Adaptation Displacement: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

== Displaced by Anime or Manga ==

* The [[Anime]] boom in America took place well before the manga boom, and as a result, for a couple of years more people remembered the anime adaptation rather than the manga. For a while, the only place to talk about a manga series was the forum of the people translating the manga.

* Possibly as an attempt to avoid this, the first ''[[Spice and Wolf]]'' novel was released in English around the same time as the first season of the anime.

* The ''[[Slayers]]'' anime is based off of a [[Light Novel]] series; the anime came out in 1995, five years after the first couple of novels were published. Like most [[Light Novel]]-originated series, most foreign fans find the anime as the truest source of canon. It is rather unusual in this case because the first season of the anime was released in the states ''one year'' after the it completed its run in Japan, and, as a dub released by [[Central Park Media]], was one of the few 90's dubs that didn't suffer from any form of [[Macekre]], [[Dub Name Change]], or any other edits. Both the novels themselves and most of its manga adaptations weren't translated until the mid 2000's.

* ''[[Battle Royale]]'' is originally a novel, but not everybody knows this. In fact, when ''Battle Royale'' was mentioned in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! (manga)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' manga, the Swedish translation included a footnote telling the readers that ''Battle Royale'' is a movie and a manga.

* In Japan, the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games came first, then [[Pocket Monsters (manga)|some manga]], then the [[Pokémon (anime)|anime series]], and finally [[Pokémon Special|the more]] [[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure|popular]] manga. However, when the franchise was launched in North America, the games and anime were launched around the same time, with ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' following shortly thereafter. Some mainstream articles [[Media Research Failure|refer to the Pokémon and human characters]] as anime characters, often completely ignorant of the franchise's video game origins. A few articles have even stupidly implied that the card game came first.

** MANY American fans think the Hero of ''[[Pokémon Red and Blue]]''/''Yellow'' is Ash. He's not. He's named Red. Likewise, the Rival is not Gary. It's Green or [[Dub Name Change|Blue]] depending on if you live in Japan or not. [[Hello, Insert Name Here|On the other hand]], people often think that [[Player Character|Ethan]] is based off [[Pokémon Special|Gold]], and Silver in the original games has also been displaced by his Pokéspe counterpart. Again, the ''games'' came first. Ironic since the Johto games are quite popular, well known, and are one of the main sources of nostalgia for gamers in general and Pokémon fans.

* The anime ''[[Basilisk]]'' is based off a series of novels of the same title.

 

* Today, ''[[Little Lulu]]'' is mostly known as a comic book despite debuting as a series of one-panel cartoons for the ''[[Saturday Evening Post]]''.

* The Barry Allen [[The Flash|Flash]] and the Hal Jordan [[Green Lantern]]—and their relative [[Legacy Character|legacies]]—are far more familiar to Joe Average than the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] Jay Garrick and Alan Scott due to the [[Animated Adaptation]] of each (they were sort of displaced by their [[Silver Age]] versions even before the cartoons, but ''[[Superfriends]]'' cemented the newer heroes in popular culture).

** And are they aware that in ''[[Starman (comics)|Starman]]'', Mason O'Dare's girlfriend Charity used to be the host of ''Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion''?

** And how many people know that Jed Walker was originally from the 1970s ''Sandman'' stories his introduction deconstructs?

 

== Displaced by Films (Animated) ==

** Even [[Lady and the Tramp]], which was based on a short story called "Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog". Walt read it in ''Cosmopolitan'', bought the rights, and actually had the author write a novelization of the planned movie which came out two years before the film itself. This was so people would be familiar with the story, since most people associated the Disney studio with adapting famous tales, and it was thought that people wouldn't watch the film if they didn't know there was a book. How many of you knew there was a book? Thought so.

** Disney's ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'' is so well known, some people aren't aware that there really were Jungle '''[[The Jungle Book (novel)|Books]]'''. Or that Baloo was the serious one, and Bagheera the playful one. And Kaa was Mowgli's third mentor.

** How about ''Pinocchio: the story of a puppet'' by [[Carlo Collodi]]? This was possibly for the best; the original Pinocchio story was just plain ''weird'', as Roberto Benigni unfortunately proved by making a more faithful live-action adaptation. The original was also an extremely irritating and tedious [[Author Tract]] about obeying your elders, a moral that definitely would not sell will in this modern age of pop-culture rebellion.

** While not entirely Disney's fault, their 1951 adaptation of ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)|Alice in Wonderland]]'' forever linked the events of ''Through the Looking Glass'' with the very different book it was a sequel to. However, several adaptations in film and theater before it had been doing this well before. In fact, very few people even realize that characters like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum never appeared in the book ''Alice in Wonderland'' and it's not uncommon to hear people complain about their absence in works that are more faithful to the source material because they have become so accustomed to seeing the two books presented as ''Alice in Wonderland''. It doesn't help that the two books are often published as a single volume under that title.

*** Ratigan's Basil doll closely resembles Basil from the original book's illustrations.

** There are those who think that Disney created [[Peter Pan]] from whole-cloth in 1953, with their still-classic animated motion picture. Never mind the fact that Disney actually made a live-action [[Peter Pan]] film a couple of decades earlier, they (usually children, it must be said), are surprised to hear it was a book back in 1904....based off the original stage play that debuted in 1902. There is a rather larger section of the populace who believe that [[Disney Owns This Trope|Disney currently own the copyright]] on [[Peter Pan]]. They don't, that belongs to Great Ormond Street Hospital in perpetuity;<ref>in the UK; it's in the public domain in the US</ref> they get royalties on all derivative works, but cannot stop anybody from making something they don't want made (hence Disney rolling out its new ''Tinker Bell'' movies).

** ''[[Three Little Pigs (Disney film)|The Three Little Pigs]]'' short cartoon adaptation is another case where the Disney version has completely taken over the original fairy tale. The pigs all flee to the third pig's house while in the original the Big Bad Wolf just eats the two of them.

*** ''[[Saludos Amigos]]''

*** ''[[The Three Caballeros]]''

*** ''[[Dinosaur]]''

*** ''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]''

*** ''[[Brother Bear]]''

*** ''[[Home on the Range]]''

* ''[[Rock-a-Doodle]]'' is based on a fairly obscure play by Edmond Rostand (more famous for ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'') called ''Chanticler''. To name a few differences, the Edmond character isn't there, there isn't any magic, the Grand Duke is only a minor villain, and the [[Aesop]] of the play is centered around how, even though the rooster hero's crowing doesn't make the sun rise, he is still important to the farmyard by waking everyone up and keeping away predators.

* Most Americans are unaware that ''[[Tintin (film)|The Adventures of Tintin]]'' is based on [[Tintin|a Belgian comic book series]], due to it being very unpopular in America.

 

 

* ''[[The Running Man (film)|The Running Man]]'', ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]'', and ''[[Stand by Me]]'' are all based on short stories written by [[Stephen King]]. Most people are '''very''' unaware of this. It also applies, albeit in a lesser sense, to some other films based on King's books, such as ''[[Cujo]]'', ''[[Carrie]]'', ''[[Pet Sematary]]'', ''[[Children of the Corn]]'', ''[[Firestarter]]'', ''[[IT]]'', ''[[The Shining]]'' even ''[[Apt Pupil]]'' etc... Well, the man *is* known for churning out a lot of books.

** So was ''[[The Lawnmower Man]]'', an [[In Name Only]] adaptation of the short story of the same name.

* ''[[Babes in Toyland]]'' is best known as a [[Laurel and Hardy]] movie from 1934, which was subsequently remade several times. Its true origin was thirty-odd years earlier as a stage extravaganza (which was produced as a [[Spiritual Successor]] to a highly popular adaptation of ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'').

* The silent science-fiction film ''[[Metropolis]]'', which codified many sci-fi tropes, was written concurrently with a serial novel of the same name by the screenwriter, Thea von Harbou. English translations of the novel have been reprinted over the years, but the reason was mainly because previously available copies of the film were incomplete; the only way people could piece together the original plot was by reading the novel. Now that a (nearly) complete cut of the film has been found the novel might fall into obscurity again.

* In the US at least, more people have watched the ''[[Battle Royale]]'' movie adaption instead of the 600+ page book by Koushun Takami. Opinions are split on whether [[Adaptation Distillation|the film does the novel justice]] or if the alterations are far too drastic.

* ''[[Zathura]]'' seems like a [[Recycled in Space|space-themed]] ''[[Jumanji]]'' knock-off. Turns out not only is it based on a book, but the book is a sequel to ''Jumanji''.

** The 2001 musical film ''[[Moulin Rouge]]'' also borrows heavily from Dumas' novel. Early drafts of the script included even more plot parallels to Camille/La Traviata, including an intervention by Christian's father.

* The [[Brad Pitt]] film ''[[The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]]'' is based on a jazz age short story with the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

* In a rare case of a film displacing another film, David Cronenberg's remake of the 1950's film ''[[The Fly]]'' is more famous than the original.

* ''[[Annie]]'' is a famous 80s musical about a little red-headed girl who goes through a [[Rags to Riches]] story. The movie is based off a musical. The musical is based off a [[Print Long Runners|long-running]] comic strip called ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'', who most people probably only recognize from ''[[A Christmas Story]]'' or ''[[Robot Chicken]]''. It's arguable whether the musical or the strip is more well-known, but they're both displaced by the movie.

* ''[[Night at the Museum]]'' as based off a children's book. But you didn't know that.

* ''[[Sannikov Land]]''.

* The [[Disney Channel]] movie (and later band) ''[[The Cheetah Girls]]'' was based on a 13 book series by Deborah Gregory that lasted from 1999-2001.

* Anyone who knows the name ''Howard the Duck'' most likely knows it for the [[Howard the Duck (film)|infamous movie]] by [[George Lucas]] instead of the obscure [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] [[Howard the Duck (comics)|comic book character]].

* ''[[One, Two, Three]]'' is based on the obscure Hungarian play ''Egy, kettő, három'' by Ferenc Molnár.

* Many remember one version or the other of ''[[Village of the Damned]]'' but would look puzzled if asked about ''[[The Midwich Cuckoos]]''.

* ''[[42nd Street (film)|42nd Street]]'' is based on some novel by Bradford Ropes.

* To say that this trope happens often in Westerns would be an understatement. Who remembers that ''Three Godfathers'', ''[[Rio Bravo]]'', ''The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'' and ''[[True Grit]]'' were based on novels or stories (by Peter B. Kyne, B. H. McCampbell, Dorothy M. Johnson, and Charles Portis, respectively)? And it is a pretty good bet that few people will have read or even heard of ''Stage to Lordsburg'' by Ernest Haycox, ''Massacre'' by James Warner Bellah, ''The Blazing Guns of the Chisholm Trail'' by Borden Chase, ''The Search'' by Alan LeMay, ''The Tin Star'' by John W. Cunningham, or ''The Stars in Their Courses'' by Henry Brown but almost everyone knows the movie versions, ''[[Stagecoach]]'', ''[[Fort Apache]]'', ''Red River'', ''[[The Searchers]]'', ''[[High Noon]]'', and ''[[El Dorado]]''.

* Whenever someone mentions ''[[Titanic]]'' most people will think of the famous [[James Cameron]] film. To be fair, it is still a well-known fact that the film was inspired by a real-life disaster, but normally upon hearing the name, they'll still think of the movie first before the actual event. What most people also fail to realize is that there were at least nine different films about the Titanic (most of which [[Similarly Named Works|also go under the same title]]) that came out before it, including [[A Night to Remember]] (which inspired James Cameron to make his film) and a made-for-TV film that came out only a few months before Cameron's.

* The movie ''[[Fast Times at Ridgemont High]]'' is remembered for many things today—Sean Penn's breakout performance as Jeff Spicoli, his "Hey bud, let's party" [[Catch Phrase]], his battles with Ray Walston and the [[Caught with Your Pants Down|poolside scene with Judge Reinhold and Phoebe Cates]]. It has been almost totally forgotten that it was based on a novel by Cameron Crowe, which was itself based on his year undercover at a Southern California high school.

* ''[[Fatal Attraction (film)|Fatal Attraction]]'' was based on a short film called "Diversion" by James Dearden. Stanley Jaffe and Sherry Lansing saw it and thought it could be a feature film. So they hired Dearden to adapt it, and he got the unusual credit "Screenplay by JAMES DEARDEN, based on his original screenplay." When it became a huge hit, most people didn't realize it was a derivative work.

 

== Displaced by Literature ==

* How many people have read Neil Gaiman's novel ''[[Neverwhere]]''? How many knew the book is in fact a novelization of a British mini-series written by Gaiman?

* The original myths of [[Merlin]] were of a Welsh wizard who had nothing to do with [[King Arthur]]. Additionally, all prior characterizations of Merlin were displaced by newer myths, culminating with the Lancelot-Grail cycle.

* In 1982, Sue Townsend wrote a radio play called ''The Diary of Nigel Mole, Aged 13 1/4''. Later that year it became a book called ''The Secret Diary of [[Adrian Mole]], Aged 13 3/4''.

 

== Displaced by Live-Action TV ==

** ''[[Contra]]'' and its sequel, ''Super Contra'', were originally arcade games that were adapted to the NES. The NES versions were more successful than the coin-op versions, and all the subsequent sequels were released specifically for home consoles.

** The arcade version of ''[[Gradius]]'' was released in North America and Europe under the name of ''[[Market-Based Title|Nemesis]]'', while the NES version kept the original title. This led many fans to believe that its NES conversion is the very first title in the series. ''Gradius III'' is a similar case; the Super NES conversion is far more well known than its [[Nintendo Hard]] arcade counterpart, though said arcade original did have a prior American release to ''Collection'', in ''Gradius III & IV'', which was released in 2000.

*** Which is bizarre not only because these games not only introduced many of the opponents, but the entire Title Defense level, which is nothing more than a souped-up version of the "Top Ranked" matches you had after winning the championship.

** The NES version of ''[[Super Dodge Ball]]'' is a cult classic, with most people not even aware that it was based on an arcade game of the same name.

* Few ''[[Wangan Midnight]] Maximum Tune'' players are aware that it is based on the still-running manga series ''[[Wangan Midnight]]''. Most think it's the other way around.

* On a similar note, even less players have heard of the original ''Wangan Midnight'' arcade game, released in 2001 and published by the same publishers of ''Maximum Tune'', as well as its update ''Wangan Midnight R''. These two games, however, bear little resemblance to the ''Maximum Tune'' series; they play more like the ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer''/''Shutokou Battle'' series, in that you and your opponent have [[Life Meter|life meters]], an unusual feature in a racing game.

* While quite a few fans of the ''[[Persona (video game)|Persona]]'' video game series know that it is a spin-off of the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series, some of them do not know that ''Shin Megami Tensei'' is a spin-off of another RPG series (''Megami Tensei'') that was in turn based off the ''[[Digital Devil Story]]'' novel trilogy. Most don't even know that there ''were'' regular Megaten games that were released before ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'' yanked all the [[Cyberpunk]] tropes from the series and got translated.

* Some gamers may suspect that the [[Xbox]] version of the ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' series is having this effect upon the original NES series, especially in terms of their [[Nintendo Hard]] reputations. Whether or not this is true, both have certainly displaced the original, almost completely unrelated [[Beat'Em Up]] arcade game from everyone's mind.

** However, it's worth mentioning that one of the reasons it's relatively unknown outside of Japan is because [[No Export for You|they weren't released outside of Japan for awhile]]. The 1995 novel was actually not published in English until ''2007''. And even then, it's pretty rare.

* ''[[Kickle Cubicle]]'' was based on a Japanese arcade game called ''Meikyu Jima'', which had identical gameplay but a completely different plot.

* Similar to Marth, Morrigan Aensland is starting to be far better known for appearing in ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom]]'' than ''[[Darkstalkers]]''. The fact that there hasn't been a ''Darkstalkers'' since ''Vampire Savior'' probably contributes to this.

* ''[[Zero Wing]]''. Many forget that the Sega Genesis version was actually adapted from an arcade game (which ''didn't'' feature the infamous "[[All Your Base Are Belong to Us]]" intro... but had its [http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/arcade/c/zerow.htm own screwed up ending]), and ''everyone'' forgot that there was a [[TurboGrafx-16|TurboGrafx-CD]] port (which had a completely different plot).

** Shuma-Gorath's a strange example, he was originally from a short story for the 'Kull' series, but the short story was unpublished. When they published it after the Author's death, it was adapted into the Dr. Strange series.

* ''[[The Darkness]]''; depending on the circles you orbit in, you may encounter people who are either unaware the comic exists besides the unlockables in the game, or unaware it came ''first''.

** Notable especially is that the original was the first modern MMO, predating ''[[Ultima Online]]'' by several years. Previous games in similar veins were typically primarily text-based, with few or no graphics and little depth in comparison to [[Eastern RPG|console]] and [[Western RPG|computer RPGs]] of the same timeframe.

* The original ''[[Tetris]]'' was released on an Electronica 60 in 1985, followed by a release on IBM computers (as well as pretty much every other [[Home Computer]] in existence). However, it wasn't until the Game Boy version, released in 1989, that most fans around the world got into ''Tetris''.

* ''[[Green-Sky Trilogy|Below the Root]]'' is the best-known of the Windham Classics games and a minor [[Cult Classic]] among platform gamers. The books it was based on (and is the canonical sequel to, making it possibly the first of its kind) are terribly obscure and were out of print for years.

* ''[[Monster in My Pocket]]'' was originally a line of toys, but nowadays, it's more well known as a classic NES game.

* The NES version of ''Nuts & Milk'' displaced the original version for the [[MSX]], [[PC-88]] and other Japanese computers, which plays quite differently and even in Japan is largely ignored.

* Soul Calibur was only meant to be the sequel to Soul Edge (Soul Blade for home release) but ended up becoming a series. This meant that only a few people know about Soul Edge/Soul Blade due to it not being a numbered entry in the series.

 

== Displaced by Web Animation ==

* Quite a few western fans of ''[[Touhou]]'' discovered the [[Stupid Statement Dance Mix|music remix videos]] before learning of the original series of [[Bullet Hell]] games.

* ''[[CROSS†CHANNEL]]'' was displaced by the Flash game ''[[NANACA†CRASH!!|Nanaca? Crash!!]]'' Why? ''Cross Channel'' was a Japanese-only [[Hentai|H-game]]/[[Visual Novel]] until its [[Fan Translation]] in 2009. Fans didn't need to read Japanese to play ''Nanaca? Crash!!''

* The '80s ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon is vastly more familiar to the public than the original black-and-white comics. An example of this is that in every Turtles-related review by The Nostalgia Critic, he constantly criticizes an adaptation for not being "faithful" when its actually using something from the ''comic'' instead of the 80s series (such as his constant complaints about April's lack of yellow jumpsuits in the films, or that Judith Hoag looks nothing like April, when her portrayal did in fact resemble the original comic's version).

** This Adaptation Displacement was taken into account by the creators of the second film who originally intended to stick closer to the comics and have the mutagen be the creation of a brain-like alien race called the Utroms. Professor Perry, who still appears in the movie as the man who created the mutagen, was going to be revealed as the last Utrom still on Earth. However, the cartoon featured a villainous alien brain named Krang who bore a strong physical resemblance to the Utroms but little else. Since the movie was being marketed to fans of the cartoon, the Utrom subplot was ditched because of concern that viewers would assume the brain was Krang.

** Up to the point that ''Duck Tales'' comics were released to promote the show and they flopped because kids didn't get why the continuity was all different from normal Disney comics.

* Before ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'' was a cartoon, it was a series of children's books by Marc Brown.

* The ''[[Pink Panther]]'' movies are very often displaced by the cartoons, to the point where people have complained about the 2006 movie being about an inspector instead of the panther. The Pink Panther mascot is actually a personification of a ''diamond'' within the series.

* Certain DC superheroes are better known in their cartoon versions. While with characters like Superman and Batman it's debatable whether they're more displaced by cartoons or movies, characters like the [[Green Lantern]]'s and Aquaman are displaced.

 

== Displaced by Merchandising ==

 

== Displaced by All of the Above ==

** In fact, a lot of people are under the impression that Cthulu is not a creation of Lovecraft, but an actual mythical being from an ancient religion. Some don't even realize he's copyrighted, which leads to some issues.

*** Especially considering Lovecraft actively encouraged people to borrow from his works.

[[Category:Derivative Works]]

[[Category:Audience Reactions]]