Adaptational Ugliness

From beauty to harridan.

Mary: How come they made me fat and have red hair?
Larry: Because you're the comic relief!

— Dialogue from Limozeen: "but they're in space!", Strong Bad Email #126 "best thing"

The opposite of Adaptational Attractiveness, this trope is when a character who is conventionally attractive (or described as such) in the source material is made less conventionally attractive in the adaptation.

This may be done in the case of villainous characters to make them more Obviously Evil, or in general it may be a case of Ability over Appearance if it's decided that an actor uglier than the character in question can play the part well. Another reasoning for this is that they didn't get it right in previous adaptations, especially for live-action ones.

Besides villains, this is also common for Comedic Relief Characters as well. The adapters want to make it obvious to kids that the hero's sidekick is the funny guy, so they turn him into a Big Fun Fat Comic Relief. This may also be done for the sake of not having the sidekick overshadow the protagonist.

Compare Adaptational Modesty, when a fanservice character is toned down in adaptations. When this is done to a real-life person, it's Historical Ugliness Update.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Paragus in Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan is a tan-skinned and dark-haired like all the Saiyans. In his canon version in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, he's pale, haggard, and grey-haired. This is partly due to Paragus getting an Age Lift, since the original movie took place during the Cell Saga while the canon movie is set well past the Buu saga, so it only makes sense Paragus would be older. It can also be attributed to the fact Paragus has been stuck on the Crapsack World Vampa all this time. Some Beauty Equals Goodness at play too, since Paragus is more vile than his original counterpart.
• In the original Ghost in the Shell manga, Motoko Kusanagi is slender, coquettish, and quite well endowed◊. Compare her to her appearance in the blockbuster 1995 film, where she has a significantly more masculine build and androgynous face. Her later appearance in Stand Alone Complex is a compromise between the two, leaning towards the manga.
• Little Pollon: Many characters are caricatures of the Greek gods of Classical Mythology:
  • Eros, the god of sexual attraction, is supposed to be very handsome and is usually depicted as a Pretty Boy at the very least. In this anime, he’s made fun of for his ugly Gonk appearance.
  • Dionysus is often portrayed as a Hot God as well, but here he's a bald, short, stout man with dark glasses.
  • Zeus is usually depicted as tall and muscular. Here he's a short, goofy-looking guy who forms an Ugly Guy, Hot Wife couple with Hera.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • A downplayed example as the characters aren't specifically ugly, however, quite a few of them have had more simplistic designs than their game counterparts. Cilan, for example, is still very handsome but isn't quite as cute as in his game official art. Most commonly a lot of trainers are given younger, shorter looks to better fit against 10-year-old Ash as well, especially girls such as Serena (who is at minimum 16 in the games but was aged down to a 10-year-old) and Lillie (who only seems one year younger than her game counterpart but is much shorter than her).
  • Pokémon themselves are usually portrayed a bit closer to their sprites and models from the games. In fact, the earliest game sprites were actually much uglier than they appeared in the show.
• Red from Pokémon Red and Blue was a cute eleven-year-old boy with Anime Hair in baggy clothes. Red from Pocket Monsters is more of a gonk. In fact, many characters (Pokemon included) received this treatment, especially in the early chapters. Later chapters subvert this by using game-accurate designs. For example, Bill was originally an ugly, hairy gonk however he later reappeared in his much cuter and younger game design.
• In Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars' grandfather is portrayed as tall and rather attractive. The anime on the other hand made him short and bald.
• Samurai 7:
  • Whereas Kikuchiyo from the original 1954 film was a muscular, strapping, nimble, athletic young man played by the ruggedly handsome Toshiro Mifune, the anime makes him an enormous mechanized suit of armour lacking even a visible face.
  • Shino's father Manzo was no oil painting, but the anime made him even uglier.
• The 1985 animated film of Vampire Hunter D does this to Rei-Ginsei. In the novel and its manga adaptation being D's Evil Counterpart Rei-Ginsei is a Long-Haired Pretty Boy who is equal◊ to him in looks. The anime version is much less of a looker◊ with a Mad Max bandit-esque hairdo and eye shadow.
• In the Warrior Cats books, Runningnose is a fairly normal cat, just with constant sniffles that he cannot cure despite being a medicine cat. The Tigerstar and Sasha manga makes him gaunt and ragged, with his ribs showing, and almost elderly-looking.
• Miss Chono's true face in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga was one that stood in direct contrast to the sweet and perky facade she put up and reflected what she really was: a cruel Sadist Teacher with Creepy Shadowed Tsurime Eyes and a completely diabolical facial expression. The original anime adaptation instead went in a "she's ugly on the inside" direction and gave her the face of a wrinkled old crone.

Art

• In Classical Mythology, Dionysus was considered an extremely attractive Pretty Boy. Renaissance painters, for whatever reason, loved depicting him as a portly, middle-aged man.

Audio Drama

• The television version of the Doctor Who story "Shada" had Skagra played by the beautiful Christopher Neame in a sparkly white disco outfit complete with a silver fedora and glittery cape — contrasting with the Fourth Doctor's unconventionally-attractive look. In the audio version, he's played by an elderly, lisping Andrew Sachs and depicted in the artwork as wearing a much plainer white outfit — contrasting with the Eighth Doctor's conventionally-attractive look.

Comic Books

• Downplayed with the graphic novel adaptation of Animorphs. While none of the kids are drawn as ugly, Chris Grine‘s art style makes them more homely and less idealised compared to previous depictions, especially noticeable in Rachel◊’s case as she was considered to have the makings of a supermodel in the books.
• Played with Bêlit in Conan the Barbarian; in the original Marvel published comics, she looks beautiful in a conventional and normal way. The Dark Horse publications depict her more feral and frightening◊ with ivory-white skin, though she is still considered beautiful in a uncanny sort of way. Interestingly, she is more scantily-clad in that version, being covered in gold ornaments than the original Fur Bikini with Navel-Deep Neckline.
• Doctor Robotnik in Sonic the Comic started out with his Japanese design but after a few issues, he was reborn as his less attractive, egghead-shaped Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog design. This correlated with him becoming a much crueler character.
• In the comic book adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis several characters were homelier most notable with Kerner, the right hand of the main antagonist.
  • Kerner in the game was a very tall, handsome man in his late 20s and had a habit of running his hands through his neatly combed mane of blond hair. Kerner’s vanity played a part in his Karmic Death as when the the god machine turned him into a stable but stunted minotaur-like dwarf ^note all the other people transformated by the god Machine were unstable and only lived for a couple of seconds, Kerner chose to commit suicide rather than live as a freak.
  • Kerner in the Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis comic adaptation was a skinny man with thinning grey hair and appeared at least 50. Presumably because the vanity aspect of the character was gone, his final fate was altered so the god machine simply makes him explode.
• Superman: Subverted in the Elseworlds The Superman Monster, a retelling of Frankenstein with Lex Luthor playing the part of Victor Frankenstein and Superman as Frankenstein's Monster. Reflecting how the monster in the original novel was described as hideous, the Superman Monster upon being brought to life appears pale and deformed (which, combined with being created by Luthor in this continuity, makes him a bit like Superman's imperfect clone Bizarro). Over time, the Superman Monster's ugliness wears off and he becomes as handsome as the Man of Steel is traditionally depicted.
• Teen Titans: Earth One:
  • Tempest looks less human and more like some kind of fish-monster.
  • Blackfire in this continuity is much more hideous than her main incarnation due to being a misshapen clone of Starfire.
• Teen Titans: Year One is a modern retelling of how the original team formed. It changed a few character designs:
  • Speedy is not unattractive at all but the comic makes him a gangly-looking teenager, instead of the more mature-looking and muscular mainstream version.
  • The otherwise attractive Aqualad also gains pale skin, dark bags under his eyes, and buck teeth. The intent is less monster man and more how an awkward adolescent would see themselves.
• The Transformers vs. G.I. Joe incarnation of Serpentor is noticeably more hideous than most incarnations of the character, being depicted with green skin and multiple red eyes.
• Ultimate Marvel:
  • Ultimate Spider-Man (2000): Think Deadpool couldn't get uglier than being a living tumor? Here, they managed to find a way, as its version of Wade has his skull exposed and the top missing, exposing his brain and all of it enclosed in a plastic dome.
  • Ultimate X-Men (2001):
    • Pyro can control fire, but unlike the original one, he has no immunity to it and so is Covered in Scars.
    • Not that regular Toad has ever been a looker, but this version is uglier, with green skin, greasy hair, and British Teeth.
    • Ditto for the Blob. In the regular comics he just looks like an average fat guy, but this version is a grotesque monstrosity with huge crooked teeth, warts, and a propensity for cannibalism that the main version lacks.

Comic Strips

• As a bit of Self-Deprecating Humor in Pearls Before Swine, Stephan Pastis always draws himself as pudgy, even though the real-life Pastis is actually quite fit. Interestingly, this is then inverted in a brief series by guest artist Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes fame, who draws Pastis as a muscular hunk with bikini-clad girls fawning over him.

Fan Works

• Fixing RWBY: Salem, who already looked pretty eerie and inhuman in the show but was still somewhat beautiful, is implied to have a significantly more horrific visage in this version when seen up close, with the scant glimpses we've gotten of her in the rewrite series so far.

• Echoes of Eternity makes Maria Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog less cherub cute than she is in canon. This, however, is used not to make her "ugly" but to emphasise her illness. Maria's described as very pale, scrawny, and underdeveloped for her age (being only 4'3 at 12). It's also mentioned that she's a remarkably average-looking child.
• Godzilla Neo took the Body Horror of the Godzilla of Shin Godzilla and ran with it, as he doesn't just transform from "Kamata-kun" to "Shinigawa-kun", but is depicted as shedding skin and features even more vestigial body parts like smaller arms and more eyes.

• Played with the Sensational Sisters in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines. In canon, they're naturally beautiful, while in this story they're implied to have used a lot of plastic surgery.

Films — Animation

• Barbie of Swan Lake: In the original ballet, Rothbart's daughter Odile is a beautiful vamp whom he transforms to appear as Princess Odette. In the movie, Odile is a sallow and unpleasant-looking Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette.
• In Batman, Hush is traditionally shown as a normal-looking man behind his bandages, even with his use of plastic surgery. In Batman: Hush, he has gray, mottled skin, yellow eyes, and no hair as a result of crudely healing himself with a Lazarus Pit.
• In the 2004 animated series of Dragon Hunters, Gwidzo is presented as charismatic and moderately attractive. The 2008 film adaptation portrays him as grimy and unpleasant, even having him describe himself as "mean and ugly" during a breakdown.
• Disney Animated Canon:
  • In the original The Chronicles of Prydain novels, Fflewddur Fflam the bard is a 30-year-old man who is remarked as handsome, if unkempt. In the Disney Adaptation, Fflam is in his 50s with a potbelly.
  • The original illustrations for The Hundred and One Dalmatians show Cruella De Vil (pictured above) as an elegant yet cold-hearted beauty. The Disney version turns her into a wild-haired harridan with a corpse-like face. The Emma Stone version of her in Cruella, appearance-wise is Truer to the Text.
  • In J. M. Barrie's original Peter Pan Big Bad Captain James Hook was described as having a "handsome countenance"; in the Disney version he's a big-nosed, big-chinned, ridiculous fop. Since the Disney film was the Audience-Colouring Adaptation, the memetically good-looking version of Captain Hook from Once Upon a Time came as a shock to people, even though it was Truer to the Text in regards to Hook's appearance.
  • Moana: Maui in Polynesian Mythology is described as being a thin, lithe, handsome teenager on the verge of manhood who usually has his hair tied back in a neat topknot or ponytail. The movie portrays him as a massive, muscular adult with a head of thick, wild hair. The creators of the film in fact originally wanted to make him bald, but their Polynesian consultants explained that Maui's hair is one source of his mana (spiritual energy). So the hair stayed. However, his broad, round face, big nose, bigger mouth, heavy brow, sloped forehead, and small, piggish eyes make him rather weird-looking.
  • In Charles Perrault's Cinderella the two wicked stepsisters are never said to be ugly, just less beautiful than Cinderella, and the Brothers Grimm's version states "Their faces were beautiful and lily white, but their hearts were ugly and black." The Disney film makes them unattractive, though Anastasia becomes Ugly Cute in the sequels after being given a Heel–Face Turn. Of course the tradition of "the ugly stepsisters" was a standard part of Cinderella adaptations long before Disney and long after.
  • Hercules has quite a few examples, mostly among the Greek gods. As part of his Adaptational Villainy, Hades is given all the trappings of a Satanic Archetype, with fire, fangs, ash grey skin, and bony, knobbly fingers; Hermes is based on his voice actor, Paul Shaffer, who may not necessarily be called "ugly", but is far from the golden-haired Pretty Boy Hermes was said to be in the myths; Ares is portrayed as short, pudgy and bearded whereas his mythical counterpart was a hunky young jock; the Titans are reimagined as elemental monsters when their mythical counterparts were mostly humanlike; and the Fates are conflated with the horrifying Gray Sisters, making them look like inhuman hags with only one eye to share between them as opposed to the admittedly intimidating, normal-eyed old women they were in the original myths. The TV Series both continues this trend somewhat and plays with it — Icarus is depicted as a hyperactive weirdo while Echidna, mythologically a beautiful snake woman, is portrayed as an ugly she-dragon.
• Green Lantern: Emerald Knights: Kilowog's story, adapted from the Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps story "New Blood", changes Kilowog's mostly human-looking drill instructor Ermey to a bald, pale, wrinkly, tusked alien named Deegan.
• Green Lantern: First Flight had several characters who weren't as easy on the eyes as they were in the comics.
  • Abin Sur traditionally looks like a bald human with red skin, while this incarnation has a wrinklier face and a few horn-like protrusions on his chin.
  • Kanjar Ro has a less humanoid appearance and has a pointier head, tentacles under his mouth, and lacks a nose.
  • The Weaponers of Qward look a lot less human than they do in the comics, complete with pointy ears, huge black eyes, and multiple insectoid limbs.
• Justice League: Gods and Monsters did this to Harley Quinn who is usually a very beautiful woman in the DC Universe, but in the short "Twisted", she has a very deranged appearance and looks Gonkish with weird body proportions. Ironically, this version of her wears a very Stripperiffic costume even more than normal, but the effect is more disturbing than titillating.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:
  • The 616 (mainstream) universe Spider-Man is traditionally a handsome and well-muscled young man who inspires jealousy even from Johnny Storm. In Spider-Verse Peter B. Parker in his thirties, has a pot belly and looks like a bum. It’s a Played With case though as his stomach is only noticeable when someone points it out and his appearance isn’t that bad, only being less groomed than his late and blonde Alternate Self from Miles’s universe.
  • To a much lesser extent there’s Gwen Stacy, who has a Childish Tooth Gap, piercings, and freckles all of which Gwen’s conventionally gorgeous comic book self lacks. Again it’s a minor case, as this version of Gwen is still considered quite attractive online.
• In The Lord of the Rings Samwise is described as plain and average-looking for a Hobbit; however in Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings he is really ugly compared to Frodo, Merry, and Pippin, with his wrinkled face, crooked buck teeth, big nose and chin, lazy eye, and wart on his cheek.
• Likewise The Hobbit portrays the elves as gnomish wood sprites with green skin and gangly limbs, a rather far cry from Tolkien's codification of elves as physically perfect. The film's elves actually look much more like traditional goblins than its goblins do.
• In The Mysterious Stranger, Satan is described as a very handsome young man. However, in The Adventures of Mark Twain he is portrayed as some creepy humanoid monster.
• The Swan Princess: In the original ballet, Rothbart has a beautiful daughter whom he transforms to look like the princess Odette; in the movie, he has an older, ugly Mook who plays this role instead.

Films — Live-Action

• Grandmama Addams of The Addams Family comic is a mostly normal-looking old woman and is largely unchanged for the first TV series. In the 1991 The Addams Family film she's unhealthily pale and has rotten teeth, while in Addams Family Values she's downright scary-looking with greyish yellow, blotchy skin, discolored and crooked teeth, and extremely darkly sunken eyes. In both movies, her hair is more unkempt as well.
• The Red Queen from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010). While she may not have been attractive in the original illustrations, the film version is a literal freak with a grotesquely oversized head (though played by perfectly lovely actress Helena Bonham Carter). However, as with many other adaptations, the movie conflates the characters of the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts, and the Queen of Hearts is depicted with an oversized head in Tenniel's original illustrations.
• The wickedly beautiful and vain Opal Koboi from the Artemis Fowl books, in the film adaptation becomes a hideous shadowy creature with a guttural, rasping voice — what minor glimpses we get of the face hidden beneath her cowl are decidedly unpleasant.
• While Firelord Ozai is quite handsome and muscular in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, he's pretty average-looking in the film adaptation.
• Batman:
  • Batman Film Series: While never conventionally attractive, The Penguin usually is more cartoonish than downright ugly, a simply short and pudgy balding man with a big nose. Batman Returns turned him into a grotesque, pale, bloated, and inhuman-looking sewer-dwelling little monster man.
  • The Dark Knight Trilogy:
    • Batman Begins has Detective Flass as a sloppy, unkempt, physically unpleasant slob of a corrupt cop. His original comics self from Batman: Year One was just as corrupted if not more, but he also was much taller and muscular, blue-eyed with a blonde well-kept haircut.
    • Two-Face was more cartoony-looking in the comics. In The Dark Knight, the scarred side of his face is given much more detail.
    • The Joker has a clean, cartoonish appearance in the comics and some of the other adaptations, but also in The Dark Knight, he gets a dirtier, creepier appearance that gets worse over the course of the film. Instead of being a Perpetual Smiler, he was notoriously given a Glasgow Grin.
  • The Batman (2022):
    • Downplayed with Bruce Wayne, who is played by Robert Pattinson. Although still good-looking, he appears more lanky and unkempt compared to previous live-action depictions of the man.
    • As revealed in a Deleted Scene the Joker played by Barry Keoghan is easily the most hideous version of the Clown Prince of Crime put to film. Lacking most of his upper lip so that his teeth are permanently on display and having worse cheek scarrings than even the Heath Ledger version, he looks like the clown version of the Mouth of Sauron.
• The Bimbettes in Beauty and the Beast (2017). While their animated counterparts were gorgeous buxom blondes, in this version they're regular-looking women with a ton of makeup that makes them look unattractive, to make Emma Watson look more beautiful, and as opposed to being Ms Fanservices, they appear to be an Unwanted Harem to Gaston.
• In Being There, Chance the gardener is described as looking like a cross between Ted Kennedy (in the early 1970s) and Cary Grant. Peter Sellers played the character in the film and is not generally considered to have a dashing appearance. In addition, Sellers intentionally gained weight for the role because he decided that Chance's "sedentary and solitary" life would have left him overweight.
• In the novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, Assistant District Attorney Larry Kramer is described as a vain bodybuilder obsessed with his physique. In the film, his name is changed to Jed Kramer, and he's played by the rather schlubby-looking Saul Rubinek.
• Carrie (1976): Helen Shyres in the book was a minor character who was part of the Girl Posse and is one of the nominees for Prom Queen, implying her to be pretty. In the film, she is portrayed as a chubby Butt-Monkey of the clique and appears to not have a date for the prom. The 2002 remake casts the pretty Chelan Simmons and restores the Prom Queen nomination.
  • Carrie (2013) sees Portia Doubleday's version of Alpha Bitch Chris with a ratchet spray-tanned Snooki/J-Woww wannabe, compared to Carrie and Sue's more natural beauty.
• The Commitments: In the book, lead singer Deco was described as handsome (if still obnoxious), but in the film, he's portrayed as a Fat Bastard. His actor Andrew Strong, like the rest of the cast, was chosen only for the musical talent even if he didn’t resemble the description in the book.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • Suicide Squad:
    • Subverted with the Enchantress who looks messier and creepier than her comic counterpart — despite wearing a more revealing outfit than her comic counterpart. Then she regains her heart and she looks just as beautiful and seductive as her comic self.
    • Played straight with Incubus, whose host body in the comics was an average-looking human, whereas his cinematic counterpart is a towering demonic creature composed of several bodies.
  • Wonder Woman (2017):
    • Ares is often times depicted as rather handsome. In the movie, he looks like an average middle-aged man.
    • Dr. Poison in the comics was rather beautiful but wore a Gonkish mask to hide her true features. The film version shows a reason for the mask, though, as she has a facial disfigurement that involves a melted nose and skin, and half of a Glasgow Grin.
  • Justice League (2017) sees Steppenwolf sport horns on his chin and his skin resemble scar tissue. While his skin and eye color were Depending on the Artist, the New 52 comics Steppenwolf resembled a normal human.
  • The version of Steppenwolf from Zack Snyder's Justice League is a slight inversion when compared to the above since he's more athletic, although he has horns on his head this time, as well as the same ashen skin color as the rest of the New Gods featured in the film.
  • Savant gets a good dose of this in The Suicide Squad. In the Birds of Prey comics he's a muscular Long-Haired Pretty Boy, whereas in the film he's played by the 66-year-old Michael Rooker in a scraggly wig.
• The Hammer film The Devil Rides Out does this with Marie Eaton. The character of Marie Eaton in the original novel is a young, glamorous Russian emigre, while in the movie she's a conventionally attractive middle-aged Englishwoman. The villain Mocata is a straight example, going from rather weird-looking and overweight, to being played by Charles Gray.
• The Disaster Artist mostly has the inverse of this with more attractive actors playing the Real Life actors from The Room (2003), but Greg Sestero gets a downplayed example of this. As nice-looking as Dave Franco (who portrays him) is, compared◊ to the former model Greg Sestero of real life he's a good deal plainer.
• Fifty Shades of Grey: In the books, Ana describes Christian Grey as being so smoking hot, and having such a commanding presence, that just being in the same room with him turns her knees to water. Jamie Dornan, who plays him in the film, is certainly not unattractive; however, the way he's styled in the movie — especially the decision to have him clean-shaven — tends to make him look boyish rather than devastatingly sexy.
• In the Fletch books, Fletch is a handsome, young, blond, extremely muscular man who can bed any woman he wants. In the movies, he is played by a 40-something Chevy Chase. The novel is a noir potboiler, while the film is a comedy. Chevy Chase's appearance is probably much better suited to a comedic hero.
• The Flintstones: Barney's slender and beautiful wife Betty from the cartoon is played by plus-sized actress Rosie O'Donnell, chosen because she was able to do Betty's trademark laugh, which is admittedly a difficult vocal tic to pull off.
• In the original novel, Forrest Gump is an enormous guy full of muscles, who at a certain point is put before a crowd shirtless and literally called "Adonis", and a recurring theme is his physical attractiveness and muscles helping him get away with things others with his mental troubles and abrasive personality wouldn't. The movie instead made him into Tom Hanks, a tall but slender guy who through the film is noted for everyman looks (and the abrasive personality is absent).
• In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Kuze is a tall, white-haired cyborg that looks perfectly human except for his non-functioning mouth. In the 2017 film, his face has been split apart and large pieces of his artificial skin have been torn off to expose his mechanical muscles and organs.
• Legendary Pictures’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) gives this treatment to Mothra. In the original Toho design she's by far the cutest of the main Kaiju with big blue eyes and soft fur, she's less threatening-looking than Godzilla and other monsters. Which is emblematic of her role as Big Good and protector of Earth and humanity, compared to other kaiju who do nothing but destroy. In the 2019 movie Mothra is much creepier-looking with spindly, bladed legs and her eyes slanted to look more aggressive. However, she retains her status as the most benevolent of the monsters, and the one most willing to interact with humanity.
• The real Tommy was 6' 2", had long hair and a moustache, was built like a boxer, and was described as very good-looking. In Goodfellas, he is played by Joe Pesci.
• In the original novel that inspired The Graduate, the protagonist Ben is described as a handsome, "All American Athlete" WASP type, but is played by Dustin Hoffman in the film — probably to increase Ben's awkwardness and Mrs. Robinson's desperation.
• Harry Potter:
  • Fleur Delacour is described as being more beautiful than any human woman due to her part-Veela ancestry. In the film version, she is played by Clémence Poésy, who is by no means ugly, but not supernaturally beautiful, and her Veela ancestry never gets mentioned.
  • Madame Maxime is described in the books as being handsome, voluptuous, and relatively young brunette (albeit very tall as she's half giant), which is very different from her movie counterpart.
  • Firenze the centaur is described in the books as having long, blond hair and a handsome face, leading to several female students developing crushes on him when he comes to Hogwarts to teach. In the films, his face looks far more bestial.
  • Professor Gilderoy Lockhart to an extent. While Kenneth Branagh isn't unattractive, Lockhart is supposed to turn students' heads and was in his late 20s during Chamber of Secrets according to the book's timeline while Branagh was in his 40s. The end result is that he delivers a Faux Affably Evil impression of a Cool Uncle.
• In Hellboy (2019), while he's still built like a tank, this version of the title character is less classically handsome than the comics' version, lacking Puppy-Dog Eyes and looking somewhat harsher, scruffier and more slovenly overall, with messier hair, hairier body, a heavier brow, larger teeth, and ragged horn stumps.
• In the original book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, all of the Whos are small creatures with antennae who look rather cute. In the live-action adaptation, all of the background Whos are regular people with prosthetic noses and buck teeth that make them look rather strange and creepy. They're also given ugly and gaudy outfits to match them being portrayed as more greedy and materialistic.
• There was a lot of complaining by fans of The Hunger Games that both Josh Hutcherson (Peeta) and Sam Claflin (Finnick) are too unattractive for their roles.
• It (1990):
  • In the book Beverly is described as a extremely beautiful redhead. In the Miniseries she’s played by the plainer Annette O'Toole and Emily Perkin who are both brunette, yet the “Your hair is winter fire” line still remains just to add confusion. Averted with the film adaptations where Sophia Lillis and Jessica Chastain are cast as Beverly.
  • Ben as an adult is described as skinny and incredibly handsome which is a great change from the obesity of his youth. In the Miniseries he’s played by John Ritter who's ironically just as stocky as Brandon Crane who plays Ben as a kid. Averted in It: Chapter Two, where Ben is played by the handsome and muscly Jay Ryan, who's more in line with the book’s description.
• Jurassic Park:
  • Donald Gennero in the book is described as a young, comely Sharp-Dressed Man being muscular and stocky. In the film he’s played by the older and shrimpy Martin Ferrero. This drastic change in appearance goes in hand with Gennero’s Adaptational Wimp going from The Lancer to Alan Grant who fights off a Velociraptor to a Dirty Coward who gets eaten on the toilet.
  • Downplayed with Ellie Sattler, Laura Dern is obviously pretty and nice to look at. Her book counterpart however is repeatedly described as a tanned, Lara Croft-esque Head-Turning Beauty that multiple male characters find themselves gaping at (including the 11 year old Tim). In the film she’s a more believable scientist with only Handsome Lech Ian Malcom expressing attraction to her.
• In the book Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, Simon's blackmailer Martin is a far cry from his portrayal as a loser in the film adaptation Love, Simon. In the film, Martin is short, has no fashion sense, and is a friendless kid obsessed with close-up magic. Meanwhile, the original novel has Martin described as tall and likable, more generally funny that the comic relief villain, and Simon even considers him something of a friend and possible candidate for his anonymous lover "Blue."
• In Manhunter, rather than the serial killer of the book who believes he is ugly (due to a birth defect tied in with his traumatic childhood that has since been reduced to a small surgical scar) who is presently oblivious to how women at his workplace actually consider him attractive, Francis Dollarhyde is played onscreen as distinctly older-looking, bald on top with drawn, sunken features.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In the comics Hank Pym aka Ant-Man is a handsome blonde man and Janet Van Dyne aka The Wasp is a Head-Turning Beauty. In Ant-Man and its sequel Hank and Janet are given an Age Lift into being an older couple played by Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer who are in their 70s and 60s respectively, and while obviously neither are ugly (especially not Pfeiffer), they aren’t in their prime like their comic book counterparts are. Although it’s a case of Ability over Appearance.
  • Flash Thompson, former Jerk Jock bully turned friend of Spider-Man is usually depicted as a tall musclebound stud in the comics and previous film adaptations. In Spider-Man: Homecoming Flash has got an unimposing build and is more of an unathletic loser compared to the sporty Chick Magnet of the comics, this was deliberate on the part in the filmmakers to reflect the cyberbully age.
  • Nebula when she first appeared in the comics was a blue-skinned space babe with luscious black hair. Eventually she lost her hair and got some minor cybernetic upgrade but still remained beautiful, in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Nebula’s Cyborg aspects are dialled up as she’s lost most of her skin and unlike the comics has Black Eyes of Evil. However, due to the success of the films, comic Nebula would adopt her movie design.
  • Proxima Midnight in the comics is similar to Nebula is a blue-skinned attractive alien woman who wears an ominous Cool Helmet that always covers most of her head. In Avengers: Infinity War Midnight is much uglier, with her helmet being turned into curving horns, and unlike her adoptive sisters Gamora and Nebula, she’s mopcapped with CGI making her look more inhuman.
  • Played with regarding Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian in Black Widow (2021). In the comics, Alexei is a traditional handsome Heroic Build possessing Super-Soldier stud, while the Red Guardian in the film is an overweight, tattooed, bearded mess. However, this is mainly due to Alexei spending decades in a prison, as the flashback opening of the film shows him as clean-cut and in shape.
  • Werewolf By Night goes for a reasonably grounded tone in regards to its human characters. So as such the gorgeous Lara Croft-inspired Elsa Bloodstone of comics with her bare cleavage and mid-drift gets changed into a more comely and less idealised woman who dresses sensibly. It also helps the actress who plays Elsa (Laura Donnelly) has a few years on her comic counterpart.
• In the original My Favorite Martian sitcom, the Martians looked the same as humans, just with antennas. In the My Favorite Martian film, their true form is that of creepy red insect-like humanoids, and not at all attractive. At least, not by human standards.
• The titular character of Dracula is not quite as attractive as some adaptations make him out to be, but he looks like an average enough older man. In Nosferatu, Orlok is a creepy, monstrous-looking man with Pointy Ears and long fingers.
• In the original Sherlock Holmes stories, Watson is described as a rather handsome and athletic man and something of a womanizer. The film series of the 1930s and '40s^note The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), and the so-called Baker Street Dozen had him played by the somewhat pudgy Nigel Bruce, setting a precedent followed by many subsequent adaptations.
• Other People's Money Danny DeVito is bald, heavy, and much too old for the women he's courting by most standards. She looks like a model. This is based on a play in which the couple gets married.
• Happens to Leon Kennedy in both Resident Evil: Retribution and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Not that Johann Urb or Avan Jogia are ugly by any stretch of the imagination, but Leon the character they're portraying is considered and ranked one of the most handsome men in video games. Resident Evil 2 (Remake) went as far as to base Leon's likeness on real-life Pretty Boy Eduard Badaluta, a professional model.
• Road to Perdition: Tom Hanks is hardly ugly-ugly, but he is a far cry from the graphic novel's angelically beautiful Michael O'Sullivan.
• The Shining:
  • Wendy is described as being conventionally attractive in the book, whereas in the film she's portrayed by Shelley Duvall, who is more waif-like and fragile-looking than her novel counterpart. This was a deliberate choice on Stanley Kubrick's part, as Wendy was supposed to be progressively beaten down over the course of the story, and he felt that casting a more plain-looking actress in the role made it easier to sell that part of the character as the story went on. The Stephen King-overseen TV miniseries cast Rebecca DeMornay, who's somewhat closer to Wendy in the book.
  • Jack is at least reasonably handsome in the books, but is played by Jack Nicholson. Needless to say, he wasn't chosen for being the typical Hollywood stud.
  • Related, both the film and the mini-series have all had actors that were much older than the book's characters, who were in their late 20s. Jack Nicholson was about 43 when he starred in the film, Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay from the mini-series were in their late 30s, and only Shelly Duvall at 31 was close in age to her book character, yet is probably the least close in physical appearance.
• Silent Hill:
  • Cybil is a traditional feminine Fair Cop in the first Silent Hill game, in the film she's played by Laurie Holden who is more butch compared to the game version.
  • Heather also gets this to a degree in Silent Hill Revelation. In Silent Hill 3, while not a world-class beauty Heather is still considered very cute and attractive by numerous fans. The film version played by Adelaide Clemens is comparatively more homely than the Heather from the game.
• Super Mario Bros. (1993):
  • In the film, the Goombas are Tiny-Headed Behemoths and definitely not as cute as their videogame counterparts.
  • Mario is a chubby guy with a mustache but isn't unattractive. While not exactly ugly, his middle-aged portrayal makes him look a lot more jaded and weary.
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li: Vega (Claw), a narcissistic, Bishōnen who values beauty in the Street Fighter video games, is just a generic ninja-like assassin portrayed by the plain-looking Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas in this incarnation. In the games, Vega wears his trademark White Mask of Doom to prevent his face from being damaged in combat (rather than to conceal his identity), but here Chun-Li comments "no wonder you wear a mask" when she knocks it off.
• While Leo Gregory is much skinnier than Brian Jones, who had a beer gut by the time the events of Stoned transpire, Jones still had a rather cherubic face in comparison to the rather average-looking Gregory.
• Most productions of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street portray the titular Serial Killer with relatively normal-looking actors. The 2007 film gives him crooked grey teeth, Creepy Shadowed Undereyes, and some hair that's already turned white despite his age.
• Twilight:
  • The books describe Marcus, one of the Volturi leaders, as a dark-haired, young-looking Pretty Boy, as he was turned into a vampire at the age of 19. He is portrayed by Christopher Heyerdahl, who was in his 40s at the time of filming. Interestingly, it seems that he and Caius had their appearances swapped, as the latter is actually the one described as being middle-aged in the books but underwent an Adaptational Attractiveness in the films by being portrayed by Jamie Campbell Bower.
  • Riley Biers, Victoria's main newborn enforcer in Eclipse, is described as an extremely tall, muscular, and handsome young man in the book. His actor, Xavier Samuel, is still handsome but is lean and of average height.
• Ozymandias from Watchmen. He's supposed to be the model of western perfection: blonde, square-jawed, and athletic. In the film, he's lanky and has a thin face — not that this affects his physical prowess.
• Eddie Valiant in Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, a parody of a pulp hero, has his attractiveness remarked on by several characters, but in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, he's played by heavy-set, middle-aged, balding actor Bob Hoskins, who plays him as a Stealth Parody of a noir hero. The comic adaptation of the film returned him to a strikingly handsome young man.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • Downplayed with Ian McKellen's Magneto. While not ugly by any means, he's considerably older than the character in the comics and much less physically imposing. While Magneto was buff and chiseled in the comics, in the original trilogy, his white hair is the result of him being seventy-something years old. Justified, since the movies don't have the comics' sliding timescale or the multiple instances of him being de-aged and re-aged, so he had to be a realistic age for a Holocaust survivor. This gets rectified when you see Michael Fassbender's Erik Lehnsherr in X-Men: First Class, where his younger self is conventionally handsome.
  • Also downplayed with Rogue, in the comics thanks to getting Progressively Prettier she’s a stunning beautiful woman and major Ms. Fanservice. In the films she’s played by the comparatively homely Anna Paquin and dresses modestly, although after the movie X-Men: Evolution would feature a less striking Rogue akin to the film version.
  • Mystique in the comics is a Cute Monster Girl who just happens to have blue skin. Animated versions of her drew her very appealingly too. The live-action films show that her blue form is quite scaly and more alien in appearance, complete with facial markings. In the prequel films, she prefers to take on a 'normal' human form that is more conventionally attractive.

Literature

• Doctor Who Novelisations: The book adaptation of "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" gives Butler (played by an unblemished Martin Jarvis on TV) a disfiguring facial scar for the purpose of a scene which called for the Doctor to observe him setting a bomb — the audience had to know the character was Butler, but the Doctor hadn't met him yet and didn't know who he was. Giving him a scar gave him something striking that the Doctor could describe him by.
• The Once and Future King: Lancelot is generally depicted as handsome in Arthurian legends and almost all adaptations, including the author's source material, but in the book he's emphatically described as having an ugly, "ape-like" face.
• The Kalevala describes Kullervo as handsome and well-dressed (the latter is odd for a man who spends most of his life in slavery or in the wilderness). In The Story of Kullervo, J. R. R. Tolkien made him horrendously ugly to reflect his inner bitterness and rage –- he is so hideous that his Incorruptible Pure Pureness of a long-lost sister rejects him initially because of that.
• In The Troy Saga, Helen is described by those who interact with her as a rather kind-hearted but plain-looking woman, though she has a nice smile. Her being described as the most beautiful woman in the world only starts to happen after her Dying Moment of Awesome.
• In Upright Magic the Wicked Witch is played by young and good-looking Elena Sanayeva. In the book based on the film, she is an ugly hag.
• Defied In-Universe in the Wattpad novel "Manimal Crackers." One of the actors Jessica pitches her Manimal script to is John Hodgman, a short, pudgy nerd who's a far cry from the blonde-haired, classically handsome Simon MacCorkindale. As it turns out, he isn't too interested in partaking in the role of Dr. Jonathan Chase, and even Jessica has to admit he's not the best choice for the role.

Live-Action TV

• The comic book The Bogie Man was about a Glaswegian who looked exactly like Humphrey Bogart, having weird misadventures based on interpreting everything as if it were a Bogart movie. The TV adaptation keeps the delusions, but instead the comedy comes from the fact the character is an overweight man who looks nothing like Humphrey Bogart.
• Cowboy Bebop (2021):
  • Downplayed with Spike, John Cho who portrays him IS a handsome man, but the animated version is collectively considered (especially in Japan) one of the sexiest men in anime and frequently ranks high in "most handsome lists". Additionally this version of Spike is not only more unkempt than the original, but a few decades older (Spike is 27 in the anime, John Cho was 49 at the time of filming).
  • Played straighter◊ with Vicious, while still creepy in the anime, he's still closer to other famous evil white haried bishies like Sephiroth. In live action, Vicious played by Alex Hassel who is more rugged and unshaven being far removed from the cold-blooded pretty boy of the anime.
• Doom Patrol (2019): Red Jack in the comics had a featureless white mask that appeared to have no head beneath it for a face, while in this continuity he wears a partial mask over an actual head that has fangs and a sickly, ashen complexion.
• In The Flash (2014), Savitar's comics counterpart was a Walking Shirtless Scene covered in muscles. This Savitar spends most of his time wrapped in armor, and he's later shown to have chemical burns on his face and a discolored eye. This trope also applies once "Savitar" is revealed to actually be the Future Flash, who in the comics had an ethereal and noble appearance due to the blue light radiating from his body. Here, he's a grimy, slight figure with the aforementioned facial damage.
• Game of Thrones:
  • The entire Greyjoy clan seems to have gotten this, sans Aeron. The Greyjoys are considered handsome and attractive in the books. Here they are all much more plain-looking — even Yara and Euron, who aren't exactly unpleasant on the eyes here, don't stack up to their original counterparts. Euron even says that his family are unattractive people.
    • Theon Greyjoy (before his torture by Ramsay and becoming "Reek"). In the books, Theon is tall, dark-haired and attractive, and a famed ladykiller. In the show, he's a ratty guy who has to pay for sex.
    • Theon's uncle Euron is a creep, but still a handsome man in the books, his eyes being the only thing that keeps him from being incredibly attractive, giving him an intimidating, almost ethereal appearance. In the show, he's an unassuming-looking man, though very obviously insane, who certainly doesn't resemble the Evil Overlord of the books.
    • Balon is much more decrepit than in the books.
    • While Asha was described as having "famous beauty" despite her boyish looks, Yara — while not unattractive, especially during her softer and friendlier moments — is plainer, with harder features.
  • The White Walkers are eerily beautiful ice-themed versions of The Fair Folk in the books but Humanoid Abominations that resemble frozen corpses in the show.
  • Renly is a good-looking guy but is not the Adonis described in the book.
  • Cersei is described word-for-word as being the World's Most Beautiful Woman in the books. Lena Headey is attractive, mind you, but not to that degree, though the show does give her the Adaptational Curves of a 27-year-old body double during her public shaming, whereas the books describe her figure as declining from age and pregnancy, and also imply bloating from alcoholism.
  • The Faith Militant undergo this with their Obviously Evil facial scars, which are an exaggeration of the Poor Fellows (in the books, a single member has a Carved Mark on his chest, the rest are only This Means Warpaint) with none of the appeal of the rainbow cloaks, silvery armour, and crystal-pommelled swords of the Warrior's Sons.
  • The actor playing Mace is far less aesthetically pleasing than his book counterpart, who is described as being fat, but still good-looking enough that one can easily see that he used to be a Hunk in his youth. When the casting news was announced, some fans had a hard time believing that this unattractive Mace could be the father of the TV versions of Margaery and Loras. HBO's Mace is also balding, while book!Mace has a head full of hair.
  • Catelyn Stark is revered as quite lovely in the books, enough to turn heads. This is more of a case of Adaptational Homeliness, though, as Michelle Fairley is by no means an unattractive woman, but she's about ten years older than her book counterpart. When Littlefinger, who is very in love with her, is asked by Ros if she's beautiful, Littlefinger's response is "No, not really. Impeccable bloodlines, though."
  • Joffrey is described as being beautiful with flowing blond locks and sparkling green eyes in the books but is played by the fairly average Jack Gleeson.
  • The late Prince Rhaegar Targaryen is described as an incredibly handsome man, even more beautiful than Jaime. When we see him in a flashback, he's pretty average-looking.
• Gotham: Joker's traditional origin of falling into a vat of chemicals has Jeremiah Valeska covered in chemical burns and the damage resulting in much of his hair being seared off save for some patches.
• The Hexer: Dandelion is described as a Pretty Boy in the books and looking to be in his 20s, despite being over 40. Zbigniew Zamachowski was 40 when playing the part and looked it, while being a short and rather pouchy guy, not to mention not being fair-haired, either. This did cause a negative reception of the casting choice, but his acting managed to easily win people back.
• Greek mythology describes the huntress Atalanta as a gorgeous muscular blonde with endless suitors. However in Hallmark's Jason and the Argonauts she is portrayed as a plain Tomboy — so much so that Jason refers to their relationship as a brotherly one (he clearly thinks of her as a man rather than a woman). Though despite this, Atalanta does attract one man.
• A few of the characters in The Last of Us (2023) series aren't quite attractive as their 2013 game counterparts, most notably Ellie◊ and and Tess◊. However, it was an intentional choice to reflect the grounded and realistic tone of the world. Hell, even the 2022 remaster/remake of the game gives the characters more homely appearances to reflect the dire straits of the world they live in.
• Generally averted with One Piece (2023) as fans genuinely applauded the show for finding beautiful and charming actors to play the Straw Hats as well as other actors who nailed the look of the characters — especially considering how ridiculous idealised the good looking characters are in the manga and anime. However there are a few characters such as Makino, Belle-mère and Ben Beckman whose portrayals some fans felt weren’t as attractive◊ as they were in the source material. While in Makino and Belle-mère‘s cases you could probably argue it’s the showrunners avoiding the Only One Female Mold unattainable beauty standards of the manga or just empathising their “mother” roles, in Beckman’s case however he is supposed to be a intimidating hunk type as The Lancer to Shanks, rather the stouter pirate depicted here.
• The Klingons in Star Trek: Discovery. While the Klingons have already been evolved into Rubber-Forehead Aliens from the original series (where they were just normal actors who had their faces painted brown), they still look humanoid. In Discovery the Klingons are designed to look more hideous, bald and reptilian with Xenomorph-esque elongated heads. After some grumbling from fans, Season 2 redesigned one Klingon L’Rell to look more like TNG’s female Klingons.
• Downplayed as it's more From Bad to Worse in Tales from the Crypt. The comic version of the Crypt Keeper, while hideous, resembled a living human, with his undead nature only hinted at. In the live-action series and later adaptations, the Crypt Keeper was obviously a living corpse whose rotting flesh and exposed bones made his undead nature obvious.
• In the novel 'Salem's Lot, the vampire Kurt Barlow is perfectly capable of passing himself off as a normal human and is possibly even handsome. In the iconic 1979 mini-series, he's instead depicted as a grotesque Count Orlok lookalike and is seemingly incapable of human speech. Averted in the 2004 remake, where he once again looks human.
• Supergirl (2015): Miss Martian in the comics and adaptations tends to be a cute Green-Skinned Space Babe with red hair. In the tv show, her Green Martian form◊ is bald and looks just like Martian Manhunter, except female.
• The Umbrella Academy:
  • Vanya Hargreeves. Not that Elliot Page is ugly by any stretch of the word but in the comics she’s conveniently attractive even in her One-Winged Angel form while in the show she’s done up to look homely and frumpy. This could be seen as a pragmatic choice given Vanya is supposed to be introverted and has an inferiority complex concerning her beautiful sister Allison — and the revelation in season 3 that Viktor was trying desperately to be someone he internally understood he wasn't. As Viktor he is much more comely and striking.
  • In the Hotel Oblivion comic, the two Sparrow Academy members who can: act like a living voodoo doll, passing his self-inflicted pain onto others and turn herself into a murder of crows respectively look like: a Grimace-esque cartoony blob man and a normal woman with shades. Their TV counterparts, Alphonso and Fei a good deal more unpleasant with Alphonso looking like a real human with extremely horrific Facial Horror and bloated belly while Fei has a scarred face and as it turns out, no eyes under her shades.
• Wednesday: Thing is a lot more creepier than in other Addams Family media, being designed to look more like a stitched-together science experiment.
• The Witcher (2019):
  • King Foltest is explicitly described as handsome in the books. In the Netflix series, he’s played by Shaun Dooley who’s plainer, middle-aged, and overweight. Given Foltest‘s secret incestuous behaviour and incompetence, this may have been a deliberate casting choice.
  • Downplayed with Triss Merigold, her actress Anna Shaffer is pretty attractive but in the books, Triss is described as stunningly beautiful to the point of being considered a contender for World's Most Beautiful Woman in the games. The show’s Triss also lacks her book counterpart’s distinctive chestnut-red hair is instead brunette, although she gets her red hair by the second season.
• Bacchus in Xena: Warrior Princess is a rather exaggerated example. He is frequently depicted in media as either an effeminate Pretty Boy or a fat middle-aged man. The TV shows ditches both representations and has him depicted as a fearsome-looking demonic being with red skin, sharp fangs and curved horns. Quite the departure indeed.

Video Games

• Age of Mythology:
  • Atalanta is shown dressed much more conservatively than in classical depictions (where she was usually dressed in skimpy hunting dresses and bikinis).
  • A few of the gods (notably Ares and Dionysus) who were traditionally youthful and handsome in the myths inexplicably appear old and grey in the game.
• In The Battle of Olympus, Circe looks identical to as the generic "old woman" sprites in the game, rather than the youthful, seductive goddess of The Odyssey. The game also turns her from a dangerous vamp who only helped Odysseus after he defeated her with more powerful magic of his own into a straight-up helpful character.
• Dante's Inferno: Cleopatra VII is traditionally given a Historical Beauty Update in several fictional works and there's no indication in The Divine Comedy she looks like anything but a normal woman. In this game, however, she looks like a Cenobite straight out of Hellraiser, with her face heavily mutilated and her exposed breasts exporting tongues.
• Dante from the Devil May Cry series gets this in the Ninja Theory’s reboot DmC: Devil May Cry especially in the initial reveal trailer where the muscular white-haired Pretty Boy of the previous games is turned into a skinny dark haired punk who looks a drug addict. In the game proper Dante is given his musculature and even his white hair back, but he’s still less attractive than his Japanese version.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Kefka in Final Fantasy VI was never exactly portrayed as attractive, but his appearance in the FMV sections in the VI PSX port depicted him as a fairly unassuming-looking man in his 30s, underneath the Uncanny Valley Makeup. In Dissidia Final Fantasy, his appearance is so caricatured that it borders on Non-Standard Character Design compared to the portrayal of everyone else, and his features are much harsher and more Ambiguously Human. The NT reboot goes back to a prettier Kefka that, under the makeup, resembles David Bowie.
  • The incarnation of Prompto that was set to appear in Final Fantasy XIII Versus was taller, more muscular, and had longer hair and a more conventionally beautiful face. He was also depicted with cocky, smouldery poses and facial expressions, leading to Fanon to imagine him as an arrogant Deadpan Snarker and Yandere. The version of Prompto that appears in Final Fantasy XV has been redesigned to have a somewhat awkward look, with crooked teeth and a distinctive face shape, suiting his actual characterisation as an excitable young man with bags of enthusiasm and no attention span. He's certainly still attractive but as a cute, boyish type rather than as a classic Pretty Boy.
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake makes the characters less attractive than in the extremely pretty Compilation designs, but to bring them more in line with what the characters were originally conceived to be like:
    • Cloud, who is described in the original game as attractive but intimidating, is still pretty, but his face is more striking and bony, his often-described Creepy Blue Eyes actually do have a creepy glow, his body is skinny and covered in lumpy, veiny lean muscle rather than the Heroic Build look of Advent Children, and he overall looks stressed out, with prominent eye bags and a sweaty look to his skin. Both Yoshinori Kitase and Kazushige Nojima said in interviews that they were amazed by how well the new look fitted their perceptions of him.^note  In the final released game Cloud is more muscly and less gaunt in the face but he’s still less androgynous than his previous depictions.
    • Barret, compared to his hunky Advent Children look, has more prominent and disfiguring facial scars, harder facial features, and veinier musculature.
    • Aerith has gone from being a haunting and ethereal presence to a gorgeous but girl-next-door type woman. Although it’s still an extremely downplayed example with her.
    • Reno keeps his handsome face from Advent Children rather than the 'ratface' look from the original but is back to being a sly, threatening presence rather than cute.
    • Sephiroth is still handsome but legitimately monstrous, with a much more creepy and heavy-set appearance, with a mad stare, Hellish Pupils, oily hair, and prominent sneering red lips. He even has an outright sinister Slasher Smile at certain points compared to the subtle Psychotic Smirk of his previous portrayals.
    • While Hojo in the previous games simply looked plain and middle-aged at best, the Hojo in this game has a far dirtier and unkempt look.
    • JENOVA in the original is a disembodied torso and head of an attractive naked woman. In the remake, JENOVA is covered in a grungy rock-like texture making it look far more monstrous.
• Most characters in FusionFall received a design upgrade, but several had a downgrade:
  • Finn from Adventure Time (who has actually become a teen version of Mr. Fanservice, even with the art style of the series) isn't depicted as animesque like most of the others. He looks at minimum plain and at maximum creepy.
  • Eddy from Ed, Edd n Eddy is a straight-up gonk instead of just being a short, chubby boy with a tan. Edd and Ed also look odd due to their art-styles.
• God of War II: Clotho, one of the Sisters of Fate was said to be very beautiful in Greek myths as befitting the "maiden" sister, but in the game, she is a massive, disgusting, and obese slug-like monster with too many breasts.
  • Clotho's not the only one: Gaia looks like a Rock Monster, as opposed to the Big Beautiful Woman she was depicted as in Greek artwork. Cronos doesn't even look human, compared to his wife Rhea and son Zeus. Icarus is a skinny, bedraggled old man, as opposed to a handsome youth.
  • God of War III takes this even further. Hades looks like a massive red-skinned zombie with metal spikes sticking out of his skin. Hera looks like a sour, middle-aged alcoholic (and acts like one, too), and Hercules is basically The Incredible Hulk, except with normal skin and visible scars.
  • Taken to extremes with Castor and Pollux in God of War: Ascension. They're supposed to be a pair of handsome twins in Greek myths, but here, Castor is a Lean and Mean old man, and Pollux is his bald, ugly, malformed conjoined twin. Castor does at least look a lot better when he uses the Uroboros Amulet, but Pollux is as ugly as before.
  • Not even Norse gods are immune to this in God of War (PS4). The Stranger is by no means ugly, being based in appearance on Jeremy Davies, but he's a skinny barbarian with untidy hair and beard, and he's supposed to be the unbelievably beautiful Baldur. Thor is now rather tubby as opposed to the classic musclebound warrior image he is normally portrayed as, but one gets the impression that he may have looked like his classic appearance in the days before he developed his drinking problem.
• Hades while Truer to the Text than the aforementioned God of War still does this to few deities and Greek figures.
  • Hades as depicted in ancient Greek art and statues is a well-built man with a beard. In the game, he’s the size of The Incredible Hulk and is just as brutish leaving little doubt that his son Zagreus got his good looks from his mother Persephone.
  • Demeter while no Aphrodite, is still depicted as being very beautiful in Greek art. In the game, however, she’s a wrinkled austere-looking old woman. Her appearance also fits her behaviour in the game as she's turned Greece into a winter wasteland due to her daughter Persephone leaving her.
  • Orpheus is most often depicted as a healthy-looking handsome man in paintings, in the game he looks like The Crow with an afro. Easily justified though given he’s found himself in The Underworld against his will and was locked in solitary confinement by Hades for refusing to sing, which can't be good for anyone’s health. Also his wife Eurydice has gone from a beautiful nymph to a oak nymph with bark for skin, although she can still be seen as attractive in a Cute Monster Girl way.
• JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain. In-game, Botley looks cute and friendly. On the box art and the disc art for the 2001-and-later re-releases of this game, his appearance is thicker, more angular, and downright scary-looking.
• Like a Dragon: Ishin!: The real Soji Okita was said to be a handsome man who died in his 20s, but in this game he is portrayed by the 40-something Goro Majima, who while still handsome in his own way, is a far cry from the Bishōnen that Okita is usually portrayed as. There's a good reason for this — he's not actually Okita. His real name is Goro Hirayama, and he pulled a Kill and Replace on the original Okita.
• Odin Sphere: In the game, Melvin has the appearance of a Long-Haired Pretty Boy. However, the manga adaptation Little Fairy Queen gives him a more craven look with a hook nose, making him appear more Obviously Evil.
• In the PETA Take That! of Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 named Pokémon Black and Blue, the Long-Haired Pretty Boy Cheren and beautiful Professor Juniper are both ragged and dirty.
• Resident Evil:
  • In the Resident Evil 2 (Remake) Annette Birkin is much disheveled and gaunt than her original 1998 appearance. Justified due to her being a sleep-deprived Mad Scientist and her concept art shows that she smokes.
  • Downplayed with Jill Valentine in Resident Evil 3 (Remake) who's still quite pretty but far less idealised than her original depiction. Capcom explained the Beauty Inversion for Jill saying the remakes are going for more “believable” atmosphere. This sentiment also applies to Leon and Claire in the aforementioned RE2make, although they’re attractive ^note  Leon, Claire, and Jill are based on Real Life professional models they are realistically good-looking compared to their depictions in games such as Resident Evil The Dark Side Chronicles.
  • Carlos in the RE3make is also more messy-looking and bearded compared to his healthy and clean-cut look in the original game. Though ironically fans find his new design more rugged and attractive than the original.
  • While he was plenty creepy-looking to begin with, the Resident Evil 4 (Remake) turns Ramon Salazar from a stunted aristocrat who appears to be far older than he actually is into what looks like the miniature, zombified corpse of Margaret Thatcher.
• In the Shin Megami Tensei games, the Hindu goddess Kali is portrayed as a wizened old woman, albeit one with six arms each wielding a vicious scimitar. Most real-life iconography depicts her as quite shapely, albeit terrifying.
• Spyro the Dragon: Gnasty Gnorc, the villain of the first game, is made far uglier in the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. While the original PS1 graphics didn't allow for much in the way of details, Reignited gives him visible warts, virtually no neck, and an odd number of oversized canines from a notable underbite. Justifed; the local dragons comment on how ugly he is, and this insult is what drives him far enough to turn them all to crystal.
• Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town: While not exactly ugly, Carter's redesign is less youthful and attractive compared to his original design in Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. He's a homely, sweet-looking pastor instead of a Bishōnen Sexy Priest.
• Total War: Warhammer: Vlad Von Carstein was repeatedly described as looking rugged but handsome in the original Warhammer Fantasy and its attendant lore; while his model became much more inhuman-looking after 5th edition it did so alongside most vampires, with the implication that what we're looking at is his Game Face. In-game, Vlad's skin is rotting and his hair looks stringy and unkept, and the left side of his mouth is rotting away. This is in contrast to his wife Isabella, who looks considerably prettier (although in a doll-like, inhuman way) than her own tabletop model.
• Yakuza 4: Tanimura got hit with this between the original and the remastered version. While the remastered Tanimura is not ugly by any means, he definitely looks older and more rugged than the "teenage Bishōnen"-version from the original. ^note It was unavoidable, as the former Ink-Suit Actor had been forced out of the industry due to accusations of cocaine abuse, and refused to reprise his role after being cleared of charges.

Web Animation

• A parodied, in-universe example in the Strong Bad Email episode "best thing", which features a Band Toon about the in-universe band Limozeen. The band's drummer, Mary Palaroncini, is inexplicably depicted as an overweight Big Eater with red hair, when in real life he's thin and blonde. He complains about it, but lead singer Larry Palaroncini says it's because "you're the comic relief-uh!"

Webcomics

• In Awkward Zombie both Miranda and Tharja get this treatment: the former (who gains buck teeth) simply because Katie doesn't like her, and the latter (who gets an eerie stare) to play up her Stalker with a Crush tendencies.

Western Animation

• Arcane: Vi's appearance has changed significantly between the original game and this series. While not to the point of being unattractive, she looks significantly more rugged, with a less rounded face, multiple scars, and no makeup. She also has a more masculine body.
• An in-universe example with the Ember Island Players in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Actor Sokka is scrawnier than the real Sokka and has buckteeth, Actress Katara is much curvier and less attractive than the real Katara, Aang's actor is a woman, and so on and so forth. This also happens with Toph's actor, a huge burly man who uses a roaring shout to find his way around, but she loves this all the more.
• The Batman
  • The massively overweight and balding Cluemaster is a far cry from the fit, head of hair-sporting Arthur Brown from the comics.
  • This incarnation of The Joker is given a new look drastically different than any pre-Ledger Joker. He has wild, dreadlock-style hair, red eyes with yellow pupils, and giant jagged yellow teeth that slot together. He also wore a tie-dyed straightjacket and went barefoot before switching to a purple suit and spats (but still no shoes).
  • While The Penguin in the comics never was an attractive man, he never was anywhere as grotesque as the Penguin seen in Batman Returns or even The Batman. Batman: The Animated Series at first gave him a somewhat less ugly version of the Tim Burton look, before returning to a more human-looking comics-inspired appearance for The New Batman Adventures.
  • Bane has never been what you'd call attractive (aside from perhaps his unmasked self in Batman: The Animated Series) but in The Batman, he looks disturbingly inhuman, especially when pumped-up on Venom, as it causes his skin to turn red, his eyes yellow and pupil-less and he has the same teeth as Joker, only white.
  • Basil Karlo (the second Clayface in the series, who was the first in the comics) is a buck-toothed pot-bellied and overall unpleasant-looking man, unlike the rather handsome Karlo in the comics.
• Ben 10: Gwen in the Ben 10 (2016) reboot looks considerably more homely than she did in the original, helped by the Art Shift from animesque to cartoony. She's an average-looking 10-year-old girl with Youthful Freckles.
• In the Darkstalkers cartoon, Morrigan is seen as less beautiful than her original video game counterpart.
• In DuckTales (1987) as well as the Scrooge Mcduck comics by Carl Barks, Scrooge's Evil Counterpart Flintheart Glomgold is just as trim and fit as his Arch-Enemy. In DuckTales (2017), Flintheart is dumpy in appearance and nowhere near as athletic as Scrooge.
  • Similarly, this is applied to Bushroot. Originally, this plant-duck hybrid was still a villain, but he had significantly brighter colors and a far more kid-friendly demeanor. The version seen in "Let's Get Dangerous!" has a far duller color pallet, and looks more akin to an undead zombie.
• Justice League:
  • The Shade is much older and uglier-looking in than he is in the comics.
  • Draaga, unlike the comics, has his skin Covered with Scars from battling in Mongul's Warworld and the show even changes his self-inflicted Mark of Shame from wearing a Superman shirt to A Scar to Remember, bending a piece of rebar into "S", heating it red-hot, and using it to burn a scar onto his own chest.
• The Looney Tunes Show:
  • Downplayed with Lola Bunny. Despite her Girliness Upgrade, Lola's seductiveness and Ms. Fanservice traits from Space Jam are removed in this show, although she's still cute in a non-sexual way in order to match her kooky adorkable personality.
  • Whenever Bugs Bunny dressed in drag in previous incarnations, he was always treated as a bombshell. Whenever he does it in this version, he's typically called out as being an ugly woman. With only Speedy Gonzalez finding him attractive.
• Mickey Mouse (2013): While Goofy has always looked awkward, the Paul Rudish shorts give him a downright unhealthy look, with an unshaven muzzle, a noticeable gut, a vulture-like slouch, and yellowish sclerae.
• The OMACs in the comics take the form of muscular humanoids. In My Adventures with Superman, their appearance instead ranges anywhere from tiny floating robots to giant, long-armed and angular machines.
• Kimberly in the Space Ace segments in Saturday Supercade is this compared to her game version. Kimberly was an extremely busty woman with a near-hourglass figure, which was significantly toned down in her Supercade version. It's downplayed, however, as she is still quite cute.
• Eggman in Sonic the Hedgehog is round and cartoony-looking. He's not attractive but he has an Ugly Cute look to him. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Sonic Underground, and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is a gonk.
• Static Shock: Tarmack has a more monstrous appearance than his depiction in the original Milestone comics.
• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!:
  • Peach is still pretty, but not to the length of the games. She also looks younger than her mid-twenties game incarnation.
  • Bowser is Ugly Cute in the games with a headful of hair; however, he isn't remotely attractive in the cartoon where he lacks the hair and resembles a crocodile.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012):
  • The series's version of the Shredder sport massive burn scars under his helmet, something past Shredders didn't have.
  • While it's harsh to call the show's version of Casey Jones "ugly", he is much more gaunt and missing several teeth, unlike other incarnations where he's rather handsome and muscular.
• Speaking of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles depicts Master Splinter as short and fat with a scrunched-up face. The writers stated that they were basing him on Danny DeVito. He was a lot more attractive as a human.
• Teen Titans (2003): Gnarrk looks more like your typical caveman, when his comic counterpart was noticeably handsome.
• Dick Grayson is usually the Mr. Fanservice of the DC universe, both in-universe and amongst fans. Even as a teenager, he was pretty cute for his age. In Teen Titans Go!, no one seems to find Robin physically attractive — at least not anywhere near enough to overlook his high-strung, overbearing personality. Whereas most versions of Dick Grayson and Starfire have a mutual attraction, the Go! version is her Hopeless Suitor at best if not an Abhorrent Admirer.
• Young Justice (2010):
  • Miss Martian's true form in the comics was a muscular, but goblin-like Rubber-Forehead Alien. The show's version is an even more monstrous Humanoid Alien with an emaciated figure, spindly limbs, and exposed musculature. Granted, how White Martians in general looked in the comic varied tremendously, with some designs being even stranger. Tie-in comics and the revival series would establish this as the default look for Martians as a whole, driving home that they're really all the same but rather in stark contrast to the humanoid comic Green Martians.
  • Mammoth is more hideous than how he is depicted in the comics due to having scars all over his body as well as a generally more monstrous appearance.
  • This continuity's Blockbuster is noticeably more hideous than both the Mark Desmond and Roland Desmond Blockbusters of the comics.
• Frank in the original film, Osmosis Jones played by Bill Murray isn't exactly a stud, lazy, slovenly, and doughy around the middle, but in his brief appearance at the beginning of Ozzy & Drix, looked like an obese Neanderthal. It also appears that the lesson he had learned about taking better care of himself at the end of the film had gone out the window. Unless the cartoon is set in an Alternate Continuity from the movie.

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