Universal Adaptor Cast: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito]]'' is a straight [[Anime]] example; this one a Yuri series set in a bunch of settings with the same basic characters due to reincarnation.

* Every episode of ''[[Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi]]'' has the characters playing different roles in a parody of a given genre.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]''

** The various ''[[Gurren Lagann]] Parallel Works'' music videos seem to suggest that the cast is one of these, with the exception of the 8th one, which is canon and tells the story of {{spoiler|Lordgenome's [[Start of Darkness]]}}.

* In the past thirty-some years, the cast of ''[[Ranma ½]]'' have been slotted into every imaginable fanfic scenario, ranging from bizarre [[Fusion Fic]]s (''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', ''[[Star Trek]]'') to original plots of every possible stripe.

 

* Most major superhero teams have had "[[Elseworld|imaginary stories]]" where they were medieval knights, steampunk warriors, etc.

* ''[[Marvel Fairy Tales]]'' retells various [[Fairy Tale]]s with the [[X-Men]], [[Spider-Man]] and [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]].

* The ''[[Archie Comics]]'' gang. Including for a while, various spinoffs were they were in space, in the past, or superheroes.

 

* The ''[[Carry On]]'' movies are a great example of this. A group of comedy actors (that did change gradually over the years, as people joined, left, or came back) made films together in a wide variety of settings and parodying a wide variety of genres.

* Likewise, the [[Marx Brothers]]. The brothers, plus Margaret Dumont, always play the same basic characters under different names, transplanted into any number of settings—racecourse, opera house, a very thinly-disguised Nazi Germany, and so on.

* [[The Three Stooges]]!

* French comedic foursome "Les Charlots" played basically the same characters within several movies during the '70s/'80s, in various settings. Among other things, this included them fighting [[Dracula]] (''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194748/ Les Charlots contre Dracula]''), a spoof of ''[[James Bond]]'' flicks (''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072722/ Bons baisers de Hong Kong]'') or a [[Affectionate Parody|retelling]] of ''[[The Three Musketeers (novel)|The Three Musketeers]]'' (''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072052/ Les Quatre Charlots mousquetaires]'' and its [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454427/ sequel]).

* [[Abbott and Costello]] meet...

* [[Jackie Chan]], Sammo Hung & Yuen Biao.

 

* [[Michael Moorcock]]'s ''[[Jerry Cornelius]]'' novels do this explicitly. Many of the characters are clearly identified with their original Commedia dell'Arte counterparts, with Jerry as Harlequin, and swung through a wide variety of settings and situations without clear explanation.

* Hal Duncan's ''[[The Book of All Hours]]'' does this extensively with its central cast. This is an interesting case, because each character is the living embodiment of an archetype superimposed upon multiple realities. So by the second book, where reality has degenerated into isolated wells of time and space, and the characters move from one reality well to another, they all become [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]], having absolutely no qualms about screwing all possible realities to their advantage. This results in them routinely sitting around a table and leafing through the "script" for the next reality, deciding who is going to play what.

* "The Years of Rice and Salt" is an alternative history of the 700 years following the Black Death, the "alternative" being thrown in by the idea that all Europeans died, not just 1/3 of them. The same group of characters are reincarnated as characters with the same first letters of their names, until 2002 CE.

 

* The ''[[Blackadder]]'' series, including the final movie.

* ''[[Northern Exposure]]'' did this a few times, once casting all the series regulars as the turn-of-the-century founders of Cicely, and once all showing up in a dream sequence Joel had about returning to New York.

* An in-universe example in a ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' episode in which a prisoner on Death Row states that it's all his dream, and the people in his dream are all from his waking life - and they swap roles every night. (ie. The Judge becomes a guard, the priest becomes his lawyer, etc.)

 

* [[The Muppet Show|The Muppets]], who manage to play themselves whether on a vaudeville stage or in ''Treasure Island''.

** Yet, and this is the unique part, they ''still capture the roles they're playing''. [[The Muppet Christmas Carol]] is widely regarded as one of the best adaptations of the book ever made.

 

* ''[[The Goon Show]]'' has the same troupe of characters in a different setting every episode.

 

* As mentioned, this is the whole point of [[Commedia Dell'Arte]].

 

* The ''[[Beatmania]]'' series has background animations that show the same characters in different settings.

* Each Mecha's Story Mode in ''[[Tech Romancer]]'' basically features them as if they were the star of their own [[Mecha Show]], with the other fighters as secondary characters.

** The character casts of the two ''Zelda'' games ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina of Time]]'' and ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|Majora's Mask]]'' are basically the same, with the only changes being their names.

 

* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', as seen by the many many alternative settings (futuristic Japan, medieval times, 1800s US just to name a few) and premises.

* The [[Something Awful]] ''Peezle Ward'' series of Flash Tub cartoons are various movies that place the same four characters in various movie "adpatations" of a fake author's stories, ranging from Fire Fighters to Astronauts to Time Travelers.

 

* The "[[Stick Figure Comic|Stick Figures in Space]]" [[Filler Strips]] from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' take this approach, transplanting the main ''Sluggy'' cast into a space opera spoof.

* ''[[Mezzacotta|Lightning Made of Owls]]'' may well set the record for range of different settings used. In theory, at least; its small archive size might not give it room to be there in practice, yet.

* Aaron Williams' ''Q-4orce: The Mighty Moderately Average Superteam'' converts the cast of ''[[Nodwick]]'' from a ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' adventuring party to a ''[[City of Heroes]]'' superhero team.

 

* ''[[Alternate History: The Series]]'' likes to do this with [[Something Completely Different]] episodes such as "Story Hour" (which inserts the cast into ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'') and "Movie Night" (which inserts them into a 1950s B-movie). There are also full-fledged spin-offs starring the same cast, such as ''AH Dot Com Wars'' (''[[Star Wars]]'' parody) and ''Luaky Commer'' (''[[Harry Potter]]'' parody).

 

* Many characters originating in animated shorts have this ability:

** [[Tom and Jerry]].

** The ''[[Star Wars]]'' parodies use the cast for ''[[Family Guy Presents Laugh It Up Fuzzball]]''.

** The episode "Three Kings" uses this technique for adaptations of [[Stephen King]] stories.

** Not to mention all the different professional Barbies that have been produced over the decades. Doctor, nurse, dentist, vet, rock musician, scuba diver, geisha (Japan only), RCMP officer (Canada only), infantryman, fighter pilot...

* ''Walter Melon'', from the [[Animated Adaptation]] of ''[[Achille Talon]]''. That "hero for hire" does replacements for heroes (like [[Superman]], Casanova, [[Star Wars|Luke Skywalker]], [[Tarzan]], [[Rambo]]...) and (in later seasons) historical figures, despite the fact that he's overweight and don't look like a typical hero. His friend Bitterbug is the usual sidekick, and Walter's nemesis, [[Monster Clown|Sneero]], is playing the villains ([[Lex Luthor]], Darth Vader, [[The Joker]], Captain Hook, Doctor Octopus...)

* Each episode of ''Dino Babies'' has a character read [[Anachronism Stew|a story won't be written for billions of years]], [[Beyond the Impossible|even taking place in the future setting]], and the Dino Babies play the characters in the story.

 

* [[Vocaloid]] characters. De-facto, they are ''tabula rasa''<ref>Miku did have a manga series, though</ref> and it's up to the producers just ''what'' they are supposed to be—which is largely the point of having virtual songstresses. Even the official merchandise is in it: [[Cash Cow Franchise|the sheer variation of Miku figmas is staggering]], and these are based on the most popular imagining of Miku.