TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open
Tropes Media Reviews Popular Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Browse Tools
Cut List Image Fixer New Edits New Articles Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug Terms Of Service
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

Adaptation Amalgamation
25 Following

Go To

Adaptation Amalgamation (trope)
It's virtual reality bringing together dimensions!

Diego: Wait! Goku is an adult, but Piccolo is evil? Are we doing Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z!?
Goku: Just be glad we're not doing Dragon Ball GT.
— MAD, "Go, Dragon Ball, Go!"

Sometimes there are not enough source material/original ideas for a complete work, like a book, or a movie. Other times there are multiple sources, each with their own merits. The result is this: a work adapted from more than one source material.

That method also sometimes used to cover the tracks in cases when plot was meant to be original but is too similar to plagiarism from some other work. The solution is to either purchase rights for something similar (yet not so expensive), or just add additional layers to the story from the other source which will confuse lawyers enough not to tell where it was plagiarized from.

A type of Crossover. Also see Crossover Alternate Universe, Composite Character, and Broad Strokes. Often crosses with Dolled-Up Installment, but not always. May be a rare example of Adaptation Distillation and Adaptation Expansion at the same time. May take place In Space.

Also compare Merging the Branches, where the later canon combines several previously mutually exclusive story branches, Patched Together from the Headlines for a story that combines unrelated Real Life happenings, and Patchwork Fic, where the amalgamation only occurs in the fanfiction. See also Frankenslation.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • The Amalgam Universe combines characters and backstories from Marvel Comics and DC Comics into a new shared universe. For example:
  • Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld: The 2019 series happily mixes tropes and characters from the classic series - Dark Opal as the Big Bad, Turquoise as Amy's friend - 2011 reboot - Amy's mother being in charge of House Amethyst, inter-house politics and corruption among good houses - and even the animated series, which clearly inspired Amy's new design.
  • The Baby-Sitters Club: The series includes various plots from other books that were skipped from the original series.
    • Dawn and the Impossible Three contains plot events from Mallory's first book, Hello, Mallory (minus her meeting Jessi, who does not show up until three books later): this covers her struggle to join (and refusal by the members) and finally her acceptance into the club.
    • Logan Likes Mary-Anne combines its plot with the other big event from Hello, Mallory by having Jessi Ramsey meet Mallory and them become friends; in this case, it's when she applies for the club alongside Logan. Her arrival is only lightly discussed both because the story is more focused on Mary Anne's plot and because Jessi (and the Ramseys as a whole) don't suffer through the level of racial prejudice they did in the original series in the more diverse Stoneybrook of the comics.
    • Dawn on the Coast mentions the secret passageway in Dawn's farmhouse that Dawn and Nicky Pike found in The Ghost at Dawn's House, which was skipped.
  • Ben 10 (Dynamite) is an Ultimate Universe to the original Ben 10 continuity but also borrows elements from the Lighter and Softer 2016 reboot, like parts of the alien designs and Ben's initial roster.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) mixes and mashes numerous elements, stories and characters from the games, Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog together to make one canon.
  • Ultimate Marvel: Ultimate Marvel adapts, reformulates and mixes elements and stories from all the long history of Marvel Comics. From the Fantastic Four to Cable, from Galactus to the Clone saga, anything is fair game.
  • The first Alex Rider graphic novel was based on the Stormbreaker movie while its sequels were based on the books with Sabina Pleasure's Adaptational Early Appearance taken into account.
  • Snow White Zombie Apocalypse combines elements from classic fairytales, action & horror films and the Kung-Fu genre to get its unique mix of dark comedy.
  • The Smurfs' comic book adaptation of "The Smurflings" combines the plot of both the original cartoon version of the episode and its companion episode "Sassette" into one story.
  • Wonder Woman:
  • The Dark Horse adaptation of The Evil Dead ends with Ash waking up in the car with Linda as they approach the cabin. Addressing that the Broad Strokes Evil Dead 2 retconned Ash's friends away but kept his girlfriend, Linda.
  • Beast Wars: Uprising is basically an amalgamation of every Generation One / Beast Wars Transformers series made up til that point, freely lifting material and ideas from any and all continuities. The backstory, for instance, is essentially a fusion of the original 1984 cartoon and the Marvel Transformers comics.
  • Murder Drones (2026): Issue 2 simultaneously adapts the second and third episodes of the original show, adjusting the chronology so the latter starts shortly before the former ends.

    Fan Works 
  • Adventures in Alola: With the exception of Jermaine's Trial Captain, Island Kahuna, and Elite Four battles being rematches instead of his first time facing them, the story is largely the same as that of Pokémon Sun and Moon. Despite that, other aspects from across the franchise are mixed in.
    • The presence of the Ultra Beasts Blacephalon, Poipole, and Naganadel and the Mythical Pokémon Zeraora are derived from Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Other aspects derived from the Ultra games are the Ultra Recon Squad, Lillie being a Fairy-type Trainer, and Team Rainbow Rocket.
    • Olivia being The Klutz, Lillie having an Alolan Ninetales nicknamed Snowy, and Lusamine having an Absol are lifted from their appearances in Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, with this Lillie's Alolan Ninetales being a reference to anime Lillie's Alolan Vulpix.
    • The Pokémon Selene uses (Alolan Muk, Umbreon, Mega Scizor, Decidueye, Vikavolt, and Toxapex) are based on the ones used by her manga counterpart Moon in Pokémon Adventures and her counterpart in Pokémon Masters.
    • Arceus' dialogue is almost word-for-word the same as in Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
  • In Amazing Fantasy, Peter's universe combines elements from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the main comics, including Peter's divorce from MJ, the Sokovia Incident, Kamala Khan and Mister Sinister.
  • Another Journey: The story works to harmonize the elements from both the original Fullmetal Alchemist manga, the 2003 anime, and the Brotherhood adaptation. The Big Bad from the 2003 adaptation, Dante, is one of Father's Co-Dragons, while the 2003 versions of Wrath and Sloth are now Spite and Misery respectively.
  • Coreline gets really, really absurd with these things. As an example, the story Regular Dinosaur Park features an alternate version of Jurassic Park's John Hammond that is a living LEGO figurine (so based on the film version) with the additional backstory that appears on Jurassic Park: Trespasser.
  • Dead Girl Walking and the Demon Queen: The story incorporates elements from both the original Heathers film and the musical.
    • Betty and Martha both appear, even though the musical removes Betty and gives her traits to Martha.
    • While the incident where Veronica breaks ties with the Heathers and vomits on Heather Chandler in this story is Kurt's homecoming party, as in the musical, Chapters 3 and 4 imply that its equivalent scene in the film - Heather Chandler being coerced into giving a college student oral sex while Veronica refused to do the same - still happened.
  • Fallout: Equestria acts as a mash-up of plot elements and characters from the first three mainline Fallout games and New Vegas. 1 and 3 are the heaviest influences, but Red Eye also takes numerous cues from President Eden and Ashur from 3, and most of the major locations visited are also based on locations from 3.
  • While HANAMUSA is largely based on Pokémon the Series, it also takes elements from Pocket Monsters: The Animation, a non-canon, two-part light novel written by the anime's original chief writer Takeshi Shudō, which expands on background details not covered in the anime (such as Delia having Ash at eighteen, Delia owning a restaurant, and Ash's father being a trainer who failed his journey and never came home out of shame).
  • Hoenn Happenings:
    • An appearance by the Litleonids meteor shower; Contests being called Contest Spectaculars; and the heavy presence of Lisia, Mega Evolution, Primal Reversion, and Zinnia are all derived from OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire.
    • The absence of Pokémon past Generation III alongside the relative scarcity of Pokémon from the first two generations make the story hew close to the original Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
    • Juan, Scott, and the Battle Frontier are lifted from Emerald. Another nod to Emerald is Steven Stone telling Jermaine and May that he's considering stepping down as Champion and choosing Wallace as his successor.
    • May becoming a Coordinator and beginning to focus on Contests are taken from Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire. Her Pokémon team (Blaziken, Swampert, Beautifly, Delcatty, Aggron, and Altaria) is basically a combination of those of her anime counterpart and her counterpart in the Pokémon Evolutions episode "The Wish."
  • Honoka's Bizarre Adventure: The Love Live! side of the crossover is primarily the anime, but it also uses elements from other media.
    • Hanayo's mother being a former school idol is from School Idol Diary.
    • Maki wanting to join her friend Omine at UTX before her parents made her enroll in Otonoki is from the manga continuity.
  • Iris Hawthorne: Ace Attorney:
    • The second case, Turnabout Family, contains elements from three cases: Turnabout Sisters, Reunion, and Turnabout; and Bridge to the Turnabout.
    • The third case, Turnabout Crystal, contains elements from Turnabout Samurai and Turnabout Big Top, while taking a few characters from Recipe for Turnabout.
  • Johto Journeys: With the exception of the absence of Team Rocket and Jermaine's Gym battles being rematches with the Gym Leaders instead of his first time facing them, the story is largely the same as that of Pokémon Gold and Silver. Despite that, other aspects from across the franchise are mixed in.
    • Kris being a main character is derived from her being one of the Player Characters in Crystal.
    • Lyra being a main character is lifted from her being one of the Player Characters in HeartGold and SoulSilver. The days and times of Jermaine's Gym Leader rematches are also taken from HeartGold and SoulSilver. Eusine's presence and his obsession with Suicune are derived from both Crystal and HeartGold and SoulSilver.
    • The Pokémon that Kris and Lyra use are based on the ones their counterparts use in Pokémon the Series and Pokémon Masters.
  • Kalos Quests: With the exception of Jermaine's Gym Leader and Elite Four battles being rematches instead of his first time facing them, the story is largely the same as that of Pokémon X and Y. Despite that, other aspects from across the franchise are mixed in.
    • Clemont, Wulfric, Malva, and Serena all have Pokémon (Dedenne and Luxray for Clemont; Mega Abomasnow for Wulfric; Mega Houndoom for Malva; and Pangoro and Sylveon for Serena) that are only owned by their anime counterparts in Pokémon the Series: XY. Another nod to the anime is Serena being a talented baker and having a fear of the paranormal/supernatural. Lon appearing in the Scary House is another aspect derived from the anime.
    • Hotel Z, Team MZ, Rogue Mega Evolution, Mega Energy, Mega Crystals, Quasartico Inc, Wild Zones, Dormez Bien Cemetery, the Z-A Royale, the Old House, and Alpha Pokémon are all taken from Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
  • Kanto Kickups: With the exception of Jermaine's Gym Leader and Elite Four battles being rematches instead of his first time facing them, the story is largely the same as that of Pokémon Red and Blue. Despite that, aspects from other parts of the franchise are mixed in.
    • Leaf being a main character is derived from her being one of the Player Characters in FireRed and LeafGreen. Another aspect derived from FireRed and LeafGreen are the Sevii Islands.
    • The presence of Alolan Forms, Mega Evolution, the Player Character Elaine, and the Trial Captain Mina makes the setting similar to that of Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!. Another nod to the Let's Go! games is Leaf's Pokémon team being exactly the same as that of Green's.
    • Koga's daughter Janine appearing is taken from both Pokémon Gold and Silver and their remakes HeartGold and SoulSilver. Also from HeartGold and SoulSilver are the days and times of most of Jermaine's Gym Leader rematches.
    • The ending of "The Restless Spirit" plays out much the same as the endings of both the Pokémon: The Original Series episode "The Tower of Terror" and "Pokémon: Mega Evolution Special III."
    • The wild Hypno that Jermaine and Leaf battle in "The Kin Island" is both far larger than the average Hypno and has a mysterious aura surrounding it, making it incredibly similar to the Totem Pokémon from Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Said Hypno being able to create illusions is a reference to a Hypno that can do the same in the above-mentioned Ultra games.
  • Legacy of the Cursed Lands: The fanfic is primarily inspired by the reboot, but a few things (like the character of Flashblade) are borrowed from the original version.
  • LEGO Equestria Girls combines various bits and pieces from the LEGO franchise. Most of its influences occur from the Clutch Powers movie (you can find it here), but the story is not shy about including references to The LEGO Movie (despite the fact that the first chapter was released before that movie).
  • While Maple Sugar Pretty Cure is primarily based on the story of Futari wa Pretty Cure and Turning Red, some elements from other PreCure series find their way in:
  • Pokémon Crossing combines multiple installments from both Animal Crossing and Pokémon. Almost every character from the Animal Crossing franchise is set to appear (with the exception being the player character), while multiple Pokémon entries are referenced through the story. Mega Evolution from the sixth generation is used in the story, along with the two villainous teams both being evil like in Emerald.
  • Each chapter of Rick and The Loud House is a combination of episodes from their respective series. For example, the first chapter, "Left in Another Dimension", combines the plot of "Pilot" with the plot of "Left in the Dark". There are a handful of exceptions, however, where some chapters decide to go for a more original plotline as opposed to borrowing elements from either series.
  • Sinnoh Stories: With the exception of Jermaine's Gym Leader and Elite Four battles being rematches instead of his first time facing them, the story is largely the same as that of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Despite that, other aspects from across the franchise are mixed in.
    • The appearance of Stargleam Cavern and Contests being referred to as Super Contest Shows are derived from Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
    • Cyrus summoning both Dialga and Palkia instead of one or the other is lifted from Platinum. The Battle Frontier is also taken from Platinum.
    • Dawn becoming a Coordinator and beginning to participate in Contests are derived from Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, with her team of Pokémon (Empoleon, Pachirisu, Lopunny, Togekiss, and Mamoswine) mostly being based on that of her anime counterpart (which also happened in the above-mentioned Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl).
    • Finally, Cynthia's dialogue with Jupiter and Mars (as well as her final line of dialogue towards and subsequent dispatching of Cyrus) are lifted from two of the Sinnoh-based episodes of Pokémon Generations.
  • Sonic Generations: Friendship Is Timeless combines elements and characters from not just pretty much all the Sonic the Hedgehog games (even more so than the original game), but also from all the Sonic cartoons released at that point, all the Sonic comics released at that point, Sonic X, and even Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games games.
  • Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee has characters from the main Pokémon games and the main anime, with Black and White and Black 2 and White 2 being the primary source of characters and there's more focus on Risa and Margo on the PokéAni side of things, adapts N's backstory pretty faithfully but with a slight twist as to who corrupted him originally, as well as Mega Evolution being taken from X and Y and Z-Moves taken from Sun and Moon, has characters and elements from Love Live!, with the Perfect Dream Project girls and certain Transfer Students having a major focus, has characters from both the Standard and Girl's Side braches of Tokimeki Memorial, but with the focus on characters from the Kirameki and Hibikino Sagas as well as Chikara Osako from 3rd Story and Pastel as the main representative of the TwinBee series.
  • Trampy Movies:
    • The books used a red engine similar to James, and in a Mythology Gag, James in his black coat was used as that engine during the Henry flashback as seen in The Adventure Begins. The model series used Thomas as the engine. Trampy Movies has both engines called in to push Henry out...of course, they still don't succeed.
    • Runaway notably adapts the runaway scene from The Adventure Begins, which had already adapted most of the basics of The Breakdown Train.
    • Flying Kipper primarily adapts the episode of the same name, but includes elements of Tenders and Turntables (James getting spun around like a top by the wind), A Scarf for Percy (The engines all waking up early due to the cold and complaining about it) and High-Speed Gordon (Gordon suffering wheelslip upon starting up the express in the cold, though he quickly recovers here compared to the base story), and the crew in James' brake van recount the events of Thomas and the Guard.
    • Toby puts Toby and the Stout Gentleman and Thomas in Trouble together, with the latter's events being featured immediately after the former.
  • The Owl House/X-Men: Age of Apocalypse is a crossover between The Owl House and X-Men that, despite being named after the Age of Apocalypse storyline, also derives many elements from Days of Future Past, namely that Azura Noceda-Blight comes from a Bad Future and has been sent back in time to prevent Apocalypse from rising to power.
  • The TV Tropes Character Crossover War, being a mashup of multiple stories, combines many continuities together depending on the franchise.
    • DC and Marvel both are a big part of the story, so naturally it borrows heavily from their comic, movie, tv, and video game depictions. Gotham City mainly leans towards the comic with a heavy amount of influence from Batman: The Animated Series (mainly that Batman is less of a jerk like he was in the early days of the show and has a more open support system of allies) and the Batman: Arkham Series (with more serious and deadly takes on its villains like Killer Croc). The Joker also has the voice of Mark Hamill, but is described with a simliar facial makeup like Heath Ledger's take, while Darkseid is described as having invaded Earth 5,000 years ago like in Zack Snyder's Justice League despite taking more after his DCAU counterpart. However, one property that was explicitly left out of the mashup was Teen Titans Go!, which was instead forced to guard the Anti-Life Equation (though on that front, they failed miserably).
    • Meanwhile, on the Marvel side of things, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a prominent influence on Deadpool, Spider-Man leans towards the recent Insomniac Games (including the joke that the Avengers are convinently absent), and the X-Men are a mashup of their movie actors with their lineup from X-Men: The Animated Series. The Spider Society from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse also exists as an entity.
    • The presence of Skeletor as part of the Neo Legion of Doom is meant to homage the more cartoony take from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), as he is depicted as the CEO of the floundering Mattel, but he makes mention of more recent animated series from the 2010s and 2020s as having existed In-Universe to some degree (and complaining about the fact that people either didn't see them or complained about them).
  • Under the Sea combines aspects of the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, the first animated film, and the live-action film, while also adding new elements.
  • Unova Undertakings: With the exception of the absence of Team Plasma and Jermaine's Gym Leader and Elite Four battles being rematches instead of his first time facing them, the story is largely the same as that of Pokémon Black and White. Despite that, other aspects from across the franchise are mixed in.
    • Rosa being a main character; the presence of the Strange House; Iris being the Champion (along with having new clothes and a new hairstyle); and Roxie, Marlon, and Cheren being Gym Leaders (as well as their respective cities appearing or being mentioned) are all derived from Pokémon Black 2 and White 2.
    • The Pokémon Hilda and Rosa use are based on the ones used by their manga counterparts in Pokémon Adventures and their counterparts in Pokémon Masters.
  • In When Legends meet, the first story Heroes coming together has a version of Age of Ultron which takes elements from both the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron and Season 1 of the TV Series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

    Films — Animation 
  • Adventures in the Emerald City: It is an adaptation of Baum's books but borrows multiple elements from their Russian counterpart Tales of the Magic Land.
    • The main heroine gets an amalgamated name and is called Dolly — a cross between Baum's Dorothy and Volkov's Ellie.
    • Winkie Country is violet-themed rather than yellow-themed.
    • Glinda dresses in pink, like her counterpart Stella in Volkov's books.
    • Weirdly averted with the Good Witch of the North, who is not dressed in yellow like Volkov's Villina — despite all her colleagues getting designed after Volkov's characters.
  • Two of the animated Asterix films have done this:
  • The Black Cauldron combines aspects from the first two books in The Chronicles of Prydain. It follows the plot of the second book for the most part and uses its title, but uses the Horned King from the first book as the villain.
  • Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie combines elements from the first four books, including the Captain's origin from the first book, Professor Poopypants as a villain from the fourth, the Turbo Toilet 2000 and Invention Convention from the second, and zombie-fied children from the third book.
  • Dog Man, from the same studio as Captain Underpaints and adapted from a book series by the same author, is structured similarly. It includes Dog Man's origins from the first book, and the main plot of the third book, with smaller elements from the second and seventh books.
  • The Disney Animated Canon does this often:
    • Aladdin only follows the very broad outline of the original story of Aladdin, with much of the rest being filled in by details taken from the rest of the Arabian Nights. The trope of a trapped genie offering three wishes to whoever releases him comes from "The Fisherman and the Jinni", the magical flying carpet comes from "The Story of Prince Husain", and the Grand Vizier being a treacherous villain is a common motif that shows up in a number of the other stories. The Vizier's name being "Jafar" is also an allusion to Ja'far ibn Yahya, a real historical vizier who appears as a recurring character throughout the Nights tales, though usually as the hero rather than the villain.
    • Alice in Wonderland closely follows the plot of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but adds Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Walrus and the Carpenter, the talking flowers, and the Tulgey Woods from "Jabberwocky", all of which are from the sequel, Through the Looking Glass. Some jokes from Through the Looking Glass, such as Humpty Dumpty's "unbirthday" line and the Red Queen's "all the ways here are my way" boast, are also given to characters from the original.
    • Beauty And The Beast is credited as an adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's 1756 version of the story, but also takes a number of elements from Jean Cocteau's 1946 film adaptation, including "Belle" being the protagonist's real name rather than a nickname, the Beast's castle being filled with sentient furniture, and Belle having an attractive-but-evil human suitor who contrasts with the ugly-but-noble Beast.
    • Cinderella is credited as an adaptation of Charles Perrault's version of the story, which it mostly follows fairly closely. However, a few elements of the Brothers Grimm version are also used, such as Cinderella's kinship with animals and her stepsisters actively trying to prevent her from going to the ball.
    • Hercules doesn't really feature a retelling of the legend of Herakles, instead mixing different characters and storylines from Classical Mythology to tell a new story (which loosely adapts some aspects of the legends) in that setting.
  • The Mortal Kombat Legends series fuses elements of both the original eight games (such as the depiction of the Kamidogu) and the reboot trilogy (with many characters' designs being based on their designs from those games).
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The World Guardians borrows elements from the four Marching to the New Wonderland seasons from the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf show. The underground world, the Big Tree keeping the Earth Soul safe, Elder Beetle, and his shrinking the goats all come from the original Marching to the New Wonderland season; the Ocean Star comes from Adventures in the Sea; the Flying Island where the guardian of the Sky Crystal is comes from Flying Island: The Sky Adventure; and the Dimension Gem controls time, referencing Rescue Across Time.
  • In a case of What Could Have Been, Disney originally planned on making a film that combined the stories of Reynard the Fox and Chanticleer the Rooster, but it was rejected, so they instead made a Funny Animal version in the 1970's that eventually became Robin Hood. The final version of Robin Hood is technically a combination of the Robin Hood legends and the Reynard the Fox/Chanticleer movie Disney originally planned. Don Bluth later created Rock-A-Doodle in the 1990's.
  • The Super Mario Bros. Movie:
    • The movie amalgamates the "Mario saves Princess Peach from Bowser" (albeit with Luigi captured instead of Peach) Excuse Plot from the first game with other games' plot points - Bowser wanting to marry Peach (Super Mario Odyssey), Mario fighting Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong), and him having worked for Foreman Spike (Wrecking Crew), among others.
    • All sorts of power-ups from the games, such as the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, Tanooki Suit, Mini Mushroom, Ice Flower, and Super Bell, among other things, are collected from the 30+ years of games that Mario has gotten.
    • The Super Star is stolen by Bowser similar to how it's a plot coupon in games like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, while it can also be used as an invincibility item like in the 2D games such as Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros.
    • Mario Kart is referenced, with the Kongs, who appear to be primarily based on their portrayal in Donkey Kong Country, having racing karts as part of their culture. The Koopa General, a Canon Foreigner, is revealed to actually be the owner of the Spiny Shell featured in Mario Kart.
    • Mario and Luigi's original backstory as plumbers from New York is featured in the film, complete with a reference to the Plumbers Rap as the tune of the commercial for their plumbing business. However, Pauline, the damsel in distress from Donkey Kong, is featured as the Mayor of New York, similar to her role in Super Mario Odyssey as the Mayor of the New York-esque New Donk City.
  • The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, like its predecessor, adapts many plot points across the series, in addition to other Nintendo properties via the plot-important role of Fox McCloud and cameos from the Pikmin, R.O.B., and Mr. Game & Watch.
    • As the title indicates, the plot is heavily inspired by Super Mario Galaxy (a UFO belonging to Bowser's forces cuts Peach's castle from the ground and beams it into space, the protagonists visit the Gateway and Honeyhive Galaxies, Megaleg is used by Bowser's forces, and the Red Star is a powerup featured) and Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Rosalina is captured by Bowser's army during the story's events, the Boomsday Machine is a weapon used by Bowser and Bowser Jr., and the Spin Drill, Cloud Flower, and Blimp Fruit are featured powerups), as well as both games' shared ideas like space travel via Launch Stars, Rosalina, the Lumas, the Honey Queen, and Bowser plotting to rule the galaxy. The film also features Yoshi becoming friends with Mario and Luigi, as in Super Mario World, and the baby versions of Mario and Luigi (this time due to them being de-aged into babies) being carried by Yoshi, like in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
    • Bowser's final encounter with Mario sees him attack on a bridge over lava collapsed by an axe, similar to Super Mario Bros. 1 and New Super Mario Bros. 1, where like the latter game, he emerges from falling into lava as Dry Bowser. Likewise, Bowser Jr. relies on using his paintbrush, which can create weapons and enemies through paint like in Super Mario Sunshine, but can also power up into his Wonder form from Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Both also use the Koopa Clown Car, originally introduced in Super Mario World, to fly around.
    • Tostarena and Fossil Falls (albeit depicted as a planet) from Super Mario Odyssey are placed visited by Mario and Luigi during the story, with the Tostarenans from the former and the Tyrannosaurus rex from the latter also appearing. Bowser Jr. also creates the Ruined Dragon, a boss from that game, using his paintbrush.
    • The 8-bits from Super Mario Bros. 2, consisting of Wart, Clawgrip, Mouser, and Birdo, are encountered by Peach and Toad in a casino hidden within the Gateway Galaxy, and they first discover it because of Ukiki stealing their belongings, similar to his role in Super Mario 64.
    • In addition to the returning Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Ice Flower, as well as the Spin Drill, Cloud Flower, Blimp Fruit, and Red Star, the Frog Suit from Super Mario Bros. 3, the Penguin Suit from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the Cape Feather from Super Mario World are new powerups that appear in the film.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Often found when you have an action or horror movie from Bollywood: they have a shortage of ideas in this area so they produce tons of unofficial remakes (and they've started to have a shortage there, as well: The Godfather was remade at least 7 times, for example). A particular example is a movie named Commando (no, not that one) by Bubbar Subhash starring Mithun Chakraborti, which combines Romancing the Stone with American Ninja.
  • A lot of movies are adapted (most of them uncredited and unofficially) from two novels by Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest and The Glass Key, which are actually completely unrelated save for the same genre and writer.
    • Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa was this to a lesser extent but spawned a LOT of unofficial adaptations on its own, most of which contain at least one significant moment from The Glass Key and the main plot patterns of Red Harvest. The primary example is A Fistful of Dollars, which was considered a plagiarism of Yojimbo in court. Ironically enough, the official remake of Yojimbo, Last Man Standing, heavily borrows elements from both Red Harvest and A Fistful of Dollars.
    • The Coen Brothers film Miller's Crossing also combines these novels by Hammett, but borrows elements from both nearly 50% to 50%.
  • Film versions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland tend to combine the first book with its sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There."
    • The 1933 and 1985 films both devote their first halves to Wonderland and their second halves to Looking-Glass, but make them both part of the same dream. The 1999 TV version takes just three episodes from Looking-Glass (the White Knight, the Garden of Live Flowers, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee/The Walrus and the Carpenter) and puts them all together in between the Mock Turtle and Trial scenes from Wonderland. The 1972 British film is mostly just Wonderland, but it does include Tweedledum and Tweedledee too.
    • The 2010 Alice in Wonderland film is based on a combination of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through The Looking-Glass. The sequel is, despite debate, in face only based on ATTLG, as this story included Lewis Carroll's poem "The Jabberwocky" (on which the film is also partly based) as some of its prose. Of course, this is only very loosely based on Carroll's work, as pretty much the only things in common are a couple of character names and the premise of a world Down the Rabbit Hole.
  • The American Friend mostly adapts Ripley's Game, the third book in the Ripliad series. However, it does take some elements (chiefly the Derwatt forgeries) from the preceding book, Ripley Under Ground.
  • Arsène Lupin (2004) takes its plot from several of the original stories, focusing largely on Lupin's history and the crucifix plot with Josephine.
  • Soviet 1987 surreal cult film Assa was adapted from an unpublished short story and song Hello, Bananan Boy but has excerpts from historical novel The Edge of the Centuries by Nathan Eidelman, which one of the characters reads, adapted as well.
  • Blade Runner itself qualifies. The film was based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but the title and term "blade runner" were taken from the totally unrelated Alan E. Nourse novel The Bladerunner and screenplay adapted from it by William S. Burroughs, Blade Runner: The Movie. Ridley Scott specifically purchased the rights to the title, and both Nourse and Burroughs were credited in the end credits.
    • Burroughs' screenplay, in turn, was adapted to an already filmed, unfinished film starring Bill Paxton. The resulting movie released as Taking Tiger Mountain.
  • Borderlands loosely follows the plot of the first game but features characters and scenarios from later games, most notably featuring Tiny Tina and Kreig from Borderlands 2 as part of the main cast, while Claptrap and Dr. Tannis accompany the Vault Hunters when they were supporting NPCs in the first game.
  • The third Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie is named after the fourth book, Dog Days, but is equally an adaptation of that book and the actual third book, The Last Straw.
  • All the Die Hard sequels are based, mostly, on unrelated source material, but maintain John McClane as the protagonist.
  • Russian 1995 Movie The Eggs of Doom (Rokovye yaytsa) was adapted from the short novel by famous writer Mikhail Bulgakov, but has many scenes, characters and themes borrowed from his most known work, The Master and Margarita.
  • Everest was based on the memoirs of several of the climbers rather than being a straight adaptation of just one, as the previous TV movie about the disaster had been.
  • Five Nights at Freddy's is based primarily on Five Nights at Freddy's 1, with Mike Schmidt being the protagonist and the animatronics using that game's designs, but the restaurant is named Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Place as in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, the murderer (who is only mentioned in passing in the first game's hidden newspaper stories) appears as drawn from subsequent entries (he first appears in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, wears the Spring Bonnie suit as in Five Nights at Freddy's 3, is named William Afton as in Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, and confronts the main characters before he gets springlocked as in Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes), and Vanessa from Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach also appears in the film (albeit as a Composite Character with Elizabeth Afton from Sister Location by being William's daughter).
  • Five Nights at Freddy's 2 continues narrative threads from the first film, but, adapting concepts from the second game (under the pretense of actually being a sequel rather than a prequel), brings in the Toy Animatronics and Withered Animatronics. The Toys in particular are fought off and destroyed by the Classic Animatronics, like the Twisted Animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones. The film also brings in Michael Afton from Sister Location and Henry from Pizzeria Simulator, based on that game revealing his daughter Charlie was William's first victim who is tied to the Puppet.
  • Full Metal Jacket is based on the semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers published in 1979 by former Marine Gustav Hasford. However, the script was co-written by Micheal Herr, who incorporated a large amount of his Gonzo Journalism book Dispatches from the Vietnam War. The result is an odd fusion; the plot is drawn from The Short-Timers, with the first half an extremely faithful adaptation and the second half an amalgamation of events from the second and third stories, while almost all the film's iconic dialog and surreal moments are taken word-for-word from Dispatches. This led to some friction over who would be given full credits. In the end, it was given to both authors.
  • Anime example: The live-action film Ghost in the Shell uses elements of the 1995 animated film as well as the second season of Stand Alone Complex.
  • Godzilla: King of the Monsters primarily adapts the story of Toho's Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (Ghidorah debuts as a nigh-unstoppable world-ending threat, and he, Rodan, Godzilla and Mothra all fight with the latter two functioning as humanity's allies by default against the far worse threat). However, the concept of antagonists played by people using sound to try and control the monsters, including Ghidorah, which is what sets up and furthers the plot of the film initially; originates in Invasion of Astro-Monster, which was Ghidorah's second ever movie appearance. Godzilla, Mothra, Ghidorah and Rodan also all combine various characteristics and events from various earlier portrayals of their characters for this movie, such as Ghidorah being an attempted murderer of children who's found buried in millennia-old ice, or Godzilla getting hit with the Oxygen Destroyer underwater and needing a nuclear strike from a submarine to rejuvenate him before he battles King Ghidorah, to name a few examples.
  • Godzilla vs. Kong is a mish-mash of the plots of Toho's King Kong vs. Godzilla (exactly what the title suggests), and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (Godzilla is framed for attacking humanity, the true source of the conflict is a Humongous Mecha made in Godzilla's image as part of a plot to overthrow him).
  • Almost happened, but averted, with the Harry Potter adaptations. The original plan was to take the beginning of Sorcerer's Stone and then re-jig scenes and plot points from the second and third novels to create Harry Potter: The Movie. But then, a smarter but unprecedented idea came up: "What if our audience could grow up along with the characters?" What might have been an easy cash-in became a straight adaptation of the first book....and then the following six.
  • Hiruko the Goblin adapts two stories from the Yokai Hunter manga; "The Black Investigator" (Hiruko and his habit of stealing heads) and "Red Lips" (pretty, popular girl gets possessed by Ancient Evil).
  • Peter Jackson's The Hobbit Film Trilogy incorporates a number of scenes and elements from The Lord of the Rings that weren't used in Jackson's earlier LOTR films. These include the appearance of the Maiar Radagast the Brown and Saruman deriding him as a weirdo, both of which were related after the fact by Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring. It also borrows plot elements from the appendices of The Lord of the Rings and some of Tolkien's writings that were published after his death. Since the studio didn't own the film rights to the latter, they had to do some Writing Around Trademarks. That being said, big chunks of the movies (Azog having a vendetta with Thorin's line and living into the story's main narrative rather than being a Posthumous Character, Kili and Tauriel's romance and love triangle involving Legolas, Laketown's politics and the Master's dislike of Bard) are original material that Peter Jackson's team came up with.
  • After the James Bond movies started running out of novels to adapt, there were a few which combined elements from various short stories and scenes from the novels that were not used in their respective films (usually with a bunch of extra stuff added even so).
    • Dr. No (1962) follows the novel pretty closely, though it also takes scenes from Casino Royale (Bond using a strand of hair to see if someone's been in his room and his first meeting with Felix Leiter) and The Spy Who Loved Me (Bond fooling an assassin with the three-pillow trick).
    • For Your Eyes Only combines the plots of "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico". From the former, it draws the Havelocks, Gonzales, and Melina's revenge quest, while it lifts Kristatos, Colombo, and their rivalry from the latter. The scene in which Bond and Melina are keelhauled was adapted from the climax of Live and Let Die, and the Identigraph concept is from Goldfinger.
    • Octopussy combines plot elements from "Octopussy" and "The Property of a Lady". "Octopussy" forms the backstory for the film's female lead, while the auction scene was adapted from "Property of a Lady".
    • Licence to Kill draws Felix Leiter's shark attacknote  from Live and Let Die and the character of Milton Krest from the short story "The Hildebrand Rarity". Sanchez, meanwhile, borrows heavily from the novel version of Francisco Scaramanga; Bond's plan to go undercover within Sanchez's operation and bring it down from the inside also parallels how Bond dealt with Scaramanga in the books.
    • In addition to updating the original novel to a contemporary setting, Casino Royale takes Bond winning a car in a card game from Goldfinger, the plot of Bond coming between an unhappily married couple from the short story "The Hildebrand Rarity" and the name Solange from the short story "007 in New York".
    • Die Another Day contains elements of Moonraker. As confirmed by Rosamund Pike, Miranda Frost was originally named Gala Brand, which was the name of the Bond girl in the original book. Gustav Graves, meanwhile, is based upon the original novel's version of Sir Hugo Drax. Also, Bond talking to M while separated by glass is a nod to the opening chapter of The Man with the Golden Gun where a brainwashed Bond attempts to assassinate M, only to be foiled by a plate of glass. Colonel Moon was a nod to Colonel Sun. In fact, he was supposed to the same character, but legal reasons prevented this. Lastly, both Die Another Day and Icebreaker feature an Ice Palace.
    • While Quantum of Solace is mostly an original sequel to Casino Royale unrelated to the short story of that title, elements of other Bond stories were folded in, including For Your Eyes Only (Camille's revenge plot).
    • Skyfall's plot of Bond being presumed dead and M writing his obituary is taken from You Only Live Twice, while the shooting contest is taken from The Man with the Golden Gun.
    • No Time to Die incorporates elements of the book and film versions of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the You Only Live Twice novel (Safin's "poison garden" mirrors that of Blofeld in the novel), while featuring a high-stakes plot reminiscent of classic films like The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).
  • The Lawnmower Man is a rather weird example, which was "adapted" from a short story by Stephen King using it as an In Name Only stunt for an original screenplay. King sued filmmakers to remove his name from the credits, and, especially, the film's marketing. It is weird because a) King actually liked the film and it has a lot of his common themes in it; b) the film actually featured a scene adapted straight from a short story and a dialogue between two policemen taken line-to-line from it.
  • Little Shop of Horrors is mostly based on the 1982 musical of the same name but Bill Murray's Arthur Denton character is based on Jack Nicholson's Wilbur Force character from the original 1960 movie who wasn't in the play.
  • The screenplay for Naked Lunch is based not only on William Burroughs' novel, but also on other fiction by him (in particular, first half of the movie is mostly based on The Exterminator), and autobiographical accounts of his life.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is a combination of On Stranger Tides (although it's essentially an In Name Only adaptation) and characters and plotlines from the previous Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
  • Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon combines elements from two different Ryuonosuke Akutagawa stories. Most of the plot came from "In a Grove", while the framing device (of travelers trapped in a gate because of a rainstorm) and title came from "Rashomon".
  • Resident Evil (Film Series):
  • Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City has the events of the Spencer Mansion incident from Resident Evil 1note  and the titular city being overrun from Resident Evil 2note  happening concurrently, ultimately ending with the city's destruction as seen in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
  • The film Return to Oz takes elements from two of the Oz books by L Frank Baum: The Marvelous Land of Oz (which does not feature Dorothy as a character) and Ozma of Oz (which does), as well as the 1973 non-fiction book Wisconsin Death Trip as a historical source.
  • The film Ripley's Game, adapting the book of the same name in the Ripliad series, includes a scene at the start involving art forgeries, which is the main focus of the previous book, Ripley Under Ground. Downplayed overall, as the art forgery subplot in this film doesn't at all resemble the one from Ripley Under Ground.
  • RoboCop: Screenwriter Edward Neumeier had written a screenplay about a robot that becomes a cop. When he met fellow writer Michael Miner it turned out that Miner was working on a screenplay about a human cop becoming a robot. They decided to combine the ideas and RoboCop was the result.
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) is based on the first three entries in the novel series, re-working the story a bit and postponing the climax of the first book until after the events of the third, so that the film forms a single self-contained narrative.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (unlike the first movie which is an embellished adaptation of the first game) combines the basic plots of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 where Sonic meets Tails for the first time and Sonic 3 & Knuckles where the duo face off against Dr. Eggman and Knuckles in pursuit of the Master Emerald.
  • After seeing The Terminator, Harlan Ellison thought that it was this for his two teleplays for The Outer Limits: "Soldier" and "Demon With a Glass Hand". If so, it was very minimal, but Ellison sued the filmmakers, succeeded, and had his name added to the end credits. Which makes one wonder why he didn't sue the creators of Soldier, which was basically his short story/teleplay "Soldier" recycled in the universe of Blade Runner (which also makes it an example of the trope).
  • The Towering Inferno: In 1974, a pair of movie studios, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros., had the rights to different books about a skyscraper on fire: "The Tower" and "The Glass Inferno". Rather than try to compete with each other the studios decided to team up, combining both books into a single movie.
  • A Trip to the Moon is based loosely on two popular novels of the time: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells, though some sources claim otherwise on the latter. Another major source of inspiration was an 1875 operetta of the same name.

    Literature 
  • The Kalevala is an Adaptation Distillation of lots of otherwise unrelated tales and myths from Finnish Oral Tradition.
  • Discworld:
  • Go to Sleep (A Jeff the Killer Rewrite): Two characters from other creepypastas appear here, with elements of their own stories worked into this one. Ben from Ben Drowned is Jeff's friend who died from drowning. There is also Jane Arkensaw, from a Jeff spin-off known as Jane the Killer, who appears as a minor character, being Jeff's neighbor who sees him run from his house and calls the police the night he murders his family.
  • In-universe in Grand Central Arena, there's a significant recurring plot point involving a work that's a mash-up of E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman and Skylark Series.
  • The Bible and its books are actually an amalgamation of multiple texts. However, there are many debates as to what originated from one text, what originated from multiple texts, how many texts they originated from and so on. For instance, The Pentateuch or The Torah is believed by many scholars to be an amalgamation of four different documents titled as J, E, P, and D by scholars.
  • Judge Dee: The recurring characters come from the author's translation of the first part of Dee Goong An, which was intriguing because of the way it fit Western standards of detective stories better than traditional Chinese ones (the murderer is not known to the audience, the mystery isn't solved by direct supernatural intervention, etc.). The plots of each story were taken from various Chinese criminology texts, with the sources explained in each book's afterword.
  • Geary Gravel's Batman: The Animated Series tie-in novels, with the exception of the one adapting The Movie, combined multiple plots from the series, since half-hour episodes meant even a two-parter would be slim pickings on its own. Shadows of the Past combines several episodes revolving around the origins of Batman and his assistants, Dual to the Death combines two Two-Face two-parters, and The Dragon and the Bat brings together all the episodes featuring the ninja Kyodai Ken.
  • The Troy Saga is a re-imagining of the entire The Trojan Cycle along with other sources it pulls from and so is a mish-mash of elements from The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, and The Book Of Exodus

    Live-Action TV 

    Music 

    Mythology and Religion 
  • While any Arthurian story which involves both the Grail Quest and Lancelot is technically this, special note should go to The Once and Future King, as it was T. H. White's attempt at creating an Arthurian super-myth, which incorporated as many of the myriad Arthurian myths and legends into one cohesive story as possible. Although how well this succeeded is debatable (there are a number of myths missing, but the overall quality is unquestionably excellent nonetheless), it is still the most "complete" of all Arthur myths, and borrows from at least a dozen stories.

    Tabletop Games 

    Theater 
  • Carrie: The musical keeps the parts of both the 1976 film and the book as it wishes. For instance, Margaret dies the same way as her book counterpart (via a stopped heart), it returns the frame story of Sue's interrogation from the book, and Carrie dying in Sue's arms but takes Sue going to see Tommy and Carrie at the prom from the 1976 film and surviving because Miss Gardner threw her out, and the massacre being limited to the school gym rather than destroying the town.
  • The play Universal Robots by Mac Rogers is partly an adaptation of R.U.R., but also includes autobiographical details of the author Karel Capek and his (imaginary in real life) twin sister.
  • Evgeny Schwartz's play "The Emperor's New Clothes", in addition to the eponymous tale, also uses elements from "The Princess and the Pea" and "The Swineherd" (on the background of A Nazi by Any Other Name, no less).
  • Shrek: The Musical is otherwise based on the first movie but it starts the same as the original book with Shrek's parents throwing him out of their house.
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame is mostly based on the Disney film, but incorporates multiple plot points from the Victor Hugo novel. Shockingly, this includes Esmerelda and Quasimoto's original deaths. Any music from the movie has been stylistically and lyrically tweaked to be more similar to that other Victor Hugo musical. One review called it "Music by Disney, darkness by Hugo".
  • Jasper in Deadland is mainly based off of Orpheus, with some elements from The Divine Comedy, and a few cameos by other characters from various mythologies. Jasper even gets compared to Orpheus and Dante at different points.
  • Saturday Night Fever: The Musical is based on the original movie but ends the same as the sequel, Staying Alive with Tony announcing that he's going to strut and then walking around to the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive".
  • Westeros: An American Musical: The play contains both elements of A Song of Ice and Fire that didn't make it to Game of Thrones and elements from the latter that weren't present in the books.
  • Eva Le Gallienne's 1932 stage play of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Elizabeth Swados's 1978 musical Alice in Concert (originally starring Meryl Streep as Alice and later filmed for TV as Alice at the Palace) both adapt the first book in the first act and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass in the second act, but make both part of the same dream, with Alice falling asleep at the beginning of the first act and waking up at the end of the second.
  • Evil Dead: The Musical is The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 if they both happened on the same night, plus a couple of the iconic lines from Army of Darkness. Ash goes to the cabin with a gang of his friends like in the first movie but bar his girlfriend Linda, they were removed from the Broad Strokes sequel. Then the cabin owner's daughter shows up thinking Ash killed her parents like in the second movie.
  • The 2010 Swedish Dracula: the Musical is mostly lot to the original Dracula novel, it borrows heavily from Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula movie.
  • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is supposed to be a continuation of the Harry Potter book continuity but the Hedge Maze is now a Mobile Maze like in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie and the Flipendo spell from the video games appears.
  • The stage play Sherlock Holmes and the Precarious Position combines elements of "The Red-Headed League" and "The Mazarin Stone" to tell an original Holmes story.
  • Sideways Stories from Wayside School (2001) shares a title and certain events with the first Wayside School book, but also adapts select chapters from sequels Wayside School is Falling Down and Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger.

    Toys 
  • When Hasbro imported Takara's toy lines Diaclone and Microchange, they were combined in a new franchise with an invented plot: Transformers. Additionally, a smaller amount of toys were taken from some non-Takara toylines, most famously, the Macross Valkyrie.

    Video Games 
  • 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue: The game uses an art direction similar to that of the original animated movie and the dogs talk like in the animated film, but its protagonists, Oddball and Domino, are from the live action 102 Dalmatians, and LePelt is one of Cruella's henchmen alongside Horace and Jasper (who were both absent from that film).
  • Several Chinese bootleg video games use some old games and just stash new sprites into them to release them as 8-bit cash-ins on recent movies. As a result you'll have Harry Potter and SpongeBob SquarePants games made of engine from one game combined with sprites from another and bizarre translation to fix at least some of the holes.
  • Somari, also a Chinese Famicom bootleg, puts Mario, using his Super Mario Bros. 3 character design, in the game world of Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • The video game of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End actually combines the stories of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and At World's End into one game. This is actually quite odd, given that Dead Man's Chest is the film before At World's End, and so the game would have been more expected to be named after the earlier film (since that obviously comes earlier in the game, too) — or even for that film to have had its own game adaptation previously that excluded it from being part of the later one (it had but on different consoles). The title signifies how the plot of the third film overtook the second. The Dead Man's Chest story features quite a few game-exclusive scenes as well, some of which show Tia Dalma and even Captain Teague calling for the Pirate Brethren to assemble with every plot point leading At World's End.
  • The plot of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is mostly a loose adaptation of The Shadow over Innsmouth, but it also includes elements from another (unrelated) H. P. Lovecraft novella, The Shadow out of Time, especially in the prologue and the ending.
  • Batman: Arkham Series: While the games have an original plotline, they incorporate elements of several story arcs and characterizations from the original comics, the Batman (Film Series), The Dark Knight Trilogy, and the DC Animated Universe.
  • The video game adaptation of Quantum of Solace actually consists of that movie as well as the events of Casino Royale. The levels based on the latter occur in the game as flashbacks.
  • Electronic Arts' Licensed Game of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (EA) is an amalgam of said film and The Fellowship of the Ring. Vivendi Universal's stand-alone The Fellowship of the Ring game, by contrast, is directly based on the original novel, since they held the rights to video game adaptations of Tolkien's literary works, while EA held the rights to adaptations of the films.
  • In the Alternate Continuity mobile game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, the canonical characters look like they do in movies but their personalities are more in line with the books.
  • The PlayStation version of Doom combines the campaigns of The Ultimate Doom and Doom II, along with adding a few exclusive levels. It lacks a couple enemies from the PC version such as the Arch-Viles and Icon of Sin. On higher difficulties, Doom II enemies will show up in The Ultimate Doom's levels.
  • The "Mac Family" ports (SNES, Macintosh, Jaguar, 3DO) of Wolfenstein 3-D incorporate three bosses from the PC Mission Pack Prequel, Spear of Destiny.
  • In Sega's 1985 arcade adaptation of Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns, Stages 1 and 2 are based on the first and second Atari 2600 games, respectively, while Stages 3 and 4 take place in new environments inspired by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
  • Friday the 13th: The Game incorporates any version of Jason you please (except Jason X, for legal reasons), the creepy mother's-head-in-a-shack from the second film and it even offers the same way to kill Jason, Tommy Jarvis as he appears in the sixth film, and characters based on archetypes from all over the series.
  • The PS2/Wii version of the Coraline video game takes various elements from both the novel and the film and puts them together into its own game story. More notably, the tennis court that's in the book but not in the film. Coraline herself in particular is a Composite Character of both her book and movie versions.
  • In Japan, Yo-kai Watch 3 was a case of One Game for the Price of Three, but the English version merged all of the content into a single version of the game.
  • A fan hack of Mega Man Star Force (here) merges all of the content from Leo, Pegasus, and Dragon into one version, while also adding quality of life features from the two sequels.
  • The first Discworld game has the basic plot of Guards! Guards!, and the second is more loosely based on Reaper Man. Both of them star Rincewind, who was in neither book, and borrow heavily from other novels in the series, especially Moving Pictures.
  • Wild ARMs: Million Memories tries to amalgamate plots from no less than six games. The widest plot is taken loosely from 1 with elements from 3, 5 and XF woven in. However, Chapters 21 to 30 bring in more elements from 2 and 4, to the point where the stuff from 1 almost vanishes until Chapter 31 and onward.
  • Storyteller: The video game combines elements of fairy tales from Snow White and The Frog Prince.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Manhattan Missions is primarily based on the original Mirage comic book, but also utilizes characters and elements from the first live-action film (The Shredder's lieutenant Tatsu appearing as a boss) and the 1987 animated series (the element used in every adaptation since of the Turtles having different colored bandannas to tell them apart, Bebop and Rocksteady being featured as bosses and Baxter Stockman bearing his blond, Caucasian depiction).
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up takes inspiration from various aspects of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise without leaning into any one interpretation. Most of the cast use their designs from the 2007 movie but have their voice actors from the 4Kids cartoon, the arcade mode cutscenes are done in the Mirage comics artstyle, and Karai is a villain who wants to overthrow Shredder instead of an ally to the turtles.
  • Due to hardware limitations, the Game Boy Advance version of Contra III: The Alien Wars swaps the Mode-7 Top-Down sections with levels from Contra: Hard Corps.
  • The plot of the Moomin game Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is mostly based on Moominsummer Madness (Snufkin destroying signs in the parks, Moomintroll in prison, Moominpappa putting on a play), but a few elements, like Teety-Woo and certain sidequests, are taken from Tales from Moominvalley.
  • Blazing 8s: The use of 8 as a Literal Wild Card is borrowed from Crazy Eights, while most of the other special cards are borrowed from Uno. The appearance of the cards also combines the color-coding of Uno with the motifs of a standard 52-card deck.
  • Freakzone Games' The Rocky Horror Show Video Game is based on The Rocky Horror Show stage play rather than its The Rocky Horror Picture Show movie adaptation but close ups of Frank and Riff Raff's faces have them looking like Tim Curry and Richard O'Brien who played them in the movie.
  • The Monon Color video game of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf features multiple Canon Foreigner characters from the movie series who don't interact with each other or appear on-screen next to each other at all in the movies. For instance, Brother Pony from the sixth movie telling Weslie that they can rule together, followed not long after by one of the balloon dragons from the fourth film as an actual battle.
  • Goosebumps HorrorTown is a mobile game that has a good number of characters and story lines from the Goosebumps franchise and make them all occur within the city of HorrorTown. This allows for characters in the books who otherwise have never spoken to each other to interact with one another canonically and even serve as Expy replacements for characters that were AdaptedOut in specific story lines, or even connect said story lines altogether.
  • While Sonic × Shadow Generations only includes the HD version of Sonic Generations, the Shadow Generations half incorporates some elements from the 3DS version, namely the Radical Highway zone, the Egg Flapper and Gold Beetle enemies, and a boss fight against the Biolizard.
  • Super Robot Wars often amalgamates elements from multiple related works when they appear in a game, something that happens most prominently with Mazinger Z: as the granddaddy of all super robots, Mazinger in every game, and this same immense history also means that it has a myriad of remakes, spinoffs, and adaptations to pull from, some of which Super Robot Wars itself made up. Its appearance in Super Robot Wars Y, for instance, uses the character designs, voice actors, and general plot from Mazinkaiser vs Great General of Darkness, the Great Mazinger design from Shin Mazinger and elements of Shin Mazinger's plot, the blue-limbed Mazinkaiser and Mazin Emperor G designs unique to Super Robot Wars, and the music from the Mazinkaiser OVA series.
  • Marvel's Spider-Man 2:
    • The story is a combination of the legendary "Black Suit Saga" (Peter being bonded with the Venom symbiote and being made more aggressive by it resulting in the creation of what is by far Peter's single most personal enemy), Kraven's Last Hunt (Kraven coming to New York and hunting a black-suited Spider-Man as a final challenge while dying from cancer), and "Best of Enemies" (Harry turns on Peter, becomes a supervillain, and dies (or near dies in this case) redeeming himself at the end), taking elements from all three arcs and mix-matching them. Additional details are lifted from Hunted (Kraven targets a lot of superhumans rather than just Peter and successfully dies in battle doing so), Brand New Day (Mr. Negative creating the Anti-Venom suit), "Big Time" (Yuri becoming the Wraith and Peter getting a job at a tech startup), Absolute Carnage, King in Black, and "Planet of the Symbiotes" (a symbiote invasion of Earth). Additionally, it takes a few ideas from two notable Elseworld stories — Life Story (Venom being someone other than Eddie Brock) and Renew Your Vows (Peter being forced to kill Venom and retiring (or stepping back in this case) in response).
    • Other than the comics, the game takes influences from various other Spider-Man media. These include Spider-Man: The Animated Series (Venom coming from a mysterious meteorite) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Harry Osborn suffering from a terminal illness and becoming a supervillain as a result of a rift with Peter), Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) (Harry Osborn becomes Venom instead of Eddie Brock, as well as featuring him using the symbiote as a spider hero in his own right before succumbing to Venom, albeit Agent Venom as opposed to Black Suit Spider Man), The Spectacular Spider-Man (Venom being a creepy Yandere for Peter and having to be purged from Peter through a Battle in the Center of the Mind), and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (Venom intends to use the symbiotes to assimilate humanity and put them under his control).

    Web Animation 

    Western Animation 
  • Episodes of Thomas & Friends not only take cues from The Railway Series books, but multiple promotional medias such as its annuals and magazines. Multiple writers of all these forms have even had direct involvement in the show.
  • The Christmas Special Sonic Christmas Blast is mainly based on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, but also includes elements from Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) such as the Robotropolis setting, SWAT-Bots, and Princess Sally.
  • The Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Laughing Fish" is mostly adapted from the comics storyline "The Laughing Fish"/"Sign of the Joker!" (Detective Comics #475-476), however, the final act is largely drawn from the unrelated comic story "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" (Batman #251). This was mainly due to the fact that the ending of the original was devoted to tying up plot threads that were never introduced in TAS or were introduced in a manner that decoupled them from the storyline as presented in the episode as aired. note 
  • Some episodes of Moominvalley combine elements from different The Moomins stories:
    • "The Golden Tale" is based on the Moomins comic strip story of the same name, but is set around the Moomins putting on a play at Emma's theatre, a part of the novel Moominsummer Madness that was cut from the episode of that title. And the play is based on Moominpappa's memoirs, resulting in a few set-pieces from The Exploits of Moominpappa.
    • "The Secret of the Hattifatteners" starts off with the short story of that title, and then moves on to the Hattifattener sequence in Finn Family Moomintroll.
  • Masters of the Universe: Revelation was marketed as a sequel to the 1983 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe but had some elements of the 2002 reboot such as Prince Adam looking different from He-Man to help keep his secret identity and Robot being built by Man-At-Arms rather than coming from space.
    • Masters of the Universe: Revolution: Adam's new Magitek Power Sword and new He-Man transformation takes several cues from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021) (particularily the emblem on his chestplate and how the Power Sword changes it's shape and size when it's full power is utilized) and the live-action film.
  • The first half of the second season of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is pretty closely based on Secret Invasion, but the specific plot point of a Skrull taking the appearance of Captain America because everyone listens to Captain America, only for the real Cap to force him to revert to Skrull form in the middle of a press conference, seems to be inspired by the Sensational Hydra's plan in Mark Waid's Captain America.
  • Young Justice, a show heavy on comic book elements, reinterprets different comic storylines to fit its overarching plot.
    • Season 2: Invasion combines the titular storyline of Invasion (an alien race targets Earth and identifies the metagene) with the 2000s run of Blue Beetle (said alien race are the Reach who seek to control Blue Beetle's scarab as part of their invasion).
    • Season 3: Outsiders acquires various plotlines derived from Batman and the Outsiders (Batman forms his own team when he deems the Justice League unable to stop the current threat and includes Katana and Metamorpho, but the other founding members, being Black Lightning, Geo-Force, and Halo, are part of a team based on Nightwing's later iteration), with the actual name of the Outsiders being taken by a team inspired by the Teen Titans, complete with The Judas Contract (Terra infiltrates the teenage heroes under Deathstroke's orders). A seasonal plotline involving the Anti-Life Equation is taken from Final Crisis, but like the original Young Justice, a hero who is used to channel the equation is involved (with Halo replacing Empress).
    • Season 4: Phantoms combines a few Superman-centric plotlines for its base plot, such as Superman (1978) and Superman II (General Zod, complete with his signature trope, leads an army of Kryptonians to conquer Earth after being banished to the Phantom Zone, with Canon Immigrants Ursa and Non among his forces), and a hint of Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis (Lor-Zod loosely fills Superboy-Prime's role of attempting to kill Conner Kent in the former, while the Legion of Super-Heroes trying to prevent his death mirrors how they resurrected him in the latter), though the results of the Legion's efforts parallels The Death of Superman (a Kryptonian hero is presumed dead, how his death affects other characters is explored, but he later returns alive).
  • The Harriet the Spy cartoon on Apple+ mostly adapts from the original book, but takes elements from the 1996 live-action movie, such as Janie being African American.
  • Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix: While the main inspiration is clearly Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, the series pulls in elements from a wide range of Ubisoft titles including Watch_Dogs, Assassin's Creed, Beyond Good & Evil, and even Rayman.
  • X-Men '97:
    • In "Remember It", Cyclops' psychic affair and the attack on Genosha, including the massive three-headed Sentinel, are inspired by Grant Morrison's X-Men, while the island's general vibe (and Interim Council) comes from Jonathan Hickman's X-Men. As the Morlocks are the most notable victims, this could also count as the Mutant Massacre.
    • In the comics, "Lifedeath" was only about Storm coming to terms with the loss of her powers. Getting her powers back was a completely different story arc that came three years later: The Fall of the Mutants. In "Lifedeath, Part 2", the two stories are combined.
    • In "Tolerance is Extinction, Pt. 1", while the main storyline is Operation: Zero Tolerance, Magneto releasing an electromagnetic pulse across the globe came from Fatal Attractions. The Prime Sentinels as a form of artificial post-humanity that overthrows mutants comes from the Homo Novissima of Jonathan Hickman's Powers of X.
    • A death leading an X-Man to defect and a battle where Magneto ripped the adamantium out of Wolverine's skeleton happened in the Fatal Attractions storyline, only there it was Colossus defecting over the loss of his sister and in "Tolerance is Extinction, Pt. 2", it's Rogue defecting over Gambit's death.
    • Jubilee having to fight a recent Love Interest to save the Earth occurred during the Marvel Versus DC storyline which led to the Amalgam Universe, only in the comics she fought the Tim Drake Robin and here it's Roberto.
    • Sinister's meddling allowing him to control people (visually marked by a red diamond on their foreheads) is from X-Men: The Krakoan Age, specifically the Sins of Sinister storyline.
    • Magneto irrationally damaging the magnetosphere of the planet, which could end all life on Earth, in revenge for Genosha, and Wolverine dealing him a fatal wound, come from "Planet X".

Alternative Title(s): Adaptation Combination

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Browse Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top