History Main / MisBlamed

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Many people blame [[TheScrappy Scrappy-Doo]] for ruining ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' (specifically, dumping half the original cast, switching to a TwoShorts format, and the franchise's first clumsy attempts to lose the ScoobyDooHoax) due to the timing of his introduction, despite the fact that the conventional mystery format and half the cast were dumped over a year ''after'' his debut. Ironically, despite even later showrunners and writers treating the character with disdain, Scrappy is what probably saved the show from cancellation way back in 1979. And the success of that new incarnation of Scooby Doo is likely what has kept the franchise going on to this day.
* Fans of the original ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' comic book attacked the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' cartoon for excluding ComicBook/WonderGirl while including most of the other Justice League sidekicks. In reality, Wonder Girl was legally barred from appearing in the first season of the show due to rights issues. These same issues had earlier kept the character from appearing on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', and Wonder Woman from appearing in ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'', ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' and ''Series/{{Smallville}}''. She eventually appeared in the second season.
** Fans of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' and ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternTheAnimatedSeries'' have since gone on to blame ''WesternAnimation/BewareTheBatman'' and ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' for the cancellations of their beloved cartoons. Never mind that the creative teams behind the new shows had ''nothing'' to do with cancelling the older WesternAnimation/DCNation cartoons. And ''Beware The Batman'' got cancelled and written off soon after.
** Many fans blamed Creator/DanDiDio for Wally West's death in the ''Young Justice'' season 2 finale (as the character was declared "toxic" in the ComicBook/New52 and was in ComicBookLimbo until ComicBook/DCRebirth), despite the fact that [=DiDio=] has ''nothing'' to do with DC Animation. Creator/GregWeisman has stated he planned on killing off Wally as far back as Season 1.
* Creator/MarvelAnimation fans love to blame everything wrong with any Marvel cartoon on Creator/JephLoeb. Notably, he was blamed for cancelling ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' to replace it with ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble''. In reality, ''Earth's Mightiest Heroes'' was not doing well with the network's target demographic and wasn't doing great in merchandise either. Creator/DisneyXD commissioned ''Assemble'' in order to have a show more similar to [[Film/TheAvengers2012 the mega-hit live-action film]] that could better gear itself to younger audiences.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', the episode introducing Dwight Conrad was originally scheduled for season 3, but was held back to season 5, despite the fact that the character appears in a number of episodes in between this. Many fans assumed that this was due to the Fox Network's seemingly random scheduling (which resulted in similar continuity errors regarding a few minor characters) but in fact some dialogue needed to be re-recorded and the actor playing Dwight wasn't available at the time. The decision to delay airing was made by the show's producers.
* Nickelodeon took a lot of heat for the second half of the third season of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' taking so long to air that two episode [[ShortRunInPeru premiered in Canada]] and another two [[ConclusionInAnotherMedium on DVD]]. However, this was because production on the finale had been delayed, and Nickelodeon didn't want to air less than half of a season only to have another hiatus right before the end of the series.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'':
** There was lots of rage surrounding the new [[TheMovie film spinoff]] of the TV series, mostly about how it was Creator/GeorgeLucas's "worst movie yet!" In fact, Lucas's input was more or less limited to suggesting that the show's feature-length pilot episode be distributed theatrically instead of airing on television.
** Many blame Disney for canceling the series after it bought the ''Star Wars'' franchise in favor of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels''. But the rights to ''The Clone Wars'' at the time were owned by Creator/CartoonNetwork, which made for [[ScrewedByTheLawyers an awkward legal situation]]. ''Rebels'' was actually in the works ''before'' the Disney buyout, due to the ratings of ''The Clone Wars'' declining (meaning that the show was slowly becoming unprofitable) and the Lucasfilm crew still wanting to do a ''Star Wars'' animated show that branched off of ''The Clone Wars''.
** Due to the turbulent status of the franchise in early 2018, it became increasingly common for many to state that Disney only UnCanceled ''The Clone Wars'' in order to bring an end to the controversies. However, given that most of those controversies were just a few months old, animation (especially as visually appealing as ''The Clone Wars'') takes a ''[[ProductionLeadTime long]]'' time to make, and the teaser clearly had fully animated segments, it had to have been in the works well before that.
* ''Warner Bros.' WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}'' has received some undeserved bashing because the people in question think it got ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}'' cancelled. ''Animaniacs'' and ''Freakazoid!'' (the latter of which was canned a year ''before'' ''Histeria!'' even began production) were actually cancelled because the shows were seen as underperforming with Kids' WB!'s target demographic. Series creator Tom Rugger himself placed the blame for ''Animaniacs''' cancellation on the success of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', for convincing executives that dubbing children's anime would be more profitable than creating their own programming.
** ''Freakazoid''[='=]s cancellation is also sometimes blamed on ComicBook/{{Madman}} creator Mike Allred, on the grounds that he sued over Freakazoid's similarity to his creation. This is not true: Mike has openly stated that he was unhappy that he didn't receive a credit for his influence, but he never sued -- he didn't feel it was worth it.
* For whatever reason, when the 1999 unaired {{pilot}} of ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'' made its way online, many fans mistook it for an attempt to reboot the series. This caused people to cry racism because the "new" Miranda was shown as being a brown-haired Caucasian (as opposed to being black in the series). For the record, Miranda's race was changed for the final show to invoke ActorSharedBackground with her VA, Cree Summer.
* A very strong example of [=misblamed=] ignorance plus the NostalgiaFilter is the 2003 series of ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2003}}''. It was complained by fans of the '80s version for being an "InNameOnly remake of the '80s version", with no Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang, or ultra-silly themes as well as how it was less faithful to the comics. While it certainly doesn't share too much in common with the 80s cartoon, it was actually ''that'' incarnation of the franchise that was the InNameOnly adaptation. The 2003 series remains one of the more faithful adaptations of the source material.
** The ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'' comic book series doesn't help matters, since it was based off of the animated series and was probably read more by said complainers. Of course, Eastman and Laird's Mirage Studios didn't produce that book series--it was licensed out to Archie Comics.
* People who don't realize there are ''two'' English dubs of at least the first three seasons of ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' like to slam [=4Kids=] for their horrible "redub" of the series. The "redub" in question was done by a Canadian company and is actually more faithful to the original version than the [=4Kids=] dub is.
** On a latter note, [=4Kids=] is sometimes blamed for plot holes they did not create. For example, Beta Academy is mentioned in the original Italian dub.
** Now that Nickelodeon owns the show, they're getting lots of criticism for their "changes" (new music, Layla's name to Aisha, etc.). Some of these people thought [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4Kids]] created ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub''. The truth: Nickelodeon's undoing many of [=4Kids=]'s changes to make a more faithful English dub.
** Nickelodeon's treatment of the show is infamous, but there's a lot of ambiguity over what was going on behind the scenes. While sending the show to Nick Jr. wasn't unusual for Nick, Rainbow has said that they wanted to retool the show for younger children (due to experimenting with adult-themed spin-offs, like ''WesternAnimation/WorldOfWinx'' and the live-action Netflix series). Rainbow ending their deal with Nickelodeon is often seen as them realizing too late the deal was a bad idea, but Rainbow has said that they had issues affording the California voice actors.
* Most of the hate for Creator/CartoonNetwork's ''WesternAnimation/TheProblemSolverz'' stemmed from the disproven idea that it was the show that replaced ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan''. SBT was cancelled because it couldn't secure any merchandising deals, while ''Problem Solverz'' had already been in the works for years before said decision was made.
** Likewise, the network's former president Christina Miller is often blamed for the channel focusing on [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo more]] [[WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball comedic]] [[WesternAnimation/Ben102016 cartoons]] rather than airing more action-oriented stuff. Some viewers even accused her of being a {{Moral Guardian|s}} who [[ScrewedByTheNetwork actively sabotages shows]] that are even ''slightly'' action-based just because they aren't what she thinks the viewing audience wants. In reality, action-based shows were [[OlderThanTheyThink already in decline]] on the network well before Miller took the helm, with examples including ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternTheAnimatedSeries'', ''WesternAnimation/Thundercats2011'', ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'' and ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', all of which were cancelled in the years prior to Miller's arrival. While Miller has certainly continued the network's trend towards comedy, she cannot be blamed for starting it.
*** Heck, several ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' and ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' fans blamed her for ending the shows, when in fact, the respective creators of both shows---Pendleton Ward and J.G. Quintel---decided to end their shows with Seasons 9 and 8, respectively.
** The following CN president, Tom Ascheim, is getting blamed for completely pulling the plug on the idea of any action or story-based series airing on the network because of his alleged belief that [[AnimationAgeGhetto cartoons are only for kids and kids alone]], as well as his supposed opposition to any show that might draw in a PeripheryDemographic, with some even believing that his decision to create a [[{{Creator/Cartoonito}} new preschool block]] was done to ward off older viewers from the network. However, it must be noted that action cartoons had already been on the decline on the network for years, as has been mentioned above, and that if Ascheim was not there to pull the plug, someone else would have done the same. However, it is still up to debate on whether Ascheim is directly responsible for killing off story-based series on the network, as some were [[WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall still]] [[WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain being]] [[WesternAnimation/VictorAndValentino greenlit]] during Miller's tenure.
* It's usually held that the mature content in ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpyAdultPartyCartoon'' was the result of Creator/JohnKricfalusi's ProtectionFromEditors. Given John K's departure from the original series was partly over Nickelodeon's censorship policies, it's an easy assumption to make, but according to Kricfalusi himself, it was [[ExecutiveMeddling forced on him by higher-ups at Spike TV]]. However, it is hotly disputed whether or not this is the full story, considering his history of NeverMyFault.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperheroSquadShow'' is sometimes used as an example of the Disney/Marvel merger ruining Marvel forever, but it began production before Disney bought them.
* When ''WesternAnimation/KampKoral'' was announced, fans were quick to blame Nickelodeon for deliberately waiting for Hillenburg's death to produce the spin-off. While his thoughts on the show are unknown, it is possible that Hillenburg was ''aware'' of the show being developed, as the development began shortly before he passed away. ''Kamp Koral'' developer Vincent Waller originally tweeted his belief that Hillenburg was aware of the show, but he later [[https://twitter.com/VincentWaller72/status/1357689641005056000 retracted the statement,]] saying that the stressful period "kinked up my chronological memories of events into a bit of a slippery jumble for that entire block of time."
* Creator/SethMacFarlane tends to get misblamed on a lot of things (possibly due to his {{hatedom}} claiming that he is everything that's wrong with animation). One notable one is the animation of Creator/ButchHartman. He is automatically blamed for those just because the two of them are friends despite the fact that [=MacFarlane=] has nothing to do with those projects. Instead, it's Hartman and Fred Seibert (the latter which never seems to get any sort of hate despite being the producer of those shows). And of course, there's the cash grabs and merchandising that the studio does and not him.
** Another notable misblaming is [=MacFarlane=] being somehow blamed for ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' being cancelled. The truth is that ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' was canceled one full year before ''Futurama'' was and [=MacFarlane=] wasn't even doing anything with Fox at the time. Also, [=MacFarlane=] and Creator/MattGroening happen to be friends in {{real life}} so [=MacFarlane=] probably would have wanted ''Futurama'' to continue. He also had a voice role in the fourth direct-to-DVD ''Futurama'' movie.
** [=MacFarlane=] is also blamed for the direction that ''Family Guy'' went through after the show was un-canceled. [=MacFarlane=] is barely involved with the show's scripts, with the actual writing coming from the story writers. That said, [=MacFarlane=] has veto power over what's in the scripts that do make it to air (in addition to [[ActingForTwo voicing three of]] [[DescendedCreator the main characters]]), so his hands aren't completely clean when it comes to [[DudeNotFunny poorly-received episodes and gags]].
* Similar to the ''Futurama'' example, many ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' fans seem to think [=MacFarlane=] was responsible for that show's cancellation, as it was initially replaced by ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''. Never mind that ''King'' was on the chopping block for 2-3 years prior due to sagging ratings and erratic scheduling, being renewed only due to fan outcry, the show enjoyed a ''[[LongRunners thirteen-year]]'' run that many shorter-lived animated shows would kill for, and several other shows have rotated in and out of its old timeslot.
** A lot of ''King of the Hill'' fans (even on this very wiki) blame [[TheScrappy Lucky]] for Luanne becoming more ditzy over the years. Luanne TookALevelInDumbass years before Lucky showed up.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** No, Creator/LaurenFaust was not responsible for everything, good or bad, that ever happened on the show. While she did create it and wrote a handful of episodes in the first two seasons, she was only the showrunner during the first season. After which she stepped back to become a consulting producer in Season 2, before leaving the production entirely. She had zero input on ''any'' facet of ''Friendship is Magic'' (much less [[Franchise/MyLittlePonyGeneration4 Gen 4]] of the ''My Little Pony'' franchise as a whole) from Season 3 onwards.
** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E13MagicalMysteryCure Magical Mystery Cure]]" is one of the most [[BrokenBase base-breaking]] episodes in the show's history, and its detractors often blame writer M.A. Larson for it. According to him though, the final episode only loosely resembled his original script and many elements had to be hastily cut (without his knowledge) due to the show being unexpectedly renewed for another season, resulting in the final product. Larson being a TeasingCreator who [[https://trixiebooru.org/images/253115 utterly reveled]] in taking the blame for putting wings on Twilight Sparkle didn't help.
** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls1'' was largely blamed for the third season only having thirteen episodes, as it was thought the production was truncated so the movie could be made. In reality, the season was only thirteen episodes because Hasbro originally intended it to be a SixtyFiveEpisodeCartoon. In fact, ''Equestria Girls'' was only greenlit after the massive popularity of the show prompted them to order a fourth season.
** After Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's HeelFaceTurn, the writers were criticized for never doing anything more with the character just as [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter they became interesting and likable]]. However, the writers ''did'' [[https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/09/cut-ideas-and-general-my-little-pony.html want to do more with them]], but Hasbro executives shot all these ideas down due to feeling their story was "over".
** One of the criticisms of Starlight Glimmer's HeelFaceTurn was that it was being done to deliberately copy Sunset Shimmer's redemption and character arc. WordOfGod claims it wasn't, which is substantiated by ProductionLeadTime meaning it was likely written before ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks Rainbow Rocks]]'' aired[[labelnote:explanation]]The Season 4 premiere [[https://twitter.com/discoveryfamily/status/403973359106404352 had its script locked August 2012]] 15 months before it aired November 2013. Starlight's redemption aired November 2015 and the Season had a two-month hiatus causing ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames Friendship Games]]'' to spoil the episode's happenings, thus it can be assumed to have had its script locked June 2014 three months before ''Rainbow Rocks'' released September 2014.[[/labelnote]] and [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap made the previously contentious Sunset popular]] enough to want to copy.
** In response to criticisms of the franchise's villains being EasilyForgiven, ''Equestria Girls'' director Ishi Rudell [[https://mobile.twitter.com/ishiH3Art/status/1017125609305042944 revealed]] that [[CreatorBacklash he is also sick of this trend and would be happy to do otherwise]], but it's not up to him, implying this approach was an executive mandate.
** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017''
*** A common point of contention is how it ignores CharacterDevelopment and continuity (outside some cameos) past the end of Season 4, leading to questions about why they sought help from [[spoiler:the hippogriffs]] over all the other allied races they made since then and it not feeling like it fit the shows continuity. Many criticize this as an attempt for ''The Movie'' appeal to wider audiences at the expense of it appealing to existing fans. But work on ''The Movie'' started immediately after end of Season 4, thus ProductionLeadTime would make it impossible to incorporate said later development and continuity beyond cameos if they wanted to or not.
*** Once it came out ''Friendship is Magic'' would end in 2019, some blamed the movie's weak reception and earnings. However, Hasbro stated they wanted it to continue for five years in 2014 when the movie was first announced, wanted to wrap it up [[https://derpibooru.org/1997810 in the very early pitches for Season 7]] while the movie would be mid-production, and months after the movie released leaked early drafts for the next series which was too soon to have been designed in response to its reception. While [[https://www.equestriadaily.com/2021/12/concept-art-from-cancelled-generation-4.html other]] [[https://twitter.com/Chevistian1/status/1096241924930002944 G4]] [[https://twitter.com/Chevistian1/status/1096924149614891009 movies]] may have been canned, the end of ''Friendship is Magic'', already a {{Long Runner|s}} by this point whose toy sales were slowing down before the movie released, was decided well before reception of ''The Movie'' could influence it.
* Due to Disney's history with Creator/GregWeisman related shows (''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}''), many fans blame Disney for cancelling ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan''. However, it was more a case of ScrewedByTheLawyers. Due to Disney's acquisition of Marvel, Sony gave away their TV rights to the franchise in order to keep making Spider-Man movies. Since Sony still owned ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', it would've forced Marvel to pay to continue the series.
* Many ''Westernanimation/{{Doug}}'' fans claim that "Disney ruined ''Doug''" when they bought the rights to the show and un-canceled it. In fact, buying ''Doug'' (and slapping their name on it) was the only thing they did to the show. Creator Jim Jinkens made all the changes himself.
* Fans of ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' and ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' may be angry that the shows were cancelled because of ExecutiveMeddling, but it was really because the producers meant from the beginning to make 52 episodes of each series.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Voice actress April Stewart has been blamed by some sore fans for Mona Marshall not having as many roles, as well as the exit of Eliza Schneider. In actuality, Schneider quit on her own terms in 2003 due to a salary dispute and issues with her union [[note]]Around this time, the SAG was advising voice actresses to ''not'' accept roles for the show due to its non-union status, or they would risk being blacklisted or having their health coverage stripped. Along with fines, these are among the expected consequences for union actors who take on non-union work.[[/note]]. Stewart herself had to use an alias for her early work in the show until matters could be settled. It's also worth noting that Marshall always had voiced fewer female characters in comparison, as Schneider had handled the majority of the roles after Mary Kay Bergman's death.
** Due to old fansites like Beef-Cake and convention advertisements mistaking Mona Marshall as the second voice of Wendy, Schneider herself received some blame and misconception of "usurping" the role. In actuality, she'd always voiced the character and simply modified her take after a while. In comparison, April Stewart would later receive flack for making Wendy sound too old, until it was revealed that it was the creators' own decision to not speed up her voice as much (while Mary Kay Bergman could naturally perform the higher voice, Schneider and Stewart had to have their voices digitally modified).
** An in-universe Type 5 example is PlayedForLaughs in "Night of the Living Homeless", where Kyle tries to come up with an idea with what to do with the homeless, and Cartman's idea was to jump over them with his skateboard. The other boys either thank Kyle for the idea that was obviously Cartman's, or in Stan's case, get baffled by it.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has a serious case of Type 5: Fans who dislike the newer seasons generally say it's all the fault of the showrunner at the time: Mike Scully for Seasons 9-12, and Al Jean for Season 13 and onwards. While Scully and Jean aren't innocent, to be sure, they aren't 100% guilty either.
** The showrunner isn't personally involved with every aspect of the show: The writing staff comes up with plot ideas and first drafts of episodes, while the showrunner selects which episodes get made and leads script revisions. The showrunner also isn't all-powerful: the senior production staff can and do [[ExecutiveMeddling interfere with writing and plot ideas]].
** Scully inherited a show that was starting to go downhill in quality: Season 8 was the beginning of the end, with many senior writers and producers heading for the exits, co-showrunners Oakley and Weinstein operated on the assumption that ''The Simpsons'' would soon be over [[note]]Fox wasn't threatening to cancel the show at the time, but 8 years is a long run for a show like ''The Simpsons'', regardless of quality, and senior staff, Groening included, were dropping hints about the show ending because they wanted the series to go out on a high note.[[/note]], leading them to experiment with new art and plot formats that led to a drop in quality and lack of direction for the show.
*** The hardcore Scully {{Hatedom}} says he did so much damage that the show couldn't be salvaged when he stepped down as showrunner in mid-2001, but that ignores the changes Al Jean implemented on the show: of the disliked elements from Scully's time as showrunner, many were scrapped immediately while many more disappeared over time - very few of the complaints about episodes in Seasons 9-12 can be applied to seasons since then, and vice-versa.
*** Since he became showrunner in Season 9, Scully gets blamed for that season's "The Principal and the Pauper", widely seen to be one of the worst Simpsons episodes ever, if not ''the'' worst. However, Scully was never involved in it. It was a holdover from Season 8, when Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were showrunners, Steven Dean Moore was the director, and Ken Keeler was the writer.
** Al Jean also inherited a mostly new writing staff, presided over the retirements of the show's last original writers a few seasons into his time as showrunner, and took over at a time when the series was falling apart, due to both its age and the DenserAndWackier elements introduced during Scully's tenure. 8 seasons was a long time, and 12 was positively record breaking. For obvious reasons, Jean's detractors also ignore his time as showrunner in the third and fourth seasons, generally regarded as two of the series' best.
** The voice actors have also run out of steam with recent seasons: Hank Azaria (Moe, Chief Wiggum, Apu) has voiced one-off characters since the show's beginning and admitted in an interview that while he would try to do something new for each of them back in the 1980s and 1990s, he ran out of ideas around Season 10 (August 1998 to May 1999) and can now pull this off only a few times a season, sometimes less.
** Creator/MattGroening gets next to none of the blame for the show's decline, but he probably deserves more: Some of the big complaints about the last 15 or so seasons are {{Flanderization}}, [[{{Anvilicious}} blunt]] political commentary, and the show increasingly resembling ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Incidentally, these are also some of the main complaints about the UnCanceled seasons of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', which has little in common with modern-day ''Simpsons'' apart from having Groening at the helm.
* Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'' received a case of type 5, with Jackson Publick (credited under his actual name, Chris [=McCulloch=] ) getting the accusation of "usurping" the show from Christy Karacas, as he was put in charge of being the story-editor and having the final call on scripts. If an episode fell flat, a plot twist was done that a fan didn't like, or if there was less violence, it had to be all on him. In actuality, the season 2 format change was something that Christy Karacas and Stephen Warbrick had wanted to do in hope of breaking away from being formulaic and getting to explore the characters' stories more.
** Type 2 and Type 3 also come into play, as while there was some degree of meddling in season 2 [[note]]mainly having to have the episode "Hot Chick" revised to remove an implication of rape, Mistress Kilda's death having to be toned down in "Lord Stingray Crash Party"[[/note]], some of the moments cited as being the network screwing the creators over (perceived {{Flanderization}}, revelations of the Twins and Alice's backstories) were actually things that the creators themselves had decided on (to obviously mixed reception).
** There is a lesser extent of type 5 with some of the new writers for season 2 (John J. Miller, Joe Croson, Adam Modiano), as none of them had written for the show before and were perceived as being amateurs or not "getting" it. In actuality, while the script is usually the writer's work, they evolve from boardroom pitches between all the writers and outlines by Karacas, the story editor revising the script over time, and there also being uncredited rewrites. In short, an episode that doesn't perform well doesn't always fall on one person. To contrast with the above situation, the writers and story editor in season 3 seemed to receive less blaming and outrage, perhaps as things had cooled down.
* Fans of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' often cite the popularity of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' as the reason that ''KP'' got the axe. ''KP'' ended a full year before ''P&F'' started airing regularly, and mainly because the show's creators wanted to move on, with that show's fourth season being an example of UnCanceled anyway.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':
** As a result of the FandomRivalry, many fans blamed ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' for Disney Channel's bad treatment of ''Gravity Falls''. At the time, ''Phineas and Ferb'' was not only barely even airing on the network due to winding down production, but ''Gravity Falls'' had already established itself as being their newest hit. The odd scheduling was a quirk of the show's production necessitating that new episodes had to be stretched out to a greater extent than its peers; a quirk that would continue into its second season on Disney XD, where it served as the flagship show for that channel.
** Some fans blamed Disney XD for the show's end, but it was actually Hirsch's decision to end the show due to burn-out and wanting to avoid SeasonalRot, with him even wanting to have a far shorter second season (if not just end the show on season one's cliffhanger). Disney actually saw it as a CashCowFranchise due to its immense popularity and wanted to continue the show, forcing him to commit to a 20-episode season as opposed to the ten that he originally wanted once he agreed to do another season, and hoping that Hirsch would change his mind.
* After the infamous ''WesternAnimation/PickleAndPeanut'' was renewed for a second season, fans got angry at it because of the cancellation of ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder''. The truth is that ''P&P'' itself was all but ignored by the network during its run, being placed in a year-long hiatus after its first season, and like [[WesternAnimation/RandyCunninghamNinthGradeNinja several]] [[WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes other]] [[WesternAnimation/The7D Disney XD]] [[WesternAnimation/PennZeroPartTimeHero cartoons]] (including ''Wander'' itself), ended after its second season (albeit on its own terms with a definite finale).
* Some ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' fans blamed co-creator Glen Murakami for doing ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo''. In fact, though he is credited as associate producer for said show, he has no major involvement in the show and that Aaron Horvath is the creative force behind the series.
* "''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Prime]]'' killed ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated Animated]]''" is a common complaint of those who preferred the organic traditional animation to the more [[Film/TransformersFilmSeries Movie]] accurate CGI of Prime. This isn't ''completely'' true. Hasbro gave Cartoon Network the option to continue using the license to produce ''Animated'', while they would go on to produce ''Prime'' for their new cable channel, [[Creator/DiscoveryFamily The Hub]]. Cartoon Network decided to end the show independently, as there was no incentive to continuing it if Hasbro would be pulling all funding and ending the toyline.
* In the late 1990s and early 2000s, many people blamed ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' for the fact that ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' and ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' were cancelled, when in reality ''Ren and Stimpy'' was cancelled because of low ratings after the creator's firing and ''Rocko's Modern Life'' was cancelled because Nickelodeon thought that Creator/JoeMurray wanted to end his show.
* Man of Action, the creators of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' have been blamed for the [[BrokenBase fan-divided]] ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse''. However, they left the franchise after ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien Ultimate Alien]]'' to work on ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012'', though they still receive a "created by" credit and in actual fact, art director Derrick Wyatt, executive producer Tramm Wigzell, supervising producer Matt Youngberg and now ex-Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Toonami CEO Stuart Snyder are actually responsible for the stylistic change from the DarkerAndEdgier tone of ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Alien Force]]/Ultimate Alien'' to the DenserAndWackier tone of ''Omniverse''.
** Several ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'' fans blamed the show's creator Jay Stephens for the crossover episode "TGIS". However, no one worked on ''The Secret Saturdays'' (much less Stephens himself) had any involvement in the episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'':
** No, the show was NOT removed from Nick's schedule and made online exclusive during Book 3 in favor of giving more airtime to Nickelodeon's more comedy-based shows. While it being [[OddballInTheSeries a complete tonal mismatch]] compared to their other programming ''was'' a factor (being a teen-oriented action/adventure series), it was the series seeing far better viewership numbers compared to its on-air ratings during Book 2 that resulted in the decision.
** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zigzagged with regards to the finale]]. Fans blamed Nickelodeon for the ambiguity of the final scene, which shows [[spoiler:Korra and Asami going on a private vacation in the Spirit World, all-but-explicitly a couple]]. Many blamed Nick for the ambiguity of it, and assumed that Bryke had to sneak it in without the studio's knowledge, but after Bryke confirmed the [[spoiler:Korrasami Ship]] online they mentioned that the Studio was supportive of the idea, though due to their Standards and Practices would only allow so much to be shown. So the studio is the reason for the ambiguity, but the scene was done with them fully knowing what was being expressed.
** The finale similarly had other fans accuse Bryke of [[spoiler:queerbaiting]] due to the slightly ambiguous ending. Most were a little more savvy and aware that Standards and Practices would only let them go so far, which Bryke confirmed online.
* ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'' got a lot of flack from angry ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' fans claiming that the former got the latter canceled. Not only was ''[=ChalkZone=]'' delayed for two years (and thus was not meant to be a replacement show), but ''Zim'' was still running when the first season of ''[=ChalkZone=]'' premiered (''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' are also blamed for this). The real reason why ''Zim'' was canceled was due to the show's high production cost, low ratings, and just generally being ScrewedByTheNetwork. Not to mention that ''[=ChalkZone=]'' itself was also treated horribly by Nick.
** ''[=ChalkZone=]'' also got some flack from people who thought it was a rip-off of the 1970s cartoon ''Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings''. [[http://www.manic-expression.com/old-school-lanes-nickelodeon-tribute-interview-with-bill-burnett/ Co-creator Bill Burnett stated in this interview]] that he hadn't even seen it when ''[=ChalkZone=]'' was being made.
* In a glaring example of the ''Most Visible Target'' fallacy, many fans of ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood'' blamed the new kid on the block, ''WesternAnimation/WordParty'', as the reason the former was dropped from Creator/{{Netflix}}, as the former (along with a whole plethora of Creator/NineStoryMediaGroup shows) was dropped days before the latter premiered. The real reason is that [[http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/01/amazon-prime-pbs-kids-deal Amazon had just snatched the rights out of Netflix's hands by signing a multi-year exclusive deal]] to stream Creator/PBSKids shows.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' is often blamed as the main reason for Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}'s perceived decline in the late-2000s. While network executives did deem whether a show was worth keeping based on how much the ratings stacked up in comparison to ''[=SpongeBob=]'' (and [[ScrewedByTheNetwork quickly scrapped any animated series that wasn't in the same ballpark]]), that's about it. The creative staff has no control over how the channel treats their or their colleagues work, and that goes for the vast majority of popular programming.
* Many fans of ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' blamed Dreamworks for the new designs introduced in ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTalesInTheHouse''. It was actually Big Idea's decision to change the characters' designs in an attempt to update what they saw as archaic designs that were beholden to the limits of early 1990s 3D animation software.
* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'''s fundamental destruction of [[MadeInCountryX the reputation of Canadian television animation]] has made it a pretty big source of this, due to the numerous misconceptions its PeripheryHatedom spawned.
** The show's massive hatedom sometimes use it as proof that [[HitlerAteSugar all Canadian animation is horrible]]. What many people forget is that creator Scott Fellows, Creator/JamesArnoldTaylor (Johnny's voice actor), and most of the show's production crew, are Americans. In fact, Creator/WarnerBrosAnimation produced the early seasons while the later seasons were made in association with both Cartoon Network ''and'' Creator/{{Teletoon}}.
** [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_content Canadian content laws]] are often used by people to explain why ''Johnny Test'' ran for as long as it did despite being widely hated, claiming that because the laws require channels to air a certain amount of natively produced content every day it was basically immune to being taken off air. This gets rather silly when you consider the law has been around for a long time; the real reason for ''Johnny Test'''s longevity was simply that its low budget and solid ratings allowed the networks to make profit very easily and thus motivated them to air it as much as possible and continue ordering new seasons.
** People frequently use the show as proof that Creator/{{Teletoon}} uses the cheapest and laziest possible production values for all its original productions, despite the fact Teletoon isn't even an animation studio (and doesn't even have an in-house production company for that matter) and is in fact just a network that's involvement generally involves little more than ordering episodes of shows, lending them ''some'' funding (although they're not the sole donators to any show's budget), and giving executive notes to the production crew. In fact, '''''NONE''''' of Teletoon's original shows were actually made by them, but rather, they were the creations of numerous animation and television studios across Canada (in the case of ''Johnny Test'', the real creators of the show were Creator/CookieJarEntertainment); the only reason Teletoon's shows are called "original productions" is because they were ''originally'' created for/commissioned by the network.
* With ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', it's not uncommon to hear people accuse Creator/{{Teletoon}} as being responsible for all the ExecutiveMeddling that got the DarkerAndEdgier pilot remade into the DenserAndWackier final product. In reality, it was Creator/DisneyXD that mandated all the changes in order to make the series more kid-friendly and thus more marketable to American audiences; Teletoon ''approved'' the pilot concept without issue due to originally intending the series to be aimed more at teenagers, in line with their own programming (such as the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' series, their most popular show at the time). This is more evident with the [[SeasonalRot second season]], which received the tonal {{retool}} it did at the request of Disney XD's executives rather than Teletoon's.
* Angry ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' fans frequently see Creator/FreshTV and Creator/{{Teletoon}} as being entirely responsible for many of the unpopular or controversial story decisions made in the seasons following the first. However, Creator/CartoonNetwork purchased the majority of the rights to the franchise after the massive success of the first season, giving them greater ownership and [[ExecutiveMeddling far more influence]] over the show and its production than Teletoon, the franchise's channel of origin.
* During ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman''[='=]s heyday, it got a lot of flack due to ExecutiveMeddling relating to it removing the use of ''Batman'' characters in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' outside of Bruce Wayne himself. However, both shows were victims of that as, barring a cameo of Nightwing in ''JLU'', ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' limited the use of Robin (resulting in ''The Batman''[='=]s Robin being a case of AdaptationalLateAppearance) and neither show could use Two-Face, the Scarecrow, or Ra's al Ghul due to ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' (resulting in ''The Batman'' using its first Clayface in place of Two-Face, Hugo Strange in place of the Scarecrow, and Black Mask and -- in TheMovie -- [[WesternAnimation/TheBatmanVsDracula Count Dracula]] in place of Ra's al Ghul).
* In the Hebrew dub of ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'', the GratuitousSpanish is replaced with GratuitousEnglish. This caused some controversy - Spanish is the major minority language in the United States, so by that logic, GratuitousSpanish should have become [[GratuitousForeignLanguage Gratuitous Arabic]] instead - overlooking the fact all of Dora's other foreign dubs replaced Spanish with English as well.
* [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=CFoZRbPsNuE This video]] blames ''WebAnimation/{{Cocomelon}}'' on the cancellations of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''. The biggest problem with this statement is that ''Cocomelon'' is not only aimed at a far younger audience than these two shows, being made for preschoolers as opposed to older children ages 6-12, but they're produced by different companies, for different platforms, all with their their own programming strategies: ''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'' was planned for a 52 episode run from the moment it was greenlit, while ''The Owl House'' was a causality of a corporate leadership change and other factors.
* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'': The show has been heavily accused of queerbaiting during its seventh season, after publicizing the fact that Shiro was gay and that Adam, his ex-boyfriend, would return that season. In the series proper, Adam is already dead by the time Shiro returns and only appears in two scenes, both of which are flashbacks. While the creators may have, knowingly or not, stoked hype for this plot, fans also blame them for the posters on Netflix's service that heavily marketed that aspect of the seventh season; said posters, however, are not made by the creators, but by Netflix itself, and they have no input in it.
* ''WesternAnimation/HighGuardianSpice'':
** While the crew often gets blamed for creating the infamous initial announcement trailer, story editor Amalia Levari claimed this was out of their control; according to Levari, Crunchyroll had [[https://imgur.com/a/KukJAr4 asked the crew]] isolated behind-the-scenes questions, which they answered [[https://imgur.com/a/rqqLsQR not knowing that those questions would be repurposed into an announcement trailer]]. As [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2021-06-18/crunchyroll-originals-have-been-a-disaster/.173347 confirmed]] by Sofia Alexander, the creator of ''WesternAnimation/OnyxEquinox'', the production staff don't have any input as to how their shows are marketed by Crunchyroll.
** The series' staff are also accused of diverting funds from subscribers' money into this series' creation. However, not only is this claim unfounded but what has been confirmed runs contrary to it. [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2021-06-18/crunchyroll-originals-have-been-a-disaster/.173347 In 2015]], Crunchyroll had specifically received funding from companies like Sumitomo Corporation and [[https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/crunchyroll/ Otter Media]] to invest in co-productions and original programming, including the Crunchyroll Originals program in general.
* The hatedom of ''WesternAnimation/WorkItOutWombats'' believes it was responsible for ''WesternAnimation/ElinorWondersWhy'' getting ScrewedByTheNetwork, even though they have nothing to do with each other besides sharing [[Creator/PipelineStudios an animation studio]]. Although ''Elinor'' fans thought their show was canned, once season 2 was confirmed to be in production, their claims of ''Wombats'' "killing Elinor" became unfounded.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Velma}}'':
** The show's staff received no end of flak for not including Scooby-Doo in the show due to feeling he is too "kiddy". While [[https://www.polygon.com/nycc/23392767/velma-nycc-trailer-scooby-doo-mindy-kaling showrunner Charlie Grandy]] certainly did admit that the writing staff thought Scooby-Doo was a generally childish element of the franchise that would have been hard to fit into the show's adult tone, he also revealed that they wouldn't have been able use the character even if they wanted to, as Creator/WarnerBrosAnimation told them that [[ExecutiveVeto the Great Dane was off-limits]].
** The show was also blamed for causing the cancellation of ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'' due to how that show was taken off of HBO Max and that Velma came in to seemingly replace it while having Velma's and Fred's character designs look very close to that of Quinn Ergon and Gary Goodspeed respectively. However, ''Final Space'' was screwed over as a result of complications with the merger between WB and Discovery along with the failure of executives to recognize the popularity of the show and that they wrote it off for taxes.
** Many accuse Creator/MindyKaling of being the creator of the series; that honor would go to Charlie Grandy. She also is confused as a writer when she isn't credited as one. She is actually the executive producer.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': When discussing the reasons the show was canceled and Season 3 was shortened to three 44-minute specials, people are usually quick to point to the show's LGBTQ+ representation, particularly due to the former CEO. This ignores [[Series/HighSchoolMusicalTheMusicalTheSeries the]] [[Series/DiaryOfAFuturePresident other]] Disney series with LGBTQ+ representation that were allowed to continue despite it, and creator Dana Terrace [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheOwlHouse/comments/q1x1uh/ama_except_by_anything_i_mean_these_questions_only/ stated]] it was due to being serialized with an older audiences seen as not fitting the "Disney brand"--the Disney Channel brand which focused on episodic comedies for young audiences. While a later post Dana made after the 2022 Florida LGBTQ protests [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheOwlHouse/comments/t8yf4t/its_hard_not_to_assume_there_was_bad_faith/ suggested]] homophobia was a factor, there are others to consider.
** Due to the unfortunate timing of the episode "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E5ThroughTheLookingGlassRuins Through the Looking Glass Ruins]]", many assumed Amity kissing Luz was what caused Disney to cancel the show. However, due to ProductionLeadTime the decision was most likely made well before the episode was even scripted. Dana Terrace herself would even confirm that the kiss had no influence on cancellation of the show.
* It's commonly claimed, including on this very wiki, that ''WesternAnimation/SwatKats'' was cancelled on the direct orders of Ted Turner, who disliked the show's violent content and/or wanted to promote his own pet project ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers''. While Turner did disapprove of cartoon violence in general, his distaste was mostly aimed at AnimatedShockComedy shows like ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' rather than action/adventure shows. The actual decision to cancel the show was made well below his level, and seems to have largely happened because the executives in charge ''believed'' Turner disliked it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* A very common misconception about the film adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' was that Creator/TimBurton directed it, especially when the trailers said "From the creator of ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas''". Actually, Creator/HenrySelick directed both ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' '''and''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' (Burton just produced), and he doesn't always have a similar style like Tim Burton does with at least 60% of his films. (Including stop-motion.) That misconception seemed to be what the marketing was aiming for (probably figuring that implying Burton's involvement would get more people to see it).
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'' suffered from this as well. Tim Burton's name was attached to the movie and people assumed -- partly because of the weird animation style, SceneryGorn, and dark themes -- that the whole thing was his. ''Shane Acker'' came up with the concept, co-wrote, and directed, while Burton just produced it. Also, people blamed Burton for taking the credit even though he clearly credits himself a producer.
* While many people assume Disney forced Pixar to make their first critical failure, ''WesternAnimation/Cars2'', [[MerchandiseDriven to drive merchandise sales]], [[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/movies/john-lasseter-of-pixar-defends-cars-2.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2 John Lasseter insisted this wasn't the case.]] Lasseter came up with the idea of a sequel starring Mater when he was promoting the first film.
* Much of the {{Hatedom}} for ''WesternAnimation/{{Planes}}'' is aimed at Pixar despite the movie being filmed and animated by [=DisneyToon=] Studios. It didn't help that the movie was executive produced by John Lasseter.
* When it was announced that ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'' would be remade, a lot of people have credited Creator/DonBluth's adaptation of being even more faithful and how this would automatically be less faithful. Yeah sure, Bluth's version does follow the book it was based off of...for the most part. Those who read the books would know that Jenner actually didn't stick around and plot to murder a terrifying Nicodemus and succeed...he actually deserted the rat colony, was overheard of as being electrocuted by a car motor (with other deserters), and Nicodemus actually did not die. On top of the fact that, you know, the film isn't even in theatres yet [[DevelopmentHell and, considering very little has been mentioned since the first announcement, may never happen at all.]]
** This would be one thing if this was announced in the 80s. Don Bluth probably didn't ''know'' there would be any others, since the movie was made ''before'' the two other NIMH books were written.
* In WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick's review of the film, she blames Music/BarryManilow for the songs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Thumbelina|1994}}'', despite the fact that he only wrote the music, not the lyrics.
* Despite popular belief, ''WesternAnimation/TheEmojiMovie'' was NOT responsible for Sony's nixing of Creator/GenndyTartakovsky's ''Popeye'' movie. The two movies were developed in two different time frames, separated by the fateful Sony hack and the subsequent shuffling of executive positions, making it more of a case of unfortunate timing more than anything.
* For a long time, the critically panned American GagDub of ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicRoundabout2005'' was blamed on Creator/ButchHartman, but the true culprit was ExecutiveMeddling from the dubious Harvey Weinstein. As Hartman [[https://youtu.be/ggrjOmJ7TNI explained]], his take on the dub was much closer to the original English version with the Britishisms toned down, but Weinstein ordered more re-writes late in production with an emphasis on pop culture jokes (some of it done by ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}'' director Cory Edwards). For the record, Hartman considers ''Doogal'' [[CreatorBacklash a mistake]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' is often accused of getting the [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants series proper]] UnCanceled and causing it to go through SeasonalRot as a result. In reality, Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} was trying to convince Stephen Hillenburg to renew the show for a fourth season between 2002 and 2004, and he refused, so they hired Paul Tibbit instead. In fact, new episodes couldn't have been produced between the movie's release and Season 4's release, as the two were only six months apart (November 2004 and May 2005 respectively), while ''[=SpongeBob=]'' episodes take [[ProductionLeadTime at least nine months to produce]].
* Despite some of the questionable choices Creator/CartoonNetwork made in the 2010s, greenlighting ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies'' is not one of them. Like [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo the show]] it's based on, it's produced by Warner Brothers Animation and DC Comics, and is not a network original.
* Creator/WarnerBros has taken some criticism for supposedly making the 1990s ''Franchise/TomAndJerry'' [[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie movie]] when they actually didn't because they didn't own the characters until Time Warner, WB's parent company, acquired Turner Entertainment in 1996. It was actually made by Creator/FilmRoman and distributed by Creator/{{Miramax}}. The only thing WB has to do with it is distributing the [=DVD=] release.
* Creator/TimBurton gets blamed for [[BilledAboveTheTitle upstaging]] [[BillingDisplacement credit]] on Henry Selick for ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas''. Debates rage over who did the most work and will go as far as to insult one or the other. In actuality Burton chose Selick to direct ''Nightmare'' so he could direct ''Film/BatmanReturns''. Another fact is, directors, actors and even producers, rarely control the billing of a film. Such things are done by the studio marketing department and the executives. The lines get even more blurred when it came to ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' which advertised as being ''From the Director of The Nightmare Before Christmas'', which is factual as Selick did direct both ''Nightmare'' and ''Coraline''. Still Burton gets blamed for upstaging credit for ''Coraline'' despite the fact Burton didn't have ''anything'' to do with ''Coraline''.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron''. Many people blame Jeffrey Katzenberg for cutting the film at the last minute and ruining the movie. While he did cut the film and tone down some scenes as they were really too dark to get a PG rating[[note]]This was before PG-13 rating, the original cut could have made the movie R[[/note]], in reality, most of the cuts were just timing issues. While he did do an infamous twelve minute cut, most of it was restored after Eisner talked to him. Most of the film blame can go towards ExecutiveMeddling. The film was already overbudget and had been in production since 1973 when the rights to the book were obtained. The film had missed its release date a number of times, but issues with adaption, in fighting between Walt's old animators and the newer animators caused a lot of people to drop out of the film. Katzenberg wasn't hired by Disney until 1984, only a few months before the original release date. The storyboards of the movie and the book tie in show the missing and reworked scenes.
* The failure of ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' to make a profit on box office earnings is blamed on its CriticalDissonance by many people but the film did well where it was released theatrically and was popular on Creator/DisneyPlus to the point of DemandOverload so the actual reason for its apparent flop is more probably the fact that Disney did not release it widely in countries without Disney+ and did not release it domestically outside of awards qualifying runs in select theaters.
* As soon as it was revealed that Toadsworth was gonna be in ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'' [[AdaptedOut before being cut]], people started pointing fingers at Creator/{{Nintendo}} over the decision. While Nintendo has made similar decisions in the past, [[NotMeThisTime this time]], Creator/IlluminationEntertainment were in charge of the final decision to remove him.
* The writers of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheKillingJoke'' tend to get most of the blame for Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon's romantic relationship, which was one of the most widely disliked things about the film. Contrary to popular belief, however, the idea didn't originate in the film: they were previously depicted as ex-lovers in the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse, to which the ''Killing Joke'' film adaptation was a very deliberate SpiritualSuccessor. The key difference was that their relationship was only ever ''referenced'' in the DCAU: it was first established in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' (which is set decades after ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'') when an aging Barbara reveals that she previously dated Bruce in her youth. Since their relationship wasn't shown in detail (and it was never explicitly stated how old Barbara was when it happened), their age difference wasn't quite as uncomfortable for viewers at the time.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* There's a trend among professional film critics to regard the MediaNotes/NewHollywood era as the last true Golden Age of films. This was a period where ambitious young film directors, using the new freedom of the R rating, created DarkerAndEdgier films that were critically acclaimed box office hits. Many of these critics (perhaps the most prominent was ''Newsweek'' critic David Ansen) misblame Creator/StevenSpielberg for making ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' and especially Creator/GeorgeLucas for making ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'', because this supposedly "ruined" the New Hollywood era, and replaced it with the "inferior" [[MediaNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood Blockbuster Age of Hollywood]]. This argument and sentiment, while valid on the face of it (and something even Quotes/GeorgeLucas has admitted is true), ignores a lot of other industry trends, and other mistakes made at the time. Namely the fact that the more artistically inclined film-makers never bothered to leverage their gains into gaining legal recognition as artists and access to copyrights (which their French counterparts did), that the film industry was so weak that it was being bought out by corporations at the time. The era lasted long primarily because of tax-breaks from the Nixon government which amounted ([[https://web.archive.org/web/20160428110124/http://articles.latimes.com/2003/aug/17/entertainment/ca-dargis17/2 in critic Manohla Dargis' words]]) to a virtual subsidy of the film industry, a fact which did not stop Hollywood from biting the hand that fed it.
** Likewise, ''Film/ANewHope'' is very much a film of the New Hollywood. As historians point out, towards the middle of TheSeventies, several Hollywood film-makers became invested in GenreThrowback and nostalgia, reviving older Hollywood genres by updating them for a contemporary audience. They note that the film-makers BecameTheirOwnAntithesis in that they started out making low-budget films for adults but towards the end of the decade, decided to make large-scale epic films of the kind that caused so much trouble for Hollywood in TheSixties. These films were expensive, but at the same time, still fused with experimental and discordant touches. The first ''Star Wars'' film was made with atypical actors of the kind who would not be typical action heroes in the golden age and on a relatively small budget, and more or less treated BMovie serials with the same quality as the EpicMovie. In short, ''Star Wars'' is the New Hollywood becoming a victim of its own success.
** On a related note, ''Film/HeavensGate'' tends to be regarded as TheMillstone for the entire MediaNotes/NewHollywood generation and as a flop that bankrupted the studio. While these facts are true, a lot of it is {{Flanderization}} since the production failure was as much the fault of inexperienced studio executives as director Michael Cimino and the former have tended to latch on to the latter. The post-''Franchise/StarWars'' trend at the time was already making it difficult for directors to make more personal films with Creator/RobertAltman moving to France in TheEighties, despite being the most prolific film-maker of the period. ''Heaven's Gate'' itself has a better reputation these days, having been added to Creator/TheCriterionCollection.
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'':
** Before the ''Film/Godzilla1998'' film, a 1994 ''Script/{{Godzilla|1994}}'' film was planned. The film was originally going to have Godzilla fight against a giant monster named the Gryphon and have special effects done by none other than Creator/StanWinston Studios. A misconception that has been circulating was that the reason the Gryphon never manifested was because Toho vetoed the idea, and proposed Mothra and King Ghidorah instead. Both were turned down because they were extremely expensive. The real reason was actually worse.\\\
The real season is that Sony's [[ExecutiveMeddling executives disagreed about the budget]] and caused the would be director Jan De Bont to drop out. There were several attempts to re-negotiate, and get a director, Tri-Star brought in Roland Emmerich (the first director to turn down directing ''Godzilla'' 1994 because he explicitly stated that he didn't like Godzilla.) and Dean Devlin. The condition they agreed to direct was that they would rewrite the entire thing however they wanted, and we [[InNameOnly all know how that went.]] The even sadder irony is that the budget went way over the budget Sony didn't agree on, meaning that the whole screw-up was really meaningless.
** The belief that ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla'' was edited for the US release to make King Kong win instead of Godzilla. Like ''Battle of the Planets'', it was indeed heavily {{Macekre}}d, but this wasn't part of it -- the movie was one of the earlier ones, before Godzilla became a hero, which meant Godzilla had to lose (though not ''die'') in every movie. [[http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/godzilla.asp Snopes.com confirms]]. This claim is so prevalent that even resources discussing the movies have mistakenly portrayed it as true.
* Among the complaints about Creator/TimBurton's [[Film/PlanetOfTheApes2001 2001 remake]] of ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'' was in its ending, which is significantly different from the original film. However, the new ending is actually closer to that of the [[AdaptationDisplacement original book]]. There's also the fact that Burton's creative input may have been exaggerated to get the film extra publicity.
* The same complaints were alleged at Burton's adaptation of ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''. Most of the complaints were, in fact, not departures from the original book, but actually more faithful to the book than the last movie was. The "changed" lyrics to the Oompa Loompas' musical numbers, for example, are directly lifted from lyrics in the book. One [[http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2005/07/charlie_and_the_chocolate_fact.html prominent film critic]] complained that the Burton adaptation chickened out by showing that the bad children survived their ordeals, where the 70s film had stayed "faithful" -- but the Burton film was actually being faithful to an identical scene in the book. The only drastic change to the film came towards the end with the subplot about Wonka's father, which is all Burton. The bad kids survived in the 70s movie, too, but a lot of people, including that film critic, apparently missed the line explaining it.\\
\\
It should also perhaps be noted that, even though [[FandomRivalry many fans of the original film disown the Burton remake]], the remake actually exists, in part, because Creator/RoaldDahl was [[DisownedAdaptation much displeased with how the original film turned out]]. His will even forbade future filmmakers from adapting the novel's sequel, ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'', into a film -- which is why Burton's remake doesn't have the SequelHook that the original did. Legitimate criticism of the remake notwithstanding, Dahl's widow personally gave it her blessing, saying that she felt that it was closer to her husband's vision than the original.
* Towards the end of ''Franchise/StarTrek's'' most recent run on television, it became popular to blame everything that had ever gone wrong with the franchise on Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. This became most noticeable with the flop of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'', with both being blamed for the screenplay, along with the fact that the film was released in the same week as ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers''. Braga was completely innocent, and had nothing whatsoever to do with ''Nemesis'' (or even the previous film, ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection''). Berman was arguably responsible to some extent, as he contributed to the storyline and happily gave screenwriter John Logan [[ProtectionFromEditors a no rewrites clause]], but the two big things he gets criticised for -- the release date and the decision to hire Stuart Baird as director despite Baird knowing nothing about the franchise -- were decisions made by Paramount without consulting Berman.
* Some odd-seeming NarrativeDevices and {{Plots}} in old movies have been misblamed on [[MediaNotes/TheHaysCode Hays Office]] censorship. (ValuesDissonance may be a better explanation.)
* With regards to the RomanticPlotTumor in ''Film/PearlHarbor'', Creator/MichaelBay didn't put that in. It was Randall Wallace, and even then, at the behest of studio executives who wanted to ride the success that was ascribed to the romance sub-plot of ''Film/Titanic1997''.
* Blaming every last thing about ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' on director Creator/JoelSchumacher is practically standard issue (to the point where his very strong filmography leading up to it [[NeverLiveItDown is completely dismissed in discussions]]), but his actual involvement wasn't as great as stated. While the overly goofy tone of the film, gaudy visuals and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Bat]]-[[WTHCostumingDepartment Nipples]] were indeed his fault, he was only loosely involved with writing the film; he helped screenwriter Akiva Goldsman come up with a story outline, then went off to direct ''Film/ATimeToKill'', during which time Goldsman finished the screenplay mostly by himself, albeit with the studio execs demanding the inclusion of tons of characters to help sell more toys. At worst, Schumacher just turned what would have been a very poor film regardless into an even bigger mess.\\
\\
This can also extend to ''Film/BatmanForever'', which, while it was better-received than its successor, is largely seen as the [[FranchiseOriginalSin origin]] of many of the problems ''B&R'' would face. Schumacher wanted to adapt ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'', and even had a script written with the help of the comic's author, Creator/FrankMiller; however, because the dark tone of ''Film/BatmanReturns'' was blamed for the film underperforming, the studio forced him to make a much more lighthearted film.
* When it was eventually released, ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy2005'' met with a lukewarm response. Fans were quick to blame most of the elements that they disliked on ExecutiveMeddling which butchered Creator/DouglasAdams' vision... apparently unaware that most of the more contentious material (such as the increased focus on the romance between Arthur and Trillian and the Humma Kavula subplot) were actually put in there by Adams himself. For that matter, pretty much ''every'' adaptation of ''Hitchhiker's Guide'' was criticized for differences from the source material and crying "AdaptationDecay", despite the fact that Adams was directly involved with every one of them that was made when he was alive, and intentionally designed each of them to have significant differences from one another.
* ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence'' was an idea and script created by legendarily cold, clinical director Creator/StanleyKubrick, so when it was picked up after Kubrick's death by his hand-chosen successor, Creator/StevenSpielberg, a director notorious for his warm, humanistic and occasionally {{Narm}}y disposition, many Kubrick fans immediately wrote it off, and when they saw it, blamed everything they saw was a weakness on Spielberg, but most of the things blamed on Spielberg (specifically the robotic talking teddy bear that is David's accompaniment throughout the film) were present in Kubrick's original script, and in fact may have been why Kubrick gave the project to Spielberg prior to his death, saying it was "closer to his sensibilities". The rather controversial [[spoiler:AfterTheEnd]] ending was also completely planned by Kubrick and not Spielberg.
* ''[[Franchise/HarryPotter Wizarding World]]'' franchise:
** It's pretty widely agreed that Dumbledore is the major character who came off the worst in the process of adapting the books to [[Film/HarryPotter movies]]. In particular, a lot of fans dislike the second actor, Michael Gambon. Some of this stems from [[ReplacementScrappy comparing him with the late Richard Harris]], but the rest seems to point towards the infamous "[[MemeticMutation Dumbledore asked calmly]]" moment. Additionally, established fans seem to have shifted blame on the "asked calmly" scene to the director (who'd never read any of the books), though new fans are always around to dig up the old chestnut. There is also blame to be had on the writing and his backstory having to be [[AdaptationExplanationExtrication condensed out of the movies without much explanation]]. The middle aged version played by Creator/JudeLaw in the ''Fantastic Beasts'' series is well-loved by fans and is considered to be an all-around better representation of the character despite very limited screen time thus far. This comes from a combination of JK Rowling being the one writing the character this go around and Law seeming to understand the character better than some of the people involved with the original movies.
** By now, it's pretty much taken as gospel that Creator/SteveKloves is your average foamy-mouthed delusional [[{{Shipping}} Harmonian]]. The idea that he simply thought Harry and Hermione might end up together isn't actually unfounded, as Creator/JKRowling mentioned once that "Steve Kloves who has been the script writer, who is enormously insightful on the series and a very good friend, after he read book seven he said to me, 'You know, I thought something was going to happen between Harry and Hermione, and I didn't know whether I wanted it or not.'" On the other hand, this statement clearly indicates that Kloves did not have an actual preference for Harry/Hermione, he just thought it might happen, and much less that he was actively inserting Harry/Hermione moments into the screenplays even after the ship didn't sail.
** When ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald '' was first released to middling reviews, the film was considered poorly written with Rowling being the one blamed for its confusing nature and overstuffed plot. However, due to the release of an extended cut on the Blu-Ray with about an extra fourteen minutes that is considered a massive [[ImprovedByTheRecut improvement]] and fixed most of said issues, these days the film is more likely to be considered poorly edited above all else. Those who've seen the extended cut by and large consider the bones of the story fine but chipped away at by overzealous editing that took away key context and exposition to meet an arbitrary, studio imposed run time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. It's believed that roughly thirty scenes were either cut or significant watered down to meet runtime. The film, much like ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' (which had a whole half hour edited out in the roughly six months between the film's completion and release), was made under Kevin Tsjuihara's leadership at WB and chopped up against the creators' vision at the last minute to suit his whims. Tsjuihara was known to have a dislike of longer movies because he believed they could be shown fewer times throughout the day and fewer showings meant less money. Unlike most examples on this page, it doesn't seem like entire subplots were cut but rather the cuts came in the form of small bits of exposition and character development that added up. What's widely considered to be the most baffling cut is an extended version of Newt and Dumbledore's conversation which explained both why Dumbledore sent Newt to New York in the first place and why Grindelwald was obsessed with finding an obscurial in only 40 seconds. Credence and Nagini's subplot in particular stands out as benefiting from having more time dedicated to it. The extended version isn't considered a masterpiece by any means and is still overly edited but its parts do form a cohesive whole taking the blame away from Rowling and putting it mostly on WB but to a lesser extent the editing team and director Creator/DavidYates as well.
* ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009'' differs greatly from ''other adaptations'', especially the classic, genteel Creator/BasilRathbone or Creator/JeremyBrett interpretations, but one only has to look at the laundry-list of continuity nods on that page to realize that in terms of characterization, Richie's film is closer to the spirit of Doyle's stories -- just in a [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation different direction]] from previous adaptations.
** In the same vein, a common criticism of the 2011 sequel, ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'', is that it "dumbed down" Sherlock Holmes by largely replacing the mystery and complex deductions with elaborate fight scenes and large-scale action set pieces -- essentially turning Holmes into "Victorian Film/JamesBond". While it's understandable that people would like to see mystery in a movie about Sherlock Holmes, it should be noted that ''A Game of Shadows'' was based (albeit very loosely) on elements of the classic Doyle stories "The Final Problem" and "The Adventure of the Empty House" -- both of which were essentially CloakAndDagger adventure stories, with no central mystery at all. Hell, if you've read either of those stories, you'll notice that the screenwriters actually took pains to ''add'' a mystery where there weren't any in the source material. ''A Game of Shadows'' has [[TheReveal the climactic reveal]] about the true nature of Moriarty's plans and [[spoiler: how Holmes managed to figure them out midway through the movie]], while "The Final Problem" just has a long SternChase across Europe.
* Creator/WilliamShatner is usually blamed for absolutely everything wrong with ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier''. While he made mistakes and his original idea was far too big and polarizing to ever truly be filmable (both of which he admits to, repeatedly, in his various books), the final product was actually a result of these being massively compounded by just about everything that could possibly go wrong with a movie, from delays to poor results from hired companies to equipment malfunction[[note]]not to mention the 1988 Writers' Strike happening smack dab in the middle of a rushed pre-production[[/note]], resulting in the cutting, alteration, or downgrading of numerous scenes. The majority of this was simply beyond his control, and the fact that he even got the movie made in ''any'' coherent form is an accomplishment.
** On a different note, some fans blame Creator/GeneRoddenberry for the film's virtual CanonDiscontinuity status. While it's true that Roddenberry didn't want to acknowledge the film as true ''Star Trek'', he actually felt the same way about ''all'' of the ''Trek'' films after ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', and if anything, fellow executive producer Rick Berman was probably more proactive in squashing continuity references to Original Series films and episodes. As for why ''The Final Frontier'' seemed to get this treatment much harder than other TOS material, well, the writing staff responsible for most of televised ''Star Trek'' from TNG Season 3 onwards simply thought that the film was complete garbage and didn't want their episodes to be associated with it in any way, shape or form.
%%% Please no natter. We know the film is widely derided.
* A lot of ''Comicbook/XMen'' fans blame Creator/BrettRatner for every single problem with ''Film/XMenTheLastStand''. Others blame the film's original director, Creator/MatthewVaughn, for screwing the film over by quitting right before the start of filming, and still others hold both men equally to blame. In actual fact, while you could make legitimate criticisms about both Ratner's direction and Vaughn's decision to quit, neither of them were responsible for the storyline. That was about 90% the same as the final film well before Vaughn had signed up, and neither director was permitted to make any serious changes to the screenplay (which, despite him giving "family reasons" for his decision to quit, was apparently a major factor in Vaughn leaving the film). Ironically, many fans actually blame ''Bryan Singer'' for everything wrong with ''The Last Stand''. Despite (or perhaps even ''because of'') Singer departing the franchise to direct ''Film/SupermanReturns'', and having nothing to do with ''X3'' at all!
* While most reviewers managed to avoid falling into the trap of blaming Creator/KevinSmith for the screenplay of ''Film/CopOut'', which he didn't write, many blamed him for what were felt to be weak action sequences in the movie. In fact, Smith didn't direct any of the major action scenes -- David R. Ellis (of ''Film/FinalDestination 2'' and ''4'' fame) was brought in to handle those.
** Of course, Smith was still the overall supervisor ''and'' the editor of the movie, so he was still responsible for making sure they looked competent.
** On the other hand, some critics '''did''' think that Smith had written ''Cop Out'', and misblamed him accordingly. Some acknowledged that he hadn't written the screenplay, but said that he should have rewritten it himself and so still deserved blame (which is a slightly more valid viewpoint, though rather naive of how things generally work in Hollywood).
* Creator/RogerMoore is often blamed for the ''Film/JamesBond'' franchise's turn to comedy in the '70s. But screenwriter Creator/TomMankiewicz was brought in specifically to add humorous touches to the last (at the time) Creator/SeanConnery movie, ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'', which is as campy as any Moore flick. The real reason for the shift in tone was the perceived financial failure of the relatively serious ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'', which -- while not a big flop as is often believed -- was less profitable than previous films in the series.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** Fans say the decision to make Greedo shoot first in the "Special Edition" version of ''Film/ANewHope'' is proof that George Lucas has completely lost touch with his earlier work. The change may have been to get a PG instead of a PG-13 rating (which didn't exist at the time they made the original trilogy), but Lucas [[FlipFlopOfGod flip-flops a lot]].
** Creator/NataliePortman's performance as Queen Amidala gets lambasted as flat and lifeless. Oft cited are scenes in which it ''[[Creator/KeiraKnightley isn't actually Portman]]'' in the Queen Amidala makeup.
** George Lucas had little to do with the infamous ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial'', especially since it's [[CreatorBacklash his biggest regret]].
** Portman and both actors who played Anakin had very poor scripts to work with, and Lucas insisted on an overly melodramatic acting style to mimic old '30s and '40s adventure serials. There's a behind-the-scenes clip of Creator/HaydenChristensen doing an excellent line read, only to have George come in and coach him to do it again in a more drab and stilted manner.
** Creator/JJAbrams gets slammed for the decision to [[spoiler:kill off Han Solo]] in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' even though Creator/HarrisonFord had been pushing for that exact thing to happen since ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' (that is to say, ''35 years'' before Abrams's film was released). More generally, pretty much every single detail in the script that can possibly be perceived as a flaw tends to get dumped on Abrams, which completely ignores the fact that he co-wrote the movie with Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt.
** Creator/RianJohnson gets a lot of flak for Luke Skywalker having exiled himself during ''Film/TheLastJedi'', but that idea was first proposed by '''Creator/GeorgeLucas''' in his initial treatment for the sequel trilogy, not to mention that it was established in ''The Force Awakens'' (which Johnson had no involvement with).
** Given how Lucasfilm President Creator/KathleenKennedy is blamed for anything that goes wrong with a new Star Wars movie, many point to her for the TroubledProduction of ''Film/{{Solo}}'' by hiring Lord and Miller only to fire them midway through production. In actuality, it was writer Lawrence Kasdan who wanted them to work on the project before he later realized that they weren't the best fit for the story.
** The [[TheScrappy thoroughly reviled]] Jar Jar Binks (arguably the single most unpopular part of the prequel trilogy) gets criticized for an awful lot of reasons, but one of the most common criticisms of the character is that his thick faux-Caribbean accent makes him [[SpaceJews an insulting caricature of African-Americans]]. While George Lucas may have come up with the general concept of a non-human PluckyComicRelief character, several behind-the-scenes accounts have claimed that the accent wasn't actually his idea. In fact, Jar Jar's actor Ahmed Best (who ''is'' African-American, and of partial Caribbean ancestry) has actually claimed that [[ThrowItIn he came up with it himself]] while experimenting with different voices in pre-production, and that he got the idea while imitating his Jamaican uncle.
* Creator/MichaelBay and the screenwriters of ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'' may be guilty of many crimes against art, but they did not, as the [[http://www.agonybooth.com/movies/Transformers__Revenge_of_the_Fallen_2009.aspx Agony Booth recap]] accuses, feel the need to "make up a new character like the Fallen instead of using someone (or something) established like Unicron." The Fallen was a pre-existing character, taken from the comics. (The review was later corrected.)
** Meanwhile, Michael Bay suffers type 5 misblame, apparently being singlehandedly responsible for ''everything'' one dislikes about the movies, up to and including things like new characters with the names of older characters (a well-established practice in ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' in general, as a method of maintaining trademarks to avoid repeats of what happened to characters like [[strike:Trailbreaker]] [[WritingAroundTrademarks Trailcutter]]).
** If Bay's name is in the credits at all, expect people to dump on it and dismiss it as pure garbage before it's even released. Once it is released, they will blame him for any flaws, real or perceived, even if he was only the executive producer (meaning he or his production company footed the bill, but that he likely had no creative input). Some dismissed ''Series/BlackSails'' before it aired merely because it came from his production company.
** Forget Michael Bay, Creator/ShiaLaBeouf is actually the person personally responsible for everything wrong with ''Transformers''. He's also the one responsible for every fault in the [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull fourth]] ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' movie.
** Michael Bay also often gets blamed for the Transformer who changes into a realistic human. Apparently the people blaming him for this forgot about the Pretenders from back in 1988, which had realistic human coverings, although their robot forms still transformed into vehicles. Beast Wars, however, provides a precedent for transformers having organic alternate modes.
** Skids and Mudflap are racist caricatures and that's all Bay's fault. Except for the fact that they're based on the performances of their voice actors, one of whom is black, and are intended to be the robot equivalent of "wiggas" -- white boys who act like how they ''think'' black people act. They have a rather different characterization in the novel.
* Creator/MNightShyamalan is certainly not blameless in the overall quality of ''Film/TheLastAirbender'', but a lot of the issues with the film came from above his pay grade.
** Creator/{{Paramount}} didn't want to wait a year to let the show wrap up so there was a fair amount of writing in the dark. His original script that was thrown out is reported to more or less have stuck plot by plot to the show. The ghostwriter of the final script accidentally backed them into a huge corner plot wise for the rest of the series. Specifically Aang running away because he was told the Avatar couldn't have kids. Zuko's whole character arc depends on him being the direct descendant of an Avatar.
** The studio blew most of the budget filming the opening sequence in the Southern Water Tribe (Greenland) causing the rest of the movie to be filmed inside and not look as good.
** He didn't actually want to cast white people to play Katara and Sokka. Katara's actress, Creator/NicolaPeltz, was cast because Paramount owed her father (a billionaire tycoon) a favor. White Katara meant also white Sokka.
** The studio also mandated that the runtime be under 100 minutes which is what made a lot of it incoherent. The short run time was mandated because they needed to rush to get it converted to 3D in time to meet the lucrative Independence Day weekend release.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** Many fans and critics blamed the mediocre response to ''Film/IronMan2'' on director Creator/JonFavreau. In reality, the film saw copious amounts of ExecutiveMeddling from Creator/MarvelStudios, especially with regard to the elements meant to act as set-up for ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. Favreau had such a bad experience working on the film that he refused to return as the director for ''Film/IronMan3''.
** Fans of [[spoiler:Agent Coulson]] were quick to call for the head of Creator/JossWhedon, who is after all known for killing fan-favorites, after ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' came out. [[http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/09/15/avengers-assemble-clark-gregg-and-titus-welliver-agents-of-shield-interviewed/ Apparently, though]], this was part of the overall MCU masterplan, and Whedon didn't get much say in it.
** Similarly, when ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' came out, detractors accused Whedon of deliberately ignoring events from previous movies (particularly ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''). In reality, Whedon had been required to write the script for ''Age'' in isolation, to prevent the possibility of his movie spoiling the major twists of the other movies.
** Ironically enough, it was eventually revealed to fans that much of the meddling was courtesy not so much of Marvel Studios itself, but of parent company Marvel Entertainment. In fact, Marvel Studios president Creator/KevinFeige got so sick of the meddling that he eventually went and convinced Disney (Marvel Entertainment's parent company) to remove Marvel Studios from Marvel Entertainment's control.
** As related to the above, it's not Feige's fault that it took a decade before the franchise had a film led by someone who wasn't a WhiteMaleLead. He'd wanted to make a ComicBook/BlackPanther movie in particular for quite some time but was shot down by the people at Marvel because they felt like it wouldn't sell toys.
* Film composers often get the blame and labeled with stigma for adapting a piece of classical or contemporary music into their film score. Generally during the editing stages of the film temp music is placed before the score is completed and it's common for directors and executives to "fall in love" with the temp score. And it's usually to rewrite it just enough to slip by rather than pay the extra money to license a work (for non-public domain).
* There seems to be a lot of hatred towards Creator/{{the Wachowskis}} for the sequels to ''Film/TheMatrix'' (including an awful lot of people blaming Lana's decision to come out as transgender for the quality of the films, despite the fact that she didn't start her reassignment therapy until well after ''[[Film/TheMatrixRevolutions Revolutions]]'' had already been released). However, there was quite a bit of ExecutiveMeddling with the sequels; the siblings' Plan A was to make a prequel and a sequel, but WB didn't want to make a ''Matrix'' movie without the original's cast. Thus the prequel idea got shortened into the Second Renaissance segment of ''Anime/TheAnimatrix'' and the sequel idea got dragged out into the two-part mess we know today.
* The director of ''Film/PunisherWarZone'' openly lambasted [[Film/ThePunisher2004 the 2004 movie]] for having comedic parts such as the popsicle-torture. In fact, that scene was lifted almost directly from [[ComicBook/ThePunisher the comics]] (the original ''The Punisher: War Zone''), and Creator/GarthEnnis, who greatly helped in raising the Punisher back to popularity in the comics, has mentioned that as his favorite scene from the older comics.
* Numerous fans and critics blamed the shifting of John Constantine's nationality and the setting in the ''Film/Constantine2005'' movie on Creator/KeanuReeves, claiming that it was because he couldn't do an English accent ([[Film/BramStokersDracula he can]], [[OohMeAccentsSlipping even if not perfectly]]). However, as confirmed by various people involved, the shift to California was a decision made some time before Reeves was ever approached with the offer.
* In 2010, Creator/{{M|etroGoldwynMayer}}GM was bashed excessively by internet users (who have been TaintedByThePreview) when ''their financial problems'' delayed production of ''[[Film/{{Skyfall}} Bond 23]]'' and ''Film/TheHobbit'', not to mention remakes of ''Film/RedDawn2012'' and ''Film/RoboCop2014''. Of course, most of these users are fans of these franchises, who believe MGM stole ''James Bond'' from Sony[[note]]who never even owned rights to the franchise except for co-production rights with MGM[[/note]] and ''The Hobbit'' from New Line Cinema[[note]]even though MGM owned the original film rights to Tolkien's works since the early 1970s[[/note]], and that the studio is apparently [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling]] with these projects. This backlash somehow led to [[http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101207160228AAxZ4R5 a Yahoo! Answers question]] asking about it.
* Fans were quick to blame Creator/GeorgeLucas for the infamous fridge nuking scene in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull''. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120118154346/http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=32315 Steven Spielberg admitted that it was his idea]] (and that he was happy to have brought that silly idea into popular culture), although he did also say that the aliens were Lucas' idea. Years later, though, this was {{double subver|sion}}ted when Lucas revealed he did think of the fridge scene, and Spielberg was TakingTheHeat for him.
** The idea is OlderThanTheyThink: the fridge nuking scene was in the mid-1990s [[http://www.indyfan.com/articles/saucer.html "Saucermen from Mars"]] script written by Jeb Stuart.
*** It's even older than that. The original 1982 ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' script featured Marty [=McFly=] surviving a nuclear blast in a fridge-time machine, in order to return to the present. This was scrapped because it was too expensive to pull off and they didn't want children climbing into fridges and getting stuck. Spielberg was also executive producer of that film.
** Lucas also got blamed for making Soviets the main antagonists instead of [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] like in previous films. In reality, due to the harrowing experience of making ''Film/SchindlersList'', Spielberg felt he could no longer depict Nazis as simply stock villains for Indy to beat, although Creator/HarrisonFord's advanced age since the last film also accounted for it.
* ''Film/ManOfSteel'':
** Creator/ZackSnyder ([[TheyChangedItNowItSucks like pretty much every comic book film director before him]]) got a lot of hate from ComicBook/{{Superman}} purists for changing the character's costume. Snyder later revealed that he had fought to keep the character's red trunks, and that it was [[ExecutiveMeddling the execs]] who wanted the character in a more modern-looking outfit to fight the perception that Superman was "lame" and "old-fashioned". A lot of people also apparently missed the fact that the editors at Creator/DCComics already took away Superman's famous red underwear when they redesigned his costume for their controversial ComicBook/{{New 52}} ContinuityReboot in 2011...[[OlderThanTheyThink two years before]] ''Man of Steel'' came out.
** Many fans have blamed producer Creator/ChristopherNolan for [[spoiler:Superman killing General Zod]]. In actuality, Nolan disliked that scene and only agreed to it after pressure from both Snyder and screenwriter David Goyer.
* Perhaps because of the [[AudienceAlienatingEnding unpopular way]] ''Series/{{Lost}}'' ended, people dissatisfied or disappointed with the movie ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', which he did a rewrite on, have tended to blame Damon Lindelof for everything wrong with the film -- including its vagueness, its lack of xenomorphs, the (in some people's opinion) forced comparison between the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Engineers]] and [[CrystalDragonJesus the Christian God]], etc. You name it, Lindelof's to blame. And if it's not Lindelof, it's Fox's fault. Except that Creator/RidleyScott came up with about half of the things that people don't like about the movie.
** And Lindelof is now getting blamed for all of the problems on the TroubledProduction of ''Film/WorldWarZ''... despite the fact that he was brought in only to do rewrites long after production started and did nothing else (directing, producing, acting) on the film. Could we have a new poster child for this trope?
* When the 2010 ''Film/{{Robin Hood|2010}}'' movie hit theatres, the critics were quick to blame their disappointment on the lesser-known writers Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, who were credited as authors of the "story". [[NominalImportance Who else]] could have bungled it in a movie directed by Creator/RidleyScott, starring Creator/RussellCrowe, and written by Brian Helgeland, the screenwriter of ''Film/MysticRiver'' and ''Film/LAConfidential''? In fact, Reiff and Voris' original script was a completely different story altogether, ''Nottingham'', that told Robin Hood's story from the Sheriff's [[PerspectiveFlip point of view]]. This premise was dismissed from the start by Scott, and after several rewrites there was practically nothing left of the original script (in Reiff and Voris' words, ''a single sentence'' of the dialogue they wrote made it into the final film, and was said by a different character).
* Whenever a new adaptation of ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' is made, there's a good chance it will involve the scene in which Gulliver puts out a fire in the Lilliputian palace by urinating on it. As such there will ''always'' be a reviewer who claims that this is unnecessary VulgarHumor and that "Creator/JonathanSwift would be rolling in his grave!", presumably unaware that this exact scene (and more even grosser, cruder stuff) actually happened in the book.
* After the 2003 live-action version of ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'' was released, many filmgoers and even professional critics blamed star Creator/MikeMyers for the less than child friendly tone of the film. It was also commonly assumed that he must have rewritten the script and added all the crude jokes himself, because he had screenplay credits on the ''Film/WaynesWorld'' and ''Film/AustinPowers'' films. In actual fact, though, Myers had nothing to do with the screenplay, and wasn't even attached to the film for most of its development phase; he agreed to replace the original star, Creator/TimAllen, as part of a legal settlement with Creator/{{Universal}} after he broke his contract to star in a ''[[Series/SaturdayNightLive Sprockets]]'' movie.
* Creator/JJAbrams took the brunt of the blame from angry Trekkies over ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' [[spoiler:redoing the ending of ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''.]] They apparently forgot that Abrams '''did not''' actually write the script.
* Many reviews of Creator/PaulWSAnderson's remake of ''Film/{{The Three Musketeers|2011}}'' apparently decided that because it was Anderson, any trace of the original [[Creator/AlexandreDumas Dumas]] [[Literature/TheThreeMusketeers story]] would be gone. Many of the reviews acted as if the story bore no resemblance to the novel at all. Well, of course some things were changed, including turning Milady into an ActionGirl and the addition of airships, but honestly, the overall plot is pretty much exactly what Dumas wrote. All in all, it probably took fewer liberties than the [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993 1993 version]]. Indeed, it may be the dissimilarity to the 1993 version that caused people to think Anderson's film wasn't faithful -- because it wasn't faithful to the ''significantly altered'' version they were more familiar with.
* People who dislike the ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'' and [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2 its sequel]] tend to pile all the hate and blame on Creator/AndrewGarfield, despite Garfield merely playing the role and not being responsible for the costume, the writing, the soundtrack, or anything that tends to be hated in particular concerning the film. Even issues people take with the characterization of Spidey tend to be things based more on how Spider-Man is written rather than how he's acted; even his ''hair'' (which gets a surprisingly large amount of hate) is at least partially the fault of the stylist for the film rather than him. As he is pretty much seen as the face of the new franchise, every problem with it is blamed on him, regardless of what sense it makes. And if it's not him, it's the director, even if the series' problems are obviously not all Marc Webb's fault.
** Some watchers claim that the reboot unnecessarily changed the web-shooters to mechanical ones instead of using the "comic-accurate" organic ones. However, comic-Spidey's web-shooters became organic only to match the changes made for the Raimi films; he had used mechanical ones for several decades by then.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' fans have blamed Creator/SamRaimi for the critically-divided ''Film/SpiderMan3'' with the addition of [[EvilCounterpart Venom]] and having Mary Jane Watson become the damsel in distress for a [[DamselScrappy third time]]. However, those ideas were actually Avi Arad's ideas, and in addition to that, Raimi's ideas were to have the Vulture as the secondary villain and Gwen Stacy being the damsel in distress for the final battle, plus Raimi considered Venom TheScrappy.
** Subverted by Raimi in an interview for ''Pajiba'' on December 30, 2014, who said that he was partly responsible and has stated that he's not fond of the film:
--->'''Raimi''': "It's a movie that just didn't work very well. I tried to make it work, but I didn't really believe in all the characters, so that couldn't be hidden from people who loved Spider-Man. If the director doesn't love something, it's wrong of them to make it when so many other people love it. I think [raising the stakes after ''Film/SpiderMan2''] was the thinking going into it, and I think that's what doomed us. I should've just stuck with the characters and the relationships and progressed them to the next step and not tried to top the bar."
* ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'':
** Creator/MichaelBay tends to receive all of the scorn of the fan base in spite of simply being a producer for the film. This tends to be par the course for anything Bay is associated with. In a somewhat ironic turn, it turns out that Bay is actually responsible for ''nixing'' a lot of bad ideas that others wanted to put in, since he's now fairly aware of how a fanbase will react to changes. But, due to being who he is, he ends up being blamed for a lot of the ideas ''to which he said no''. Essentially, a lot of the people cursing his name should be ''thanking'' him for doing what they wanted!
** The "Turtles as aliens" rumours. They were eventually revealed to have ''never'' been an official part of the story. The rumour was based on a line which, in context, seemed to indicate that the Ooze, rather than the Turtles, would be alien in origin. [[spoiler:A throwaway line confirmed this to still be true.]]
* Creator/RichardLester gets a lot of flack for the {{camp}}ier tone of ''Film/SupermanII'' as compared to the more serious tone of ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' (which was directed by Creator/RichardDonner). In fact, given the chaos surrounding the production of ''Superman II'' (including the firing of Donner, Creator/GeneHackman walking out and Creator/MarlonBrando refusing the use of the footage filmed of him), the fact that Richard Lester was able to get a coherent film out at all is worthy of praise. Donner's cut of the film was released on DVD in 2006, but as [[https://web.archive.org/web/20151004215005/http://www.agonybooth.com/movies/Superman_II_The_Donner_Cut_2006.aspx this review]] shows, it's not as if his version is any less campy. The blame really rests with the producers, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, who insisted on an extremely campy, humorous approach (even moreso than what we ended up getting) similar to the '60s ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'' series, and replaced Donner because he wouldn't give it to them -- nevermind that his vision for the first film became a critical and financial success despite their wishes.
* ''Film/TheLastSamurai'' is often trotted out as a textbook example of why "whitewashing" is such a problem in Hollywood, since--of course--everybody knows that it's completely absurd to cast the whitebread Creator/TomCruise as "The Last Samurai". Except, if you've actually seen the movie, it should be pretty obvious that Cruise's character ''isn't'' [[IAmNotShazam the titular "Last Samurai"]]; that would be Katsumoto, who's played by the very Japanese Creator/KenWatanabe. In fact, since the word "samurai" can be either singular or plural, the title [[DoubleMeaningTitle could either refer to Katsumoto or to the band of rebel samurai that he leads]]. While the movie could be justly accused of leaning on an unnecessary WhiteMaleLead to make Asian history more accessible to Westerners, it never tries to claim that Cruise's character is a samurai. He's just a wayward American who gets some samurai training and falls in love with their way of life.
* An interesting version involving ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'': when early reviews came in and Website/RottenTomatoes revealed that it was given a combined total of 30% liked, fans blew up at this and started a petition in an attempt to ''[[SeriousBusiness shut down the website]]'', accusing it of creating reviews [[InsaneTrollLogic to destroy]] the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse. This is despite the fact that Rotten Tomatoes just ''gathers'' the reviews, that Creator/WarnerBros has a stake in the website and the movie hadn't even been released yet.
* The MPAA have been blamed by many for neutering the gore effects in ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVANewBeginning'' and ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVIJasonLives''. While it's true that they did insist on at least a few cuts to each of the films, they're not entirely to blame. With ''A New Beginning'', Paramount actually forced a lot of cuts on the film before it ever reached the MPAA, some due to the sub-par effects, and others due to the executives feeling the kills were tasteless even by the standards of the series. ''Jason Lives'' was intentionally a less gory film to begin with, due to director Tom [=McLoughlin=] choosing to emphasise character, atmosphere and humor over gore. With ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVIITheNewBlood'', however... yeah, that was all on the MPAA.
* M. Night Shyamalan, already an easy target, ended up getting the brunt of the criticism for ''Film/AfterEarth'', even though by all accounts it was really Creator/WillSmith's brainchild, who essentially had complete creative control over the film. Shyamalan acted as little more than the cinematographer/director-for-hire.
* When a VocalMinority of Franchise/{{Batman}} fans decried ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' as a complete disappointment, one of the most common allegations against the film was that the TwistEnding subjected Characters/{{Ba|tmanBane}}ne to embarrassing VillainDecay by turning him into a glorified minion of [[spoiler:[[Characters/BatmanTaliaAlGhul Talia Al-Ghul]]]], the real leader of the League of Shadows. While one could make a pretty good case for the twist being unnecessary and distracting, actually watching the film makes it pretty clear that the complaint about Bane being a "minion" simply isn't true. Rather, it's made clear that Bane and [[spoiler:Talia]] have known each other for years, that [[TrueCompanions they're utterly devoted to each other]], and that they owe each other their lives--due to Bane [[HeroicSacrifice allowing himself to be disfigured]] to allow [[spoiler:Talia to escape from prison]], and [[spoiler:Talia]] returning to free him from prison. Even if only one of them can officially lead the League of Shadows, there's genuine love and friendship between them, and Bane is far more than just a servant.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fans who have heard about the deeper aspects of Tolkien's mythology have often accused the Creator/PeterJackson [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings films]] of either cutting out these elements or not explaining them: for instance, not explaining [[OurAngelsAreDifferent what Gandalf and Sauron are]]. The thing is, while the Jackson films did indeed take a lot of liberties, many of these things are not actually explained or brought up in the text of ''Lord of the Rings'', either. For the most part, Tolkien kept much of the broader history of Middle-earth vague, with even [[AllThereInTheManual the appendices]] leaving a lot of blank spots, and it was only in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' that many of those ideas (such as the very concept of Maiar) were laid down concretely. Some of the more zealous fans have even accused the films of "cutting" ideas that aren't from either story, such as Glorfindel's history or the Blue Wizards, both of which were only conceived of in private essays and musings dating to well after ''Lord of the Rings'' was written.
* While the ''Film/TheHobbit'' trilogy didn't get the worst reviews, some fans have blamed Creator/PeterJackson for many of the more controversial aspects of the film from the sloppy editing to the decision to turn what was supposed to be duology into a trilogy. In actuality, many of these decisions were mandated by New Line Cinema against Jackson's wishes. The actors [[Creator/GrahamMcTavish Graham [=McTavish=]]] and Creator/EvangelineLilly have confirmed that theatrical cut for the third film isn't what Jackson intended and that the extended cuts of all three films are closer to his original intention.
* Unlike ''Film/{{Death Note|2017}}'', Creator/{{Netflix}} only licensed the live-action ''Film/{{Fullmetal Alchemist|2017}}'' and ''Film/{{Bleach}}'' movies internationally, and had no involvement in their production, which was done by Creator/WarnerBros Japan. Those two films actually had theatrical release in Japan, unlike ''Death Note''.
* Anyone who dislikes ''Film/NightmareBeach (or, Welcome to Spring Break)'' can be pretty much counted on to consider it a low point in the distinguished career of Eurocult filmmaker Umberto Lenzi, which isn't helped by the fact that the credited director, Harry Kirkpatrick, was long believed to be an Anglicized alias of Lenzi (which happens to have not been all that uncommon in the Eurocult scene, with examples including Ruggero Deodato becoming Roger Rockefeller or Roger Franklin, Bruno Mattei becoming Vincent Dawn, Claudio Fragasso becoming Clyde Anderson, Ennio Morricone becoming Leo Nichols or Dan Savio, Gian Maria Volontè becoming John Wells, and, most infamously, Creator/SergioLeone becoming Bob Robertson). In truth, while Lenzi ''was'' originally to direct the film, a dispute led to him taking a reduced role in favor of Kirkpatrick, who had written the screenplay for the film.
* A funny case of this with ''Film/ArtemisFowl'': the infamous scene where Mulch unhinges his jaw and starts eating dirt so fast that it starts flying out of his buttcrack was largely reported as a sign that the film was a mess, and often got brought up in the context of AdaptationDecay. While there was a ''lot'' of controversial-at-best changes made to the source material, the scene is entirely accurate to how ''Literature/ArtemisFowl''-verse dwarves were described in the books. It does strike one as a bit odd that this, of all things, was something they felt they needed to keep.
* While there was HostilityOnTheSet between Creator/JamesCameron and Creator/TimMiller during ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate''[='=]s TroubledProduction, some thought it was in part over [[spoiler:the death of John Connor, thinking it was Miller's idea -- when [[https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-11-02/terminator-dark-fate-spoilers-john-connor-james-cameron?fbclid=IwAR00EJRdxBpa8MnmSr3EDjnzHa_Ng9wuyAoEpWg9UhwbmWJRyy5495J-SqQ it was really Cameron himself who came up with it.]]]]
* When Creator/MovingPictureCompany shuttered their Vancouver branch in December 2019, a number of articles pinned the blame on the high-profile redesign of the title character of ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', which MPC Vancouver did the bulk of, especially with reports of crunch going on behind the scenes even with the three-month delay, and some would go on to lump ''Film/{{Cats}}'' into the equation, due to it also needing to be crunched out into theaters around the same time (though unlike ''Sonic'', the results didn't pay off). In actuality, the shutdown was due to a corporate restructuring of their parent company Technicolor and taxing issue in the city.
* ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' has received criticism in recent years for being allegedly responsible for transphobia in the media, as well as misogyny (due to the reveal that Norman's condition is due to his mother's abuse). This is despite the film going out of its way ''not'' to describe or even imply that he is transgender, Norman has an alternate personality that happens to be a woman. The claims of misogyny are also fairly baseless, as they imply that [[DoubleStandard a woman could not be capable of causing her child such psychological harm,]] and is arguably an example of FemalesAreMoreInnocent.[[note]]By criticizing the film for placing blame for Norman's actions on his mother, and therefore implying that women are the source of all evil, these criticisms simultaneously ignore the ''much more'' common trope of female villains being given the same excuse, but with the abuser being a man.[[/note]]
* The infamously bad 2004 ''[[Film/Catwoman2004 Catwoman]]'' film with Creator/HalleBerry tends to be harshly criticized by ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' fans for the title character [[InNameOnly having almost nothing in common with the original version from the comics]]. While the creative team behind the film was undeniably responsible for ''most'' of its problems, most of its liberties with the source material actually started with ''Film/BatmanReturns'' in 1992 (of which ''Catwoman'' is a [[BroadStrokes very loose]] {{spinoff}}), which didn't get nearly as much flack for it. ''Batman Returns'' introduced the idea of Catwoman being a meek office worker who becomes a vigilante after being magically [[BackFromTheDead brought back from the dead by cats]] and developing vaguely defined cat-themed superpowers (instead of just being a professional thief with a cat gimmick); ''Catwoman'' just took those changes and ran with them.
* Creator/ZachBraff was widely blamed for the critical and commercial failure of ''Film/TheLastKiss'' (2006), which was advertised by the studio as his big follow-up to ''Film/GardenState'' (2004); when it failed to connect with audiences, many people cited it as "proof" that he was overhyped as a filmmaker and a dramatic actor. Contrary to popular belief, however, Braff only '''starred''' in ''The Last Kiss''--he didn't direct it, and didn't write the screenplay (although he did reportedly have quite a bit of creative control). In fact, he didn't write or direct another feature film for another '''10 years''' after ''Garden State'', when he made ''Wish I Was Here'' in 2014.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* There was a small debacle when fans of the comic ''ComicBook/TheBooksOfMagic'' accused Creator/JKRowling of ripping it off for her ''Literature/HarryPotter'' novels. Nobody has confirmed this, and in fact, even Creator/NeilGaiman admitted that neither Rowling or himself were the first people who created a bespectacled young man destined to become a great wizard, or send him to school. But it got worse when a magazine said Gaiman ''accused'' Rowling of pinching his idea. Immediately Gaiman defended himself against the person who misblamed him and said, "I did ''NOT'' accuse her of that!" He even admits that if anything, they were more inspired by fantasy authors writing Arthurian legends than each other.
** Terry Pratchett has likewise had to fend off numerous accusations that he'd ripped off J.K. Rowling with ''Equal Rites'', despite [[OlderThanTheyThink the latter having been written in 1987]]. When he's pointed this out, some fans have turned around and misblamed him for accusing ''Rowling'' of stealing his work! The similarities between them mostly amount to this: there is a school for magic users, someone in the book uses a broomstick to fly. Someone is turned partially or entirely into a pig, goats are mentioned a couple times.
** An accusation also leveled at him for the ''Literature/JohnnyMaxwellTrilogy'' (even though the similarities pretty much begin and end with Johnny and Kirsty being similar characters to Harry and Hermione).
* One of the complaints about the ''[[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Wheel of Time]]'' [[CoversAlwaysLie infamous covers]] is that Lan is shown to have a samurai-based helmet in the first book, claiming that only the Seanchan have Samurai-based helmets. Actually, Lan did have a helmet just like the one on the cover of the book during the Aiel war. It was based off of the one used by the famous Samurai Date Masamune. In fact Lan's helmet was probably the most accurate thing about that cover.
* All of the books with "Creator/TomClancy's" on the cover were, in fact, written by other authors, with pretty much no input on the contents of said books by Mr. Clancy himself, past laying out the setting for the various series. When people complain about Mr. Clancy's works, however, often those licensed books are cited as examples of the quality of his writing (or, specifically, lack thereof).
* Quite a few people blame Creator/WilliamShatner for the fact that his name is plastered all over the cover and marketing of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novels that he co-wrote with Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Judith Reeves-Stevens, and accuse him of pushing them to the sidelines for the sake of his ego. Fact of the matter is that writers have little, if any, say in the cover design of their books and the publishers did it because his name carries more weight outside of the Trek ExpandedUniverse readership than the Reeves-Stevens do.
* Richard Knaak of the [[Franchise/{{Warcraft}} World of Warcraft]] Lore receives some of this. While the man does certainly have weaknesses in his writing style (Mary Sues for instance) he doesn't exactly go around changing the lore as he sees fit. He does discuss things with the rest of the lore team before hand, and he does have to get their approval before he makes any major change. While he is guilty of at least a few sins, changing the lore because he feels like it isn't one of them.
* In ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' (formerly the ''Expanded Universe''):
** Karen Traviss gets a lot of flak, most notoriously for establishing that the Grand Army Of The Republic constituted a mere three million clones. While this number is ridiculously low for a galactic scale conflict (the Eastern Front in WWII alone had somewhere around ''15 million'' troops), what people missed was that when Lama Su was talking about 'two hundred thousand units' being ready, he was talking about 'units of product' (and individual clones) rather than 'military units'. This was more clearly stated in the then upper-tier canon ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' movie novelization, which was released in 2002. Traviss' first published work in Star Wars wasn't released until ''2004''. Unfortunately, this created a substantial amount of conflict when other authors missed the higher-canon established figures, and did things like give the Separatists an army in the quintillions. The resulting flame wars were not pretty to say the least.
** Curtis Saxton, who was the franchise's technical consultant in the late 1990s and 2000s and authored several tie-in books (most notably the ''Incredible Cross-Sections''), was active in the online "''Star Wars'' vs. ''Star Trek''" debate, leading to many accusations that he pulled huge firepower numbers out of thin air purely for the purposes of permanently settling the debate in favor of the ''Star Wars'' side. [[https://www.theforce.net/swtc/index.html Saxton's website]] shows the workings behind the figures, and while they're based on assumptions that, especially in retrospect, tend to be regarded as questionable, it's obvious that he genuinely did do a great deal of work on the subject instead just abusing his position to invent grossly inflated numbers. That said, other authors such as Gary [[https://web.archive.org/web/20070310230221/http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?s=8b0cee4d26fbd37de69edd98b3a97904&p=11217497&postcount=39 Sarli pointed out major flaws in his assumptions]], resulting in things like turbolaser firepower calculations being at least five orders of magnitude larger than they would have needed to be, while the droid figures included in the Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross Sections were several orders of magnitude larger than the trillions of commonfolk of the Republic established in the ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' movie novelization, and at least twelve larger than the clone troop figures, also established in said novel.
* If you've met a disgruntled fan of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', they'll probably tell you that the SeasonalRot of ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'' and ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'' is evidence that Creator/GeorgeRRMartin ran out of ideas after the third book, and currently [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants has no idea where the series is going]]. While the series' rather JustForFun/{{egregious}} case of ScheduleSlip is no one's fault but Martin's (and he's admitted as much), the truth about the slow pace of the plot is a bit more complicated. As Martin has confirmed in multiple interviews, he knows ''exactly'' where the plot is going, and he has for years. The problem is that ''Crows'' and ''Dragons'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen weren't even supposed to exist in his original plan for the series]]; he wanted to have a lengthy TimeSkip after the events of ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'' that would have set up the final climax of the series in the next books (hence, why so many major characters [[KilledOffForReal die]] or [[PutOnABus leave]] at the end of that book). When he realized that that plan wouldn't work, he had to write two new books as a bridge between the first act and the final act; if [[BreatherEpisode not much seems to happen]] in those books, it's because they're only meant to set up the climax that Martin originally wanted to write much earlier. And yes, Martin ''does'' know how the series is supposed to end: he shared the planned ending of the series with the producers of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' in the event they got to the ending before he did (which they did).
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia:'' The controversial and allegedly sexist ending of [[Literature/TheLastBattle the last book]], in which [[spoiler: Susan doesn't enter Narnia's Heaven with her family]] because she doesn't believe in Narnia any more and only cares about stereotypically feminine things such as make-up, was actually a SequelHook for an eighth book that unfortunately was never made. It would have resolved this issue, as [[spoiler: Susan was intended to come to terms with the loss of her siblings, "find Narnia in her own time" again, and eventually make her way to Heaven to be with them]].
* Creator/JimButcher has been accused of sexism, relating to the long, loving descriptions of female characters in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. However, these descriptions are completely absent from all his other works, and simply stem from the fact that the POV character in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' is a former {{Tykebomb}} with a wide and deep set of personal issues (RageAgainstTheMentor and ParentalAbandonment are only the tip of the iceberg). Some fans have even noted that the length and detail of the description is directly proportional to the amount of in-universe time since the character last got laid.
%%* In the later installments of ''Literature/SpiceAndWolf'', some {{fansub}} groups were accused of "using Funimation's translation" in [[SpellMyNameWithAnS spelling]] the female lead's name as "Holo" rather than "Horo". "Holo" is the official spelling according to the Japanese companies and the in-show visuals.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Showrunners Creator/DavidBenioff and Creator/DBWeiss have often been blamed as the sole reason behind the show's SeasonalRot after season 4 and its ''highly'' disappointing series finale, with some even claiming that they rushed the show's ending so that they could work on a ''Franchise/StarWars'' project (which later fell through due to disagreements between Creator/{{Disney}} and the showrunners regarding the project's premise). While the amount of blame Benioff and Weiss deserve for the show ending the way it did has been the subject of hot debate, it is important to note that perhaps the biggest factor behind the show's decline in quality was the fact that it [[OvertookTheManga overtook]] the unfinished [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire book series it was based on]], as Creator/GeorgeRRMartin failed to finish writing the books before the series ended, resulting in the showrunners having nothing but a few notes to work with in order to end the series. As a result, many have suggested that Benioff and Weiss merely suffered from [[CreatorBreakdown creator burnout]], as they, being TV screenwriters, [[OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight felt that they would never be able to match the level and quality of storytelling of a tenured author]].