"I was sort of embarrassed of the book, because the movie had streamlined the plot and made it so much more effective and made connections that I had never thought to make."
Let's face it: Most of the time, a work is at its best in its original form. However, sometimes there are exceptions to this, and be it by Adaptation Distillation, Adaptation Expansion, Woolseyism, or Superlative Dubbing, the new version of a story comes out so much better than the old that even the original creator admits the superiority of the new one.
Compare Approval of God, which refers to fan-works that the creator has a positive opinion on, even if they don't Ascend into canon. Contrast Disowned Adaptation. See also Superlative Dubbing.
Examples: (sorted by medium of the adaptation)
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Anime & Manga
- Some anime directors prefer the dub of their work over the original audio.
- Cowboy Bebop: Crispin Freeman claims that series composer Yoko Kanno said something to the effect of; "Our Spike (Kōichi Yamadera) good. Your Spike (Steve Blum) sexy!" It's debatable whether this means she prefers one to the other, though.
- It's been said that Hideaki Anno prefers some of the performances in the ADV Films English dub of Neon Genesis Evangelion to the Japanese version, though Anno tends to be nebulous about such things, and indeed later strongarmed Netflix into re-dubbing the show with a new cast when it was picked up for streaming on the platform in 2019.
- Hayao Miyazaki reportedly prefers the French dub of Porco Rosso (with Jean Reno in the title role) to the original.
- Akinori Nagaoka and Mami Watanabe, the respective director and writer of the Record of Lodoss War OVA, said they prefer the English dub over the original Japanese.
- Kunihiko Ikuhara was a big enough fan of Rachael Lillis' performance as Utena to name his car after her.
- You're Under Arrest!: When working on the TV series, the director even played Pamela Weidner's performance as Yoriko from the OVA for Etsuko Kozakura, and reportedly told her to "do that!"
- Despite the fandom's reaction to the event, Hajime Isayama of Attack on Titan has gone on the record to say that he preferred how the anime handled Annie's Villainous Breakdown to the way it ended up in the manga, since it more closely matched his original plan for how he wanted that scene to go and he regrets not using it. In fact, he outright pushed for many of the changes himself in order to 'improve' on the manga.
- Yukito Kishiro very much liked the live action adaptation of Battle Angel Alita, to the point of officially taking part in its worldwide promotion. This is from the man who disowned the '94 OVAs.
- Ichiei Ishibumi prefers the fourth season of High School D×D produced by Passione, as opposed to the first three seasons by TNK. In fact, he claimed on his twitter that he's sure Passione is able to create not only a 5th, but a 6th Season as well, simply because their adaptation is the best rendition of his work to his eyes.
- Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokémon, once stated that the Pokémon Adventures manga most resembles the world that he was trying to convey in the first two generations of the video games.
- Yasuhiro Nightow has nothing but praise for the animated version of Trigun. After the anime ended, he started having anime-only characters cameo in the manga, and cribbed the anime's climax to use in his story several years later.
- Whisper of the Heart: The manga author Aoi Hiiragi reportedly preferred the film over her original manga, originally being Cut Short at the fourth issue. The film provided an actual resolution to the film while expanding further on the themes of what Hiiragi wanted to put in the manga.
- When Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex was given an international re-release on DVD in Japan, the English dub was so good that it was set as the default factory audio.
- Akira Toriyama has gone on record saying he prefers the manga version of Dragon Ball Super compared to the anime as the manga's author Toyotarō listens to his ideas and suggestions. He even went so far as to call it the true sequel to his Dragon Ball manga.
Comic Books
- The Elric Saga's author Michael Moorcock considers the Elric - The Ruby Throne graphic novel adaptation by Titan Comics his favorite one yet, with several liberties being taken that Moorcock himself wished he had thought of them first.
- René Goscinny commented that a pun added to the English translation of Asterix in Britain, to replace one that didn't work in English, would also have worked in French (as a parody of Britishisms) and he wished he'd thought of it.note
Films — Live-Action
- Jaws: Not necessarily as a whole, but Peter Benchley wished he had the classic line "We're gonna need a bigger boat" in his novel. Benchley also admitted the movie had much better character development. And while he likes the way he wrote the shark's death (getting so hurt it dies of its wounds), he admitted that Spielberg's explosive depiction worked for the big screen in a way that the original wouldn't have.
- In the book Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse is abruptly revealed to have been killed by a speeding car. The film changed this so that she lived and escaped with the exiles. The author Ray Bradbury preferred her survival, and included it in the stage adaptation and semi-official video game sequel.
- James M. Cain noted he preferred the movie Double Indemnity to his original story — specifically the framing story element. He also thought it ended better.
- House of Dark Shadows was much closer to Dan Curtis's original vision for the Barnabas Collins character, much more monstrous than the Friendly Neighborhood Vampire he became. Neither Grayson Hall nor Jonathan Frid cared for this take as much as Curtis.
- Philip K. Dick did not live to see Blade Runner completed, but he felt that what he had seen of the work-in-progress was superior to its source material, his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and was amazed at how the book was "escalated into such stunning dimensions."
- Janet Evanovich feels One for the Money enhanced the tone of her novel, even though the film is disliked by critics and much of the fan base.
- On the author's commentary for The Princess Bride film, William Goldman mentions wishing certain lines were in the book. Although he wrote the script, certain lines ("Dream of large women") were added to the film.
- Nick Hornby, the writer of About a Boy, prefers the ending of the 2002 movie to that of the original book.
- P.D. James was reportedly quite happy with how the film version of Children of Men came out and admitted that certain details from the movie (such as the Sterility Plague afflicting women instead of men) made more sense than in the novel.
- Chris Claremont, who wrote The Dark Phoenix Saga, prefers the 2019 adaptation of his work compared to X-Men: The Last Stand, despite the backlash it got.
- Despite he and the rest of his The Death of Superman cohorts having done material built off it, including Superman: Exile, Dan Jurgens had taken issue with how John Byrne ended his Superman run—or more specifically, the fact that it ended with Superman executing a beaten and depowered General Zod at the end of The Supergirl Saga. Jurgens has said that he prefers how
Man of Steel handled its version of Superman killing General Zod, done as a heat-of-the-moment decision made to protect an innocent family Zod was actively threatening over the outright execution Byrne went for.
- Batman co-creator Bob Kane loved the idea of The Joker being the killer of Bruce Wayne's parents in the 1989 film adaptation and wished he would've done it had he introduced the Joker at the same time as Batman.
- Stephen King:
- In an interview on the DVD of The Mist, he said that he liked the movie's bleaker ending better than that of the original story, and wished he'd thought of it himself. In fact, when he first saw the new ending that Frank Darabont came up with, he personally intervened to get the studio to approve it; they wanted to remain faithful to the more hopeful ending of King's original story.
- He feels the same way about the original 1976 adaptation of Carrie, to the point where it's the chief reason why he doesn't like the sequel or either of the remakes — he feels that they do a disservice not to his book, but to Brian De Palma's film.
- He also prefers the happier ending of the film adaptation of Cujo to the grimmer ending of the book, which he views as something of an embarrassment in hindsight, having written it when he was at a very dark point in his life due to cocaine addiction (such that he can barely remember writing half of it).
- He is very happy with the The Shawshank Redemption's adaptation over his short novella.
- Mark Millar:
- He has said that the Kick-Ass movie is superior to the comic book. He had originally devised the comic story as a movie pitch.
- He also liked Kingsman: The Secret Service so much that he seemingly forgot that his original comic book wasn't actually called Kingsman. Indeed, the series took the adaptation's name for the collections.
- Chuck Palahniuk prefers the ending of the film version of Fight Club to his own, feeling that David Fincher emphasizing the narrator's romance with Marla was more in keeping with the message he was going for, and that the point of the story was to show the narrator "reaching the point where he can commit to a woman." He's even said that he's a little embarrassed by the novel nowadays.
- Christopher Priest, the author of The Prestige, had this reaction to seeing the movie: "'Well, holy shit.' I was thinking, 'God, I like that,' and 'Oh, I wish I'd thought of that.'"
- J. K. Rowling has said that there are some things in the Harry Potter movies which she wished she had made up when she wrote the books. The only such thing she has named specifically is the talking Shrunken Head from the third film. Ironically, the fandom tends to regard the shrunken head as The Scrappy.
- Andy Weir once expressed regret that The Martian didn't open with the accident that stranded Mark Watney on Mars, instead of leaving it to a flashback mid-way through. The film corrected this.
- Gary Wolf preferred the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit to the novel he wrote, Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, upon which it was based. He loved it so much that when he wrote a sequel to the film, he retconned the first story as a dream. It was also a matter of practical marketing, since the movie was so much more popular than the book, he figured people who got the later books would expect something more like the movie.
- The Incredible Melting Man was intended as a parody of horror movies by the director, but Executive Meddling intervened and saw to it that the film became pretty much the type of movie it was intended to spoof, much to the director's dismay. A couple decades later, Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed on the movie and unintentionally restored the parody element, resulting in the director vocally approving of the MST3K episode (unlike several others). (It helped that the episode was filled with shots at Executive Meddling and Hollywood in general, as a means of therapy for Best Brains after the horrors they endured making Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.)
- Cloud Atlas: Author David Mitchell was highly impressed by the film, citing it as an example of a Pragmatic Adaptation done right, plot changes and all. He was particularly blown away by the All-Star Cast as well.
- When Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park, he intended to mix not just a park going horribly wrong, but also the child-like wonder of dinosaurs come to life. The publishers wouldn't allow it as they thought the novel wouldn't sell with that angle, and told him to focus on the horror aspect. Come Steven Spielberg's film adaptation, and Crichton was able to help him tell the story with the tone he wanted in the first place.
- Despite the critical backlash and poor reception from hardcore fans of Frank Herbert's Dune, Frank Herbert spoke very positively of David Lynch's 1984 film adaptation. He also liked the idea of there being different stages of Spacing Guild navigators, the one appearing in the film being identified as a Third Stage Guild Navigator. He would incorporate this concept into his later Dune books. Herbert even admitted that his own script for a Dune movie was horrible.
- While Stephen Sondheim died two weeks before the premiere of the 2021 adaptation of West Side Story, he did get to see the final cut beforehand and said that he preferred it to the 1961 version.
Literature
- Umberto Eco thought that William Weaver's English translations of his novels were better than the originals.
Live-Action TV
- Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead, prefers the TV series over the original comic on a number of points. In particular, he's a huge fan of Daryl, a character created for the show, to the point where he feels that bringing him into the comic would do a disservice to the show. He also feels that Shane and Carol's arcs were handled better on the show.
- Hilary Mantel has openly lauded The BBC in their adaptation of her novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (the series covered both novels despite taking the title from the first one). She even says she is now considering incorporating some of the series' characterization in the upcoming final installment of her trilogy, The Mirror and The Light.
- George R. R. Martin:
- Martin hasn't stated that he prefers Game of Thrones to his series of books it is based on (and has hinted at the reverse as the show progressed), but he has gone on record that there are slight differences he wished he had thought of; for example, he stated he considers the show version of Shae a much better character than his book version. In addition, he's apparently said that he might move some of the TV-only characters over to later books, citing Natalia Tena's performance of Osha as being more interesting than how he had written it.
- Martin admits in answering fan questions through HBO's Twitter account that he actually liked the significant Adaptation Personality Change given to King Viserys I in House of the Dragon—describing his show iteration (as portrayed by Paddy Considine) as something more akin to King Lear, and thus more compelling and sympathetic to watch.
- Jim Henson was so impressed with Paul Haenen and Wim T. Schippers' performance on Sesamstraat, the Dutch adaptation of Sesame Street, as Bert and Ernie respectively, that they are the only performers for Bert and Ernie to be allowed to write their own sketches.
Music
- Bob Dylan loved Jimi Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower" on Electric Ladyland, and began to incorporate some of the cover's elements into his own performance. Dylan wrote in the liner notes of his Biograph box set "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way. Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."
- Ringo Starr started using the modified lyrics of "With a Little Help from My Friends" after Joe Cocker's version changed the line "what would you think if I sang out of tune" to "what would you do if I sang out of tune".
- Tears for Fears love Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' stripped down cover of "Mad World" (which renewed the popularity of the original). They have commented that the original new wave mood of the song was of its time and not necessarily fitting to the lyrics. Since the cover came out, they play a sort of hybrid version of theirs and the Jules/Andrews version when playing it live.
- Billy Joel has said that he prefers Garth Brooks's cover of "Shameless" to his own version of the song.
- Singer/songwriter Doug MacLeod broke down in tears when he heard Eva Cassidy's cover of his song "Nightbird". MacLeod felt so strongly that Cassidy's version was superior that he has never subsequently performed the song himself, telling any requesters to go listen to the cover version instead.
- Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails spoke highly favorably of Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt", stating that although he was apathetic at first, upon seeing the music video he realized that Cash ended up making the song his own.
"I pop the video in, and wow... Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps... Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore... It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning— different, but every bit as pure."
Theater
- Vincenzo Bellini preferred Maria Malibran as Amina in his opera La Sonnambula even though the character was first portrayed by Giuditta Pasta.
Video Games
- Shinji Hashimoto and Tetsuya Nomura, the creators of Kingdom Hearts, apparently liked the dub voice actors so much that whenever special-edition re-releases of the games come out of Japan, they use the English vocal track exclusively. It helps that many of the English voices are the original voice actors from the original English releases of the Disney movies. Many Japanese fans also agree.
- Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto, considers the best adaptation to be... the Ultimate Ninja Storm video game series! He often says himself that it's more exciting than the manga, as detailed in this 2013 Saiyan Island interview.
- Tom Itagaki considers the Sega Saturn version of the original Dead or Alive to be the definite version, moreso than the Model 2 arcade original or the later PS port that added Ayane and Bass to the roster, to the point that it's the version of the game included in DOA Hardcore.
- Even though it's a Massively Multiplayer Crossover, the writers behind Super Robot Wars generally churns out favorable results from Humongous Mecha series that wind up not being well received in their original animated form (various Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion being a few prime examples). Kenichi Suzumura, the voice actor for Shinn Asuka in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, stated he preferred how the events of Super Robot Wars Z handled his character.
- Shinji Mikami, who made the SNES Aladdin video game, said he preferred the Genesis version, due to its better animation and implementing a sword (something he had wanted to do in his version).
Western Animation
- Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles differ on this. Eastman considers the 2012 CGI series to be the best incarnation of the Ninja Turtles, while Laird prefers the 2003 version which he worked on as a supervisor.
- James Tynion IV, who wrote the Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic miniseries, gave high praise to the movie adaptation.
- Judd Winick, who wrote the original comic version of Batman: Under the Red Hood, prefers the animated version he wrote. The primary reasons are due to Adaptation Distillation and patching up some of the odds and ends.
- During his lifetime, Dr. Seuss stated that Ralph Bakshi's adaptation of The Butter Battle Book was the most faithful of any adaptation of his work.
- Dav Pilkey, who wrote the original Captain Underpants books, praised the movie for sticking close to spirit of the books while making all the right changes. He's stated◊ that one of the things he loved most about the movie was how it gave Mr. Krupp more depth as a character, something he wished he'd done. He gave similar praise to its cartoon.
- While Alan Moore is infamous for disowning most every adaptation of his works, he liked the Justice League Unlimited episode based on his story For the Man Who Has Everything, having personally authorized the creative team to make changes to the original (such as removing Robin and toning down the bleakness of the imaginary Krypton).
- Michael Rex, author of Fangbone! Third Grade Barbarian, described the Fangbone! Animated Adaptation as having "honored" his books and has praised them for expanding upon his own material and going much deeper into his world and characters.
Michael Rex: "One of the things that I am most happy with about the show is that it IS the books."
