Examples of Adaptation Displacement where an existing work has been adapted into western animation.
A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope. Examples shouldn't be added until six months after the adaptation is released, to avoid any knee-jerk reactions.
- The '80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon is vastly more familiar to the public than the original black-and-white comics. An example of this is that in every Turtles-related review by The Nostalgia Critic, he constantly criticizes an adaptation for not being "faithful" when it's actually using something from the comic instead of the '80s series (such as his constant complaints about April's lack of yellow jumpsuits in the films, or that Judith Hoag looks nothing like April, when her portrayal did in fact resemble the original comic's version).
- This was taken into account by the creators of the second film who originally intended to stick closer to the comics and have the mutagen be the creation of a brain-like alien race called the Utroms. Professor Perry, who still appears in the movie as the man who created the mutagen, was going to be revealed as the last Utrom still on Earth. However, the cartoon featured a villainous alien brain named Krang who bore a strong physical resemblance to the Utroms but little else. Since the movie was being marketed to fans of the cartoon, the Utrom subplot was ditched because of concern that viewers would assume the brain was Krang.
- Splinter's backstory. In the original comics, he was the pet rat of a murdered human ninja who was later mutated into a rat humanoid form. In the '80s cartoon, he's a human ninja mutated into a rat. Most other adaptations (excluding the 2012 cartoon) stick to the original backstory, yet the '80s cartoon version worked so well that people who were first introduced to the turtles by the cartoon tend to accuse adaptations that use this origin of creating an Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole, not realizing it is in fact his original backstory.
- A very localized Turtles example: Roger Ebert, in his reviews of the original two Turtles movies, refers to the Turtles as being from a Nintendo game with no mention of the comics, toys, and TV series that predated the NES video game. This confusion likely stems from his review of The Wizard, a movie that references (well, okay, let's face it, advertises) the NES Turtles game. This was likely the only exposure Ebert had to the Turtles before seeing the movie.
- In the case of DuckTales, it depends on where you live. In the U.S. and the U.K., the first cartoon is remembered well enough that a Continuity Reboot released 30 years later was an instant hit. Meanwhile, the Carl Barks comics both series are based on have mostly fallen into mainstream obscurity, although they're Cult Classics among comics fans, especially the Furry Fandom. In many other countries, however, Disney comics (especially those by Barks and Don Rosa) are still widely popular, much more so than the cartoons. Especially in Northern Europe, namely the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Germany. This was to the point that when DuckTales comics were released to promote the 2017 show, they flopped because kids didn't get why the continuity was so different.
- Before Arthur was a cartoon, it was a series of children's books by Marc Brown, though most people probably know this even if they've never read them. You are told about them after the end of every episode, after all. What most people probably don't know is that Show Within a Show Bionic Bunny is also based on a series of picture books by Brown.
- Many more people know about the cartoon series The Magic School Bus than the picture books it was based on.
- Then there's Little Bill, which was heavily advertised as being created by Bill Cosby, but many people didn't know it was for the fact that he created the original series of picture books, not the actual show.
- U.S. Acres (a.k.a. Orson's Farm), the middle segment on Garfield and Friends was actually based on a short-lived comic strip Jim Davis did during the 1980s.
- Ace the Bat-Hound was a Batman supporting character in the Golden and Silver ages. However, many more people remember Ace as Ol' Bruce Wayne's dog from Batman Beyond. And some people are surprised that the mask-wearing incarnation of Ace, Krypto, Streaky, and the Dog Stars (originally the Space Canine Patrol) weren't all made up for the Krypto the Superdog cartoon.
- You'd be surprised to know how many people are unaware that the My Little Pony franchise originates from the toys, and not the 1980s cartoon. The cartoon was actually made to promote the toys.
- A Charlie Brown Christmas and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown has somewhat overshadowed everything else in the Peanuts universe, including the actual newspaper strip, which is ironic because most of the special's dialogue is taken verbatim from the strip. In a rather odd case, a lot of people think that Linus is supposed to have a lisp because his ACBC voice actor, Christopher Shea, happened to have one. This even carried over into the 1999 Broadway production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
- Many people are familiar with Rankin Bass' stop-motion animation classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and more are familiar with the song by Johnny Marks. But many don't even remember the original story/poem by Robert May
◊ that inspired both the song and the special. And almost nobody remembers that the character was originally created for an old Montgomery Ward ad campaign. - Similarly, many people are familiar with the Rankin/Bass animated adaptation of The Year Without a Santa Claus, but have never heard of the original poem it was based on. Wikipedia doesn't even have an article about the original book.
- Speaking of Christmas specials, while the animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! hasn't exactly displaced the book (this partly is because Dr. Seuss is one of the most famous authors of children's books in the world) try to find anyone who can read the book to themselves and not hear Boris Karloff narrating it, or remember Chuck Jones direction or Ben Washam's animation of the Grinch's expression as he thinks of his "awful idea" moreso than the lower-key one in the book. Notably, the original book was entirely pen-and-ink, with red highlights. The Grinch wasn't green at all in the original illustrations, but thanks to this special it's become one of his defining design characteristics.
- The animated special also introduced the songs "Welcome Christmas" and "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", which have grown to be absolutely synonymous with the story and have been incorporated into both theatrical adaptations of the book, which otherwise differ from Jones' special.
- Relatively few people are familiar with the classic Space Ghost, Birdman (1967) and Sealab 2020 cartoons. More people are familiar with the Williams Street productions that took those characters and turned them into something completely different. Which is especially odd as these shows completely reuse animations and Stock Footage of the original cartoons.
- Vindicated outside of younger generations of the Internet. Looking at parent company's WB's marketing, it appears the Adult Swim shows are pretty much bargain priced with a few now OOP, while the original Hanna-Barbera sets are still in print. Hammering home that some of this displacement came from the fact when these shows were new, a lot of older people weren't using the Internet as much for younger people to have noticed.
- In Superman comics, Ms. Gsptlsnz, extradimensional paramour of Mister Mxyzptlk, appeared during the Silver Age comics. However, she was so obscure that even That Other Wiki erroneously reported her as a creation of Superman: The Animated Series. Brainiac gets a bit of this: most people remember him as a Kryptonian android, rather than a cyborg of a completely different species he is in the comics, with the Eradicator, whose origin he ended up with, being less well remembered.
- The W.I.T.C.H. TV series is much better known in the U.S. and U.K. than the comics, with the comics being well-known elsewhere, mostly other parts of Europe. For the United States, this is in part due to the source material not having the best history in those regions, initially receiving novelizations of the comics instead.
- Flying Rhino Junior High. It was already an obscure cult-classic from the get-go, but what's even more obscure are the books published by its creator Ray Nelson, in which the characters would wind up being in the series itself. After the series was finished, the Flying Rhino characters continued to be used on educational platforms until 2016 when they went back into obscurity.
- Teen Titans (2003)
- While most people realize that Batman's sidekick Robin originates in comic books, many fans of the animated Teen Titans may not realize that the rest of the show's main characters, the team and its headquarters, most of the villains, many of the plotlines on the show, and even the title itself, originated in comic books as well. The show's heavy anime-inspired style may play a role in this. Lampshaded within the show itself, when the other members are shocked to learn that Beast Boy's been a member of a team previously, and has more experience as a hero than anyone but possibly Robin.
- More to the point, the success of the cartoon made it so that the five cartoon Titans (Robinnote , Cyborg, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Raven) are the Teen Titans as far as most of the public is concerned. The Teen Titans have been around since the 1960's and have had dozens of members, but good luck finding many people who recognize any of them outside the five from the television series. This has also created a situation where most subsequent adaptations or media appearances (such as Justice League vs. Teen Titans) try to mimic the roster of the TV show in order to appeal to audiences who remember those heroes.
- One of the main criticisms of the animated special of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer lies in the awkwardly implemented songs. The title song everyone is familiar with, but not so much the other Dr. Elmo Christmas songs, believed by many to be written for the movie, when they're all just covers not involving Dr. Elmo despite him narrating the special and voicing Grandpa.
- The 1990s cartoon version of The Tick is vastly, overwhelmingly better known than the original black-and-white indie comic, and even the subsequent live-action adaptations.
- Thomas & Friends is best known for its TV adaptation that's been running since the mid-1980s. Less well known outside the UK is that it was based on a series of books that's been running since the mid-1940s...
- It's sister show Magic Adventures of Mumfie suffers this too-it's based off a children's book series that started all the way back in 1938, a few years before The Railway Series started.
- Man of Action Studios' Generator Rex, which was loosely based on a fairly unknown late-1990s Image Comics title called M.Rex. Considering the comic only lasted two issues before being cancelled, this can also be considered some serious Adaptation Expansion.
- Martin Mystery is possibly best known for the Western Animation show, that is almost an In Name Only version of the original comic ("almost" because they changed "Mystère" to "Mystery").
- A variation: while everyone knows that G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and The Transformers originated as Hasbro toy lines, it's far less common knowledge that most of the plot and characters for both shows actually originated from the Marvel comic books, which came first. For example: "Isn't Destro supposed to be black?" is a common question asked by those who questioned the casting of Christopher Eccleston as Destro in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but in the original comic, he was Caucasian and a Scotsman- it was only in the '80s cartoon that he was voiced by African American actor Arthur Burghardt, hence the confusion.
- Who remembers that Josie and the Pussycats was a comic before it became the famous cartoon? Even more, who remembers that before the Pussycats, it was just Josie, and was basically a female Archie.
- The Pink Panther movies are very often displaced by the cartoons, to the point where people have complained about the 2006 movie being about an inspector instead of the panther. The Pink Panther mascot is actually a personification of a diamond within the series.
- The original Symbiote arc in Spider-Man was almost indistinguishable from future versions, as the costume was portrayed as nothing more than a parasite that unknowingly sapped energy from Peter, slowly weakening him. However, all subsequent adaptations have taken more from the Spider-Man: The Animated Series version where the costume actually increases his powers and brings out his dark side, as well as establishing Eddie Brock as a character before revealing him as Venom.
- More people are familiar with the Bucky O'Hare animated series than the comic book it was based on (probably because it was originally just a back-up strip in an anthology book).
- The Cramp Twins isn't exactly a well-known cartoon nowadays, but even fewer people know that it started out as a series of books during the mid-1990s.
- It's more likely to find fans who associate Clifford the Big Red Dog with its 2000s animated version that aired on PBS Kids than the books that came out since 1963. That said, didja know that Nelvana also took a stab at it and made six half-hour direct-to-video specials in the 80s? Even the books are better remembered in comparison.
- The Question has gone through a lot of interpretations: extreme borderline-Jerkass objectivist avenger in the early Steve Ditko comics, mellowing out under Denny O'Neal into a Zen-like investigator, eventually becoming cheerfully fatalistic before passing on his name to Renee Montoya. However, the most famous one by far is Justice League Unlimiteds take of a Lighter and Softer Rorschach, voiced by Jeffrey Combs and obsessing over shoelaces.
- Iznogoud: The few American, English or Latin American people who have heard of this are either thinking of the god-awful game, or the pretty decent Animated Adaptation.
- Obscure Canadian stop-motion series Wapos Bay was based on a series of books, but few fans of the series know that.
- Heathcliff is best remembered through the DIC Entertainment series Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats, though it had been running as a comic strip since 1973.
- Elzie Segar originally created Popeye as a bit player in his comic strip Thimble Theater (which originally starred Olive Oyl). He was slowly groomed to be more of a hero to where he was the strip's star and eventually was featured in a Betty Boop cartoon before getting his own theatrical series. Today, Popeye is more associated with the cartoons than the Thimble Theater strip.
- The Boondocks and Drinky Crow are probably much better known as Adult Swim cartoons than as comic strips — it doesn't help that The Boondocks was pulled by some newspapers after Aaron McGruder criticized George W. Bush (and never returned, even after public opinion towards Bush had changed), and the strip Drinky Crow is based on, Maakies, mostly runs in small alternative papers.
- The Smurfs are well-known from the Hanna-Barbera animated series of the same name. However, a lot of Americans aren't aware the series is actually an animated adaptation of the Belgian comic book series of the same name which began in 1958. The Smurfs was also a spinoff to Peyo's previous work Johan and Peewit (Johan et Pirlouit) which began in 1952. Outside of Belgium (due to being apart of Franco-Belgian Comics History), Johan and Peewit are completely unknown to the foreign market. British and Australian audiences are more savvy toward the original comics, but not to the same extent as Western Europe (especially Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany).
- The Nelvana series Max and Ruby is more well-known to the public then the original ongoing book series by Rosemary Wells which began in 1979.
- The same thing can be said for her other book adapted for TV, Timothy Goes to School. The series is actually a mixture of Wells' other beloved book characters that originated from either a stand alone book note or introduced in the 1998 Yoko book note . Eventually some episodes would be loosely adapted for the Yoko & Friends School Days series with a couple books that are original.
- Ozzy & Drix is actually the Animated Adaptation of an animation/live-action hybrid film Osmosis Jones. However, due to the lack of promotion Osmosis Jones received, most of the viewership for Ozzy and Drix thought it was an original work.
- The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! movies have almost no diffusion in some regions like Latin America and some parts of Europe whilst the show had a broad syndication in a lot of public channels as Saturday morning cartoon. Thus whilst the existence of the movies is almost only known for cinema history buffs or B-Movie geeks, the show is almost as famous as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) or any other Saturday morning cartoon. A lot of people still to this day might have a surprise to know that there were live-action movies before.
- Similar to what they did in the Toys section above, many people assume that The Transformers cartoon came first, with the toys coming later to cash in. In reality, it was the other way around, with the cartoon being made to sell the toys.
- Many fans of the Scary Godmother duology don't realize that it's actually an adaptation of two novels in a long-running series.
- Although the books of Babar are far from being unpopular or obscure, is hard to imagine that most people won't associate the name of Babar with the animated series first, which was very successful and the Sequel Series Babar and the Adventures of Badou albeit divisive among fans of the original, it does succeed into making the character popular among newer generations.
- Caillou was based off a series of Canadian children's books in which the titular character was a baby that had a small following. This also explains why he doesn't have hair, as when the creators started making the books about Caillou's toddlerhood, a sample group of children did not recognize him when they added hair.
- Noddy: Outside of the United Kingdom and to some extent Australia, France, and Canada (and especially in the US, where the original books were never released, people think either Noddy's Toyland Adventures, Make Way For Noddy or The Noddy Shop, depending on which version they remember, was its own thing. There's also some people who think that The Noddy Shop was not connected to the Noddy franchise at all.
- Young Justice has far eclipsed the '90s comic the show is ostensibly based on. While it can hardly be considered a true adaptation, as it only shares the basic concept of being focused on a team of young superheroes in common, it's still the far more famous entertainment product with the name. Mention "Young Justice" to anyone outside the comic book community, and you can be guaranteed this will be the first that comes to mind.
- The Simpsons was a series of animated skits on The Tracey Ullman Show before being spun off into its own full series. Nowadays, The Simpsons is still airing and is one of the most popular animated series of all time, while The Tracey Ullman Show is almost entirely forgotten, and the only time anyone ever brings is it up is in the context of The Simpsons. It's quite telling that on The Tracey Ullman Show's work page, more tropes are catalogued for The Simpsons shorts than for the show itself.
- PJ Masks is based on a French series of picture books by Romuald Racioppo, but good luck finding anyone outside France who knows this. Even some French natives are unaware of the books. It also doesn't help that, despite the shows worldwide success, the books have so far never been translated or released anywhere outside France & Belgium.
- The titular character of Hey Arnold! was originally a character from a series of short films, one of which aired on Sesame Street.
- The obscure French show The Crumpets is a loose adaptation of the Petit Dernier and Petite Pousse picture books which began in the 2000s. The show is more widely available (though not very expansive as it's primarily limited to French-speaking territories) than the books.
- Very few people realize that the Cartoon Network show We Bare Bears is based on Daniel Chong's webcomic The Three Bare Bears. Justified, as it only lasted 9 pages.
- Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: The original webcomic, which only lasted four months and thirty-two pages before a DreamWorks Animation executive discovered it and urged the creator to start developing it as a television series. It doesn't help that the website for the comic is no longer active.
- Vampirina was adapted from a series of picture books written by Anne Marie Page.
- Most people outside of its native Australia don't know that the wildly successful 1990s Blinky Bill series was adapted from a series of books written in the 1930s.
- Outside of The Netherlands and Germany, the 1989 animated series Alfred J. Kwak is more well-known to the general public than the 1987 comic series which was an adaptation of the original theater show by Herman Van Veen from 1976 (revamped in 1985). Inverted in The Netherlands and Germany, where Herman Van Veen is a household name and his works are more prominent in those countries. Helps that the original "Alfred Jodocus Kwak" musical was shown in the Netherlands twice (1970s and 1987) and Germany in 1985. However the animated series was able to recieved two spinoff stage shows (Alfred J Kwak: Verboden Te Lachen and Alfred J Kwak en de Sneeuwvlok) shown in The Netherlands (the series' native country).
- 44 Cats is an Animated Adaptation of the hit Italian song "Quarantaquattro gatti". Outside of Italy, the song is largely unknown.
- A surprisingly large number of people are unaware of the fact that The Day My Butt Went Psycho! was based on a trilogy of kids books. Which is frankly strange given that the show's title cards explicitly state it to be based on those books.
- Relatively few people know of What's with Andy?, but even fewer realize that it was actually based on a series of kids' novels by Australian author Andy Griffiths.
- The PBS Kids series Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat is based on a 1994 children's book "The Chinese Siamese Cat". The original book has Ming Miao (a descent of the Miao family) telling her kittens the story of Sagwa (Ming Miao's ancestor) and how the kittens's antics foiled the Foolish Magistrate. Unlike the animated series, Sagwa and the other characters are designed more realistic and her collar is notably different.
- The already relatively obscure Grossology was actually loosely adapted from a series of nonfiction books with the same title.
- Fangbone! is often mistaken for a cash-in on the popularity of Star vs. the Forces of Evil, but the show's true origins lie in a series of children's graphic novels called Fangbone! Third Grade Barbarian, which was originally released in 2012 (3 years before Star vs. the Forces of Evil was even a thing).
- Most people are completely unaware of the fact that Sidekick started off as a miniseries of 5-minute shorts shown on the Animated Anthology show Funpak, which aired five years before Sidekick became a full TV show.
- Peg + Cat was based on a children's book called "The Chicken Problem", which premiered a year before the show.
- Most didn't know that Static Shock originated from its own series from Milestone Comics called Static who was eventually folded into The DCU. Most assumed that the show and its characters were either original creations or from an obscure DC comics series that was lucky enough to get an adaptation.
- The Octonauts was based on a series of children's books that began in 2006.
- Tuca & Bertie was based on an earlier, short-lived webcomic by Lisa Hanawalt called Tuca the Toucan.
- R.O.B. the Robot, which is already somewhat obscure in its own right, was still popular enough that information about John Magart's original books is nearly impossible to come by. What little is known comes from the covers of the books, and a stock image containing the book forms of Rob, Orbit, and who is possibly an early version of TK (suggesting that Ema is a Canon Foreigner).
- If you're a native German speaker, it's likely that you know the animated short Der Münchner im Himmel. You're less likely to know that it's based on a Short Story by the Lausbubengeschichten author Ludwig Thoma, though.
- Pet Alien is far more well-known than the original 1990s toyline that inspired it, to the point where information on said toyline is ridiculously scarce and most people don't even know there was a toyline.
- The Animals of Farthing Wood is so well remembered for the 1993-1995 Animated Adaptation of a series of novels that began in 1979, with the chronologically final story in the ocotology being written in 1992 and a prequel being written in 1994, that this very wiki focuses on the cartoon, even redirecting links written for the Literature version to the cartoon version.
- Those who grew up watching Peep and the Big Wide World will be extremely surprised to learn that the 2004 series is actually based on a 1988 animated short film of the same name produced by the National Film Board of Canada, which itself was based on a 1962 NFB short film called The Peep Show.
