Adaptational Heroism in Western Animation.
- Beetlejuice. In the movie Beetlejuice was clearly a villain willing to kill human beings and forcefully married an underage girl in her early teens. In the series Beetlejuice is Lydia's platonic best friend and protector, and though mischievous and likes to scare people, never really harm anyone and even risk his... em... afterlife, to save Lydia’s parents and cat in different episodes.
- Blood of Zeus: Zeus himself is subject to this a great deal, in Classical Mythology Zeus is notorious for being a egotistical, misogynistic scumbag who routinely rapes mortal women and getting them pregnant before abandoning them, often leaving them to face his wife Hera’s wrath. In the show while Zeus is hardly flawless, he’s pretty much a saint compared to the myths as his relationship with the mortal Electra is consensual and loving and after revealing himself as a God, Zeus rescues her and his son Heron from her abusive husband Periander. Disguised as a old man he spends his time protecting and hiding Electra and Heron from Hera, raising his son the best he can. When thanks to Hera, Electra is killed, Zeus not only tried his best to prevent it before Poseidon stops him but afterwards is seen cradling Electra’s body while crying and makes sure her soul is delivered to Elysium. The finale takes this even further as regretting his mistreatment and infidelity to Hera which fuelled her Face–Heel Turn, Zeus performs a Heroic Sacrifice saving her from Porphyrion, something he wouldn’t do in the myths.
- The Carmen Sandiego franchise traditionally has the titular character as a master spy who pulled a Face–Heel Turn to become a world-renowned Gentlewoman Thief who steals world treasures just for kicks with her own organization called VILE. The 2019 animated series shifts her into an Anti-Hero Karmic Thief who used to work for VILE before pulling a Heel–Face Turn, now only stealing to protect items from her former colleagues and other villains.
- Castlevania:
- Dracula gets a good deal of this, while still a Evil Overlord, his Benevolent Boss and Pet the Dog traits are dialled up and his justified breakdown at his wife Lisa’s cruel and unlawful death of his wife at Corrupt Church succeeds in making him extremely sympathetic. The show’s Dracula at Lisa’s request, even walks the Earth as a man — something Dracula from the games would never entertain. If that wasn’t enough, we never see Dracula personally kill any innocent women and children once in the show and he spares the old woman he finds mourning outside his wife’s burned home. In Season 2, Dracula has outright given up drinking blood and starves himself. His relationship with his son Alucard is much healthier, in the games while he has a soft spot for Alucard, he has no qualms trying to kill his son if he gets in the way of his plans. In the show, Dracula loves his boy and in the Final Battle deliberately avoids fighting Alucard mainly targeting Trevor and Sypha, only retaliating against his son when Alucard gives him no choice. After almost killing his son, Dracula realises he’s destroying the only trace of Lisa left and breaking down sobbing lets Alucard stake him through the heart. In Season 4, Dracula is resurrected along with Lisa and given another chance at life happily becomes a Retired Monster.
- Isaac from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is a much less morally complex and nuanced character compared to show. In the game he’s a card carrying Smug Snake who always hated Hector for being Dracula’s favourite and kills his wife out of spite after Hector leaves Dracula’s army. In the show, Isaac is a Noble Demon with a strong Freudian Excuse to despise all humanity and gets along very well with Hector, only turning against his fellow Forgemaster when Hector betrays Dracula for Carmilla. In Season 3, Isaac even has a few Pet the Dog moments sparing a people who don’t attack him and his army and concedes with The Captain that not every human is an awful person. In Season 4, not only does Isaac save half of Europe from Carmilla’s attempt at domination by taking her down, but as he says to Hector (whom he forgives) he’s decided to ditch his plan to Kill All Humans like Dracula and actually wants to give helping humanity a shot.
- Saint Germain is a Hero Antagonist in Curse of Darkness and actually fights the protagonist to test him. In the show Germain never once makes any violent action towards the heroes and later in the season actively aids them in defeating some demons that have taken over a town. Inverted for Season 4 where Germain works with Death to kick start the apocalypse in order to see the woman he loves again. Except Germain pulls a last minute Heel–Face Turn and helps Trevor survive the fight.
- While he sadly doesn’t appear in the flesh, the “Pirate of the Roads” aka Grant DeNasty seems to be judging by Trevor and Sypha’s account a normal man. Unlike Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse where Grant has been cursed to be a big monster before being defeated and reverting back to normal.
- The Charmkins does this with Poison Ivy. The toyline had her be a villain who tried to make everyone itch, while in the cartoon she's a mischievous Trickster Mentor who helps the heroes.
- Muskie Muskrat wasn't completely a bad guy in The Deputy Dawg Show, but he loved to play tricks on Deputy Dawg and outsmart him when the canine lawman tried to arrest him for causing trouble. In Curbside, he is Deputy Dawg's loyal sidekick with his only fault being that he's an idiot this time around.
- Speaking of DuckTales (1987), Gladstone Gander is much nicer in the show than he is in the comics. This is averted in the reboot, where he's back to being a smug jerk.
- And speaking of DuckTales (2017):
- Magica's Living Shadow was a oneshot villain in the 1987 series who proved to be Eviler than Thou, necessitating Magica to pull an Enemy Mine with Scrooge. Their 2017 counterpart Lena on the other hand, is an abused Dark Magical Girl who is only working as The Mole due to being bound to Magica's will, and she ultimately pulls a Heel–Face Turn (in addition to being Webby's best friend).
- In DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, Dijon was the greedy, cowardly servant to Merlock. Here, now named Faris D'jinn, he is a noble warrior who becomes an ally of the main cast after they help him find a lost genie's lamp that once held his ancestor.
- Darkwing Duck falls under this trope to an extent. The original was significantly more egotistical, vain, selfish, and always unable to remember the importance of allowing others to help him out, in spite of the fact his sidekick and his own adoptive daughter were more than able to pull their own (not to mention he frequently belittled the former and constantly kept the latter at bay for her own safety), not to mention he absolutely hates Gizmoduck. The newer iteration seen in this show is a genuine hero, having stepped into the role in part because he wanted Darkwing to inspire others to stand up for themselves much in the same way the In-Universe Darkwing series did for him. He still has a bit of an ego, but he's a lot more mellow, and treats Launchpad and Gosayln as equals rather than as hindrances. He still hates Gizmoduck though.
- Garfield, while remaining largely the same character in all medias, is hit with this to some extent. The comic strips usually revolve around quick gags involving Garfield's snarkiness or cruel sense of humor. The Animated Adaptations however — likely due to their longer, more in-depth stories — keep most of Garfield's nastier qualities out but also more frequently show his redeeming side, turning him into more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. This is especially prominent in The Garfield Show where he is occasionally toned down to the point of being outright altruistic.
- The animated adaptation of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer is a strange case where this Trope is used on a character usually thought of as a hero anyway — in this case, Santa Claus — but was a victim of Adaptational Villainy in the original work. In the original song, it's implied that Santa ran over Grandma on purpose; in this version, it was a Frame-Up, where he manages to help Grandma recover.
- Hazbin Hotel: In The Bible, Lucifer was a once good angel who rebelled against God and Heaven due to his arrogance and pride and after falling became a malevolent Manipulative Bastard who tempted Adam and Eve into eating the fruit of knowledge and then continued to tempt their descendants into performing evil deeds. Here, Lucifer's backstory frames him as a "rebellious dreamer" who simply wanted to share the gift of free will with humanity, only for it to go horribly awry, and whose views were shunned not because he was an arrogant traitor, but because Heaven's elders viewed any form of free will and independence as "wrong". To be perfectly fair, this could just be how Lucifer and/or Lilith tells the story, but it lines up with other things shown throughout the series, including Lucifer's own characterization as a Nice Guy Bumbling Dad.
- Zodac in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983). His action figure, already existent before the cartoon was made, was labelled as "Evil Cosmic Enforcer", not to mention he had the finned forearms and webbed feet common among the villains of the toyline. However, the cartoon recasts him as a supposedly neutral but mostly good overseeing character, who even delivers the closing lessons in two episodes. Re-releases of the action figure sort of retconned his original self by simply labelling him "Cosmic Enforcer".
- Horrid Henry: The titular protagonist is a budding sociopath in the original books, being shown to have attempted to murder his own brother and fantasizing about ruling the world and executing anyone who questions him. The animated series, however, has him display some degree of kindness, even towards his most frequent targets, and overall depicts him more akin to a Troubled Abuser.
- The Looney Tunes Show: Yosemite Sam goes from mean in the original shorts to nicer in this show. Partially justified because he's no longer allowed to use his trademark pistols, so he can't intimidate and bully people as easily as before. He's still loud, rude and thoughtless, but when it occurs to him to be nice, he's pretty decent.
- Marvin the Martian is far nicer guy in this series. While he does claim to want to destroy the earth and admits he'll shot you with laser gun (albeit for a good reason as he only does so if you aren't polite), he never does either of those things or anything evil in this show for that matter. We never see him try to destroy the earth and he's actually a friend of Bugs, Daffy and Porky.
- In Lost in Oz, the apparent Wicked Witch, West, goes from being a villain to being Dorothy's friend with a dark side.
- In the original Madeline books, the gypsies from Madeline and the Gypsies seem like kidnappers who take Madeline and Pepito into their circus, and eventually hide them in a lion's suit so that Miss Clavel can't find them. The TV special instead had the gypsies tell Madeline and Pepito to go home after they come down from being stuck on the Ferris Wheel, only for the two of them to express a desire to join their circus. They also don't make Madeline and Pepito wear the lion's suit until after their own lion becomes too sick to perform.
- The Mask animated adaptation removes many of the title character's evil qualities. Not only is The Mask already downplayed in the movie from the serial killer he is in the comics, in the animated series he's now the city's hero who does not commit more robberies or any other crimes and is no longer a gangster since he decide to be a superhero after events of the film though he can be a Troll at times but otherwise he is harmless as before, he will now fight any supervillains who attack Edge City and the people who live there along with his friends as well.
- In one episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the Smooze, who was a major antagonist of the G1 movie, is depicted as a more docile creature that is friends with Discord.
- While the four members of the Ghost Gang from the Pac-Man series are the main antagonists in most of the games, the versions of them that appear in the Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures universe become his allies and act as Double Agents secretly helping him against their boss Lord Betrayus.
- While Pete has traditionally been a truly evil villain, there are exceptions. In occasional Classic Disney Shorts such as "the Barnyard Dance", he would play a good or neutral figure, whilst usually retaining his gruff demeanor. In Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and, to a lesser extent, Goof Troop, he was played differently. In Goof Troop at least, he was a Jerkass, a Manipulative Bastard, and (as a result of the premise) an Abusive Parent, but he was also shown to have standards, fight against greater evils from time to time, and have a few Pet the Dog moments, making him more of an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist or Anti-Hero. In Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, he is played much more sympathetically due to the target audience being younger to the point where he's not even very mean and actually gets along with the other characters. This also applies in Mickey and the Roadster Racers where despite playing antagonist sometimes Pete still means well. One episode of DuckTales (1987) had a gruff but outright heroic Pete who was only positioned as a potential villain as a Red Herring.
- For Nick Jr.'s Peter Rabbit series. Peter Rabbit acts more heroic and less mischievous as he was in the original story. Benjamin Bunny gets this big time, since in The Tale of Benjamin Bunny he was mostly greedy. But in the Nick Jr. series, he's sensitive and more optimistic.
- Similarly, Thomas in The Railway Series, while still sympathetic, was much more of a self absorbed Bratty Half-Pint. While the show kept up this depiction for most episodes adapted from the books, its turn to original stories slowly made Thomas more altruistic and innocent. Some other engines such as Henry and Sir Handel took a similar direction.
- Bulgy in the original novels was a racist Jerkass who met his karmic fate by being turned into a chicken coop. While this plot is adapted into the show, he is later restored for vehicle purposes and becomes more benevolent.
- Evoked with the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in The Real Ghostbusters, who the busters have apparently been working with to rehabilitate him. They're ultimately forced to release him from the Containment Grid to face a gigantic ghastly preying mantis because, as Egon points out, the mantis is as powerful as Gozer and they don't otherwise stand a chance. He also pops up in a couple of later episodes on the side of the Ghostbusters, albeit not without some property damage.
- Slimer also changes from a minor villain in the movies to an outright Hunter of His Own Kind Friendly Ghost in the show.
- Downplayed by She-Ra and the Princesses of Power with Entrapta. The original 1985 series has her as an evil aristocratic hunter whose backstory had her as trapped in the Whispering Woods as punishment for her crimes before being found by Catra and convinced to be an inventor for the evil Horde. The 2018 series instead begins with her as a technology-obsessed princess firmly on the side of the Rebellion, albeit more concerned with experimentation and research than anything else. It's only a misunderstanding regarding her level of mortality that finds her in stuck in Horde territory, where she joins them after Catra is convinced she was abandoned and Entrapta realizes they're willing to support her more dangerous research. She ultimately returns to the side of good, however.
- Played straight by Scorpia and Catra, however, as both of them pull a Heel–Face Turn as the series draws to a close. Bonus points go to Catra, who ends the series as Adora's girlfriend, something her original counterpart would never do. To say nothing of Hordak (which is especially notable since this is so far the only incarnation of the character to even entertain the idea of a Heel–Face Turn).
- While not an "adaptation" of The Jungle Book per se, TaleSpin does this to some of its reinvented characters from the Disney film. In the latter Shere Khan, while Faux Affably Evil, was a genuine force of evil and took sadistic pleasure in the idea of killing a man cub. In Tale Spin he is still sinister, but a businessman of neutral alliance, interested only in power and having a strong moral code (even siding with Baloo if someone risks offending it).
- Meanwhile King Louie is altered from a wily troublemaker to Baloo's best friend.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
- The titular turtles are a lot more noble in the cartoons than the original comic. The original Mirage Turtles were assembled by Splinter purely to avenge Hamato Yoshi by killing the Shredder. Not that the Shredder isn't bad, but the Turtles were originally trained for the purpose of a revenge killing, whereas in the shows they are mostly fighting him because they're the good guys and he's actively doing something bad today. This even goes for the Darker and Edgier 2003 series where the backstory is taken practically word for word from the comics.
- As mentioned above, in the original comics Splinter trained the turtles for the sole purpose of killing the Shredder, while all the cartoons make it clear he’s training them for self-defense.
- Downplayed with the 2012 incarnation of the Shredder, where his love for his daughter, Karai, is very genuine. The problem is that he has rooted himself so deep in his hatred toward the Hamato Clan, even his love for his daughter doesn't seem to matter, culminating in her mutation, which he still blames on the Hamato Clan despite him being the one using her as bait for the trap that did it.
- Agent Bishop in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) incarnation is much more heroic than his previous counterpart. In the 2003 series, Bishop was an immoral, alien-hating monster who was a part of the Big Bad Ensemble. In the 2012 series, he's a member of the peaceful Utrom council and a faithful ally to the turtles, attempting to help them save Earth.
- In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), Baxter Stockman was a good-hearted but terminally naïve scientist, whose evil mostly seemed to stem from a combination of manipulation by Shredder and Krang and some form of mutation-induced brain damage. The other Stockmans in the franchise varied from "disregarding everything For Science!" to "outright monstrous".
- A very spoiler-y example in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Karai's exact motivations and relationship with the turtles varies depending on the incarnation, but she's usually a Foot member and Dark Action Girl who clashes with them. Rise's Karai is unambiguously a force for good, having been the one to defeat Shredder many years ago.
- Many villainous characters from TUGS became friends with the Star Tugs rather than enemies in the Frankenslation, Salty's Lighthouse. The Z-Stacks are a prime example.
- In Voltron: Legendary Defender, while claiming to have been secretly working to bring peace to the galaxy the entire time, regardless of whether that's actually true or not, Lotor displays a kinder side that his original incarnation never had in addition to that unlike his original incarnation who was a Stalker with a Crush, he doesn't show any obsession towards Allura.
- Not at the present with Emperor Zarkon, but as shown in the Whole Episode Flashback, King Zarkon was a far cry from the tyrant he was in his original GoLion and Voltron incarnations. It was through a combination of Love Makes You Evil and Came Back Wrong that he became the remorseless monster who would rule over the universe for ten thousand years.
