History Main / PacifiedAdaptation

* ''Film/JurassicPark'' is one of those rare adaptations where the source novel actually has ''more'' action than the movie. While there is still plenty of danger and peril in the film, the human characters usually survive dinosaur encounters with a combination of quick thinking and some incredibly lucky breaks, whereas in the novel several characters proactively fight back against the dinos and even manage to kill a few.

* The [[Film/Carrie1976 1976 adaptation]] of ''Literature/{{Carrie}}''. In the original book, Carrie burns down not only her senior prom, but [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed most of her hometown]]. The film, however, was made on a budget of just $1.8 million, which is still worth less than $10 million even when adjusted for inflation. As a result, the production kept only the destruction at the prom, Carrie killing [[spoiler:Billy and Chris in a car explosion]], and the finale where she burns down her house, and even that last one had to be scaled back when an effects shot malfunctioned and they didn't have the money to redo it. The [[Film/Carrie2013 2013 version]] made each of those scenes more bombastic, including having Carrie cave in a street and blow up a gas station as collateral damage when she kills [[spoiler:Billy and Chris]], but kept Carrie's rampage limited to just them. The [[Film/Carrie2002 2002 made-for-TV version]] was the only one that filmed the destruction of the town, and that one was hobbled by [[SpecialEffectFailure low-budget CGI]].

* Zigzagged with ''WesternAnimation/TransformersRescueBots''. While ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' as a whole is a war-based series, ''Rescue Bots'' is about a team of young, well, [[ExactlyAsItSaysOnTheTin Rescue Bots]] learning to be effective search-and-rescue operatives while working with human allies. Notably, ''Rescue Bots'' takes place in the same continuity and concurrently with the much darker ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', with [[BigGood Optimus Prime]] being a major supporting character. However, no mention is made of the Decepticons or the larger world-threatening conflict throughout the series' run (other than a vague reference to "those who would do us harm" in one episode) and the closest there is to a BigBad is amoral MadScientist Thaddeus Morocco.

* ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' has quite a few action scenes, but the fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/35889067?view_adult=true Embarrassment]]'' is just a slice-of-life story about Egon and his OriginalCharacter love interest having WeightWoe.

* One of the criticisms of ''Film/FantasticFour2015'' was that it was lacking in action or super heroics, due in large part to the film's poor pacing - in an hour and a half of runtime (not counting the credits), the main characters don't get their superpowers until an hour into the film, and the film's only major action sequence begins around the 80-minute mark.

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShell1995'' is an AdaptationDistillation that focuses on the Puppet Master storyline from the [[Manga/GhostInTheShell original manga]]. The Puppet Master storyline is indeed a large part of the manga's storyline, but it's only one part of a greater series of mostly actionized events that focus on Section 9 being a counter-terrorism unit. The 1995 adaptation places a much heavier focus on philosophy of humans and technology but sets up the action scenes to really deliver when they happen.
* ''[[VideoGame/GrimmsNotes Grimms Notes The Animation]]'', despite adapting a game with a big focus on battles, action, and making your Heroes stronger, has a really bad habit of pulling [[BattleDiscretionShot Battle Discretion Shots]] for its combat scenes, to move the plot forward and add a bunch of "comedy" scenes. The party is ready to kick a group of Villains' asses? Cut to commercial! And, on return, the party has already taken them all out. This also resulted in a few enemy characters being AdaptedOut, since most of them were irrelevant to the story. Even the fights against the Chaos Tellers only last for a couple of minutes.

* One of the criticisms of the [[Film/FantasticFour2015 2015]] ComicBook/FantasticFour film was that it was lacking in action or super heroics, due in large part to the film's poor pacing - in an hour and a half of runtime (not counting the credits), the main characters don't get their superpowers until an hour into the film, and the film's only major action sequence begins around the 80-minute mark.

While not always the case, this can be the result of a GenreShift, as some genres are more predisposed to action and violence than others. If one where to adapt a ActionHorror, {{Shonen|Demographic}} or {{Superhero}} story into something LighterAndSofter, like a HighSchoolAU or a SliceOfLife Drama or an {{Ecchi}}-[[SexComedy Comedy]] with MagicRealism elements, then it's less likely bodies will start dropping.

** The original ''VideoGame/DotHackR1Games'' are [[RPGsEqualCombat heavily combat-dominated ]] {{Eastern RPG}}s, but their animated adaptation/prequel ''Anime/DotHackSign'' is largely a talkie show, with only a handful of combat scenes scattered across 26 episodes, while the remaining runtime consists of dialogue, navel gazing, and awesome music.
** The ''VideoGame/DotHackGU'' games are just as heavily combat oriented as their predecessors, but the prequel anime ''.hack//Roots'' has very few action scenes, with the characters mostly discussing what they want to become for themselves as hints of a greater mystery leading up to the games starts to unfold. It serves more as a set-up for Haseo to set himself down his path as the Player Killer-Killer that he's become infamous for being at the start of the first game.
* ''Anime/GhostInTheShell1995'' is an AdaptationDistillation that focuses on the Puppet Master storyline from the [[Manga/GhostInTheShell original manga]]. The Puppet Master storyline is indeed a large part of the manga's storyline, but it's only one part of a greater series of mostly actionized events that focus on Section 9 being a counter-terrorism unit. The 1995 adaptation places a much heavier focus on philosophy of humans and technology, but sets up the action scenes to really deliver when they happen.

[[folder:Fanworks]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* While ''Fanfic/TheDragonAndTheButterflySaga'' has its fair-share of action scenes (The Vikings vs The Madrigals, the Dragon Raids on Berk, the Screaming Death in the Encanto, etc), many of the more action-packed elements that carry over from the ''Franchise/HowToTrainYourDragon'' franchise are downplayed in favor of SliceOfLife elements from ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}''.

* ''[[VideoGame/GrimmsNotes Grimms Notes The Animation]]'', despite adapting a game with a big focus on battles, action, and making your Heroes stronger, has a really bad habit of pulling [[BattleDiscretionShot Battle Discretion Shots]] for its combat scenes, to make room for the plot and a bunch of comedy scenes. The party is ready to kick a group of Villains' asses? Cut to commercial! And, on return, the party has already taken them all out. This also resulted in a few enemy characters being AdaptedOut, since most of them were irrelevant to the story. Even the fights against the Chaos Tellers only last for a couple of minutes.

* ''[[VideoGame/GrimmsNotes Grimms Notes The Animation]]'', despite adapting a game with a big focus on battles, action, and making your Heroes stronger, has a really bad habit of pulling [[BattleDiscretionShot Battle Discretion Shots]] for its fight scenes, to make room for the plot and a bunch of comedy scenes. The party is ready to kick a group of Villains' asses? Cut to commercial! And, on return, the party has already taken them all out. This also resulted in a few enemy characters being AdaptedOut, since most of them were irrelevant to the story. Even the fights against the Chaos Tellers only last for a couple of minutes.

** The original ''VideoGame/DotHackR1Games'' were pretty much a standard EasternRPG fare with [[RPGsEqualCombat combat-dominated gameplay]], but their animated adaptation/prequel ''Anime/DotHackSign'' is largely as talkie show, with only a handful combat scenes scattered across 26 episodes, while the remaining runtime consists of dialogue, navel gazing, and awesome music.