With the release of (the hugely disappointing) Zootopia, being renamed Zootropolis in the UK & other parts of Europe, I’ve been thinking about all the movies with different titles in the US & the UK.
I understand the reason for some title changes, often due to different spellings or the name already being used for something else in another country. But some of the changes are just bizarre. With Zootopia, I believe it’s because it’s the name of some zoo that’s being opened soon in Europe?
I haven’t done much research into the reasons for the name changes in this list but I’ve put the reasons if I know them. And I’ll only be listing the titles in the United States & the United Kingdom as those are the ones I’m most aware of (I’ll start with the US title). As usual, I’ll just rank these according to what movies I like the most that happened to have different names in different countries.
So, counting down to my favorite movie, these are My Top Ten Movies With Different Titles Outside Of The United States:
10. Neighbors
UK Title: Bad Neighbours
Name I Prefer: Bad Neighbours
Why The Change?: Probably because of the Australian soap, Neighbours, which is shown on TV in the UK.
9. A Brilliant Young Mind
UK Title: X+Y
Name I Prefer: X+Y
Why The Change?: Not sure but the US title is closer to the name of the documentary the director made before making this movie.
8. Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
UK Title: Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies
Name I Prefer: Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies
Why The Change?: Because White Castle isn’t a restaurant in the UK.
7. The Avengers
UK Title: Marvel’s Avengers Assemble
Name I Prefer: The Avengers
Why The Change?: I read why somewhere but I’ve forgotten & don’t care enough to look it up again. 😉
6. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone
UK Title: Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone
Name I Prefer: Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone
Why The Change?: I’m not sure but I think it had something to do with them thinking that Americans wouldn’t understand what a “Philosopher’s Stone” was. Stupid title change!
5. Joyride
UK Title: Roadkill
Name I Prefer: Joyride
Why The Change?: I think it’s because a “joyride” in the UK refers to when a car is stolen (often by young males) and then abandoned (and often set fire to) at the side of the road. The name Roadkill does actually make more sense for this movie… (which is a guilty pleasure of mine).
4. The Peanuts Movie
UK Title: Snoopy & Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie
Name I Prefer: The Peanuts Movie
Why The Change?: I assume because Peanuts isn’t as well known in the UK but everyone knows who Charlie Brown and Snoopy are. Because Snoopy RULES. 🙂
3. The Road Warrior
UK Title: Mad Max 2
Name I Prefer: Mad Max 2
Why The Change?: I believe because the first film didn’t get a wide release in the US so they didn’t want to promote this film as a sequel.
2. Breakin’ & Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
UK Title: Breakdance & Breakdance 2: Electric Boogaloo
Name I Prefer: Breakin’, I suppose
Why The Change?: No idea! Guess they just wanted to be more specific in the UK.
1. Adventures In Babysitting
UK Title: A Night On The Town
Name I Prefer: Adventures In Babysitting
Why The Change?: I have no idea but it appears to now have the US title in the UK. Both names aren’t great but A Night On The Town really sucks.
Some Other Title Changes:
These are all the movies I could think of but I found a list with more at Wikipedia if you’re interested. There are some funny ones I didn’t know about, like Bonnie And Clyde originally being called Bonnie And Clyde…Were Killers! in the UK.
US: Zootopia UK: Zootropolis
US: Perfect Catch UK: Fever Pitch
US: Pirate Radio UK: The Boat That Rocked
US: Dead Alive UK: Braindead
US: Tomorrowland UK: Tomorrowland: A World Beyond
US: Reindeer Games UK: Deception
US: Encino Man UK: California Man
US: Harry And The Hendersons UK: Bigfoot And The Hendersons
US: Howard The Duck UK: Howard: A New Breed Of Hero
US: The Professional UK: Leon
US: Point Of No Return UK: The Assassin
US: Hoosiers UK: Best Shot
US: Live Free Or Die Hard UK: Die Hard 4.0
US: The Mighty Ducks UK: Champions
Cinema Parrot Disco 
The Avengers one is because of the famous classic British TV show The Avengers! The one with Patrick MacNee and my old friend Diana Rigg. You should lose your visa for not knowing that!
Your “old friend” Diana Rigg? 🙂
HA! He wishes… She’d kick his ass Game Of Thrones-style! 😉
Haha! Should we sell tickets? Sounds like one hell of a show!
YES! I’d love to watch Mike get his ass kicked. 😉
Hahaha!
Have I not told you this before?!! Diana Rigg presented me with my Uni degree. I don’t know which of us was more starstruck 😀
She got a restraining order immediately afterwards… 🙂
I think I can guess! Her. Obviously. And did she wear her catsuit???
She did in his mind…. 🙂
Hahaha! 🙂
I did actually figure that but couldn’t be arsed to verify. Superhero movies are starting to piss me off. I’m just glad you bitched at me in this top ten instead of last week’s – I was dreading a typical Mike comment! ;-P
I’m pissed off with them too. Have been for about three years now! I really need to go see what last week’s top ten is! 😉
Oh shit…. Guess I asked for that. 😉
Very interesting post Miss Mutant! Loved it!!!
Harold and Kumar Get The Munchies – HOW could they EVER have contemplated / chosen another title? That one is genius lol.
They changed the Harry Potter BOOK title from Philosopher’s Stone to Sorcerer’s Stone when it was published and it’s always really annoyed me. How can they change a book title?!! I’ve always read too that it’s because they didn’t think American kids reading it would understand the word ‘philosopher’ – how marvellous (!!) aren’t books supposed to educate?
And hey, girls can joyride too!!! Lol.
Thanks, Emma! Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies is a FAR better title. 🙂 Yeah, it’s ridiculous that they changed the Harry Potter book title. I love how (whoever decides these things) assumes Americans are idiots. Hubby insisted that I should include the change of The Madness Of King George III to leave the III out as “Americans would think they’d missed two previous movies & that it was a sequel”. I just find that offensive! We’re not morons. Lol! Girls joyride too?! They must be some classy gals! (Unless you’ve done a bit of joyriding then I’d take it back because you’re awesome). 😉
It’s the best title EVER! (or something like that…!)
I realised after I wrote BOOK in capitals like I was correcting you, I didn’t mean it like that!! I was just emphasising they changed the book too but I read it back and thought it sounded a bit funny lol.
That is VERY offensive about The Madness of King George III, VERY offensive! I get sick of dumb stereotypes I really do 😦
I’ve never joyrided haha! Perish the thought. I just wanted to um, you know, raise my street cred a bit, get some eyebrows raised 🙂 do you think it worked?!! Haha.
Lol! Don’t worry – I didn’t read it like that at all! Oh, I can almost see you going on a joyride. I can see you with a wild streak that no one would expect! 😉
Good! I didn’t think you did but just wanted to make sure lol. Over explaining is one of my strong points!!
I had my moments when I was younger haha, but I’m a goody two shoes now 🙂 I can imagine the same from you Miss Mutant Rebel!! 🙂
“The Avengers” was changed because of a classic UK TV show with the same name from the 60’s starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed and a bevy of female sidekicks. There was a hideous US movie remake in 1998 of the same title with Ralph Feinnes which is best left forgotten..
“Peanuts” was always called “Charlie Brown” when it was a TV cartoon over here.
“Adventures In Babysitting” I actually saw on TV and on video with that title so it must have been a theatrical change only.
One change I never understood was Dwayne Johnson’s “The Rundown” which was renamed “Welcome To The Jungle” over here for some reason…
Lol. Hubby already bitched at me for not mentioning The Avengers TV show before I posted this but I couldn’t be bothered to add to the post. I didn’t feel like looking it up to be sure. 😉 I know of the show (and crappy looking American movie) but never watched it. Yeah, hubby knew it as Adventures In Babysitting as well. He thinks the title may have been changed when shown on TV here. I didn’t know that about Welcome To The Jungle (which I know it as). 🙂
Hey, guess what is on Film 4 tomorrow (Saturday) night? Adventures In Babysitting!! And under that title too! 🙂
Damn, I missed it!!!!! (Of course, I do have the DVD… Lol). This is why Film 4 is my favorite. 🙂
This is a really cool idea for the list. I knew some of these had different titles, but not others. I can’t believe they changed the title of The Mighty Ducks though. Lame! lol
Thank you! 🙂 Been planning it for a while – figured it was time to post it with Zootopia/Zootropolis coming out. Apparently, according to the hubby, the Mighty Ducks sequel was called The Mighty Ducks in the UK. Then the first was renamed The Mighty Ducks: Champions? Or something like that. I should double check with him… Or I could Google it. Lol. Weird! And confusing.
I actually prefer Zootropolis.
And I think we get the short shift: we don’t have White Castles in Canada either, but we still got stuck with that title (perhaps it’s a credit to us – we did figure it out).
I think I just like the play on words thing since they’re making the city sound like it’s some kind of utopia in the film. But either way, I didn’t like the film that much anyway. 😉 That’s funny – wonder why they bothered changing Harold & Kumar for the UK, then?? Guess they thought English people were too stupid to figure out that the fast food place they keep mentioning throughout the film and then are shown actually eating at is the White Castle of the title. Or something. Lol. Most of the changes are pretty damn stupid… 😉
Some of those are absolutely ridiculous!
Also, Snoopy does rule!
Ha! I know!! I really don’t understand the reason for a lot of the changes. Especially ones that aren’t necessary for trademark reasons or whatever, like the Harry Potter change. But Snoopy DOES indeed rule! 🙂
Yeah, the Harry Potter change was dumb. It reminds me of the changes made to Downton Abbey, which had to be re-cut for American audiences because they ‘wouldn’t understand’ everything that was going on.
Really? I don’t watch the show so don’t know about that. I hate when they assume American audiences are dumb!
Great post. But, I am more shocked at some of the US/UK movie titles’ translations into other languages/countries. “Limitless” (2011) film – translated as “Dark Forces”in Russia: lol, right to the point.
Haha! That one is funny. I know – some of the translated titles are hilarious in non-English-speaking countries. I’d have to research that for a top ten, though – I’m just very aware of the US/UK ones being from one country but living in the other. 🙂
Cool post and some wonderful trivia in here. I agree on most of your preferences except, I like Road Warriors better.
Thanks! 🙂 I suppose The Road Warrior is a cooler title. But it also messes with my alphabetization. I HATE when sequels have a completely different name, meaning I can’t put the DVDs next to each other on my alphabetized shelves… 😉 lol! (I’m serious)
Lol, yeah that’s true. I have the dvds and they are scattered in different places.
Nice post idea – that Harry Potter one still makes me shudder!
Thank you! 🙂 Haha – I know! I really don’t get why they changed that one…
nicely done Mutant! Glad u got AIB as ur #1. I remember electric boogaloo. probably should rewatch them so I can complain how bad they probably are 🙂
AIB is always number one. 😉 And you better not – the Breakin’ films are awesome!
Have u rewatched them?
Several times. And will re-watch again soon with the kid.
Not aib. Breakin?
She’s too young for AIB.
And breakin is that kid friendly?
More so than “Don’t fuck with the babysitter” & Playboy magazine, yes.
Nobody fucks with the babysitter!
Never mind “Raped?” & “Thor’s a homo” 😉
Ill watch breakin and let u know if it’s really as kid friendly as u imagine
In South Africa growing up we almost always got the UK title so some of these were a surprise to me. Very cool post!
Thanks, Abbi! 🙂 Yeah, it was more obvious to me having lived in the US & UK. Some of the changes are so weird.
They don’t have the name Harry over there? Maybe they changed it because of Prince Harry?Or Harry Reems?
“The Boat that Rocked” is the cheesiest title ever but also brilliant.
Ha! I don’t know – I think they just wanted to make it REALLY clear to English people that it’s a movie about Bigfoot since, you know, the big guy in the hideous gorilla suit on the poster wasn’t enough of a clue. 😉 The Boat That Rocked is a pretty good title! Or is the movie itself brilliant?? I do want to see that one at some point. I suppose it’s a better title than The Hand That Rocks The Cradle…
They should remake Harry and the Hendersons but as a Chewbacca spinoff called Chewbacca and the Chapmans where Chewbacca goes through a time warp in the Millennium Falcon and crash lands in the Pacific Northwest and the same basic plot goes forward from there and he keeps trying to explain to the Chapmans that he’s not Bigfoot but of course they can’t understand him and eventually they release him back to the wild after they help him find parts to repair the Falcon so kind of like E.T. too and shit E.T. can show up too why not and then as he’s about to fly off the hot 18-year-old daughter declares that she’s in love with him so they take off together in the Falcon.
Haha! You’re not suggesting that Hollywood should actually recycle their movie ideas, are you?! 😉 I’d watch this. It sounds far better than most the shit being made nowadays!
Pingback: My Blog’s March 2016 Recap | Cinema Parrot Disco
Exciting trivia about Leon: even though the original cut is still called The Professional in the US, the extended cut is called Leon, presumably because it’s a better title and everyone but Americans calls it that already. I can’t (off the top of my head, because I think I might be wrong about this) think of another example where two different cuts of the same film have completely different titles (even if it’s only in one country).
Hmm. Well, I looked into this a little bit when putting the post together & read something about the movie Phenomena having a different cut in America so the cut version was re-titled Creepers. Or something like that. If I remember correctly. I probably fucked that up. Either way, I found that interesting as I’ve just watched that movie. It’s bizarre. Hey – Jennifer Connelly was in that! Weren’t we just talking about her??
There’s probably actually loads of ’em! In fact, now I think of it, Arrow are releasing a film soon which was recut & re-released four times (I think), with a new title each time. That must be a record!
Ha! That’s so weird. And so annoying. Yeah, the type of films Arrow release are probably the worst for that. Phenomena is an Arrow one too.
Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone–I agree with this so much. I’m an American viewer, and I think they should have kept it “Philosopher’s Stone” everywhere. It sounds cooler, and I think they should have trusted that if people are big enough fans, they’ll figure it out. 😉
Hehe. Exactly! Totally agree. I swear the world just thinks all us Americans are dumb. 😉
Cool idea! We usually get the UK titles here, but sometimes we get the American ones (Harold and Kumar being the most noticeable on this list).
Odd! Wonder why. I guess they thought you’d be smart enough to figure out that White Castle is a restaurant. : )