History Main / AudienceColoringAdaptation

* The 70s ''Series/WonderWoman'' series starring Lynda Carter colored, and continues to color, peoples' cultural knowledge of the character. Unlike Batman, however, Wonder Woman has never had the benefit of a successive adaptation that mitigates the {{Camp}} elements of the 70s show. The ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' animated series has helped to some extent, but popular culture still looks almost exclusively to the Carter version, and [[Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot an adaptation with Adrianne Palicki]] was cancelled before it aired. And because, unlike the Batman show, it very rarely attempted to adapt any of the villain concepts from the comics, it's also left future filmmakers floundering to find a villain from the comics that the mainstream will care about.

** On another level, the individual ''Sentai'' seasons can be tarred with the ''Rangers'' brush. Some past seasons get a bad reputation simply because of the following ''Rangers'' adaptations. Some fans who watch ''Rangers'' first looked a little skeptically on ''[[Series/HyakujuuSentaiGaoranger Gaoranger]]'' or ''[[Series/GoGoSentaiBoukenger Boukenger]]'' simply because of how badly they were adapted into ''[[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Wild Force]]'' or ''[[Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive Operation Overdrive]]''.

* Creator/AngLee's ''Film/{{Hulk}}'' movie is often blamed for the failure of the MCU reboot, ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', which despite being better received by fans, sold even ''fewer'' tickets than the original. The character's cinematic reputation has been somewhat restored by ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', but Marvel is still wary of giving the property another chance, which is why there's no Hulk sequel in the works as of 2016. It doesn't help that Disney/Marvel would have to share profits with Universal (a condition of Marvel getting the film rights to the character back is that Universal gets distribution rights to any solo Hulk film).

* AngLee's ''Film/{{Hulk}}'' movie is often blamed for the failure of the MCU reboot, ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', which despite being better received by fans, sold even ''fewer'' tickets than the original. The character's cinematic reputation has been somewhat restored by ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', but Marvel is still wary of giving the property another chance, which is why there's no Hulk sequel in the works as of 2016. It doesn't help that Disney/Marvel would have to share profits with Universal (a condition of Marvel getting the film rights to the character back is that Universal gets distribution rights to any solo Hulk film).

* For most people, Franchise/{{Superman}} is synonymous with the ChristopherReeve movies. To a lesser extent there is the earlier TV show, which is the source of a lot of catchphrases associated with the franchise (Faster than a speeding bullet!...) Its details aren't known to many casual fans, but if you've ever talked about Superman you've quoted it at least once.

* While the Franchise/TransformersFilmSeries was a ''huge'' success, it had the unfortunate effect of giving the franchise as a whole a reputation of being all about big dumb action and giant robots fighting, much to the irritation of its fans in other medias, where it has plenty of good stories, mature writing and memorable characters (as well as giant robots fighting.)

* ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' is this for its source novel, Creator/RoaldDahl's ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''. That film has become so iconic [[CharlieAndTheChocolateParody and parodied]] that outside of the U.K. -- and ''especially'' in the United States -- the novel has suffered AdaptationDisplacement. There are actually [[AdaptationOverdosed many other adaptations of it out there]], but old-time fans tend to bristle at any telling that doesn't slavishly follow the lead of the 1971 Gene Wilder film, never mind that said tellings are usually TruerToTheText (such as [[Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory the 2013 stage musical]], though that adaptation tosses in one song from and several {{Internal Homage}}s to the '71 version). [[DisownedAdaptation Dahl himself disowned the film]], so he likely wouldn't be happy about this at all. Some of the changes were "corrected" in TimBurton's [[Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory 2005 adaptation]] - the Oompa-Loompas changing back from orange-faced, green-haired clowns to dark-skinned jungle natives - but others were not.

* The King James version of ''Literature/TheBible'', with its antiquated (it was deliberately a bit archaic even in James' day) version of English, seems to have produced in some people the rather bizarre notion that God speaks Ye Olde Englishe exclusively, and that it's very nearly sacrilegious to use modern English when speaking to or about Him. To this day, there are a great many Christians and Christian denominations (especially those on the [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] end), known as "King James Onlyites", who will insist that the King James Version is the ''only'' English translation "approved" by God, and can get ''very'' touchy on the subject. However, these people are in the minority in much of the world. This is especially ironic/silly when you consider just ''why'' people like the KJV: Because it is the version of the Bible with the most ''artistic'' merit; [[{{Woolseyism}} rather than just a translation of the Hebrew, it is a work of English verse in its own right]]. In other words, it ''isn't'' a literal translation.
* The later runs of ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'' include post-novel content in which Goldman tells us ({{Kayfabe}}) that Stephen King felt this way about Goldman's abridged version of the story. Goldman also cites this as one of the reasons he can't secure the rights to publish the sequel to the book in English; the Morgenstern estate feels that his abridgement was a travesty and won't let him near the sequel. [[spoiler:The reality is Goldman has made a few abortive attempts to start the sequel, but each time he's realized he can't recapture the magic of the original.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'''s intense popularity has meant every other ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' entry is compared to it, and tropes that only happen in ''VII'' are considered to be emblematic cliches of the series. On top of that, a lot of the tropes that people associate with ''VII'' are DeadUnicornTropes originating from ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' and {{Fanon}}.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'''s intense popularity has meant every other ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' entry is compared to it, and tropes that only happen in ''VII'' are considered to be emblematic cliches of the series.

See also AdaptationDisplacement and NeverLiveItDown.

** One good example is how the characters' nationalities are presented. Willy Wonka is clearly supposed to be British in the novel, but in both film versions he's American. Augustus Gloop's family in the novel is either British or East Coast American, judging by his mother's speech patterns, but both films made them Germans. Veruca Salt's family was American rather than British (in the text, Mr. Salt says "crazy" rather than "mad" and calls his female employees "gals" rather than "girls"), but both films changed this. With the Bucket family it's a gray area: Charlie and his parents and grandparents are ''implied'' to be British (eating cabbage soup and whatnot), but the sequel ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'' follows the lead of the 1971 film by [[{{Retcon}} retconning]] them as Americans, albeit ones of English descent (Grandma Georgina's [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant ancestors]] came over on the ''Mayflower''); in Burton's version, though, they're back to being British.

* ''{{Warehouse 13}}'' uses this as a major plot point. All of the stories children grew up with, such as ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'' and ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'', were bowdlerized Warehouse-issue fabrications designed to downplay the more horrifying aspects of the ''true'' stories.

* For most people, Franchise/{{Superman}} is synonymous with the ChristopherReeve movies, to the point that many critics of ''Film/ManOfSteel'' were off-put by the fact that it '''wasn't''' as light and tame as the Reeve films.

* While the Franchise/TransformersFilmSeries was a ''huge'' success, it had the unfortunate effect of giving the franchise as a whole a reputation of being all about big dumb action and giant robots fighting, much to the irritation of its fans in other medias, where it has plenty of good stories, mature writing and memorable characters.

* ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' has crippled ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} as a character forever. Give him a harpoon hand, replace it with a magical water hand, point out how life at the bottom of the ocean has made him stronger, faster, and more resilient than most humans... and everyone will still be like, "He's just some guy who swims fast and talks to fish." It's gotten to the point where DC finally decided to [[DyingToBeReplaced kill off the old Aquaman and create a new one]]. But the original is back now, and in New 52, all bets and gloves are off with DC, as they hire expert comic book fixer Geoff Johns to fix Aquaman's bad cred. As Geoff has had Aquaman face all of the 'fish man' jokes and blow them to shreds with all of the awesome things he does, it seems to be working. Additionally, he's now to be a part of the DC Cinematic Universe, to be played by Creator/JasonMomoa; debuting as a cameo in ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''. Between [[Series/GameOfThrones Khal Drogo]] and [[Film/ConanTheBarbarian2011 Conan,]] if there's one person in the world who can rescue Aquaman's reputation as a stone-cold badass, it's him.

* ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' is frequently dismissed as a TastesLikeDiabetes outlet. This is almost entirely because of G3, which consists almost entirely of saccharine nonsense. People turned onto the franchise by ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' are often surprised to find the G1 [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials TV specials]], [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie movie]], and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends cartoon show]] can be remarkably mature, can be [[VileVillainSaccharineShow a bit]] [[SurpriseCreepy dark]], and on occasion [[https://derpiboo.ru/1084620 quite horrifying]].

Compare InkStainAdaptation. See also AdaptationDisplacement and NeverLiveItDown.

See also AdaptationDisplacement and NeverLiveItDown.

[[folder:Film]]

* {{Disney}} has played an infamously enormous role in coloring public knowledge of numerous fairy tales, and even some novels and short stories, with ''Disney/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''Disney/TheFoxAndTheHound'', ''Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', the ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'', and ''Disney/TheBlackCauldron'' being but a few titles now almost entirely unknown outside their Disney version.
** When people think of Literature/{{Aladdin}}, odds are they'll think of [[Disney/{{Aladdin}} the Disney version]] with its storybook version of Persia/Arabia, rather than the Chinese setting that the original story employed. To be fair, nearly all adaptations of Aladdin were set in Arabia well before Disney got their hands on the story. And moving the story out of China ''does'' make it easier to [[RaceLift cast Caucasian actors]], as the Disney film did.
** ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'', meanwhile, is one of the biggest subversions. The stage version of John Smith and Pocahontas had formed itself not long after the real events. But through many different variations and romantasizing went as far as them being lovers. Once Disney put that story to celluloid, the VocalMinority that knew its inaccuracies raised such a stink that everyone now knows the real Pocahontas was only twelve years old at the time and has no love affair with Smith. She even married John Rolfe and moved with him to England, a fact that Disney inexplicably got right in the direct-to-video sequel.

* ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' is frequently dismissed as a {{Glurge}} outlet. This is almost entirely because of G3, which consists almost entirely of saccharine nonsense. People turned onto the franchise by ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' are often surprised to find the G1 [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials TV specials]], [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie movie]], and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends cartoon show]] can be remarkably mature, can be [[VileVillainSaccharineShow a bit]] [[SurpriseCreepy dark]], and on occasion [[https://derpiboo.ru/1084620 quite horrifying]].
* The ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' movies, which was adapted from the fairly obscure book series of the same name, have pretty much defined the series in the general public. The average person might be surprised at the wide amount of differences between the books and the movies if you hand them one of the books, where Toothless is a much smaller and annoying dragon for example.

* The failure of Disney's quarter-billion-dollar 2012 ''Film/JohnCarter'' has killed any further attempts to bring Edgar Rice Burroughs' other hero to the big or small screen by Disney or anyone else for at least a few decades.
* While it's largely dismissed by most, ''Film/DragonballEvolution'' was so bad that it prompted series creator Creator/AkiraToriyama to create [[Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods his own film]] after having not been involved with the series in over a decade. (With the exception of SelfParody ''Neko Majin Z'').

* The 70s ''Series/WonderWoman'' series starring Lynda Carter colored, and continues to color, peoples' cultural knowledge of the character. Unlike Batman, however, Wonder Woman has never had the benefit of a successive adaptation that mitigates the {{Camp}} elements of the 70s show. The ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' animated series has helped to some extent, but popular culture still looks almost exclusively to the Carter version, and [[Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot a recent adaptation with Adrianne Palicki]] was cancelled before it aired. And because, unlike the Batman show, it very rarely attempted to adapt any of the villain concepts from the comics, it's also left future filmmakers floundering to find a villain from the comics that the mainstream will care about.

* Everyone remembers the 1987 ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'' cartoon, while the much darker original comics and more recent cartoon and movies seem to be living in its shadow... Much like [[Series/{{Batman}} the '60s Batman]] example earlier in the page.

* {{Disney}} has played an infamously enormous role in coloring public knowledge of numerous fairy tales, and even some novels and short stories, with ''Disney/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''Disney/TheFoxAndTheHound'', ''Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', the ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'', and ''Disney/TheBlackCauldron'' being but a few titles now almost entirely unknown outside their Disney version.
** When people think of Literature/{{Aladdin}}, odds are they'll think of [[Disney/{{Aladdin}} the Disney version]] with its storybook version of Persia/Arabia, rather than the Chinese setting that the original story employed. To be fair, nearly all adaptations of Aladdin were set in Arabia well before Disney got their hands on the story. And moving the story out of China ''does'' make it easier to [[RaceLift cast Caucasian actors]], as the Disney film did.
** ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'', meanwhile, is one of the biggest subversions. The stage version of John Smith and Pocahontas had formed itself not long after the real events. But through many different variations and romantasizing went as far as them being lovers. Once Disney put that story to celluloid, the VocalMinority that knew its inaccuracies raised such a stink that everyone now knows the real Pocahontas was only twelve years old at the time and has no love affair with Smith. She even married John Rolfe and moved with him to England, a fact that Disney inexplicably got right in the direct-to-video sequel.

* Related to UniversalHorror, ''Film/{{The Mummy 1932}}'' saw a significantly less scary reinvention with Film/TheMummyTrilogy, to the point the trailer for [[Film/{{The Mummy 2017}} the 2017 remake]] has many comments weirded out by the horror tone returning instead of the Franchise/IndianaJones-esque adventure tone seen in the movies with Brendan Fraser.

* The [[{{VideoGame/Thief2014}} 2014 reboot attempt]] for the ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' series has been frequently criticized for being too superficial in its homaging of the original series, mostly ignoring its gameplay and storytelling nuances and often replacing them with gratuitous, out-of-place edginess. The main story was widely derided for being badly plotted, with some [[IdiotBall very questionable and annoying characterisation]] for many characters, the complete jettisoning of the varied factions that made the series' universe interesting and unique (sans the odd token reference here and there) and an absence of the dry-witted humor that was typical for the series alongside its more serious plots. An oft-heard complaint is that the game mechanics and stylistic choices in the reboot seem to shun Thief's previous design sensibilities and prefer to ape the then-recent success of ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' (itself actually considered more of a ''Thief'' game (in spirit) even by ''Thief'' fans than the official reboot they got). Most damningly, the reboot game suffers the most from lacking level design favourable to the very open-ended style of exploration and objective completion that the original three ''Thief'' games and ''Dishonored'' are well known and loved for. The gameplay instead opts for a very railroaded layout, with very limited options for different possible approaches to each location. Couple all of that with several ridiculous technical issues and bizarre glitches in the worst places possible - particularly in enemy AI and sound propagation, a key part of previous ''Thief'' games - and the reboot does itself almost no favours. Tellingly, the game isn't usually condemned as outright terrible, but even the most forgiving fans and critics predominantly consider it bland and SoOkayItsAverage at best. Granted, a series as acclaimed and ground-breaking as ''Thief'' was a ToughActToFollow, not the least because its creators were [[Creator/LookingGlassStudios one of the most innovative developers of the 1990s]], and yet the reboot still messed up a lot of things in ways it could have avoided. In something of a subversion, the massive flaws of the reboot ''haven't'' substantially hurt the reputation of the old games for newcomers, and many have gone back and discovered them thanks to it. It's currently dubious whether there'll be any future sequels, though (unlike with ''Tomb Raider'', ''Hitman'' or ''Deus Ex'').

* {{Disney}} has played an infamously enormous role in coloring public knowledge of numerous fairy tales, and even some novels and short stories, with LadyAndTheTramp, TheFoxAndTheHound, 101Dalmatians, the GreatMouseDetective, and TheBlackCauldron being but a few titles now almost entirely unknown outside their Disney version.

* When people think of Literature/{{Aladdin}}, odds are they'll think of [[Disney/{{Aladdin}} the Disney version]] with its storybook version of Persia/Arabia, rather than the Chinese setting that the original story employed. To be fair, nearly all adaptations of Aladdin were set in Arabia well before Disney got their hands on the story. And moving the story out of China ''does'' make it easier to [[RaceLift cast Caucasian actors]], as the Disney film did.
* ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'', meanwhile, is one of the biggest subversions. The stage version of John Smith and Pocahontas had formed itself not long after the real events. But through many different variations and romantasizing went as far as them being lovers. Once Disney put that story to celluloid, the VocalMinority that knew its inaccuracies raised such a stink that everyone now knows the real Pocahontas was only twelve years old at the time and has no love affair with Smith. She even married John Rolfe and moved with him to England, a fact that Disney inexplicably got right in the direct-to-video sequel.

An adaptation to a long running franchise which irrevocably colors the public's perception of the franchise as a whole. This is rarely for good reasons.

This can not only kill a show, but may also [[FranchiseKiller kill any interest in doing future adaptations]] unless we are promised the next one will be very good. Even if it doesn't, people who aren't fans, who might never even have seen ''any'' of the installments, will bring this one up to mock because of the ink stains. In the worst scenarios, the good installments [[NoExportForYou aren't freely available in one's country]], while the bad ones ''are''.

Sometimes, an InkStainAdaptation is used for LostInImitation. The results can be [[DarthWiki/RuinedFOREVER disastrous]].

See also AdaptationDisplacement and NeverLiveItDown. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] InkSuitActor.