Basic Trope: An adaptation of a work that focuses more on the human characters than on the non-human ones.
- Straight: The Adventures of Stephen the Talking Dog is adapted into a live-action movie. The movie puts greater focus on newcomer Alan, a live-action human who gets Stephen as a pet.
- Exaggerated:
- Alan is a White Male Lead who takes over the spotlight while Stephen only has five minutes of screentime (or is only mentioned in passing). Therefore the movie is an adaptation In Name Only.
- The original show took place in a World of Funny Animals with no human characters at all. The In Name Only adaptation only has human characters and changes Stephen from a dog to a human.
- Downplayed:
- Alan was in the original show, he just got a bigger role in the movie.
- Alan gets a lot of focus, but the adaptation is still primarily focused on Stephen and his adventures, with Alan acting as a co-protagonist or deuteragonist.
- Justified: The Adventures of Stephen the Talking Dog took place in a fantasy setting and the live-action movie involves Stephen getting sent to the real world, so there need to be humans to get the setting change across.
- Inverted: The Adventures of Alan is a sitcom about a normal young man who happens to have a pet dog named Stephen. When the shows receives an Animated Adaptation, Stephen becomes a talking dog who receives many subplots and episodes dedicated to him.
- Subverted: Alan disappears and Stephen is the main character for the second act of the movie.
- Double Subverted: Alan returns.
- Parodied: The movie has NO onscreen appearance of Stephen at all.
- Zig-Zagged: Alan appears in the beginning as the apparent main character living with his dog Stephen. As soon as he leaves the room, Stephen gets up on his hind legs and begins talking, only for Alan to walk into the room and discover Stephen was a talking animal the whole time. Then Stephen wakes up, revealing the whole thing to be a dream.
- Averted: No human characters are added to the movie, and if there were humans in the original show, they do not have expanded roles.
- Enforced:
- "We need a live-action human to bring in new fans."
- Alan is an Audience Surrogate.
- The special effects for having Stephen in live-action are expensive so Alan is given lots of screentime to save on budget.
- Lampshaded: 'What happened to, you know, Stephen the Talking Dog?'
- Invoked: Alan kills Stephen so he can lead the movie.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: After five minutes following nothing but Alan and showing how much he hates his job and wishes he could ask Belma the Secretary out, the image freezes and an exasperated rant by Stephen can be heard. "Wait. wait. WAIT. What are you doing? These are "The Adventures of STEPHEN THE TALKING DOG"! Not some a dime a dozen human! Pay attention to ME!" From then on, the movie follows Stephen exclusively.
- Discussed: 'I'm just glad I'm still the main character!'
- Conversed: "Hey! Alan was never in the original show!"
- Deconstructed: Fans of the original end up hating the adaptation for replacing Stephen with Alan, while people who were just looking to see a film about a talking dog feel deceived due to the lack of what is mentioned in the title, leading the film to bomb in the box office.
- Reconstructed: The sequels reintroduce Stephen and are loved.
Originally, this page was focused on Tropey the Wonder Dog, but we rewrote it to be a more Human-Focused Adaptation.
