The Conundrum: Rayman's Vs. Rabbid Name Change
GameSetWatch only deals with the most important issues in video games today - and the burning question for this Monday is - why is Rayman Raving Rabbids called that, when the original French name is so subtly different?
I noticed this when Ubisoft sent over some promo notepaper which had the French name for the game, Rayman Contre Les Lapins Cretins, which my schoolboy French translates as 'Rayman Vs. The Crazy Rabbits'. Actually, I think 'cretins' is a little closer to mentally subnormal, aka the politically incorrect 'retarded', isn't it? There's a definition of the English word which claims its derivation: "French crétin, from French dialectal, deformed and mentally retarded person found in certain Alpine valleys."
In any case, the weird thing about the English language title is that it's not 'Rayman Vs. The Raving Rabbids' - the antagonists are just described in a title run-on. Though there's meant to be a colon after the Rayman, I guess, but it doesn't show up in the English game logo. And, of course, it was decided that plain old 'rabbits' wouldn't cut it, so the reference to the 'rabbits' being 'rabid' was added - hence 'rabbid'. Or that's how I read it. The French-language site has some good puns too - one of the options is labeled 'Lapinvasion', hah.
In conclusion - there's really no conclusion. I just thought it was an interesting example of a title being slightly rethought when it changed languages. Possibly much more interesting is this question - did Michel Ancel completely disavow himself from this game?
As the Wikipedia entry notes: "On April 5, 2006, Ubisoft announced Ancel was leading the development of the fourth game in the Rayman series, Rayman Raving Rabbids, for the Nintendo Wii. The game began production in early 2005 and was released on November 15 2006 for the launch of the Wii. However, Ancel was notably absent from the project after its E3 announcement, and he has made no public appearances regarding the game after the development team switched focus from a free-roaming platformer to the final minigames format shortly after E3." So what happened? And what's he doing now?
Comments
You're right when you say that 'Crétins' is closer to retard (or imbecile) than crazy. I'm not sure if the meaning differs in France (it sometimes does), but that's meaning we would give here in Québec.
Posted by: Cra | May 14, 2007 7:23 AM
Not that it adds much, but in Japan Raving Rabbids was given a much simpler, descripitive title: Rabbit Party.
Posted by: sennuwy | May 14, 2007 7:36 AM
Hey, I was bitten by a jack rabbit when I was 9 years old-this resulted in me having 14 rabies shots. Rabid Rabbits AIN'T funny. Gives me a shiver up me spine, it does. Now, if you were to say "rapid rabid rabbits", that's coool.
True story. Although, to be fair, a jackrabbit isn't a rabbit. It is a hare (yes, there is a difference).
Posted by: Moab Bomb | May 14, 2007 9:52 AM
Cretinism is a form of retardation caused by a thyroid hormone deficiency. I learned about it in ph@rm@zy sk3wl.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretinism
Posted by: Icupnimpn2 | May 14, 2007 11:39 AM
Ah, but jokes, puns and poetry are so difficult to translate. Totally unlike porn, really.
Posted by: gnome | May 14, 2007 2:07 PM
The only thing I've been able to dig up is this appearance Ancel made at Video Games Live in London in November last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F04LVvrcWk.
He mentions that he's working together with Beyond Good & Evil composer Christophe Heral to see if a sequel "could be possible".
Posted by: alistairw | May 14, 2007 6:20 PM
"deformed and mentally retarded person found in certain Alpine valleys"
That's interesting as we do have an expression : "crétin des Alpes!". I always thought it was just a random geographical target, but now I read that it's where the cretinism originated. Cool! Well... GSW is really the source of any kind of knowledge ^.^
Posted by: monele | May 15, 2007 4:31 AM