Sliding Scale of Adaptation Modification

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

When creating a movie from a story already well-known in another medium, those making it are often faced with a crippling dilemma. How true can we stay to the source material without risking a failure at the box office? It can be a very hard call for a director. On the one hand, Fan Dumb will cry "Ruined FOREVER" should he change one iota of the source material, and he may find himself a victim of the fandom's ire from then on. On the other hand, not changing a thing can result in either a very poorly-made movie or one that relies so heavily on the source material that people unfamiliar with the work will be completely lost.

The scale runs something like this:

  • 5. Identical Adaptation: A movie in which next to nothing is changed. These rarely fare well outside the established Fandom.
  • 4. Near-Identical Adaptation: A movie that changes the material just enough to gain a PG rating or be of reasonable length. Usually rereleased with a Directors Cut.
  • 3. Pragmatic Adaptation: Probably the ideal rating. A movie that manages to capture the spirit of the original work, while at the same time, embracing the new medium. These are generally big hits.
  • 2. Recognizable Adaptation: Still bears enough resemblance to its source material that it can be realized as an adaptation.
  • 1. In Name Only: Shares only the name and possibly the main characters.

The scale, however, is not set in stone, and often times, there is overlap. Also, Tropes Are Not Bad as any movie in any of these categories can become a great success. However, the further a movie falls from the center, the less likely that is.

This trope is usually applied to movie adaptations -- The Film of the Book especially—although it can be applied to adaptations from movies as well, since other formats (books, comics, television series) have room for more material. See also The Problem with Licensed Games for the video game equivalent.

Examples of Sliding Scale of Adaptation Modification include:

Type 5

Anime and Manga

Film

Western Animation

Type 4

Anime and Manga

Film

Type 3: Pragmatic Adaptation

Anime and Manga

Film

Literature

Live-Action TV

Western Animation

Type 2

Anime and Manga

Film

Live-Action TV

Web Original

  • Abridged version of Pinocchio by Phoenix Games

Video Games

Type 1: In Name Only

Anime and Manga

Film

Live-Action TV

Western Animation

Special Cases

Anime and Manga

  • The earliest concepts of Princess Mononoke, as visible in Princess Mononoke: The First Story. shows that it's meant to be an adaptation of Beauty and The Beast. However, anyone who has existed for more than twelve seconds can tell you that these two pieces of media are nothing alike, and that they don't even share their names, main characters, or broad concepts. One's an epic tale about anger and conflict, the other a fairy tale about a princess and a beast falling in love. It doesn't share its name, it doesn't share its characters, it shares nothing. Thus, it falls under type 0, if type 0 even existed. Most people aren't aware it started out as an adaptation of the fairy tale.
  • Laputa: Castle in the Sky would be a type 1 (In Name Only) adaptation of a chapter in Gulliver's Travels, except Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Gulliver's Travels don't even share a word in common. It does have the spirit of an In Name Only adaptation, capturing the very broad premise of the original work and building almost everything on top. The only concept it takes from the original is a technologically advanced Castle in the Sky called Laputa, and that's it. Almost everything in the film is new.

Film

  • Simon Birch, the film adaptation of A Prayer for Owen Meany, goes from Type 1 to Type 5 as the story progresses, passing through almost every type along the way.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Sliding_Scale_of_Adaptation_Modification?oldid=1998247"