As long as the movie industry has been a global enterprise, film names have been changed to fit the territory. The reasoning behind it can be political, on grounds of taste or simply to appeal more to a specific audience, but sometimes the essence of a movie can get slightly lost in the translation. Herein some of the finest examples.

Titles made more simple…
Some territories demand simpler titles, titles which get straight to the point. So ‘Annie Hall’ became ‘Urban Neurotic’ in Germany. ‘Dumb And Dumber’ in Spain was dubbed ‘Two Stupid People, One More Stupid’, while Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galifianakis’ road trip flick ‘Due Date’ was retitled ‘Odd Couple, Wacky Trip, Go Together In Time For Birth’ in Thailand. Who needs to see the film after reading that, eh?

The poetic…
Some renamed titles have a peculiar poetry to them. Adam Sandler’s ‘The Waterboy’ was gloriously transformed into ‘Dimwit Surges Forth’ in Thailand, while in China ‘Boogie Nights’ became ‘His Great Device Makes Him Famous’ and the pithily titled ‘Leon’ was renamed ‘This Hit Man Is Not As Cold As He Thought’. Italians know Mel Brooks’ classic ‘The Producers’ as ‘Per favore, non toccate le vecchiette’, which translates as ‘Please, Do Not Touch The Old Women’.

Made in China…
China has made some of the greatest alterations to movie names ever. One particularly intolerant example saw Tom Cruise’s coming-of-age flick ‘Risky Business’ change to ‘Just Send Him To University Unqualified’. Meanwhile, ‘The Full Monty’ became ‘Six Naked Pigs’ and ‘Knocked Up’ became ‘One Night, Big Belly’. Best of all, perhaps, is ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ being distilled to the rather arbitrary ‘Excitement 1995’. Read more.

See: Yahoo movies blog UK

Also see the discussion in this forum