Articles and Stories

February 20, 2013

We recently posted a blog story about the process of translating books, using ‘the Lord of the Rings ‘as an example. The book was translated and also adapted into a movie for the big screen.

When researching topics on a browser, the Internet really does a pretty good job at tracking the kind of information and text you are looking for, as it is rather common to continue seeing articles related to that same topic on several web pages, even after the search is completed.

During my research I was directed to this website: (http://fanfoolishness.tumblr.com/post/7151206771/fellowship-of-the-ring-bad-subtitles), which offered examples of bad subtitles done for ‘The Lord of the Rings’. My ribs are still hurting from reading some of these subtitles. I hope you find them as entertaining as I did.

Please note that we do not know the author of these subtitles. It seems, from what I found out, that these subtitles were done for an Asian bootleg DVD. I imagine that the movie was probably recorded illegally inside the movie theater by someone in the audience, and most likely, then subtitled afterwards by someone with a decent level of English as a second language, but certainly not a professional or native English speaker. Needless to say, looking at these subtitles, this is the reason why hiring the right agency or professional is always recommended. You would not want anybody to think that your movie is a comedy, when it is a drama, or would you?

On a side note, my absolutely favorite subtitle is “Don’t do me anything…I’m natural”.