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Human-Focused Adaptation: Difference between revisions
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So a [[Live Action Adaptation]] of your favorite childhood [[Funny Animal]] cartoon is coming out. You go to see it, and... what's this? Who's this guy? Where's the cartoon character? Why should we care about this guy? Can you move it along and get to the cartoon character now? Oh, there he is! And now they're back to that guy again. Looks like it's gonna be another '''Human-Focused Adaptation'''.
Family movies that are live action (and sometimes even animated) adaptations of cartoons that otherwise probably wouldn't work as a live action blockbuster, or actually ''would'', normally seem to focus more on a newer human character and his [[Romantic Plot Tumor|love life]], [[Demoted to Extra|rather than the character from the series the movie is adapting]]. More often than not, the plot has an [[Unlucky Everydude]] with a crappy job and a crush on his hot co-worker, having a run-in with the cartoon character of the day, or having said cartoon character as a pet. [[Hilarity Ensues]], and the cartoon character's hijinks somehow bring Everydude and his love interest together, and they live [[Happily Ever After]].
These subplots mostly, if not always seem to do with the unlucky new guy [[Romantic Plot Tumor|in love]]. This even applies to ''already existing'' human characters who never had a love interest, and are either given a completely new one, or they take an existing character and pair them up, accuracy be damned.
This is probably caused by a combination of the costs (both time and money) of CGI and the beliefs that a human character might be [[Most Writers Are Human|more relatable]] or that people want to see a love story—no matter how much it has to be shoehorned in. This trope, while common to live action, is not exclusively a live action trope. There are many examples within anime, comics, and Western animation itself. If any adaptation reduces the importance of the major characters (or major non-human characters) to focus on more humanistic or traditional characters, it should count as being this trope, regardless of the medium. Note that this doesn't always mean "non-human characters are barely in it" but that the ratio is shifted considerably. The amount of human importance may shift from 10% original to 60% adaptation, it still leaves 40% of the movie to the non-human characters. It isn't always about "making it relatable" but being a [[Pragmatic Adaptation]] if you are going to make something in a different medium.
Related to [[Adaptation Decay]], [[Most Writers Are Human]], [[Developing Doomed Characters]], [[Romantic Plot Tumour]], [[Just Here for Godzilla]], [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]], [[Demoted to Extra]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The anime ''[[Sonic X]]'' during first two seasons has Chris Thorndike taking the spotlight and filling roles which in [[The Anime of the Game|the actual game adaptations]] were filled by Tails and Amy. This turned off quite a few fans as a result.
* Similar to the ''[[Sonic X]]'' example above, ''[[Kirby:
== [[Film]] ==
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* The first live-action ''[[Garfield (film)|Garfield]]'' movie came out at a time when in the comic, Liz looked down on Jon, when somehow she's madly in love with him in the movie. The comic would later follow suit.
* The ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' movie gave less screen time to the cartoon moose and squirrel than their traditional human villains and new human characters. Rocky and Bullwinkle are on a very small part of the DVD cover (pictured above) while the human characters are front and center.
* Two ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' live action movies.
** ''[[Space Jam]]'' puts its focus on bringing Michael Jordan into the Looney Tunes' world to save them from aliens by playing basketball. The first part of the movie plays like a [[Biopic]] of Jordan before the Looney Tunes show up.
** ''[[Looney Tunes: Back in Action]]'' introduces two human characters to team up with Bugs and Daffy and even gives them a romantic subplot.
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* The title character of ''[[Yogi Bear]]'' takes a backseat to Ranger Smith, of all people. Yogi and Boo-Boo are all but reduced to walking, talking plot devices, while most of the story focuses on Smith's efforts to save Jellystone Park from being demolished and turned into farmland. Perfect example of this trope played straight.
* The 1932 film adaptation of ''[[The Call of the Wild]]'' focuses on the character of Jack Thornton, played by Clark Gable, over Buck the dog. In the book, he only factors into perhaps a third of the plot.
* Although the original is also about a human, the first ''[[Mr. Bean]]'' movie, ''Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie'' did something like this. The original series is simply about a near-mute, accident prone-fellow causing chaos and havoc wherever he goes, which tends to lend itself best to brief vignettes. The movie, of course, had to flesh this out, so it centred mainly on some American art expert who Bean stays with and his troubled relationship with his family.
* Some of the Muppet productions fall under this trope:
** Played with in ''[[The Muppets (film)|The Muppets]]'' where [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CloKbXtD28 the trailer] makes it look like a human-focused romantic comedy, only for Kermit the Frog to show up and reveal the real nature of the film. It still technically qualifies for this trope, though; most of the screentime is given to [[Jason Segel]], [[Amy Adams]] and new character Walter (who is a [[Muppet]] but not in-universe<ref>In the movie's universe, "Muppet" only refers to members of Kermit's troupe</ref> {{spoiler|until the final act of the movie}}), although the humans' subplot takes a backseat to the main plot for most of the movie. That said, a concerted effort was made to give the Muppets enough screen time and have them qualify as main characters.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* A fully animated example is the ''[[Tom and Jerry: The Movie]]'', whose title characters take a backseat to a little orphan girl, in a plot that seems like they were trying to remake ''[[The Rescuers]]'' as a musical with Tom and Jerry thrown in as an afterthought.
* ''[[My Little Pony]]'' actually sorta inverts this trope. The original show had a human girl named Megan who helped the ponies in their fight against whatever apocalypse was threatening them at the moment. Most of the sequel series are [[Slice of Life]] series that focus solely on the ponies (it might be noted though that even in the original series, while the human girl Megan was nearly always around and involved in the ponies adventures, she was actually very seldom the main character of an episode. So all things considered, the ''My Little Pony'' franchise can be said to having avoided this trope so far).
** ''[[Pound Puppies]]'' has another similar inversion. The show originally focused on an orphan girl named Holly who helped the eponymous talking dogs, while her [[Wicked Stepmother]] served as the main villain. The remake now focuses mostly on the dogs.
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[[Category:The Millennium Age of Animation]]
[[Category:Derivative Works]]
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