History ContinuitySnarl / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1992'' prequel TV series has a couple. In [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 the movie]] Sebastian barely knows Ariel and is assigned to watch over her after she misses the concert. In the TV series he's part of her TrueCompanions and they act as if they've known each other for years. Additionally Sebastian doesn't discover Ariel's grotto until the "Part of Your World" number - after he's only just been told to keep an eye on her. The TV series has him appearing in the grotto numerous times. Otherwise subverted with other details. Eric appears on the show a couple of times but Ariel never sees him, preserving the continuity of their first meeting in the movie. Likewise Ursula appears but is not defeated and does not interact too much with Ariel. ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIIArielsBeginning'' showed Flounder and Ariel meeting for the first time and portrayed Flounder as extroverted and daring. The TV series showed them meeting as children and Flounder is portrayed as timid (but brave when necessary) and cautious in every other media.

** In-between the releases of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3'' and ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda4'', there were two series released; ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaThePawsOfDestiny'' & ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaTheDragonKnight'' and those shows has Po go from the Dragon Warrior to the Dragon Master and ends both shows with his title as the Dragon Master intact, but ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda4'' ignores this and depicts Po as still being the Dragon Warrior and the film deals with Po having to give up his title as he ranks up as a Spiritual Advisor to the Valley of Peace

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' where it shows all of the different versions of Crimson Chins there are from the different decades of comic books. They all have different appearances, attitudes and one was even banned (the "super edgy [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks 1985]]" one who [[SirSwearsALot swore excessively]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** The show mostly runs on NegativeContinuity, so it seldom has any true examples of this trope, but things get muddy when the status of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' as the show's canonical ending, given that it was written to be one and that any (read: all) the series' episodes where there's still only one Krusty Krab and [=SpongeBob=] is still a fry-cook instead of the manager must take place before it. As the series has gone on for many seasons afterward and maintaining what little continuity the show has has become harder, there has been the occasional appearance of something that comes into conflict with the movie's status as the GrandFinale, such as the appearance of various objects from said movie (such as the Goofy Goober guitar and the bag of winds) appearing in the Krusty Krab's lost-and-found in Season 10's "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS10E9TheGetawayLostAndFound Lost and Found]]", [=SpongeBob's=] seaweed mustache appearing in frame in the "Thank Gosh It's Monday" number to promote ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'', and Mindy attending [=SpongeBob's=] surprise birthday party in Season 12's MilestoneCelebration "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS12E13SpongeBobsBigBirthdayBlowout SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout]]" when Mindy likely didn't even know who [=SpongeBob=] was until the events of the first movie.

** Even continuity with the three series is not perfect, as ''The Paws of Destiny'' features a reference to Ke-Pa the main antagonist of "Enter the Dragon" from ''Legends of Awesomeness'' which is the episode where Po masters Chi, even though ''The Paws of Destiny'' serves as a sequel to the third film which ignored said episode and all three shows depict the Emperor of China (or Empress in the cast of ''The Paws of Destiny'') as being a different character and even species.

** In-between the releases of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3'' and ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda4'', there were two series ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaThePawsOfDestiny'' and ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaTheDragonKnight'' released and those shows has Po go from the Dragon Warrior to the Dragon Master and ends both shows with his title as the Dragon Master intact, but ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda4'' ignores this and depicts Po as still being the Dragon Warrior and the film deals with Po having to give up his title as he ranks up as a Spiritual Advisor to the Valley of Peace

** In the late 1980s, there were three television specials, ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMeetsTheBooBrothers'', ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGhoulSchool'', and ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheReluctantWerewolf." These seem to loosely follow ''13 Ghosts'' if you squint (Scrappy is part of the cast, Shaggy wears a red shirt, and Fred, Velma and Daphne are nowhere to be seen), but they don't actually jive with ''each other,'' for various reasons. In particular, Count Dracula is in both of the latter two specials, but his characterization and appearance are radically different between them, and he does not recognize Scooby and Shaggy in ''Reluctant Werewolf.''

** The animated series from 1969's ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' to 1985's ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo'' all take place in the same continuity, in chronological order. While the earlier shows relied on the ScoobyDooHoax trope exclusively, in the 80s, the characters started encountering genuinely supernatural spirits and monsters. Scrappy was added to the cast in 1978 and remained a core part of the cast through ''13 Ghosts.'' Shaggy also started wearing a red shirt instead of his classic green during this time.
** 1988's ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'' is a prequel featuring the gang as kids in what appears to be the late 1950s. These shows collectively feature a heavy dose of ComicBookTime, given that the gang never grow out of their teenage years even by the mid-80s when they should realistically have reached their thirties, and Scooby ''dramatically'' exceeds the life expectancy of a Great Dane in that time as well.
** In the late 1980s, there were three television specials, ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMeetsTheBooBrothers'', ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGhoulSchool'', and 'WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheReluctantWerewolf." These seem to loosely follow ''13 Ghosts'' if you squint (Scrappy Doo is part of the cast, Shaggy wears a red shirt), but they don't actually jive with ''each other,'' for various reasons. In particular, Count Dracula is in both of the latter two specials, but his characterization and appearance are radically different between them, and he does not recognize Scooby and Shaggy in ''Reluctant Werewolf.''

** The very next film, ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooReturnToZombieIsland'', attempts to make the original ''Zombie Island'' fit with the modified timeline with ''lots'' of retcons, such as the gang still being teens when they first go to the island, and Velma still believing the spooky stuff was fake even after leaving, creating an even bigger mess. Even with heavy retcons to both, ''Zombie Island'' and ''13 Ghosts'' remain basically impossible to reconcile with each other, despite both now officially being part of the same timeline. Actually, it's difficult to even reconcile the two ''Zombie Island'' movies, given how many details changed between them.

** The animated series from 1969's ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' to 1985's ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo'' all take place in the same continuity, in chronological order. While the earlier shows relied on the ScoobyDooHoax trope exclusively, in the 80s, the characters started encountering genuinely supernatural spirits and monsters. 1988's ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'' is a prequel featuring the gang as kids in what appears to be the late 1950s. These shows collectively feature a heavy dose of ComicBookTime, given that the gang never grow out of their teenage years even by the mid-80s when they should realistically have reached their thirties, and Scooby ''dramatically'' exceeds the life expectancy of a Great Dane in that time as well.
* In the late 1980s, there were three television specials, ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMeetsTheBooBrothers'', ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGhoulSchool'', and 'WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheReluctantWerewolf." These seem to loosely follow ''13 Ghosts'' if you squint, but they don't actually jive with ''each other,'' for various reasons. In particular, Count Dracula is in both of the latter two specials, but his characterization and appearance are radically different between them, and he does not recognize Scooby and Shaggy in ''Reluctant Werewolf.''
** The 1998 direct-to-video film ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland'' takes a BroadStrokes approach to the earlier shows and ignores the 80s shows and specials completely. It features the gang as young adults after a TimeSkip, pursuing different jobs across the country after retiring from monster-hunting. They reunite to investigate a case that ends up being genuinely supernatural, and it's made clear repeatedly that they have never encountered real monsters before this.

** ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheCurseOfThe13thGhost'' brings the events of the original ''13 Ghosts'' cartoon [[CanonWelding back into the main canon]], and establishes that the 13 Ghosts were the first real monsters the gang ever encountered, seemingly booting ''Zombie Island'' out of continuity or at least heavily retconning it. The very next film, ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooReturnToZombieIsland'', attempts to make ''Zombie Island'' fit with the new timeline with ''lots'' of retcons, such as the gang still being teens when they go to the island, creating an even bigger mess and making it unclear when exactly the gang first learned that real monsters exist, because there's really no way to reconcile everything, even with the retcons.

** The animated series from 1969's ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' to 1985's ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo'' seem to all take place in the same continuity, in chronological order. While the earlier shows relied on the ScoobyDooHoax trope exclusively, in the 80s, the characters started encountering genuinely supernatural spirits and monsters. 1988's ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'' is a prequel featuring the gang as kids in what appears to be the late 1950s. These shows collectively feature a heavy dose of ComicBookTime, given that the gang never grow out of their teenage years even by the mid-80s when they should realistically have reached their thirties, and Scooby ''dramatically'' exceeds the life expectancy of a Great Dane in that time as well.
** The 1998 direct-to-video film ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland'' takes a BroadStrokes approach to the earlier shows and ignores the 80s shows completely. It features the gang as young adults after a TimeSkip, pursuing different jobs across the country after retiring from monster-hunting. They reunite to investigate a case that ends up being genuinely supernatural, and it's made clear repeatedly that they have never encountered real monsters before this.
** The following direct-to-video films would initially respect ''Zombie Island'''s version of events, with the gang still as adults, but that would later change. The fifth film, ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheLegendOfTheVampire'' reverted the gang to their original outfits, doing away with the more modern fashion introduced in ''Zombie Island.'' This would begin a trend of generally treating the gang as teenagers again and carrying on from the old cartoons, effectively pretending that the time skip and the events of the first four video films never happened.
** ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheCurseOfThe13thGhost'' brings the events of the original ''13 Ghosts'' cartoon back into the main canon, and establishes that the 13 Ghosts were the first real monsters the gang ever encountered, seemingly booting ''Zombie Island'' out of continuity for good. Then the very next film, ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooReturnToZombieIsland'', brings ''Zombie Island'' back into the fold (with ''extensive'' retcons such as the gang still being teens at the time), creating an even bigger mess and making it unclear when exactly the gang first learned that real monsters exist, because there's really no way to reconcile everything, even with the retcons.
** There's also a television special from 1988, ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheReluctantWerewolf,'' in which Shaggy is a racecar driver with a girlfriend named Googie, and they meet Dracula. Don't even try to figure out where this one fits in with ''anything'' else.

* The Franchise/ScoobyDoo franchise has developed some issues over the years; even ignoring works that are explicitly set in their own continuities like ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyGoesHollywood'' and ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'', the exact timeline of the franchise's "main" continuity is a mystery in itself.
** The animated series from 1969's ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' to 1985's ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo'' seem to all take place in the same continuity, in chronological order. ''13 Ghosts'' explicitly features real supernatural beings, while the earlier shows relied on the ScoobyDooHoax trope exclusively. 1988's ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'' is a prequel featuring the gang as kids in what appears to be the late 1950s. These shows collectively feature a heavy dose of ComicBookTime, given that the gang never grow out of their teenage years even by the mid-80s when they should realistically have reached their thirties, and Scooby ''dramatically'' exceeds the life expectancy of a Great Dane in that time as well.
** The 1998 direct-to-video film ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland'' takes a BroadStrokes approach to the earlier shows and ignores ''13 Ghosts'' outright. It features the gang as young adults after a TimeSkip, pursuing different jobs across the country after retiring from monster-hunting. They reunite to investigate a case that ends up being genuinely supernatural, and it's made clear that this is the first time that's happened in this new continuity.
** The following direct-to-video films would initially respect ''Zombie Island'''s version of events, with the gang still as adults, but that would later change. The fifth film, ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheLegendOfTheVampire'' reverted the gang to their original outfits, doing away with the more modern fashion introduced in ''Zombie Island.'' This would begin a trend of generally treating the gang as teenagers again and carrying on from the old cartoons, effectively pretending that the time skip and the events of the first four video films never happened. The Comic Book Time is even more pronounced now, as it seems that the gang have been teenagers for well over 40 years.
** ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheCurseOfThe13thGhost'' brings the events of the original ''13 Ghosts'' cartoon back into the canon, and ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooReturnToZombieIsland'' revisits the first ''Zombie Island'' film's setting but thoroughly retcons the events as happening while the gang were still teenagers (and they're ''still'' teenagers in the sequel's present day scenes, 21 years later). This makes it unclear whether their first encounter with the supernatural was in ''13 Ghosts'' or ''Zombie Island,'' and basically requires that the gang really never ages, as ''Zombie Island'''s events still explicitly happened in a pre-9/11 time period.

** The show mostly runs on NegativeContinuity, so it seldom has any true examples of this trope, but things get muddy when the status of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' as the show's canonical ending, given that it was written to be one and that any (read: all) the series' episodes where there's still onyl one Krusty Krab and [=SpongeBob=] is still a fry-cook instead of the manager must take place before it. As the series has gone on for many seasons afterward and maintaining what little continuity the show has has become harder, there has been the occasional appearance of something that comes into conflict with the movie's status as the GrandFinale, such as the appearance of various objects from said movie (such as the Goofy Goober guitar and the bag of winds) appearing in the Krusty Krab's lost-and-found in Season 10's "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS10E9TheGetawayLostAndFound Lost and Found]]", [=SpongeBob's=] seaweed mustache appearing in frame in the "Thank Gosh It's Monday" number to promote ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'', and Mindy attending [=SpongeBob's=] surprise birthday party in Season 12's MilestoneCelebration "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS12E13SpongeBobsBigBirthdayBlowout SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout]]" when Mindy likely didn't even know who [=SpongeBob=] was until the events of the first movie.

** The show mostly runs on NegativeContinuity, so it seldom has any true examples of this trope, but things get muddy when the status of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' as the show's canonical ending, given that it was written to be one and that any (read: all) the series' episodes where there's still onyl one Krusty Krab and SpongeBob is still a fry-cook instead of the manager must take place before it. As the series has gone on for many seasons afterward and maintaining what little continuity the show has has become harder, there has been the occasional appearance of something that comes into conflict with the movie's status as the GrandFinale, such as the appearance of various objects from said movie (such as the Goofy Goober guitar and the bag of winds) appearing in the Krusty Krab's lost-and-found in Season 10's "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS10E9TheGetawayLostAndFound Lost and Found]]", [=SpongeBob's=] seaweed mustache appearing in frame in the "Thank Gosh It's Monday" number to promote ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'', and Mindy attending [=SpongeBob's=] surprise birthday party in Season 12's MilestoneCelebration "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS12E13SpongeBobsBigBirthdayBlowout SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout]]" when Mindy likely didn't even know who [=SpongeBob=] was until the events of the first movie.

** The show mostly runs on NegativeContinuity, so it seldom has any true examples of this trope, but things get muddy when the status of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' as the show's canonical ending according to WordOfGod is brought into the picture. As the series has gone on for many seasons afterward and maintaining what little continuity the show has has become harder, there has been the occasional appearance of something that comes into conflict with the movie's status as the GrandFinale, such as the appearance of various objects from said movie (such as the Goofy Goober guitar and the bag of winds) appearing in the Krusty Krab's lost-and-found in Season 10's "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS10E9TheGetawayLostAndFound Lost and Found]]", [=SpongeBob's=] seaweed mustache appearing in frame in the "Thank Gosh It's Monday" number to promote ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'', and Mindy attending [=SpongeBob's=] surprise birthday party in Season 12's MilestoneCelebration "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS12E13SpongeBobsBigBirthdayBlowout SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout]]" when Mindy likely didn't even know who [=SpongeBob=] was until the events of the first movie.

* If you're watching ''Franchise/StarWars'' in chronological order, the first six and a half seasons of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' are largely understandable to a viewer who has only seen Episodes I and II. The latter half of the seventh and final season, however, is almost totally incomprehensible to a viewer who hasn't seen Episode III.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'', a straight-up sequel that ignored Kopa's existence and replaced him with a female cub named Kiara - whose presentation ceremony, as shown in the beginning of the film, looks completely different from the ceremony seen at the end of the original film. Furthermore it introduced a pride of lions, led by a lioness named Zira, who were supportive of Scar, [[RememberTheNewGuy despite their existence not even mentioned in the original movie]], where Scar seems to have a ZeroPercentApprovalRating.

** ''WesternAnimation/TimonAndPumbaa'' told a different version of how Timon and Pumbaa met, and is a lot DenserAndWackier than anything else in the franchise, including [[AnthropomorphicShift the characters getting more anthropomorphized]] and interacting with humans and man-made objects. It's the best to treat this as AlternateContinuity completely.

** The animated series from 1969's ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' to 1985's ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo'' seem to all take place in the same continuity, in chronological order. ''13 Ghosts'' explicitly features real supernatural beings, while the earlier shows relied on the ScoobyDooHoax trope exclusively. 1988's ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'' is a prequel featuring the gang as kids in what appears to be the late 1950s. These shows collectively feature a heavy dose of ComicBookTime, given that the gang never grow out of their teenage years even by the mid-80s, and Scooby ''dramatically'' exceeds the life expectancy of a Great Dane in that time as well.

** Played straight in the series with its own continuity. The inclusion of Poof as a main cast member has brought up some confusion regarding his absence in the finale of the movie ''WesternAnimation/ChannelChasers''. Also, the addition of Sparky in Season Nine brings more continuity issues, such as Sparky not being there at the end of ''WesternAnimation/ChannelChasers'' (the same contradiction happened with Poof) and his not being in the live-action movies -- ''[[Film/AFairlyOddMovieGrowUpTimmyTurner A Fairly Odd Movie]]'' and ''Film/AFairlyOddChristmas'' -- both taking place thirteen years after the events of the main series. In ''Film/{{A Fairly Odd Movie|GrowUpTimmyTurner}}'', there is even a scene in which Wanda states that Timmy doesn't have a dog.
** The biggest one occurs near the end of ''Film/AFairlyOddSummer'', in which [[spoiler:Timmy's HeroicSacrifice has caused him to [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence turn into a fairy]]]].