

Lost in France? Macaulay Culkin in the hit comedy Mum, I Missed the Plane Again and This Time I Am Lost in New York

It's not just Bill Murray who gets lost in translation. Often it's film titles too.

When Hollywood productions need to earn some cash outside America and the UK, their names must be changed to the local language. And very often, there is zero logic involved.

In my native France, we are used to getting film names botched. My personal favourite is Home Alone, the 1990 comedy that unleashed Macaulay Culkin on the world. In France, it became Mum, I Missed the Plane.

Which is fine. The brat did miss the plane. But when the sequel came out, there was a big problem. Culkin did not miss the plane, he took the wrong one. But no matter: Home Alone 2 became Mum, I Missed the Plane Again and This Time I Am Lost in New York .

By Home Alone 3, translators just gave up. The film was called Mum, I'm Taking Care of the Baddies.

Another casualty is Airplane!, the 1980 disaster-film comedy. It took me ages to realise that it was the same movie I saw as a child called Is There a Pilot in the Plane?

For Airplane 2, the title was Is There at Last a Pilot in the Plane?

If there had been an Airplane 3, the title would have probably been Are You Absolutely Sure There is No Pilot in the Plane?

But it's not only in France where films are lost in translation. As Good As It Gets, the 1997 Jack Nicholson comedy, was translated in Chinese as Mr Cat Poop. It's a beauty. I wonder whether Nicholson knows about this, since the title sort of ruins his Don Juan image.

But there must be more casualties out there. Do you know of any other films that were slapped with a weird and wonderful translation? If you do, please post your entries below.