History Main / PygmalionPlot

* Averted in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', where Warren's attempt to create a robotic girlfriend proved to be "too easy", and he ended up feeling nothing for her.

* Obscure ComicBook/{{Batman}} villain [[MadDoctor Professor Pyg]] is styled after this trope. He mutilates his victims both physically and mentally into [[LivingDollCollector living dolls]] based on his warped sense of belief of [[MadArtist what a perfect human being should look like]].

** Andrew himself is an [[InvertedTrope inversion]], as he's a RobotButler who develops sentience by accident and as he slowly becomes more human-like (encouraged by his original owner and his daughter) he starts to desire human love and eventually marries the great-granddaughter of his former owner.

* ''Series/DoctorWho''. The idea behind NubileSavage Leela becoming the Doctor's companion, though, needless to say, there was [[NoHuggingNoKissing no romance involved]]. And Leela didn't change much either, given that a ActionGirl in a leather bikini [[MsFanservice proved to be quite popular with the audience]].

** In the episode "Elaan of Troyius". Captain Kirk must teach the Dohlman of Elaas civilized manners before her wedding to the ruler of the planet Troyius. He ends up falling in love with her because he touches her tears -- and the tears of Elaasian women are a potent love potion.
** "Requiem for Methuselah" is a rare example where both the literal (Flint made Rayna, the last of a line of android models) and figurative (he used Kirk to try to spark her further emotional development) variations of the trope are used for the same character.
* A similar episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' entitled "The Perfect Mate" has Captain Picard forced to learn from her (a slight twist compared to the original series story) how to perform the various ceremonial customs for her arranged marriage meant to end centuries of war between two planets. This woman is literally the "perfect mate" in that she is a powerful empath who, once she reaches full sexual maturity, will become the perfect mate for her companion. Her intellect, interests, personality, etc. are all shown to be highly variable at least until she permanently imprints on a mate. She ends up imprinted on Picard himself due to all the time they spend together since she likes how she is when she is around him, and he realizes that he is quite taken with her as well. In the end, her sense of duty won't allow her to stay with him and she goes off to marry the obnoxious jerk (who personally admitted he preferred the thought of discussing trade deals for the finalized treaty to meeting his betrothed) and end the war. Before departing, she assures Picard (in flowery prose to rival his own silver tongue) that while she will pretend to become whoever her new husband desires (so he will be satisfied with his prize), she will always be the woman she became with Picard and will always love him.
* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Chrysalis" crosses this trope with FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome. In this episode, Bashir cures a young woman who's been in a cataleptic state as a result of childhood genetic engineering gone wrong, and then [[FlorenceNightingaleEffect falls in love with her]]. When she starts shutting down again, it looks like a PygmalionSnapBack, but when Bashir finds out she actually just feels overwhelmed by his romantic attentions, he backs off and helps her to get an internship at a research station.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "Someone to Watch Over Me": The Doctor gives Seven of Nine lessons in dating and ends up falling for her. Interestingly, the Doctor is a hologram (and therefore an artificial being himself). Comes complete with TheBet, in this case with Tom Paris, who congratulates the Doctor's success [[ImStandingRightHere right in front of Seven]].

Originally the Greek myth of the sculptor Pygmalion, and his statue brought to life by the gods. Creator/{{Ovid}} never gave the statue-girl a name, but the name Galatea was given in Apollodorus's Bibliotheca, which predates Ovid. It's OlderThanFeudalism, dating to Ovid at least, but most modern versions will probably claim to be more directly descended from ''Theatre/MyFairLady'', where the "creation" is figurative -- manners, polish, and a new wardrobe. Keep an ear out for references such as "by Jove, I think she's got it!" or "The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain." However, with the advent of modern ScienceFiction, possibilities for {{Mad Scientist}}s to patch up their own sentient {{Robot Girl}}s are prominent, and this trope seems to have come full circle.

* In ''ComicBook/TheDarkness'', both the Darkness and Angelus users had the power to [[MookMaker create living beings to serve them]], and some of these were created with for romantic or sexual purposes - the Angelus introduced at the start of the series had a female concubine whom she loved very dearly. This was frequently used by many Darkness users since [[DeathBySex having sex with mortal women would lead to their deaths]], as their powers would then pass on to their offspring at cost of their own lives. Female Darklings are safe enough, but apparently they are very hard to create: Jackie tries to make one and botches many attempts, and he ends up needing outside help to successfully create the perfect woman. [[spoiler:Though it turns out that the Darkness entity deliberately designed them so their users could breed with them and create an EldritchAbomination free of any humanity. Oops.]]

* ''The Makeover'', a Hallmark TV movie starring Creator/JuliaStiles, {{gender flip}}s the premise: [[StraightMan Hannah Higgins]] gives [[{{Southies}} Elliott]] [[ManicPixieDreamGirl Doolittle]] speech lessons and polishes up his image so that he can run for Congress in order to win a bet with her friend, Colleen Pickering.

* A variation in Music/{{Yes}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjnZgc313uM "Turn of the Century"]]. A man creates a sculpture of his newly dead wife, and said statue brings said wife back from the dead... [[MindScrew Maybe.]]

* Playedwith in ''Manga/TheWallflower''. It has the same basic premise as ''Theatre/MyFairLady'' (some territories even use that as a localized title) in that four young handsome men must socialize the niece of their landlord. The subversion comes when said niece, Sunako, not only proves to be more than they (initially) can handle as a horror maniac with nigh superhuman strength but also proves to be a kind-hearted young woman who helps ''them'' with their problems.

* In Creator/AaronAllston's ''Literature/GalateaIn2D'', Roger thinks this at first, since the nymph was drawn as his ideal of an ideal woman.

* The Human League's "Don't You Want Me" is a duet. She was working in a cocktail bar when he met her, he picked her out, he shook her up, turned her into someone new. Now five years later on, she's got the world at her feet, but she oughtn't forget who put her where she is now.

* ''Comicbook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew'' plays with this. Captain Carrot's secret identity is comic book artist Rodney Rabbit, who draws the comic book The Just a Lotta Animals (an animal version of the JLA), and he draws Wonder Wabbit as his ideal woman. But, this being the Pre-Crisis DCU, the Justa Lotta Animals ''exists'' on a parallel Earth. When Rodney meets Wonder Wabbit, he didn't actually create her, but from his own point of view, he did. They're immediately attracted to each other, but have to return to their own worlds, breaking Rodney's heart and leaving him still obliged to draw pictures of her for a living. Further complicated because he already had UnresolvedRomanticTension with his teammate Alley Kat Abra, who is understandably jealous.

* ''Comicbook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew'' plays with this. Captain Carrot's secret identity is comic book artist Rodney Rabbit, who draws the comic book The Just a Lotta Animals (an animal version of the JLA), and he draws Wonder Wabbit as his ideal woman. But, this being the Pre-Crisis DCU, the Justa Lotta Animals ''exists'' on a parallel Earth. When Rodney meets Wonder Wabbit, he didn't actually create her, but from his own point of view, he did. They're immediately attracted to each other, but have to return to their own worlds, breaking Rodney's heart and leaving him still obliged to draw pictures of her for a living. Further complicated because he already had UnstableRomanticTension with his teammate Alley Kat Abra, who is understandably jealous.

* ''Manga/KannagiCrazyShrineMaidens'': Jin sculpts Kannagi out of a sacred tree, the goddess possesses the statue and thus the romantic comedy begins.

* A tragic inversion sets off the plot of ''Manga/{{Chobits}}''. The Persocoms' inventor created two special Persocoms so they could be the children he and his wife could never have. He also gave them the ability to fall in love with someone. Sadly, one of them fell in love with ''him''.
* ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'' had shades of this very early on, though it was not a straight example in that Dr Ido saw Alita more as a daughter than a would-be bride. The protagonist's name in the original Japanese, Gally, is actually a refference to this.
* In ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'', an artist gets a hold of a tainted shard of the Shikon Jewel; with it immersed in his ink, his paintings come to life. However, he is ''obsessed'' with a beautiful princess. If he can't have her, then maybe a picture will do... it doesn't end well.
* In ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'', the robot Banpei becomes infatuated with a greeting automaton, though he becomes unsatisfied with her lack of response. He asks his creator, Skuld, to give her sentience. This backfires on him, as the automaton, now named Sigel, is actually disgusted at his constant leering, though it gets better.
** [[http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/ohmygoddess/images/e/ee/Sigel.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110517080310 Before]] and [[http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/ohmygoddess/images/5/5d/Sigel_2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/169?cb=20110517080653 after.]]
* Played with in Manga/TheWallflower. It has the same basic premise as Theatre/MyFairLady (some territories even use that as a localized title) in that four young handsome men must socialize the niece of their landlord. The subversion comes when said niece, Sunako, not only proves to be more than they (initially) can handle as a horror maniac with nigh superhuman strength but also proves to be a kind-hearted young woman who helps *them* with their problems.

* The original legend is referenced but not really followed by the origin of ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'', who [[TrulySingleParent was sculpted from clay and had life breathed into her by her mother]].
** The [[ComicBook/WonderWoman2011 New 52]] changed this into a cover story to her being having an affair with Zeus. [[ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth Rebirth]] changed it back, but then James Robinson ignored this making current continuity a bit iffy on the subject.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'', Papa Smurf fell in love with the ''recreated'' version of Smurfette (she was originally created by the evil wizard Gargamel as TheVamp), but since "Romeo And Smurfette" this has never really been followed up on, in either the comics or the AnimatedAdaptation. This is notably absent in Sony Pictures' [[Film/TheSmurfs film series]], where Papa Smurf simply treats her like a daughter.

* In ''ComicBook/TheDarkness'', both the Darkness and Angelus users had the power to [[MookMaker create living beings to serve them]], and some of these were created with for romantic or sexual purposes - the Angelus introduced at the start of the series had a female concubine whom she loved very dearly. This was frequently used by many Darkness users since [[DeathBySex having sex with mortal women would lead to their deaths]], as their powers would then pass on to their offspring at cost of their own lives. Female Darklings are safe enough, but apparently they are very hard to create: Jackie tries to make one and botches many attempts, and he ends up needing outside help to successfully create the perfect woman. [[spoiler:Though it turns out that the Darkness entity deliberately designed them so their users could breed with them and create an EldritchAbomination free of any humanity. Oops.]]

* In ''Film/MeetJohnDoe'', cynical reporter Ann Mitchell fakes a letter from a "John Doe" who says he's going to commit suicide to protest the state of the world. After it becomes a media sensation, the newspaper hires a hobo named John Willoughby to play the part. Ann writes him a RousingSpeech. She later admits that she's fallen in love with the John Doe she created.

* In the film ''Film/{{Rhinestone}}'', Creator/SylvesterStallone plays the part of an irate cab driver that Jake (played by Music/DollyParton) must transform into a country-western singer capable of wooing the crowd at an unfriendly bar. In the process, the two fall in love. Jake's transformation of Nick (Stallone) into a country-western performer is successful (sort of).
* ''Film/ShesAllThat'': Pygmalion is the school's top jock; Galatea is the ur-nerd.
* ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'' puts a dark twist on this. Scottie Ferguson forcibly molds a working middle class shopgirl into the image of an upper class dead woman with whom he is obsessed. Tragedy ensues, of course. "It can't matter to you" indeed.

* ''The Opening of Misty Beethoven'' is a 70s pornographic film (back when they tried to at least have a pretense of plot) that gave this a dark edge, showing Misty having a near-nervous breakdown from the stress of trying to be the "Goddess of Love" that her Pygmalion is making her to be. [[spoiler: Unlike most versions, it ends with the roles reversed with Misty becoming the controlling Master and Dr. Love her submissive toy.]]

* The Creator/AudreyHepburn and Creator/FredAstaire film ''Film/FunnyFace'' in which a seasoned photographer teaches a much younger bookish woman to become a model.
* ''The Makeover'', a Hallmark TV movie starring Creator/JuliaStiles, {{gender flip}}s the premise: [[StraightMan Hannah Higgins]] gives [[{{Southies}} Elliott]] [[ManicPixieDreamGirl Doolittle]] speech lessons and polishes up his image so that he can run for Congress in order to win a bet with her friend, Colleen Pickering.
* ''Film/MyFairLady'': (which, incidentally, was based on the Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw play ''Theatre/{{Pygmalion}}''): Professor Henry Higgins teaches the poor, lower-class Eliza Doolittle to act and -- especially -- talk like an upper-class lady, [[TheBet on a bet]] with his friend Colonel Pickering. He succeeds, but Eliza, tired of being treated as an experiment, rebels against him and leaves. Higgins eventually realizes that he has "[[CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem grown accustomed to her face]]," just in time for her to return. In the original play, Eliza ends up stranded between two worlds, fitting into neither.
* In ''Film/PixelPerfect'', Roscoe programs the artificial intelligence Loretta (though she's a hologram, not a robot). He develops feelings for her, [[spoiler:but only because he used the personality and looks of his best friend Sam as one of the templates for Loretta, and the latter realizes that Sam is the girl for Roscoe.]]

* ''Film/BicentennialMan'':
** Rupert's {{Fembot}} is named Galatea. However, [[SubvertedTrope it's never indicated that he has any relationship with her other than "owner"]], merely redesigning a ''him'' into a ''her'' and modifying her PersonalityChip.
** Andrew himself is an [[InvertedTrope inversion]], as he's a RobotButler who develops sentience by accident and as he slowly becomes more human-like (encouraged by his original owner and his daughter) he starts to desire human love and eventually marries the great-granddaughter of his former owner.
* In ''Film/JustOneOfTheGuys'', Terry decides that she can turn Rick into a popular student. [[spoiler: She falls in love with him.]]

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "[[Literature/GeorgeAndAzazel Galatea]]" is a GenderFlip.
* In Creator/AaronAllston's ''Literature/GalateaIn2D'', Roger thinks this at first, since the nymph was drawn as his ideal of an ideal woman.
* Cherryl Taggart of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' is WrongGenreSavvy and thinks that her story is a Pygmalion Plot; after all, she does start out wishing to improve on her background growing up in a slum by marrying a great railroad executive and joining his superior clique. Problem is, she picked the wrong group to join: Every friend of her husband Jim Taggart is a huge phony, and Jim himself has a belief system that comes close to BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad--thus, Jim wants Cherryl to remain uncultured and resents all her efforts to improve herself.
* ''The Great Lakeside High Experiment'' was filmed for TV as ''The Great Love Experiment.'' A plain girl was given a makeover and the most popular kids in school pretended to be her friends as a psychological experiment.
* ''Literature/TheFallOfTheSeaPeople'' provides a completely literal example. The Mentor challenged Aclaí to create someone who was best at something, so he created Éirime. Then, when he fell victim to this trope, he hardly spoke to her again.

* In the alternate Regency set ''Literature/MairelonTheMagician'', the titular character picks up a street thief to be his assistant, giving her both lessons in stage magic and grammar. By the second book, ''The Magacian's Ward'', he has formally taken her on as an apprentice of [[GaslampFantasy real magic]], while teaching her (with his family's help) how to be a proper lady in Society. Of course, he falls in love with her in the process.

* ''Literature/LetMeCallYouSweetheart'' has a super creepy example with plastic surgeon Dr Smith and Suzanne, given she's his biological daughter. The term "Pygmalion fantasy" is even used to refer to his relationship with her. He [[spoiler: gave her plastic surgery to make her strikingly beautiful]], and also coached her on how to behave and speak, bought her an apartment and hired a personal shopper for her. Smith was completely obsessed with Suzanne, to the point she found him overbearing. Even after her death, he continues to be obsessed with her, making other patients physically resemble her and becoming fixated on one woman, Barbara Tompkins, who particularly [[YouRemindMeOfX reminds him of Suzanne]].

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'': In "Dream Lover", a bored artist decides to create the literal girl of his dreams to help him unwind after drawing her on a sheet of paper. She gradually becomes more rebellious and starts to ignore him until [[spoiler:she reveals that he didn't create her, ''she'' created ''him''. She erases him when he becomes jealous of her romance with a real man.]]

* Music/{{Vocaloid}} Rin's song "KOKORO" and [[POVSequel Gackpo's sequel song]] "Sayonara, Arigatou" by Toraboruta-P, tell a platonic version the story in which a robot that was made to be like a daughter for the scientist. However, the two [[spoiler: never technically meet face-to-face, as the robot only becomes conscious after centuries of isolation and disuse.]]
** Luka's song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6D5QLggL_4 "Leia"]] features a man who fell in love with his painting, to the point of burning himself and the portrait when he realized it couldn't return his feelings, so as to be TogetherInDeath.

* A variation in Music/{{Yes}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjnZgc313uM "Turn of the Century."]] A man creates a sculpture of his newly dead wife, and said statue brings said wife back from the dead... [[MindScrew Maybe.]]
* The music video for Music/REOSpeedwagon's "Keep on Loving You" opens and ends with Kevin Cronin talking to a psychiatrist about how he wrote a love song about a made-up woman, only to fall in love with her.

* This plot is pretty much the point of ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster'', though the romance doesn't always happen...
* [[HoYay Strongly hinted at]] between Professor Mei Ling Hua and her RobotGirl creation Mei Fang in the ''VideoGame/ArcanaHeart'' series.

** The game's plot varies wildly from how you interact with Galatea: [[spoiler: Galatea could be anything from a shapeshifting demon, to a real person, to a woman behind the curtain controlling a robot.]]

* In the lore of ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', the High Elves' divine scribe Xarxes created his wife Oghma from [[InsubstantialIngredients his favourite moments in history]]. One text has her question whether she's marrying because she wants to or because she must, but doesn't record her conclusion.

---> "Oh, look at those urchins! Surely they could ''never'' be taught proper manners!"
---> "One gold sovereign says I can do just that."
---> "Oh! It's a bet, Lord Daftwager!"
* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' also did this to Dizzy.

* The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot"]], Howard has a synthoid girl custom made, with the assertion that, personality-wise, she would be completely devoted to him (This one comes back to haunt him).
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' episode "My Feral Lady" had the titular character teach his feral mail-order bride how to be civilized.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Clockwork Smurfette", Handy creates a DistaffCounterpart to Clockwork Smurf so she could be his creation's mate, but unfortunately she ends up feeling more attracted to her creator than to Clockwork. Eventually, though, after she helps Clockwork Smurf rescue the Smurfs from Gargamel, her affections turn towards Clockwork.
* The story format features in the ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode appropriately titled "Pigmalion". Luanne is hired by pig processing plant owner Trip Larson to be his girlfriend and he starts modeling her into a new model of a maid from his company's logo, (which was created by his father and who he is obsessed with) even dying her hair in her sleep so that she resembles the woman. He's also uncharacteristically aggressive for a character from this series, as well as being clinically insane. [[spoiler: At the end of the episode he gets an electrical shock to the brain and then comments that the voices in his head have stopped.]] He threatens Peggy and even trying to ''kill'' Hank (without Hank ever realizing it) to get her to back off. In a twist on the trope, ''he'' doesn't want to marry Luanne--he wants her to marry a ''different'' man who he modeled after a guy in lederhosen ''also'' from the company logo (so that's ''two'' Pygmalion Plots in one) so that the three of them can be a family together with Trip himself as the third character from the logo: [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the pet pig]].

-->-- '''Creator/{{Ovid}}''', ''Literature/{{Metamorphoses}}''[[note]]trandlated by A.D. Melville [[/note]]

* ''Film/ShesAllThat'': Pygmalion is the school's top jock; Galatea is the ur-HollywoodNerd.

* ''Series/DoctorWho''. The idea behind NubileSavage Leela becoming the Doctor's companion, though, needless to say, there was [[NoHuggingNoKissing no romance involved]]. And Leela didn't change much either, given that a KnifeNut ActionGirl in a leather bikini [[MsFanservice proved to be quite popular with the audience]].

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Elaan of Troyius". Captain Kirk must teach the Dohlman of Elaas civilized manners before her wedding to the ruler of the planet Troyius. He ends up falling in love with her because he touches her tears -- and the tears of Elaasian women are a potent love potion.

-->-- '''Creator/{{Ovid}}''', ''Literature/{{Metamorphoses}}''

* The Creator/AudreyHepburn and Creator/FredAstaire film ''Funny Face'' in which a seasoned photographer teaches a much younger bookish woman to become a model.

* The Creator/JudyGarland films ''Summer Stock'' and ''Easter Parade'' qualify. In each, the hero, Creator/GeneKelly and Creator/FredAstaire respectively, trains the heroine to become a great dancer so they can perform together onstage.

* The story format features in the ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode appropriately titled "Pigmalion". Luanne is hired by pig processing plant owner Trip Larson to be his girlfriend and he starts modeling her into a new model of a maid from his company's logo, (which was created by his father and who he is obsessed with) even dying her hair in her sleep so that she resembles the woman. [[KnightOfCerebus He's also uncharacteristically aggressive for a character from this series, as well as being clinically insane]]. [[spoiler: At the end of the episode he gets an electrical shock to the brain and then comments that the voices in his head have stopped.]] He threatens Peggy and even trying to ''kill'' Hank (without Hank ever realizing it) to get her to back off. In a twist on the trope, ''he'' doesn't want to marry Luanne--he wants her to marry a ''different'' man who he modeled after a guy in lederhosen ''also'' from the company logo (so that's ''two'' Pygmalion Plots in one) so that the three of them can be a family together with Trip himself as the third character from the logo: [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext the pet pig]].

* In the film ''Rhinestone'', Sylvester Stallone plays the part of an irate cab driver that Jake (played by Dolly Parton) must transform into a country-western singer capable of wooing the crowd at an unfriendly bar. In the process, the two fall in love. Jake's transformation of Nick (Stallone) into a country-western performer is successful (sort of).