Quiz: Can You Guess The Movie From The Foreign Title Translation?

Quiz: Can You Guess The Movie From The Foreign Title Translation?

The popular impact of a movie inevitably has a lot to do with the choice of title. A cool-sounding title can, after all, be one of the main things likely to make us want to buy a ticket - and it's one of the things that can help the film linger in our memory afterwards.

Film history is littered with curious examples of films which came close to being released under radically different titles: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was shot as The Teenie Weenies, for example, while a studio exec tried to get the makers of Back to the Future to rename their film Space Man from Pluto.

However, a change of title is invariably necessary when an English-language film is exported to international markets. In some cases a more or less direct translation works; hence, in France, Raiders of the Lost Ark became The Adventurers of the Lost Ark, which is close enough not to lead to any raised eyebrows.

Other times, however, things get lost in translation. Sometimes, it's not enough for the foreign markets to directly transpose the title to their language. Instead, they need to do a little creative thinking and come up with an all-new title of their own, one which captures the spirit of the movie. And, as you'll see, sometimes the new titles they come up with are radically - often hilariously - different from what came before.

Take a look at the very real alternative foreign-language titles we've compiled for this quiz, and see if you can figure out the famous films they represent. Some of the answers will surprise you!
About this quiz The popular impact of a movie inevitably has a lot to do with the choice of title. A cool-sounding title can, after all, be one of the main things likely to make us want to buy a ticket - and it's one of the things that can help the film linger in our memory afterwards.

Film history is littered with curious examples of films which came close to being released under radically different titles: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was shot as The Teenie Weenies, for example, while a studio exec tried to get the makers of Back to the Future to rename their film Space Man from Pluto.

However, a change of title is invariably necessary when an English-language film is exported to international markets. In some cases a more or less direct translation works; hence, in France, Raiders of the Lost Ark became The Adventurers of the Lost Ark, which is close enough not to lead to any raised eyebrows.

Other times, however, things get lost in translation. Sometimes, it's not enough for the foreign markets to directly transpose the title to their language. Instead, they need to do a little creative thinking and come up with an all-new title of their own, one which captures the spirit of the movie. And, as you'll see, sometimes the new titles they come up with are radically - often hilariously - different from what came before.

Take a look at the very real alternative foreign-language titles we've compiled for this quiz, and see if you can figure out the famous films they represent. Some of the answers will surprise you!
About Eighties Kids

Founded in 2016, Eighties Kids started small. Beginning as a blog posting on 80s and 90s life as well as the movies, music and television of the era, Eighties Kids has in a short space of time exploded in scope and ambition. Operating out of Eighties Kids HQ in sunny Ilkley, in the North of England, today a growing team of writers produces original content day in and day out for one of the best new nostalgia sites on the web.

With the site also growing beyond its original remit, the Eighties Kids team now covers not just trivia from the 80s and 90s, but pop culture of all decades that's of interest to children of the 80s, 90s and beyond. From shocking and obscure fact posts on your favourite movies and bands, to quizzes on classic TV shows and film franchises, to picture galleries on celebrities from past and present, Eighties Kids is here to take you down memory lane, test your knowledge of classic pop culture and maybe even occasionally blow your mind.

How to Play

Answering a question, correctly or otherwise, will allow you to progress to the next one; just scroll down and you'll see another question light up and become playable. Keep in mind though: all correct and incorrect answers will be tallied for a final score, which will be revealed to you only once you've answered each and every question in the quiz. Play down the page to the end to find out just how knowledgeable you are in your chosen subject.