https://www.google.com/search?q=suske+en+wiske&udm=2

I’ve never understood why this simple, delightful children’s comic keeps getting randomly renamed for evidently zero reason. What the heck, man? “Bob & Bobetter?” “Spiking Suzy?” “Willy and Wanda?” (why not just throw in the dang chocolate factory?) “Luke and Lucy?” (no, I don’t want to see that soap opera again)

Daggit, maties-- Suske en Wiske is not that hard to say, it seems to me.

Not unlike James Bond strolling up to the minibar and suggesting something like “Whish-key, no watta.”

  • jonne@infosec.pubEnglish
    6·
    1 month ago

    There was a time where translators seemingly got free reign in translating whatever they wanted including titles and character names. A lot of them got weird variants like that: Schtroumpfs/Smurfs (definitely get why they did it for this one), Spirou/Robbedoes , Tintin/Kuifje, etc.

    I agree that in many cases they went too far, but there’s examples where it made sense to translate a character name if they were a pun of some kind (Asterix has many examples of that happening).

    As for Suske en Wiske, those names aren’t just very Flemish, they’re basically very specific to the region around Antwerp (I don’t even know what their non-diminutive names are supposed to be). I don’t love the translated names, but it does make sense to make them more ‘normal’ sounding for other regions.

    • JohnnyEnzymeOPMEnglish
      5·
      1 month ago

      Schtroumpfs

      Oh gosh, I love that plural noun, but no WAY that would have ignited, hahaha.