History Main / AdaptationDistillation

* Many events are left out of ''Literature/AreYouThereGodItsMeMargaret'' including the Thanksgiving sixth grade dance, the many classroom scenes of the students harrasing new teacher Mr. Benedict, and the Christmas concert. Other events are condensed, including overlaps; Sylvia only comes to visit her granddaughter once which coincides with the visit from Barbara's parents, and Norman's party has less shenanigans before they start playing games.

** The UsefulNotes/{{G|ameBoyAdvance}}BA game, ''VideoGame/AstroBoyOmegaFactor'', takes almost ''every'' Creator/OsamuTezuka character and weaves them into one giant, all-encompassing storyline. It manages to do justice to the man's entire career. And it plays well, to boot.

* The UsefulNotes/XBox port of ''VideoGame/Doom3'' had a few levels cut short or removed, particularly the filler segments such as the outdoor area in the second level.

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Darius}}'' is presented in a unique cabinet that features three screens arranged side-by-side for a 12:3 aspect ratio as opposed to the traditional 4:3. Since adapting this setup for home use would be AwesomeButImpractical, its ports ''Super Darius'' and ''Darius Plus'' on Usefulnotes/TurboGrafx16 and ''Darius Extra Version'' on UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis rearrange enemy placements, movements, and attacks to accomodate a 4:3 screen instead.

* The first season of the ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'' anime essentially cuts out everything that's not relevant to Keiichi and Belldandy's romance, with the exception of the Lord of Terror arc, and in so doing, manages to develop the romance farther than the manga has ever gone in 24 episodes (with Urd and Skuld each getting a side story to round out the season). When it was picked up for a second season, by contrast, they simply did a CompressedAdaptation of several manga storylines put together in no particular order.
* The anime of ''Manga/AirGear'' cuts quite a bit of content from the manga and adds some original scenes, changing the beginning of the series and streamlining the story a bit. However, they cut out a few side characters and get rid of quite a bit of some minor characters' characterization.
* The anime adaptation of the light novel series ''Literature/AriaTheScarletAmmo'' removes quite a bit of the GunPorn as well as the protagonist's FirstPersonSmartass tendencies and his general inner thoughts. While the gun info wasn't really necessary, the anime never gives a real reason why we should like the protagonist; it makes what was justifiable dislike for his situation seem like plain old angst. This is due to the character being the type convey his reasons in his thoughts rather than explaining his circumstances to other people, which the Anime never really displays properly.

* In the same vein as ''Manga/BlackButler'' was ''Manga/SteelAngelKurumi'', whose story went a completely different direction in the anime than the manga. Its direct continuation ''Encore'' and its sequels ''2'' and ''Zero'' stay with that same vein and the only thing brought over from the manga by that point where the main Angel trio's outfits used in ''2''.

* The anime of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' maintains the basic story, but leaves out enough detail that Ryukishi07 requested an extra arc to fill in some holes at the start of the second season. The manga written by him do a great job at capturing the mood.

* ''Manga/GTOTheEarlyYears'':
** In the {{OVA}} series, the first episode covers the Introduction and Christmas Ski Trip arcs, though it cuts out the actual ski trip and has Eikichi break up with Aina after the fight with Machida. Episode 2 covers the Valentine's Day Parade arc (though it cuts out Abe's introduction) and the Kamakura Mad Dogs arc. The third one skips the "Shonan Love Story" arc and the Fumiya arc, having the Okubo arc in its place but at the same time as Ryuji and Ayumi's romance.
** The 2020 live-action series mixes and matches plot arcs from the series. Nanno appears in episode 2, while in the manga he didn't appear until after [[spoiler:Ayumi left]]. Unlike in the manga, Ryuji and Nagisa move into the bus before defeating Akutsu and officially getting together. It ends with the conclusion of the Midnight Angel arc. It also seems to have conflated Aina and Miki into a CompositeCharacter, who tries to get Eikichi to marry her and raise her child. Miki and Yokokawa appear later in the live-action (at the beginning of the Midnight Angels arc), but there's no mention of her having kids. Both Nanno and Yokokawa also get a case of AdaptationalWimp, getting their asses kicked in the same episode they're introduced.

* The [[Anime/{{Ys}} OVA]] version of ''VideoGame/YsIIAncientYsVanishedTheFinalChapter'' tightens things up considerably and adds a few interesting elements like a twist on the in-game reliance on magic.

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' is an example of distillation, although it's just a set of "hardboiled" crime stories with only Frank Castle (and an Ennis take on Castle's backstory) to make it "Punisher," which works very well. (In "The Slavers" though it works ''too'' well, especially when you see the DownerEnding.)
* The entire ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' line of comics did this for a while, but gradually started doing its own thing.

* Creator/AlanMoore's run on ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}'' does the same thing (albeit with a Superman ''analogue'').

* In ''ComicBook/WhiteSand'', Kenton is apparently the only child, whereas the original novel mentions Praxton having several sons.

* The IDW ''[[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' comic, like the 2012 series, includes characters, elements and plot points from various parts of the [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles TMNT franchise]], even extending to ''Series/NinjaTurtlesTheNextMutation''.

* ''Fanfic/WorldWarEtheria'': Isn't an episode by episode {{Novelization}} of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' nor do the books break cleanly into the show's seasons but major story beats are intact even if the reasons for major characters actions are very different.
** Catra's SuicideMission to the Crimson Wastes isn't due to her lying to Hordak but because she severely endangered the life of his wife, Entrapta.
** Adora isn't captured in the Crimson Wastes against her will but because she wants to talk to Hordak and convince him not to activate the portal.

* Although the base game is the same, several plot elements of ''VideoGame/EquestriaBound'' are slightly altered from [[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 the original game]], in order to keep this new game fresh. An early example is the police segment after the first dungeon being removed, and instead you head to the library to let Twilight tell you where the rest of the Elements are and let Applejack remove the rock blocking the way towards Southern Ponyville. First-time players familiar with ''[=EarthBound=]'' were expecting the original scene and were slightly surprised that nothing happened after leaving the dungeon. One of these changes requires you to head from the desert (fourth area) back to Northern Ponyville (first area), adding forced {{backtracking}} (this is before you get teleport magic).

* ''Fanfic/CodeGeassPaladinsOfVoltron'': Given that there are seven paladins instead of five in this story, this was bound to happen.
** For one thing, it's the [[spoiler: Black Paladin]] who decides to leave the team in ''Fall of the Castle of Lions'', instead of [[spoiler: the Green Paladin]].
** Additionally, while one of the Paladins does have their 'head hole' image constantly fizzle (it's Kallen, and for roughly the same reason as Pidge in ''Legendary Defender'', ironically enough), this ''isn't'' what causes them to fail in uniting their minds. [[spoiler: Instead, it's Lelouch thinking about the assassination of his mother]].
* Normally, in ''Franchise/YuGiOh'', and by consequence, most of the related fanfics, duels are given a full card-by-card presentation, with at least one CombatCommentator present. ''Fanfic/TheDimensionalDrifter'' completely glosses over the duels. Those that are identical to canon are merely stated to happen, and the rest of them happen off-screen, are given vague descriptions such as "X managed to summon Y monster in three turns", or have the most pivotal moment of the duel described and nothing else.
* In ''Fanfic/DefendersOfTheUniverse'', many of the story-lines are either combined or shortened. For example, the quests for the Green and Yellow Lion are combined with the Olkari and Balmera stories respectively, as the lions are located on those planets instead.
* ''Fanfic/NaturalSelection'' skips over the MonsterOfTheWeek battles of the early episodes of ''Anime/KillLaKill'' and cuts straight to the Naturals Election and the greater plot against REVOCS.
* The ''Fanfic/ThereWasOnceAnAvengerFromKrypton'' story, ''Changing of the Guard'', does this for ''Franchise/Ben10''. The premise is based off ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' with Ben stepping up to the plate in Max's absence alongside Gwen and Kevin, but pulls elements from ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'', with Ben first getting the Omnitrix, Vilgax as the overarching threat, and a number of the Original Series aliens.
* Chapter 49 of ''Fanfic/BlazBlueAlternativeRemnant'' distils the events of the Volume 2 ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' episodes "Extracurricular" and "Burning the Candle" when it comes to trying to reason with Blake, having her team confront her on the issue like in the former before immediately shifting to Makoto reasoning with her alone like in the latter.
* ''Fanfic/VowOfTheKing'': Ichigo's Hollow mask starts out with its design from later chapters of the manga, skipping the phase of increasing stripes across its left side, instead having one stripe across each eye from its debut. His Hollowfied form follows suit as he transforms into his horned "[[FanNickname Vasto Lorde]]" form during his training with the Vizard.
* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/33396040 The Watch But It's Good Now]]'' does this to the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' City Watch novels (largely ignoring ''Series/{{The Watch|2021}}'' itself): Episode 1 is based mostly on elements of ''Literature/GuardsGuards''; Episode 2 has an A-plot based on the early scenes of ''Literature/MenAtArms'' and a B-plot with elements of ''Literature/FeetOfClay''; Episodes 3 and 4 has elements of B-stories from multiple books, and 5-8 is based on the main storyline of ''Men at Arms''.

* Creator/RalphBakshi's ''WesternAnimation/TheLordOfTheRings'' until the second half of ''Literature/TheTwoTowers'' is this incarnate. With the only changes from the book being the omission of [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Tom Bombadil]], Glorfindel being replaced by Legolas (who was then replaced by Arwen in the Live-Action films), and the history of the ring with Sauron learning from the elves rather than the other way around. ''WesternAnimation/TheReturnOfTheKing'' was also adapted to animation, by a completely different studio to Bashki's. The story is very disjointed as a result.
* The animated adaptation of ''ComicBook/{{Persepolis}}'' extends a few chapters, compresses and outright removes a few, and focuses a little more on the relationship of Marjane and her grandmother near the end.

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainUnderpantsTheFirstEpicMovie'' focuses mainly on capturing the tone and humor of the books in general rather than adapting one in particular. In practice, the movie combines the first four books, with the plot mainly a mix of "The Adventures Of" and "Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants" with a good splash of "Attack of the Talking Toilets" and a few scattered elements lifted from "Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds)".
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoBatmanMovie'': Robin/Dick Grayson's origin is largely simplified to "an orphan adopted by Bruce Wayne", leaving out the Flying Graysons and the circus for the sake of focusing on the main plot.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfMarkTwain'' consists of short distilled adaptations of several of Mark Twain’s stories, tied together with a FramingDevice of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher helping Mark Twain reach Hailey’s Comet.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingMaurice'', a lot of stuff in [[Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents the book]] gets dramatically whittled down to basics. Most of the key points are still there, but most of the times the book says "But, of course, it was more complicated than that, because ThisIsReality", the film says "Well, maybe it was, but we'll skip that because it would slow things down".

* [[Film/HarryPotter The film versions]] of ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' and ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' are quite faithful to the source, with some scenes merged together or removed. The finale of the first film, for example, removes Hermione's challenge of solving a logic puzzle, probably since solving a puzzle isn't exciting to watch. Hermione's moment to shine became the Devil's Snare, with Ron and Hermione's reactions being swapped (in the book, Hermione panicked and Ron had to tell her to get a grip, while it is the opposite in the film). The later films fall under PragmaticAdaptation and CompressedAdaptation.
* ''Film/{{Great Expectations|1946}}'': Eliminates much of the NarrativeFiligree found in the Creator/CharlesDickens novel. The character of Orlick is eliminated completely, which requires that Pip's sister die of natural causes. The character of Mr. Wopsle is DemotedToExtra, which means that the movie does not include Pip and Herbert going to Mr. Wopsle's terrible production of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. Other characters eliminated from the narrative include Wemmick's girlfriend and Herbert's girlfriend.
* ''Film/JudgmentInBerlin'' is a highly compressed [[TheFilmOfTheBook adaption of the non-fiction novel of the same name]], leaving out a good deal of the backgrounds of most side characters that are discussed at ''length'' in the book to keep it focused on the courtroom drama.
* ''Film/TheLastOfTheMohicans'' is an extremely distilled version of a very long and rather complicated novel. Omitted portions include redundant portions where the women are captured and quickly freed, a deranged white man at the Huron camp, a shooting contest, and Natty Bumpo disguised as a bear.
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' is often considered easier to follow in movie format as opposed to the written version, since many of the plot's more complex nuances were omitted from the films, leaving only the core of the story. On the other hand, there have been loud grumblings from fans of the books about some of the things that ''were'' left out as well as some changes that didn't make any sense.

* ''Film/TheToweringInferno'' was based on ''two'' books, ''The Glass Inferno'' by Scortia and Robinson and ''The Tower'' by Stern, because studio executives correctly realized that the market would not have supported [[DuelingMovies two simultaneous films about buildings going up in flames]]. There is enough material left out to make at least another whole story.
* The 1980 ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'' film cut out the extraneous parts of the original comic book and adventure serial, making for a better adventure movie. It also cut out racism against black people, but only downplays it with Asians; Ming the Merciless still somewhat looks the part but is portrayed by the Swedish Creator/MaxVonSydow, who makes no effort to act like a stereotypical YellowPeril villain.
* The film adaptation of the graphic novel ''Film/RoadToPerdition'' merges all the anonymous hitmen sent after the protagonists into a single character.
* The [[Film/{{Jaws}} film adaptation]] of Creator/PeterBenchley's novel ''Literature/{{Jaws}}'' stripped away most of the book's land-bound subplots and condensed the climactic shark-hunt to a single voyage.
* ''Film/LayerCake'' definitely comes across as a distillation of the novel, being much more tightly plotted, and notably, when the author of the novel, J.J. Connoley, attempted writing a screen play, it was several hundred pages long, and thus he wisely left this task to Mathew Vaughn.
* The film version of ''Film/TheGodfather'' eliminates about two thirds of Mario Puzo's novel to concentrate solely on the core story of Michael Corleone, dropping most of the Johnny Fontane plot and ''all'' of the Lucy Mancini storyline (Lucy Mancini, Sonny's mistress has a tiny non-speaking part in the movie). The result is a much more fast-paced and interesting work. The sections regarding Vito Corleone's rise to power were relegated (and [[AdaptationExpansion fleshed out]] in ''The Godfather II)''.
* The original ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' stories were somewhat unsuited to adaptation to film, and the original script for ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' featured lots of huge fight scenes that would have been expensive to shoot. John Milius took both as inspirations for writing the movie, preserving some of the feel of Creator/RobertEHoward's world without the unfortunate tropes.
* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'' also stripped away all of the description of dreams, historical lessons and other scenes not directly related to the main plot.
* ''Film/LeftBehind2000'', the first film in the Cloud Ten Pictures adaptation series, makes the opening attack less of a non-event (by condensing the amount of time between it and the Rapture), plays up the mystery in the first half, puts Buck in a position where he has a lot more influence over the nation, and streamlines the book's rather ping-pong opening sequence. That said, it's still not well-liked.

* The film version of ''Literature/TheCiderHouseRules'' is a considerable distillation of the original novel by John Irving--who also wrote the screenplay of TheFilmOfTheBook.
* In ''Film/MildredPierce'', the early part of the film follows the book fairly closely, but once Mildred opens her restaurant, things go in completely different directions. Among other things, the novel contains no murder. Instead it follows Veda as she builds up a singing career, largely by sleeping her way to the top.
* ''Film/SilentHill'' is this applied to the plotline of [[VideoGame/SilentHill1 the first game]]. The intricate not-quite-occult-not-quite-pagan mythos was replaced with a heavily simplified pseudo-Christian substitute, the protagonist is functionally a mix of the heroes from the first three games (Radha Mitchell looks like an older Heather from 3), the "all that matters is the person I love" mentality of Harry and James, and the diabolical force running the whole show were tremendously simplified, but no less evil for it.
* The 2009 ''Film/{{Star Trek|2009}}'' movie took decades of {{backstory}} culled from the show's various series and distilled it to fit with the origin story of the {{alternate|Continuity}} ''Enterprise'' crew.
* ''Film/TheSecretOfMoonacre'', the movie based on ''Literature/TheLittleWhiteHorse'', also mixes the two concepts. Gabor Csupo took the book's characters, and went off and did his own thing. To be fair, however, the original book really doesn't lend itself that well to a cinematic adaptation.
* ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' had the plot revolve around a secret organization of high-profile assassins. Main character Wesley Gibson/The Killer was in fact an assassin in [[ComicBook/{{Wanted}} the comic]], but the Fraternity was a shadowy cabal of comicbook-style supervillains, who are presently in control of the entire planet after having killed all the superheroes and then [[RewritingReality altered the very fabric of reality in 1986]]. Its membership is in possession of superscience, alien technologies, and magical powers, and partakes in atrocities on a regular basis. The comic's writer Creator/MarkMillar was actually pretty happy with the transition result.
* The novel of ''Film/GetShorty'' features a handful of scenes written from the perspective of characters who work in the movie industry who view the scenes as though they are scenes in a script. The film takes those scenes and shoots them to pitch-perfection. The rest of the movie was mildly altered, but John Travolta stood in the way of any substantial ExecutiveMeddling.
* ''Film/JurassicPark1993''. Many side plots from [[Literature/JurassicPark the book]] were written out and several characters were combined and their fates change. However, some scenes in the book that were left out of earlier movies in the series appeared in later movies.
* The film adaptation of ''Film/TinkerTailorSoldierSpy'' merges two minor characters, Jerry Westerby and Sam Collins, into one. It works well enough for the film, but could be problematic should the studio decide to adapt the rest of the ''Quest for Karla'' trilogy, since both Westerby and Collins become major characters (the protagonist and one of the main antagonists, respectively) in the second installment, ''The Honorable Schoolboy''.

* The ''Film/VForVendetta'' adaptation is understandably forced to make a great deal of simplification (in addition to changing a few themes), including combining Creedy and Finch into one character and turning the tortured leader Adam Susan [[AdaptationalVillainy into the faceless foe Adam Sutler]].
* Surprisingly, Creator/ChuckPalahniuk himself, after viewing the adaptation of his already-cult novel ''Literature/FightClub'' by David Fincher, said [[Film/FightClub the movie]] worked more efficiently than the book, was more tightly structured and handled the finale better. Then again, this is Creator/DavidFincher we're talking about. An example of true distillation: considering the complex task of even beginning to dramatize the disjointed Palanick's writing, Fincher used an astonishing array of temporal, visual, point-of-view and narration devices to cram a good deal of the original material into the film. One of the DVD commentaries features Pahlaniuk and the screenwriter discussing the adaptation. It's a two hour lesson in how to do this well.

* ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' combined the two Ozymandias plots of getting Dr. Manhattan off Earth by framing him for causing cancer in people and thus removing him from the picture in time for the second plot, the fake alien attack on Earth. Instead he was framed for causing the cancers, resulting in public anger that drove him away, and then framed for striking back in response.
* Creator/TopherGrace's ''Franchise/StarWars Episode III.5: The Editor Strikes Back'' takes [[Film/ThePhantomMenace the]] [[Film/AttackOfTheClones prequel]] [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith trilogy]] and distills them down into a single movie that more efficiently tells Anakin Skywalker's ProtagonistJourneyToVillain.
* ''Film/RurouniKenshin'' and its sequels mix together a lot of different bits from various story arcs from the manga. The movies also tone down most of the characters' abilities so they are not quite so fantastical.
* ''Film/TheFugitive'' takes the essence of the four-season, 120-episode ''Series/TheFugitive'' (Kimble trying to clear his name by seeking out the one-armed man who killed his wife and doing good deeds along the way, Gerard doggedly pursuing Kimble but gradually becoming convinced of his innocence and good character) and makes a taut, fast-paced 130-minute thriller out of it.
* ''Film/TheTreasureOfTheSierraMadre'' leaves out considerable amounts of backstory, as well as the chapter-long morality tales recounted by various characters.
* ''Film/TheSecretGarden1993'' takes every event from the first half or so of [[Literature/TheSecretGarden the book]] (taking place over months) and jams them all together to take place in a matter of days or weeks, removing some character depth and growth in the process. Of course, this being a film, the time line is a bit fuzzy.
* Q's search for Margo in the pseudodivisions and the suicide subplot were ultimately cut from [[Film/PaperTowns the film adaptation]] of ''Literature/PaperTowns''.

* The film adaptations of the ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'' series actually cut out a chunk of information from the novels to focus more on others.
** Tris' friendship with other Dauntless members not named Christina, Will, and Al are sacrificed so the films could focus more on her budding romance with Four. It is also why when Uriah meets Tris in the Candor headquarters in ''The Divergent Series: Insurgent'', he has to introduce himself first (in the novels he is one of her best friends since the first book).
** The [[spoiler:insurgency against Erudite]] at the end of ''Insurgent'' had the entire Dauntless faction (plus a few from other factions) actually collaborate in the plot, whilst in ''The Divergent Series: Insurgent'' this is simplified so that only Tris, Four, Caleb, Peter, and Jeanine figure much.
* The first act of ''Film/EvilDead2'' is a retelling of the first movie, but cuts out a lot of the tedium and filler, as well as removes Ash's and Linda's two friends from continuity.
* ''Film/WarCraft2016'', while mostly following the plot of [[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} the first game]], heavily simplifies all of the ExpandedUniverse materiel that had become core to the franchise.
** The orcs were given heroic qualities that only started appearing in the second game. Orgrim Doomhammer was also changed from chieftain of the Blackrock Clan to advisor to the Frostwolf Clan, giving him a closer relationship to the orc protagonist Durotan.
** All mentions of the Burning Legion were removed, cutting ''a lot'' of potential exposition. The thing that corrupted the orcs was changed from them drinking demon blood to nebulous [[BlackMagic fel magic]]. Likewise, the reason Medivh was secretly a villain was changed from DemonicPossession by [[SatanicArchetype Sargeras]] to him becoming addicted to fel.
** Some of the retcons and future plot developments were incorporated into the movie. They world is named Azeroth and the human kingdom Stormwind, which comes from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' - in the original game, the human kingdom was Azeroth and Stormwind was the capital. Dalaran is the iconic FloatingContinent in the movie, but wasn't that way until ''Wrath of the Lich King'' nearly fifteen years later in-universe, following it being destroyed in ''Warcraft III'' and rebuilt.
** Gul'dan's power dynamic was heavily simplified. In the original game, Gul'dan and his Shadow Council secretly controlled the Horde through [[PuppetKing Blackhand]]. In the movie, Gul'dan is openly the sole leader of the Horde, and Blackhand is instead TheDragon. Gul'dan losing power was also changed from him going into a magical coma after Medivh was killed to the Horde no longer fearing him after Lothar kills Blackhand.
* ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'' is reduced quite a lot from the book to movie. An entire separate plot about another missing Soviet sub sent to find the Red October is completely excised, the Americans learn much earlier that she is defecting, there is no standoff escalation with the Soviet fleet, and the final movie sequence added the Konovalov to the defection of the Red October crew, which was a set of events 50 pages apart in the book. The participation of the British is also entirely removed.

* Many additional details from ''Film/ThePassionOfTheChrist'' not in [[Literature/TheFourGospels the Gospels]] themselves were taken from Catholic tradition and literature (Emmerich). For instance, Jesus having bloody face wiped by a Jewish woman and meeting his mother Mary on the way is straight from the Catholic "Way of the Cross" (''Via Crucis'') also known as the "Stations of the Cross". Meanwhile, Judas's encounter with a bunch of bullying demons is derived from Emmerich's writings.

* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'':
** The film is heavily inspired by Creator/GeorgePerez's [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 1980s reboot]] of Wonder Woman and her mythos — most notably the history of the Amazons, Ares being the BigBad of her first adventure in Man's World, and her misconception that the ongoing wars are the direct result of Ares's intervention, when it turns out that Ares simply gets benefited by wars that the humans start all by themselves, and that Diana was sculpted from clay and animated by the gods, not a natural-born Amazon child such as before.
** It also borrows elements from the [[ComicBook/WonderWoman2011 New 52 version]] of the character — specifically the idea that [[spoiler:she's the daughter of Zeus, rather than having Hippolyta be her TrulySingleParent]].
** As in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', the Amazon that leaves the island is not decided in a tournament, as in the original canon. Instead, Hippolyta prefers to dismiss the war as someone else's problem, so Diana steals some weapons and escapes from the island to help in the conflict.
** Last but not the least, the idea of Diana first coming to Man's World during a world war harks back to the original story by William Marston; albeit it's World War I here rather than World War II as it was in the earliest comics.
* ''Film/Spawn1997'': Besides cutting out the connections to the other Image Comics because that would take too long to explain, the movie cuts out a lot of pointless supporting villains and makes it all about Simmons versus Wynn, and gets rid of all the mystery surrounding Simmons and explains his history right away.

* ''Film/FridayThe13th2009'' is less a remake of any one ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' film in particular than a distillation of nearly every element that people identify with the series, particularly those from the first four films. From [[Film/FridayThe13th1980 the first film]], we get the backstory that's recapped in the prologue. From [[Film/FridayThe13thPart2 the second]], we get Jason Voorhees' appearance in the first act as a SackheadSlasher before he acquires his {{iconic|Outfit}} hockey mask, which he got in [[Film/FridayThe13thPartIII the third film]] in the original continuity. Jason is still a living human like he was in the first four films, not the RevenantZombie he was later. The male lead Clay, who's searching for his missing sister Whitney, is based on Rob from ''[[Film/FridayThe13thTheFinalChapter The Final Chapter]]'' ([[FranchiseZombie actually]] the fourth film in the series), who sought to avenge his sister Sandra's death at the hands of Jason in the second. Jason's victims, meanwhile, are a composite of all of the horny teenagers featured throughout the ''Friday'' films, with the filmmakers saying that they cranked up the sex and nudity because the series was so famous for it that it felt like they had to include it.
* The movie ''Film/FatherStu'', BasedOnATrueStory of [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Long Stuart Long]], eliminates the time he spent teaching at a Catholic school before entering the seminary and basically skips from his life-changing accident to him deciding to pursue the priesthood. It also slightly downplays his relationship with the woman who brought him into the church--while they were living together in RealLife, they haven't gotten to that point in the movie.

* William Goldman's ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'' claims to be "the good parts version" of an earlier novel by Simon Morgenstern, turning what was a digression-laden, politics-heavy slog into a fun action-adventure story. In fact, Morgenstern and his unabridged novel are entirely fictitious. This setup allows Goldman to lampoon such authors as Victor Hugo and his ilk. The film distills the story even further, into its purest essence.
* Thomas Malory, in ''Literature/LeMorteDarthur'' distilled an enormous mass of wildly contradictory Arthurian legends into a book that is often regarded as the definitive Arthur story.
* T.H. White's ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' is a distillation (and paraphrase) of ''Le Morte D'Arthur''. The reader is actually directed to read Mallory's version to find out the specifics of certain jousts, etc. Tom himself makes an appearance in the final pages, directed by an ancient Arthur to run away from the final battle so that he can record the Arthur's history.
* Subverted by ''ComicBook/{{The Sandman|1989}}: The Dream Hunters'', a book by Creator/NeilGaiman. In the introduction, the author claims it's an attempt to take various elements of various retellings of a certain preexisting Japanese myth, and bring them together in a logical, complete way. It apparently works as the thing turns out great, and the illustrations by Creator/YoshitakaAmano are beautiful to boot... as it turns out, the preexisting myth didn't so much exist at all, which is standard for Neil Gaiman.
* Over time, Creator/DCComics has released various novels over its various popular events and as such, even they have had certain events removed. For instance, ''[[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman The Death and Life of Superman]]'' keeps most of the events of ''Doomsday, Funeral For A Friend'' and ''Reign of the Supermen'', but removes a number of events, mostly because it was written while ''Reign'' was still being worked on. Among the events removed were more involvement with the rest of the DC heroes outside of the required appearance of the ComicBook/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} and brief appearances by ComicBook/WonderWoman and ComicBook/{{Batman}}, and it condenses a number of side story events and, for some odd reason, ''removes'' ComicBook/GreenLantern Hal Jordan (and replaces his fight with Mongul that leaves the villain unconscious) despite Coast City still biting it. On the other hand, [[AdaptationExpansion it expands other events, including the eulogy for Superman delivered by]] UsefulNotes/BillClinton and his wife Hillary, for example, and adds more eulogies delivered by world leaders, including ''even Pope John Paul II'' (who was still alive at the time of the book's release)!
** The adaptation of ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'', beyond dumping a few side events, seems to toss out appearances by both ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' and, oddly, ''ComicBook/{{Azrael}}'', despite Azrael being part of the Bat-Family.
* ''Literature/TheLandOfStories'' makes it so that the Prince Charmings of Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Snow White are all brothers.

* Wendy Cope's "[[https://theondioline.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/the-waste-land-five-limericks/ The Waste Land: Five Limericks]]", each of which is one section of ''Literature/TheWasteLand''.
* ''Literature/WilliamShatnerAndLeonardNimoyReadFourScienceFictionClassics'': Many of the stories are abridged from their normal length. ''Literature/TheMartianChronicles'' suffers the most, getting shortened to "Literature/ThereWillComeSoftRains" and "Literature/UsherII".
* ''Literature/ApproachesToScienceFiction'':
** An excerpt of Creator/MaryShelley's novel, "{{Literature/Frankenstein}}", is included during "Part 1: Nineteenth-Century Backgrounds".
** The original {{novelette}} of Creator/RobertAHeinlein's "Literature/TheStarBeast" is used, instead of the more expanded {{novel}} which had been published in 1954, and would also have been accessible.

* When Edna Ferber's ''Theatre/{{Showboat}}'' was made into the famous Broadway musical in 1927, it wasn't common at all for such long and convoluted novels to be made into musicals. The result still ran very long for a Broadway show, and so has been subjected to various levels of this in all revivals (and in the 1936 movie, the only faithful film version).

* Creator/VictorHugo's original ''Literature/LesMiserables'' novel contained, among other tangents, a lengthy retelling of the Battle of Waterloo. Many critics agree that you can skip this section of the book and miss nothing. [[Theatre/LesMiserables The extremely popular musical adaptation]] removed such elements and focused on the core story and characters. Sadly, it also lost a lot of CharacterDevelopment and a bit of the plot.
* A double example: British playwright Christopher Bond took the most exciting elements of the Sweeney Todd myth (the razors, the chair, the pies) and added plot elements from ''Theatre/TheRevengersTragedy'' and ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' (as well as excellent dialogue) to create a first-rate melodrama with real character motivation. Then, Music/StephenSondheim took Bond's play, fixed the [[PlotHole weakest plot moments]] and set the whole thing to music to create ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', a first-rate musical tragedy.

* The musical version of ''{{Theatre/Wicked}}'' departs so greatly from [[{{Literature/Wicked}} the book]] that it almost goes beyond this trope and into InNameOnly. Justified however, in that it would be nearly [[DarkerAndEdgier impossible to get away with putting a great deal of the content]] from the book directly into musical format, so the massive re-working of the story was necessary. About the only things the musical and the book have in common are the general plot idea and characters.
* ''Theatre/MidnightChannelTheMusical'': A given, considering how long the game itself is. Notable changes include removing combat, eliminating Social Links, and skipping over Mitsuo's dungeon as well as most of the comedic segments.
* ''Theatre/BarrelRollsAndBrokenDreams'', based off ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', is notable for omitting Star Wolf and Bill Grey, as well as the planets found in the easy and hard routes, as the route used here consists of Corneria, Meteo, Zoness, Sector X, Macbeth (where Slippy is held hostage on the Forever Train instead of being held hostage by Titania's boss, Goras), Sector Z, and the hard route version of Venom (with Katt Monroe appearing in all three of the planets she appears in instead of two planets). [[spoiler:However, the massive surprise that comes as a shock to those used to Star Fox 64 is that it takes a page from SNES ''VideoGame/StarFox1'''s book and has Peppy sacrifice his life to save the Great Fox from the last two missiles in Sector Z, meaning that Peppy is permanently finished, though he does assist Fox as a ghost during the Andross battle. After that, Katt takes the slot where Peppy normally would go during the ending of ''Star Fox 64''.]]

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'': The story mode is the plot of the first three games condensed into one, while cutting the fat away. While there are changes (some quite major) because of the TimeyWimeyBall, most of the stuff that happened in the old games still happens in this one.
* Arcade game manufacturer [[http://www.globalvr.com Global VR]] lived on this trope by making arcade games that are distillations of Electronic Arts games. Examples include [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=5237 Madden NFL]], [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=5714 EA Sports PGA Tour Golf]], [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=5927 EA Sports NASCAR Racing]], and three ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed'' games: [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=4976 Hot Pursuit 2- which was rechristened "Need for Speed GT"-]] plus [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=5806 NFS Underground]] and [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=6041 NFS Carbon]] as well. They've also done distillations of UBI Soft games as well- witness [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=5807 Paradise Lost, a rail shooter based on Far Cry]] and [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=5994 Blazing Angels.]]
** They also make unique arcade games, too. Witness [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=5711 Aliens Extinction]], a rail shooter based on a popular movie license, [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=flyer&db=videodb&id=5928?=1 Puck Off]], a shuffleboard game with an almost-naughty name, and [[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=flyer&db=videodb&id=6159?=1 Justice League Heroes United]] a beat-em-up with popular DC Comics characters. The flyer [[LampshadeHanging lampshades Global VR's distillation-filled past:]]
---> ''No... you can't play this game at home.''
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'':
** The first game will take the plots of the various series it crosses over, cuts out the filler and leaves only the important plots, all while mixing it up like they took the plots and put them in a blender. It's less cutting out and more with everything happening at the same time things go much faster, though not everything happens as you would expect with everything interacting.
** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsZ'' deserves special mention because the less important plot points and events were put back in the Special Disk expansion. The main game was so crowded not everything would fit.
** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsV'' is unusual in its means of dealing with the plot of ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'': previous titles have only had a single Angel per stage that they appear on, usually mixing the Angel attack with an attack by some other enemy force to provide cannon fodder. ''V'' instead has most ''Evangelion''-related stages feature at least two different Angels spawning in rapid succession, or even at the exact same time as one another. It eventually becomes plot-relevant: the DownerEnding of the second movie is averted because the Ninth and Tenth Angels manifest in the same battle, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl and this changes Shinji's actions considerably]].
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is an extremely large storyverse, with hundreds of novels, graphic novels, rulebooks, and other sources of backstory, some of which {{Retcon}} older works. For the PC, they distilled this all down into the excellent ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' series of RealTimeStrategy games, which manage to capture the gritty feel of the game perfectly.

* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' is an overly simplified version of and at some points directly contradictory to its source material, ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade''. But in most cases it is pretty clear that its differences are for the better, since a video game that is completely faithful to its tabletop origins will have some obvious issues. The main problem is that the WordOfGod states the video game's story is canon, which presents some setting issues as that means some characters (especially [[spoiler:Caine]]) would have had to be in two places at once.
** It is never really established how far back from the end of the oWoD storyline the end of the game is, even a few days would give the characters ample travel time.
* ''VideoGame/TheDarkness'' trimmed down the first couple of story arcs from [[ComicBook/TheDarkness the comic]], altered several characters, removed the supervillains, got rid of that stupid looking armor, and gave Mike Patton the voice of the titular Darkness. The result is a damn good revenge story loosely connected to the comic canon, but doing a far better job of making the player feel for Jackie in a way the comic was never able to. When the game [[PlayerPunch hits you]] emotionally, it ''hurts''. The enemies trying to beat you is another matter entirely... NintendoHard [[AvertedTrope it isn't]]. Then again, being billed as a horror story where you play the monster, it fits the premise for Jackie to be hard to kill while in Darkness mode. Caught in the light, he dies easy.
* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance 2'' is known for taking the storyline of Creator/MarvelComics' ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' CrisisCrossover, and keeping the interesting central ideas while jettisoning a lot of the padding that made the original so difficult to read. It also has the advantage of picking a side. [[spoiler: [[TakeAThirdOption Neither one]], since the conflict between pro- and anti-registration is seen as petty and pointless once bigger events start happening.]]
* ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroes'' is based loosely off of ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'', boiling down the main premise to fit within an ExcusePlot for a fighting game: Thanos plans to wipe out life in the universe with the Infinity Gems, and Marvel's pantheon of heroes (plus a couple of villains) must stop him.
* The UsefulNotes/XBox port of ''VideoGame/Doom3'' had a few levels cut short or removed, particularly the filler segments such as the outdoor area in the second level.
* Although it too had some features removed due to hardware and control limitations, the PSX adaptation of ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' stayed truer to the PC original than the N64's PragmaticAdaptation, while adding some new interesting areas and enemies, such as a Vore-like arachnid enemy.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' [[Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries and its sequels]] starts from the comics canon but combines elements from various ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' media, such as the voices and writers of [[Westernanimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries the cartoon]], the Gothic architecture from [[Film/BatmanFilmSeries Tim Burton's movies]] and the grittiness from [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy Christopher Nolan's ones]]. The games have essentially taken the different forms of media that Batman and his world have appeared in, selected the best bits from each one, glued them together, filed the edges down and then cast the player as Batman. It's generally considered one of the key reasons the games have been so successful.
* The arcade version of ''VideoGame/GIJoe'' sets the game around the time of [[Creator/DICEntertainment the DiC series]] of ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' (the show's overall third and fourth seasons). However the Joes, and with the exception of Metal-Head, all the Cobra bosses came from [[Creator/SunbowEntertainment the Sunbow series]] (the first two seasons). This is especially notable when encountering the game's first bosses, Tomax and Xamot, who didn't even appear in the [=DiC=] series.
* ''VideoGame/BetrayalAtKrondor'' is treated this way. The novelisation cuts away some of the less plot-relevant or dramatically-appropriate side quests, such as the Quest for Ale. In the Author's Note in the novel, he even talks about his regret that he had to cut out his favorite side-quests.

* ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'' and ''VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron'' are considered some of the best licensed Transformers video games, hands down, even among the notoriously complaint-happy Transformers fandom. It condenses important parts of the popular Marvel and Marvel UK comics, the original animated cartoons, the more modern comics (especially those done by IDW, while tactfully ignoring Dreamwave's canon), and the previously well-received ''VideoGame/Transformers2004'' third-person shooter, and comes out on the other side as an intricately detailed and generally fun game that is also InternalHomage-laden enough to satisfy fans of the original Generation One series. It also doesn't hurt that the games are [[spoiler: a direct prequel to the also well-received ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' mentioned below, existing in the same continuity.]]
* A frequent criticism of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' is that, due to the story's WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants nature, it takes way too long for the heroes to actually start moving the plot, instead forcing us to watch them fiddling about with their inventories and typing rude things to each other online. ''VideoGame/{{Hiveswap}}'' wastes absolutely no time establishing two human characters, intrusions of eyeless monsters, house destruction, puzzle solving, and even manages to get us to Alternia to meet a troll and rescue him before the end of the first act, basically squishing the StationsOfTheCanon of five or six whole acts into about two hours of gameplay.

* When ''VideoGame/Persona3'' was ported to the PSP as ''Persona 3 Portable'', some changes to the presentation were made in order to make up for the PSP being weaker than the [=PS2=] that the original game was released on. The 3D town areas that you can explore on foot have been redone into static-image point-and-click maps. Cutscenes also do away with the 3D, instead using visual novel-esque portraits against static backdrops, with extra text narration being added to convey what the new game engine can't visually express.
* ''[[https://broelbrak.itch.io/nextdoor Nextdoor]]'', a browser game adaptation of "The Woman Next Door", a story from ''Manga/MimisTalesOfTerror'', has most of the events of the story happen over the course of a day rather than multiple, which results in the story being streamlined: the adaptation cuts most of the characters down to Mimi herself, the neighbor, the landlady, and the woman, Mimi never moves into her obnoxious neighbor's room and instead goes to check on him in his room after hearing him scream (with his fate [[NothingIsScarier never explained]] in the adaptation; he simply moved away after discovering the lady's secret in the original story), and Mimi's accidentally bumping into the woman is cut, which makes [[spoiler:the woman's metallic limbs]] much more startling in the final act.
* The UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 adaptation of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'' skips over the fights against Zucchero, Sale, and Melone. Additionally, Doppio's fight against Risotto and [[spoiler:Abbacchio's death]] were relegated to a cutscene.

*** From the 2003 series: Mikey's innate talent, [[note]]In most continuities, Mikey is portrayed as having the most raw talent of all his brothers, but without the mental disciple to make full use of it. The 2003 and 2012 series are the only ones to explicitly state this and to make it a plot point.[[/note]] Mikey's pet cat, [[note]]Now Ice Cream Kitty, a mutated cat who is now half-ice cream[[/note]] the Purple Dragons gang, and the Earth Protection Force
* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeRenegades'' is a rather successful attempt at this, blending elements from the original comic book, 80s cartoon, and [[Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra Rise of Cobra]] movie tossed into a blender with Series/TheATeam.
* Reviews of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' commonly state that this show takes many of the good points of the films (intense action scenes and realistic robot designs) while following thematics that were established by ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' or ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' drew on not only the classic Silver Age stories, but a number of the modern elements and bits of ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'' as well.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' does this with the previous generations of ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' cartoons, combining fantasy and adventure elements of the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials original]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie1986 G1]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends cartoons]] with the SliceOfLife style of ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTales Tales]]'', and most of the main cast are re-imagined [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyG3 G3 characters]] such as Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. The result was extremely successful, to say the least.
** The book adaptation of the ''WesternAnimation/EquestriaGirls: Rainbow Rocks'' spinoff has a different ending to one of the scenes made into a short. In the short, DJ Pon-3 puts in earphones after Principal Celestia takes them away. In the book, Celestia takes them away because there's a fire drill.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToddMcFarlanesSpawn'' has a refined, more coherent plotline, more sympathetic characters, and viciously batters the AnimationAgeGhetto.

* The 1977 adaption of ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit'' does a pretty good job of cramming the novel's plot into a 70 minute TV-movie. The only major points that get skipped are Beorn and the Arkenstone.

* The fanfiction {{Novelization}} of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' titled simply ''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'' removes the majority of the ancient shrines in the game. It's reduced from 120 to just over 30 shrines, and all of ''these'' shrines, aside from the eight shrines on the Great Plateau, are all Blessing Shrines in order to maintain a relatively reasonable story length. The only shrine quest retained from the game is the Lakna Rokee quest, which is used to give Paya some CharacterDevelopment. The Korok Seed side mission is entirely absent here, too. There's also some slight PragmaticAdaptation in here, too.

* ''Film/JurassicPark''. Many side plots from [[Literature/JurassicPark the book]] were written out and several characters were combined and their fates change. However, some scenes in the book that were left out of earlier movies in the series appeared in later movies.

* ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' had the plot revolve around a secret organization of high-profile assassins. Main character Wesley Gibson/The Killer was in fact an assassin in [[Comicbook/{{Wanted}} the comic]], but the Fraternity was a shadowy cabal of comicbook-style supervillains, who are presently in control of the entire planet after having killed all the superheroes and then [[RewritingReality altered the very fabric of reality in 1986]]. Its membership is in possession of superscience, alien technologies, and magical powers, and partakes in atrocities on a regular basis. The comic's writer Creator/MarkMillar was actually pretty happy with the transition result.

** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' is a LighterAndSofter take on the greater DC Universe outside of the "Big Three," and gets the core personalities of the characters it features down pat while improving some others. ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} is a LargeHam BoisterousBruiser in the show, unlike the comics, but it fits better with the tone. The show's also packed aplenty with {{Mythology Gag}}s ranging from references to the long-forgotten [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] Batman stories to (occasionally) the relatively recent ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' and ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo''. It's essentially the "good parts version" of the entire DC Universe but is still accessible to non-readers of the comics. The show is also more respectful to characters who [[PassingTheTorch pass the torch]]. In the comics, Comicbook/BlueBeetle Ted Kord is shot through the head by a villain after refusing to give in; in ''B&B'', he dies stopping a missile attack on America. Likewise, Ray Palmer had a HeroicBSOD after his wife went nuts and became a murderous villain, handing the Atom mantle to Ryan Choi, who was later killed. In this series, Palmer handed the mantle without the tragedy and retired to South America, while Choi had a TenMinuteRetirement.

* "Literature/TheLambtonWorm: The folk-song version, being just song length, lacks a ''lot'' of the details which appear in prose versions of the tale -- most notably, the wise woman, the spiked armor, the Worm's regeneration and the clause about Sir John killing the first creature he sees are all absent.

* Parodied with the ''[[Creator/DougWalker in 5 Seconds]]'' Website/YouTube videos, which cut down the targeted film to its most important points. The quality varies somewhat widely from video to video though. This may represent an inadvertent {{Deconstruction}}, as some basic biology knowledge will tell you that it is unhealthy to remove ''all'' the fat from the body. A lot of RuleOfFunny goes into those, so it's hard to really call it "distillation", in the traditional sense.

* ''ComicBook/StarWarsIDW'': Many of the classic ''TOS'' storylines are reworked, and often have more positive endings (namely, SparedByTheAdaptation is in full effect, and some of the plot resolutions aren't nearly as damaging to the PlanetOfTheWeek and/or ''Enterprise'' crew as they were in the original episodes).

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Darius}}'' is presented in a unique cabinet that features three screens arranged side-by-side for a 12:3 aspect ratio as opposed to the traditional 4:3. Since adapting this setup for home use would be AwesomeButImpractical, its ports ''Super Darius'' on Usefulnotes/TurboGrafx16 and ''Darius Extra Version'' on UsefulNotes/SegaGenssis rearrange enemy placements, movements, and attacks to accomodate a 4:3 screen instead.

** ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' brought several outdated costumes and looks and made them sleeker and more futuristic. For example, Bouncing Boy newly sports spiky hair and goggles and his limbs disappear when he bounces, which looks a lot less ridiculous. Also, the comics explained ComicBook/{{Superboy}} being in [[ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes LOSH]] despite ComicBook/PostCrisis Supes ''not'' having been Superboy as a teenager by way of [[VoodooShark a complicated explanation involving parallel universes that aren't really parallel universes since there aren't parallel universes anymore]]. Oooookay. The series? Teen Clark was a civilian when he was taken to the future, and only wears the spandex while there.
* The 1987 ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'' cartoon did make one notable improvement. The [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage comics by Eastman and Laird]], and most subsequent adaptations, depict Splinter as a rat who learned ninjutsu by copying the movements his human master made while training, before mutating and gaining human characteristics. In the 1987 series, the human master himself is mutated by gaining rat characteristics, and retains all his ninja knowledge, which he then passes on to the Turtles. This improvement is kept in [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 the 2012 series]].

* ''[[https://broelbrak.itch.io/nextdoor Nextdoor]]'', a browser game adaptation of "The Woman Next Door", a story from ''Manga/MimisGhostStories'', has most of the events of the story happen over the course of a day rather than multiple, which results in the story being streamlined: the adaptation cuts most of the characters down to Mimi herself, the neighbor, the landlady, and the woman, Mimi never moves into her obnoxious neighbor's room and instead goes to check on him in his room after hearing him scream (with his fate [[NothingIsScarier never explained]] in the adaptation; he simply moved away after discovering the lady's secret in the original story), and Mimi's accidentally bumping into the woman is cut, which makes [[spoiler:the woman's metallic limbs]] much more startling in the final act.

* The first season of ''Anime/Moomin1990'' combined selected contents from both Tove Jansson's novels and her comics into a single episodic narrative while merging [[CompositeCharacter characters]] and events, simplifying and streamlining TheVerse and adding some [[AdaptationExpansion original contents into the mix]]. The result is something of a more consistent middle ground between the mood of the comic and the [[CerebusSyndrome various moods of the novels]].

* The first season of the 90's ''Literature/TheMoomins'' series combined selected contents from both Tove Jansson's novels and her comics into a single episodic narrative while merging [[CompositeCharacter characters]] and events, simplifying and streamlining TheVerse and adding some [[AdaptationExpansion original contents into the mix]]. The result is something of a more consistent middle ground between the mood of the comic and the [[CerebusSyndrome various moods of the novels]].

* ''Theatre/BarrelRollsAndBrokenDreams'', based off ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', is notable for omitting Star Wolf and Bill Grey, as well as the planets found in the easy and hard routes, as the route used here consists of Corneria, Meteo, Zoness, Sector X, Macbeth (where Slippy is held hostage on the Forever Train instead of being held hostage by Titania‘s boss, Goras), Sector Z, and the hard route version of Venom (with Katt Monroe appearing in all three of the planets she appears in instead of two planets). [[spoiler:However, the massive surprise that comes as a shock to those used to Star Fox 64 is that it takes a page from SNES ''VideoGame/StarFox''‘s book and has Peppy sacrifice his life to save the Great Fox from the last two missiles in Sector Z, meaning that Peppy is permanently finished, though he does assist Fox as a ghost during the Andross battle. After that, Katt takes the slot where Peppy normally would go during the ending of Star Fox 64.]]

* In condensing months' worth of plot and lore down to about 42 minutes, ''LetsPlay/{{Empires|SMP}}: the Musical'' glosses over several plot points in the ''Empires'' Season 1 storyline, e.g. the Ender Dragon fight that released [[BigBad Xornoth]] in the first place. Since the musical is told from the Ocean Queen Lizzie's perspective, one may argue that she's already [[OutOfFocus relatively distant from the main lore and storyline of the series]] to begin with, but the musical also summarizes her and Jimmy finding out about their relation to each other as [[LongLostRelative long-lost siblings]] to a single sentence out of chronological order of events. However, this is also {{justified|Trope}} in that [[spoiler:the ending reveals Lizzie is the NarratorAllAlong, frantically trying to record down her story before she undergoes a supernatural, prophecy-related DeathByPersonality]].

* The animated adaptation of ''Literature/WhenTheRobbersCameToCadremommeTown'' removes some scenes, like the dog number and Tobias' weather prediction sub-plot.

** ''AdaptationDistillation/ASongOfIceAndFire'' (''Series/GameOfThrones'' and ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'')

* Due to the time and episode constraints of adapting six novels into 12 episodes for the ''Literature/TheCaseFilesOfJewelerRichard'' anime, some cases from the novels are entirely left out of the anime adaptation, and the cases that are adapted are shortened, with some scenes cut out for brevity. Seigi's thoughts don't get fully adapted, as well as some less plot-significant but usually character-focused scenes. It might be a case of CompressedAdaptation--except for the fact that the series is very character-focused, so a lot of the development of the characters vanished.

** It also borrows elements from the the [[ComicBook/WonderWoman2011 New 52 version]] of the character — specifically the idea that [[spoiler:she's the daughter of Zeus, rather than having Hippolyta be her TrulySingleParent]].

* ''ComicBook/SpiderManLifeStory''
** Issue #1 adapts different moments across the Lee-Romita era in a single story. Its main subplot is Flash going to Vietnam (which happened in ASM #47), while also dealing with Peter's first meeting with Norman Osborn (which happened in ASM #39-40).
** Issue #2 mashes together elements across Lee-Romita's and Creator/GerryConway's run in TheSeventies, notably bringing together signature stories like the Drug Trilogy (ASM #96-98), ''ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied'' and ''[[ComicBook/TheCloneSaga The First Clone Saga]]'' (and parts of the second). It also adapts elements of Gerry Conway's ''Parallel Lives''.
** Issue #3 adapts ''ComicBook/SecretWars1984'' as well as elements of ''ComicBook/KravensLastHunt'',''[[ComicBook/{{Venom}} The Black Costume Saga]]'' while also adding in [[spoiler:the fact that Peter apparently started Parker Industries in TheEighties despite it being a story from Dan Slott's run in TheNewTens, while he and MJ separate here rather than in the tail end of TheNineties in Howard Mackie's run]].
** Issue #4 adapts ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'', namely "Power and Responsibility", "Revelations", "The Final Adventure", as well as J. M. [=DeMatteis=] landmark "Best of Enemies" StoryArc featuring Harry Osborn.
** Issue #5 adapts ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski'' (specifically "Coming Home" the story that introduced Morlun), the 9/11 Issue (''ASM #36, vol. 2''), ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'', as well as bits from ''ComicBook/SpiderGirl'' and ''ComicBook/SpiderVerse''.
** Issue #6 adapts ComicBook/MilesMorales' early days as well as the ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'' storyline, and sees Peter's daughter becoming a hero as in ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManRenewYourVows''. The premise of Doctor Doom conquering the world after the failure of the previous generation of heroes to stop it also seems to be loosely based on ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015''.
** Peter's interactions with Norman Osborn are based on ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' where in their first meeting, Norman praises Peter's intellect while belittling Harry at the same time, while his more predatory social behavior stems from the Thanksgiving scene, and ''ComicBook/RevengeOfTheGreenGoblin'' and ''A Death in the Family''. Likewise, [[spoiler:Harry Osborn wears a black outfit like in ''Film/SpiderMan3'' and calls himself the "Black Goblin" which was his production name in that film]].
** Gwen Stacy owes a lot of her character to Creator/EmmaStone's portrayal in ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderManSeries'' rather than her character in the Lee-Romita era. Likewise she also [[spoiler:gets killed by Harry Osborn, albeit by accident in this case, like in the second movie]].
* ''{{ComicBook/Norby}}'': Much of the dialogue and internal thoughts are removed to make the story shorter, as each page has to tell a small story on its own. This includes the discussion of positronic brains and the [[ThreeLawsCompliant Three Laws of Robotics]] with the robot salesman, as well as discussions of Solarism and Oneness, or Jeff's visit with Zi and Zargl. Such elements were typically cut because this is an adventure comic that only gets one page a month. By shifting from a purely written medium to a visual medium, many of the descriptions were able to be ignored as well, simplifying the process.

* Classic moments, images and arcs from 40+ years of Franchise/SpiderMan stories are squashed down to their best bits to fuel the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'', though the 60s and early 70s are clearly the main inspiration.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' drew heavily from the original Spider-Man comics of the Silver Age stories that were written by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (the show brought in characters, plot elements, premise, story lines, etc) with a similar balance of action, drama, and comedy as well as a high school setting. However, it also tends to utilized a number of material from all eras of the comic's run and other sources such as the more recent ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' comics and the popular live-action ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'', making a cartoon that is recognizable to both older and younger fans.

* Over time, Creator/DCComics has released various novels over its various popular events and as such, even they have had certain events removed. For instance, ''[[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman The Death and Life of Superman]]'' keeps most of the events of ''Doomsday, Funeral For A Friend'' and ''Reign of the Supermen'', but removes a number of events, mostly because it was written while ''Reign'' was still being worked on. Among the events removed were more involvement with the rest of the DC heroes outside of the required appearance of the Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} and brief appearances by Franchise/WonderWoman and Franchise/{{Batman}}, and it condenses a number of side story events and, for some odd reason, ''removes'' Franchise/GreenLantern Hal Jordan (and replaces his fight with Mongul that leaves the villain unconscious) despite Coast City still biting it. On the other hand, [[AdaptationExpansion it expands other events, including the eulogy for Superman delivered by]] UsefulNotes/BillClinton and his wife Hillary, for example, and adds more eulogies delivered by world leaders, including ''even Pope John Paul II'' (who was still alive at the time of the book's release)!
** The adaptation of ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'', beyond dumping a few side events, seems to toss out appearances by both ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' and, oddly, ''ComicBook/{{Azrael}}'', despite Azrael being part of the Bat-Family.