Archived Discussion Main / AdaptationDisplacement

• Ga-Rei -Zero- vs. Ga-Rei. The latter is a very generic shounen manga which resembles Bleach in many ways, while the former is... not. This has about the effect on their comparative popularity that you might expect.
• The vast majority of Lupin III fans have never read the original Arsene Lupin novels. A number of them probably haven't even heard of them.
  • Not quite an example of this trope. The Lupin III manga/anime were inspired by the original Arsene Lupin novels but they are not adaptations of them. In fact Arsene Lupin III shares little with his fictional grandfather beyond a name and an attitude.
• Kinnikuman may be the poster child of this trope. The original M.U.S.C.L.Etoys and NES game came to the U.S. sometime in the mid 80s while the manga and anime stayed in Japan. Then, after that, Ultimate Muscle came to the U.S. well over a decade later even though it was a SEQUEL to Kinnikuman (which has YET to be localized).
  • The book and musical Wicked are rapidly coming to the status of being the Adaptation Distillation for the Wizard of Oz (or perhaps just another displacement).
• Many people believe that the live action Transformers movie by Michael Bay with Shia LaBeouf was based off the animated series from the mid 1980s. In actuality it's based on a toy franchise that has been running continuously from the mid 1980s to the present day. The Generation 1 television series was just one adaptation of the current toyline. The displacement comes in the form of people who were fans of that series in their childhood who believe that the recent live-action movie is one of those 80s revivals, instead of the latest in an almost unbroken line of Transformers continuities.
  • While it does take a lot of inspiration from G1, many ideas and concepts from the later incarnation were incorporated into the film, most notably the Transformer Soul/Spark that originates from Beast Wars. The sequel Revenge of the Fallen features a major character that was introduced in 2003 in the comics.
  • To This Day most people don't realise the toys came first, and the Cartoons were made entirely for the purpose of promoting these toys. Even Pat Lee, an Artist/Producer partly responsible for a relaunch of the comics, is reported as having said "in retrospect, the Transformers cartoon was so amazing that it was only a matter of time before the toys were made". Mind you, Pat Lee is pretty much thought of as a joke by the fan community in general...
• Similarly fans of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis aren't familiar with the original Stargate. While not displacement fans of the original Stargate are unaware of the popularity of those shows.
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer is remembered more for the television series than for the movie on which the series was based. The comedic tone of the movie is said to be Whedon's reason for making the show (he disapproved of it). However, since the movie had very little influence on the show and isn't considered canon except in Broad Strokes. (Buffy was an LA high school cheerleader who found out she was the Slayer from a dude with a mustache who got killed).

• Not many people know that Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four was the second Human Torch. The first was an android, alias Jim Hammond.
  • Same goes for most Golden Age characters who received a Silver Age reboot. Not many outside comics fans are aware of Jay Garrick or Alan Scott.
    • Not many outside comics fans can name any Flash or Green Lantern's real name.
    • Doubtful: "Clark Kent... Wally West... Bruce Wayne."
    • Or that Alan Scott's Green Lantern powers worked just fine against yellow things... but not wood.

These are the same medium, even the same continuity. It's just that some people aren't aware of the early comics.

• When The Dark Knight came out, this troper had to edit a review of it which commented on how Heath Ledger compared to the 'original' Joker - Jack Nicholson. Does Cesar Romero mean nothing to the youth of today?
  • He doesn't. The only Joker worth considering is Mark Hamill.
    • Don't be bitchy, kitten— Cesar Romero actually did a fine job portraying the Joker as Villainous Harlequin, as compared to Ledger's Monster Clown portrayal. (Hamill and Nicholson portray Jokers that are somewhat in between, with Nicholson's having more Harlequin than Clown and vice versa for Hamill.)

Seriously is there anyone who isn't aware of the Batman comics?

Displaced by Popular Music

• Most people don't know that the jazz standard Mack the Knife is from 1928's The Three-Penny Opera. In which Mack the Knife is the main character.
• Most people remember the scat song Mah Na Mah Na from when it was performed by the Muppets, without knowing that it was from a soft-pornographic Italian film made in 1968.
• Joe Cocker's cover of "With A Little Help From My Friends" (the theme from The Wonder Years) is far more famous these days than the original by The Beatles.
• When people think of "All Along The Watchtower," the version most often remembered is the cover by Jimi Hendrix, rather than the original by Bob Dylan.
  • I thought the Cylons wrote it...
  • Probably isn't helped by the fact that Dylan thought the Hendrix cover was how the song should have been played, and altered his playing of it at concerts to more match Hendrix's take, after the latter passed away.
  • Not to mention The Byrds' Mr Tambourine Man and Manfred Mann's The Mighty Quinn...
  • Also "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," off of "The Ballad of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," almost universally known as a Guns N' Roses song.
• I swear, if I have to tell one more person that No, Ram Jam were not the originators of the song Black Betty...And on that note, neither was Lead Belly (though his version "set the standard" for it). It's a folk song. Writer unknown.
  • If you want to be pedantic some guy called Iron Head was the first to be recorded singing it.
• To this date, this troper has avoided punching any people who think Jeff Buckley wrote "Hallelujah". Though she has been tempted.
  • Even that is more excusable than the people who think Rufus Wainwright wrote it.
• How many people who have heard the song Casablanca have actually went and watched the movie it referenced?
  • Who even sings that? There's no way in hell it's better known than the movie Casablanca, and it won't have the same staying power.
• Most people are familiar with "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" as performed by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Few know that it was originally recorded in 1975 by a band called the Arrows.

We already have Covered Up.

• Tetris was developed for terminal computers in 1985, and was ported to the Game Boy into its most widely known incarnation in 1989.
  • It does help that Tetris was made in the Soviet Union.

Tetris is Tetris. It's the same game whatever platform it's on. Also, early releases advertised the fact that it came from Russia.

• Although the theme song to the '60s Spider Man cartoon is legendary, when most people think of animated Spider-Man they usually think of the '90s version.
• Because of the DCAU the most well-known Green Lantern for the casual audience is John Stewart. Only comic fans know Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, and only old or dedicated comic fans know Alan Scott. You could also throw the names Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner into the mix for good measure.

Again, COMICS!

• My mileage varies considerably as I find the literary Pinocchio as a quest for self-betterment (with a very slight masonic overtone) while the animated versione is run of the mill Disney treacle.

• It is believed that the Hamlet influence is indeed true, what with the sequel achieving a strange Romeo and Juliet theme going on...
• And a more comedic side story based on two secondary characters.

• The movie is "the good parts version" of the book. Of course, the book is "the good parts version" of the fictitious "original book". The difference is that the book has Goldman occasionally explaining how many pages of boring natter he isn't making you read.

• Well illustrated? Make that "some of the greatest illustrations to ever grace children's literature" and I'll be behind you 100 percent.

• The film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. The book it was based on is still in print, but there's a good chance you won't find it on the shelf at your nearby bookstore. And, in this troper's opinion, that's perfectly fine.

• This troper has heard complaints that Gandalf was too much of a "stereotypical wizard". Wonder where they thought the thereotype came from...
  • Why, Merlin and Väinämöinen, of course!
  • You mean Peter Jackson didn't steal the idea for Gandalf from Elminster?

• This troper says: "I knew that, but I'm from Asia, where IA was quite a hit."
  • This editor might have gone into all the wrong places, but he got the impression that everyone and their grandma were moaning about Scorsese "butchering" the original...

• Or that it was all inspired by a novel by Fredrich Nietszche of the same name.
• Movies? Novels? I thought this was just Ric Flair's entrance theme!

• Is it? Oh, good grief.
• To clarify the above: The Eddie Murphy is an adaptation In Name Only, the earlier one is at least somewhat faithful (though with some Adaptation Decay)
  • This troper can't speak for "more known", but he grew up with The Absent-Minded Professor and Doctor Dolittle showing on the Disney Channel throughout the 80s, and hopes they aren't entirely overshadowed by their pale imitations.

• Which this troper would argue is not a bad thing. Talk about unreadable...
• This troper sees them as movies in book form, a la Michael Crichton's later work.
• The books are by Robert Ludlum, by the way...

• One critic has put forth an argument that the de Bont film is actually a decayed adaptation of Richard Matheson's The Legend of Hell House (which has also been made into a movie, back in 1973).

• The movie version manages to improve on things - there's only so much you can do with the final escape into the mountains on stage, for instance. And the movie introduces some very good new songs, like Julie Andrews' first (the one beginning "What will my day be like, I wonder? What will my future be..." - God if I know whatever random it of the lyrics they decided to name it from). Obviosuly, it's a bit hard to compare theatre productions to a movie - we've all seen the same movie, but probably different productions - but I thionk everyone would agree that, at the least, the movie is an incredibly good staging of the musical, and at best, an odd sort of Adaptation Distillation (since the "adaptation" isn't quite as major as you'd think - mainly much bigger budget and really great performers.)

• Though Alice does attempt to recite what this troper assumes to be 'Against Idleness and Mischief' in the movie, but can't really remember it properly and is ultimately cut off by the caterpillar for saying it 'wrong' and being told the 'correct' version.

• Some of them might have assumed Beakman was an Alternate Company Equivalent to Bill Nye The Science Guy, since they aired around the same time and had similar themes of SCIENCE IS WACKY AND FUN!!!
  • Speaking of Bill Nye, his later successes sometimes overshadow his first show, Almost Live.

• Awww. This troper liked the TV series - and is a fan of the novels. Hockey-stick wand FTW.