicity)
• The Sixth Sense - He's a Ghost!, China (way to ruin it! you didn't even say spoiler alert)
• Home Alone - Mom, I Missed the Plane, France (well...yeah)
• The Parent Trap - A Twin Seldom Comes Alone, Germany (again...well, yeah)
• The Waterboy - Dimwit Surges Forth, Thailand (no football in Thailand?)
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me - Austin Powers: The Spy Who Behaved Very Nicely Around Me, Malaysia (why even release the movie...seriously)
• Meet the Parents: Little Fockers - Zany Son-in-Law, Zippy Grandkids, Sour Father-in_Law (the Thais are so specific)
• Due Date - Odd Couple, Wacky Trip, Go Together in Time for Birth, Thailand (see!)
• The Cat in the Hat - Cat, Don't Touch His Hat!, Croatia (I think they missed the point)
• Babe - The Happy Dumpling-to-Be Who Talks and Solves Agricultural Problems, Hong Kong (I know, you were thinking Thailand)
• Field of Dreams - Imaginary Dead Baseball Players Live in My Cornfield, Hong Kong (again, with the spoilers)
• The Pacifier - A Super Kangaroo, Spain (I got nothin')
• The Long Kiss Goodnight - Bloody Christmas (rather apt really)
• Pretty Woman - I Will Marry a Prostitute and Save Money, China (I would think that would actually cost a lot)
• The Matrix - The Young People Who Traverse Dimensions While Wearing Sunglasses, France (that's about all I thought of that movie too)
• Weekend at Bernie's - The Dead Body is Very Live, Spain (that is the general plot)
• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - The Boy That Drowned in Chocolate Sauce, Denmark (way to hone in one a minute and half of a two hour movie)
• As Good as it Gets - Mr. Cat Poop (I don't even know...)

Well there ya go, that little list should have at least made you laugh.

Take a Big Whiff...

...of air. Now you can breath in (for like, half a minute) air from your favorite places around the world. Czech photographer, Kirill Rudenko, has begun selling canned air. My first impression of this is that he's not that great a photographer and this is a desperate attempt to avoid foreclosure on his house. My second impression, is that people will buy anything.

Each $10, 3 and a half inch can is packed with12.7 ounces of air from different areas of popular cities: New York, Paris, Riga (Latvia), Singapore, Berlin, and Prague. He claims the air "relieves stress, cures homesickness, and helps fighting nostalgia." I think he means "helps to fight nostalgia." He's Czech, I'll let it slide.

New York air contains the following formula:

• 20% Empire State Building
• 10% Grand Central Terminal
• 10% Chrysler Building
• 20% Statue of Liberty
• 10% Little Italy, Chinatown (guess they're so close together they smell the same?)
• 10% Brooklyn Bridge
• 10% Time Square
• 10% Central Park

It also comes with the disclaimer that it may contain traces of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, or Staten Island. 

Just for fun...here are the rest of the formulas.

Paris: - May contain traces of liberte, egalite, and fraternite

• 20% The Louvre
• 20% Notre Dame
• 25% The Eiffel Tower
• 15% Musee d'Orsay
• 10% Champs-Elysees
• 10% Sacre Coeur

Prague:

• 20% Wenceslas Square
• 20% Charles Bridge
• 25% Old Town Square
• 15% Prague Castle
• 10% Lesser Town
• 10% Zlata Street

Berlin: - May contain traces of Americans, British, French, Russians, and Curry Wurst (a German sausage dish)...also, I hope they mean the figurative smell of those nationalities...not actual 'traces'

• 25% Brandenburg Gate
• 10% Potsdamer Platz
• 10% Kurfurstendamm
• 20% Reichstag
• 15% Tiergarten
• 10% Charlottenburg
• 10% Checkpoint Charlie

Singapore: - Warning, do not open in public places, the offense carries a punishment of imprisonment for a term which may extend to 6 months, or with a fine extended to $25,000, or with both. (Joking, as I can find nothing to substantiate this claim)

• 25% Botanic Gardens
• 10% Chinatown
• 10% Little India
• 20% Central Business District
• 15% The Singapore Flyer
• 10% Merlion
• 10% Marina Bay Sands SkyPark

Riga: May contain traces of Russki (Russians), Ze Germans and Swedes (lol)

• 20% Old Riga
• 10% House of Blackheads
• 10% Central Market
• 20% Jurmala
• 10% Sun Stone
• 10% Livs Square
• 10% Freedom Monument
• 10% Laima Clock

And for more fun, here's my own formula for New York air:

• 10% car fumes
• 15% rotting garbage
• 5% hot dogs
• 5% pretzels
• 20% sewer
• 25% subway tunnel
• 20% Central Park (cleanish air)

If you want to make the Prague city air yours...you can buy it here. No promises that all the air from all the different cities didn't just come from Rudenko's back yard. You know....if I was sure it came from the correct cities, all these canned airs would make a stupid, yet somehow cute, little tower in my travel themed dining room.