Harry Potter and the PHILOSOPHER'S Stone?!

[NightTrain]

Today, I picked up a used VHS copy of the first Harry Potter film for $8.99. Thing is, both the box and the label list the title as, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."

Now the book is titled, "The Sorcerer's Stone," as was the film when I saw it theatrically. Any idea why they changed the title for the video release?

[omshanti]

1. The original British title was "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"

Who knows why they changed it for the American market.

(on edit: perhaps you picked up a British version VHS?)

[Richardo]

3. I heard it's because they thought American audiences would respond

better to "Sorcerer" than "Philosopher".

IOW, we're idiots.

[omshanti]

5. yet another instance of the dumbing down of America...

how sad we've become.

[PVnRT]

7. Is it America dumbed down?

Or is it slimy marketing people who assume that? Americans didn't vote for the name change, marketing scumfucks did.

[chicaloca]

15. how sad....

Can you imagine a Hollywood movie ever shooting a British version of a movie, or even replacing a few scenes in the British version with words that Brits would be more familiar with? Why are Brits required to know American slang, but Americans know shit-all about British slang? (Especially since British slang has some of the best insults known to mankind.....) :evilgrin:

[ThreeCatNight]

2. When the book and movie....

were released in England and Europe, it had the title of Philospher's Stone.
Guess they thought that was too difficult of a word for the US audience, so they changed it to the Sorcerer's Stone.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

4. Because the real title is ....Philosopher's Stone

The American publishers were convinced Americans wouldn't get the philosopher's stone reference. If I were you, I'd find that condescending. It was Philosopher's Stone in Canada.

[Fovea]

14. Like the American publisher

of "A Clockwork Orange" omitting the entire last chapter from the American edition.

The state of our letters can be amazingly savage and unsophisticated.

[BiggJawn]

6. Because they thought "Philosopher" would turn-off the Murkans...

You know......Philosopher=Liberal= BORING!

They didn't want good, red-blooded (and green-dollared) Murkans to get the idea that Harry was gonna be chased around by some Liberal wanting his rock back.

[leftofthedial]

8. aren't all philosophers godless commies?

See? I thought so.

[hobbes159]

9. They changed more than just the title...

A lot of British slang was replaced with American words in the books and movie -- many scenes in the movie were shot twice, once with British slang and once with American. This American would have preferred to keep the British stuff....

[NightTrain]

10. Interesting....

I do remember when I read "Stone" that there was a reference to soccer. Surely, the original British printing called the game "football"?

Can you recall any other examples of UK slang being replaced with its American counterpart?

[Kellanved]

11. here is a list

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/help.html

[omshanti]

13. I do remember asking my room mate where the "dustbin" was...

my first day of college. She looked at me like I was an alien, and I had to learn to say "traaashh cann" in a slow Midwestern accent.
:)

[regnaD kciN]

12. I worked on the computer game...

...and, yes, we had to prepare separate versions for the British and American markets for the same reason.