Live-Action Adaptation

From ink and paper to flesh and blood.

"There's no better way to make a decent creation look stupid than to make a real guy dress like it!"

— The Head Executive of Platypus Comix, Scrambled Eggs

In the West, many animated series have to run against the Animation Age Ghetto; one way to get around this and attract a wider audience is to do a live-action version of something originally animated. Even if it utilizes CG and special effects, this will sometimes strip the show of its perceived "cartoonishness." This is also a common device when a live-action movie adaptation is made, which will already be accused of leeching ideas from an older show.

Depending on how the adaptation is done, it may be successful. However, some suffer from Special Effect Failure and end up the film equivalent of a Porting Disaster. Or otherwise venture into Uncanny Valley territory.

A noticeable example is the Super Hero genre, where the outlandish, colorful nature of the genre seems most fitted for animated form. Yet despite animation gaining a bit more respect nowadays, most theatrical adaptations of superheroes are live-action, with varying levels of success.

One thing that has dramatically changed since the CGI creation of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park is the ability to visualize things that would have only been realistically possible in animation, such as Humongous Mecha.

Contrast Animated Adaptation. Not to be confused with Live-Action Cartoon where a live-action feature may behave like or contain elements pertaining to a cartoon, but isn't necessarily adapting a work that originally wasn't live-action.

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Examples (sorted by the original media):

Anime & Manga

• A feature-length live-action movie of After the Rain (2014) was released in 2018, not long after the main series ended.
• Ano Hana got a live-action adaptation in 2015.
• Arakawa Under the Bridge got a live-action TV series and film.
• Assassination Classroom had a successful film adaptation in 2015, which got a sequel titled Assassination Classroom: Graduation the following year.
• After four years of Troubled Production, including creative differences, the director quitting, and the movie being split into two parts, the Japanese Attack on Titan movie premiered in 2015 - the first part in August, the second one in September.
• James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez produced and directed a partially live-action version of Battle Angel Alita. Though there are live-action actors, Alita and other cyborgs were created using Mo-Cap CGI.
• The manga Big Tits Dragon was adapted into the film Big Tits Zombie.
• Black Butler is having a live-action movie, tragically, the only character from the series that will be present is Sebastian; the main character being a descendant of Ciel.
• Warner Bros. made a live-action movie out of Bleach in 2018.
• The anime of Boogiepop Phantom confused many American fans who had no idea that it was actually the sequel to a live-action film adaptation of a series of light novels. Of course even after viewing the film or reading the novels, the show still tends to make little sense...
• There are also several manga that were remade into Korean live-action series: Boys Before Flowers, City Hunter (both had Lee Min Ho as lead), Dr. Jin, and Playful Kiss (which also had a Japanese and a Taiwanese version). Hana-Kimi will have one starting in August 2012.
• Boys over Flowers. Also available in Mandarin, South Korean, and Thai.
• Boys over Flowers is known for its overdose of this kind of adaptation, as seen here:
  • A 1995 film.
  • A 2005 TV series that got two later seasons in 2007-2008.
  • A two-season Taiwanese adaptation in 2001-2002, and its later 2018 remake. Has the Market-Based Title Meteor Garden.
  • A 2009 Korean adaptation.
  • A 2018 adaptation of its sequel manga Hana Nochi Hare.
• Bunny Drop had a live-action movie released the same year as the anime adaptation. Like the anime, it only adapts the pre-timeskip portion.
• Case Closed has a 13-episode live-action series (2011) and four stand-alone specials (2006, 2007, 2011, and 2012) that feature the teenage Shin'ichi solving cases. The series and the 2006 specials take place pre-manga and the 2007 special involves Conan temporarily returning to Shin'ichi form.
• City Hunter:
  • Jackie Chan starred in a 1992 live-action version, which includes the famous Street Fighter II fight scene.
  • Two other unofficial adaptations were made in 1991 and 1996, the 1996 version despite changing a lot of names, is commonly considered as the most faithful to the original.
  • A Korean TV adaptation, titled The City Hunter, aired in 2011, lasting 20 episodes.
  • The sequel manga, Angel Heart also got a live-action TV adaptation in 2015 which aired for 9 episodes.
  • City Hunter: The Cupid's Perfume is a French-made adaptation of City Hunter. With French actors and many of the oddities of the anime's invokedSo Bad, It's Good 1990s French dub, such as the names (the protagonist is named "Nicky Larson", for instance).
• Cowboy Bebop had a live-action movie in the works, which was later dropped. Netflix then made a live-action series, but cancelled it mere weeks after the first season premiered, turning a cliffhanger finale into a major Downer Ending.
• Cromartie High School has a live-action movie. Different from most in that it does not try to stand on its own, but rather is only there to show how much more ridiculous the entire thing would look in live-action.
• Crying Freeman, which had both American and Hong Kong feature film adaptations.
• Cutey Honey
  • The live film adaptation — the live-action directorial debut of Evangelion's Hideaki Anno — was actually pretty good, although it had always been a bit deliberately campy.
  • Followed by a live-action television series; the same can be said for it.
    • A second live-action movie titled Cutie Honey Tears was then produced in 2016.
• There is talk of a live-action Cyborg 009 movie in the works, with F.J. DeSanto (who is also writing the modern adaptation of the series) producing it.
• Death Note:
  • It was adapted into two successful movies before the anime went into production. A third movie was released that focused on L. A fourth movie called Death Note: Light Up the New World, not based on any existing source material and set years after the original series, was released in 2016. The movies are in a radically different Alternate Continuity from the manga and anime.
  • There is also a Japanese TV show in its own continuity.
  • An American film adaptation has been released, directed by Adam Wingard. A sequel is now in the works.
  • It has even been adapted into a musical, with music written by Broadway composers Frank Wildhorn and Jack Murphy. This adapts the first four volumes of the series, but comes up with a new ending out of the other volumes.
• Detective School Q had a live-action series in 2007.
• Detroit Metal City features Kenichi Matsuyama, previously in the Death Note movie mentioned above. It also features Gene Simmons.
• Dragonball Evolution, a project that languished in Development Hell for years before finally being released in 2009. Fan reaction was pretty much "No, really, you shouldn't have." It somehow made enough money to justify a sequel (yet considering the backlash, it seems highly unlikely). There are also two much older and obscure unofficial films: the Taiwanese Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins, based on the movie Curse of the Blood Rubies, and the more faithful Korean Dragon Ball: Fight for Victory, Son Goku!.
• Fist of the North Star
  • It got an Americanized live-action debut starring Gary Daniels as Kenshiro and Costas Mandylor as Shin. The film was dubbed in Japanese with Akira Kamiya and Toshio Furukawa reprising their respective roles from the anime series.
  • There were also a few unlicensed live-action versions made in Taiwan and Korea. They make the American version look passable by comparison.
• It was recently announced that Fruits Basket would be getting a Hollywood adaption. Little is known about it, but they're apparently going to try to make it more realistic. A lot of fans are worried about how that is going to work out.
• Fullmetal Alchemist has a film adaptation directed by Fumihiko Sori released in December 2017.
• Zac Efron expressed interest in producing an adaptation of Full Metal Panic!!, drawing a lot of hate from those who only knew him from High School Musical and didn't know or care that he loves the series himself. Eventually he said "it's more than likely not going to happen," which is unfortunate since FMP is a franchise which could actually work as a Hollywood movie.
• Gantz was made into a two-part affair, released in 2010-11. Kenichi Matsuyama count: 3.
• An adaptation of Ghost in the Shell was released in 2017, starring Scarlett Johansson as Major Kusanagi, Pilou Asbæk as Batou and Takeshi Kitano as Chief Aramaki.
• Gigantor has a 2005 live-action movie.
• Gintama got two live-action movies released in 2017 and 2018 adapting the Benizakura and Shinsengumi Crisis arcs respectively, along with two webseries side-stories.
• Gokusen, about a school teacher who is the daughter of a yakuza boss.
• Golgo 13 starred in two live-action films before he even had his first anime. The first one was released in 1973, where he was played by Ken Takakura, which was followed by a 1977 sequel titled Golgo 13: The Kowloon Assignment, which replaced Takakura with Sonny Chiba.
• Great Teacher Onizuka has two 13-episode live-action adaptations, one in 1998, the other in 2012. It also had a 4-episode miniseries set in Taiwan in 2014, and an 11-episode series set in Japan later that year. There was also a live-action film released in 1999.
  • The prequel series Bad Company and GTO: The Early Years also had live-action adaptations: Bad Company got a film in 1998^note Unfortunately never subtitled and GTO: The Early Years got two miniseries, one from 1995-1997 (5 episodes) and one on Amazon Prime in 2020.
• Gundam had one. It was a far-future UC title called G-Savior. It was made in Canada. Needless to say, it wasn't that good. Even Tomino officially denounced it. It doesn't help that it was funded in Yen (Canadian dollar is worth a lot more), featured unknown Canadian actors to be dubbed in Japanese, was ham-tastic in terms of acting, and the tech looked on par with that of nearly two-hundred years prior. Not to mention that it was TOO realistic.
• The Guyver has had two. The first one had Mark Hamill in a supporting role and the second with David "Solid Snake" Hayter as Sean Barker (a stage name he almost used in MGS).
• In the weirdest example of Multinational Shows, Hana-Kimi received two almost simultaneously live-action adaptations series in Japan and Taiwan.
• Hell Girl got a Live-Action Adaptation that was set within the timeline of the first anime season, retaining the anthology format while notably averting the anime storyline. At a mere 12 episodes, there wasn't much room for them anyway.
• Higurashi: When They Cry:
  • Higurashi has a live-action adaptation, covering the first chapter of the game/anime. (Demoned Away chapter / Keiichi's chapter). The second movie comes out soon; it covers the answer arc to that arc, which is the last arc of the first season. (Atonement chapter / Rena's chapter) Sound novel/anime-wise it's the second in the second season (Kai).
  • It was adapted again into an hour long TV drama.
• The Mitsuru Adachi series Hiyatari Ryoko received a live-action Japanese TV show adaptation in 1982.
• Honey and Clover has been adapted into a movie and two TV dramas (in Japan and then Taiwan).
• Hotaru's Way has a "drama" adaptation.
• I"s and Video Girl Ai, both of them mangas by Masakazu Katsura, will both be receiving a live-action TV adaptation in 2018.
• IS: Otoko Demo Onna Demo nai Sei has had a TV drama adaptation.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War got a live-action film in 2019, and a second in 2021. The latter actually adapted the culture festival before the anime did, and Tsubame shares an actress in both adaptations.
• Kaiji has one with Live-Action Light as the title protagonist.
• In Japan, there are sometimes live shows for children done using costumes that look like the actual anime characters called "kigurumi" or "animegao" that are usually 30 minutes in length. Anpanman, Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Yume no Crayon Oukoku, Himitsu no Akko-chan, Ojamajo Doremi and Pretty Cure are just a few of the shows to get this treatment.
• Kin Kyori Rennai has one, which was well-known for having ticket sales outnumbering the HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! movie on its opening weekend.
• Kite (1998) was adapted in 2014, starring India Eisley from The Secret Life of the American Teenager as Sawa and Samuel L. Jackson as Detective Karl Aker, Sawa's legal guardian.
• Kochikame has a live-action TV series. Basically a live-action cartoon.
• Little known (in the West) manga series Kyō Kara Ore Wa!! (Today, It's My Turn!!) somehow managed to get a film version after a six-episode OVA series proved to be somewhat popular. The main characters' defining traits (their yankee hairstyles, blonde perm for one and HUGE spikes for the second) were carried over as well as the makeup budget would allow, and the comic violence remained, though toned down somewhat to allow for real world physics.
• La Blue Girl has one, proving nothing is off-limits.... It's all of three episodes long, and not exactly similar to the anime (which also came from a lesser-known manga). Exhibit A: Yaku is almost indistinguishable from the other girls.
• A Last Exile film may or may not be happening; an as-of-yet unnamed producer from New Line Cinema has been eyeing the series since at least 2005, and there was a piece of concept art that was leaked onto the Internet before it was removed, so there may be hope yet.
• The Liar Game manga got a live-action adaptation that has run as a two-season drama and two full-length movies so far.
• Life (2002) by Keiko Suenobu has a live-action drama, that for some reason she cuts her hair instead of arms.
• Lupin III: The first movie (Strange Psychokinetic Strategy) is available on DVD in region 1 from Discotek Media. A second film was released in 2014, for the 40-year anniversary of the first film.
  • A live-action spin-off TV series has also been released in Japan that focuses solely on Inspector Zenigata.
• Maison Ikkoku
• Nana had a live-action version before the 2006 anime version. It's also been a feature film and a manga series... and was #1 in Japan for all three simultaneously.
• Naruto will be getting a live-action film adaptation produced by Lionsgate.
  • An unlicensed live-action Naruto movie was made in China in 2017; however, it was given poor reviews.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi got one in 2007. Its quality is still up in the air.
• Two other Tatsunoko Production shows saw Japanese film adaptations — Neo Human Casshern and Yatterman. Science Ninja Team Gatchaman was set to get one as well, but had languished in development hell for years while Imagi's CGI version was announced. After the CGI film plans fell through, Nikkatsu's live-action version went into production in late 2012 and was released in 2013.
• ADV Films and WETA worked on one for Neon Genesis Evangelion in 2003, but after languishing in Development Hell for years upon years, chances of it actually manifesting became even more slim in 2011 when Studio Gainax quietly withdrew ADV's rights to adapt the material. The only actual trace of the project was concept art by WETA workshop, but that was it.
• The live-action version of Nodame Cantabile was about as popular as the (later) anime.
• Noir has been put into production for a TV series with Starz Network.
• Hell froze over when it was announced that, of all things, One Piece would be getting a western-produced live-action TV series adaptation. Six years later, the first season would release on Netflix and even more shockingly has gotten very positive reviews.
• One Pound Gospel
• Orange will have a movie adaptation on December 2014.
• Ouran High School Host Club got the live-action drama treatment in July 2011. The fandom pretty much exploded in glee. It also got a live-action movie in 2012.
• Paprika is getting the live-action treatment from Wolfgang Petersen; this shouldn't be too difficult since A) all of Satoshi Kon's movies are shot as if they are live-action and B) we've already seen that American film audiences can handle trippy dream plots.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • The show had, in America and a few other countries anyway, a stage adaptation of the anime simply called Pokémon Live!. Team Rocket is more treacherous, and Mrs. Ketchum at one point lets slip out that she had a fling with Giovanni of Team Rocket. Canon Discontinuity through and through, but the "Who is Ash's father?" Epileptic Trees only had richer soil to grow in.
  • An unofficial fanmade trailer, titled Pokémon Apokélypse, has received much attention and was even purported to be real at some point. However, it has since been proven to be a fan project. While there are no plans for an actual fan film, the producers had stated that the possibility is not entirely ruled out.
• Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon pulled off the adaptation quite successfully, though it's somewhat inspired by the more odd Sailor Myu theater musicals performed since the original show ended and had a vastly different plot from the anime and the manga.
  • The American version of the show was originally going to be a live-action and animated hybrid where the live-action girls transform into animated heroines. They then decided that this was too expensive to do, and that dubbing the anime was cheaper than simply just remaking it. Here's a page entailing what the show would have been like.
  • A live-action Hollywood adaptation languished in Development Hell for years, with many different people suggested to be a part of the project. The earliest project supposedly would have starred Geena Davis as Queen Beryl, and the most recent rumor suggested Lindsay Lohan as Sailor Moon herself. None of these ever came to pass (and how real any of these actually were was often questioned despite their prevalence in the rumor mills).
• The Prince of Tennis got a live-action film in 2006.
• A live-action Princess Jellyfish movie being released in December of 2014, starring Masaki Suda from Kamen Rider Double.
• In early December 2011, Ranma ½ got the live-action treatment, with Yui Aragaki playing Akane Tendō, Kenta Kaku and Natsuna playing male/female Ranma, Kento Nagayama playing Kunō, Maki Nishiyama playing Nabiki, Kyōko Hasegawa playing Kasumi, and Yuta Kanai playing Gosunguki among others (full list here). Sadly, early reports from translators suggest that it rates at best a 2 on the Sliding Scale of Adaptation Modification.
• A live-action stage production of Revolutionary Girl Utena led to the line "Live-action is no substitute for the real thing" in a fan-made music video.
• A live-action Robotech movie has supposedly been in the works. Nothing's substantial come out of it so far, though.
• The Rose of Versailles, despite never airing in English and being virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, had an English-language film made anyway... by the French. Most fans like to forget it ever existed. It was actually made a year before the anime debuted, so it didn't even have a fanbase in the west that could have saved that clunker from sinking like a stone.
• A live-action version of Rurouni Kenshin premiered in Japan on August 2012, to rave reviews and box office success (grossing over $36 million). The film was subsequently released in 60 other countries, where it went on to earn more than $60 million worldwide. Many fans and critics have hailed it as one of the best live-action adaptations of a manga/anime series ever made. High praise was given for its fantastic action sequences and stellar cast (particularly Takeru Sato as Kenshin). You can watch the trailer here on YouTube.
  • Because of the success of the film, two sequels were released in 2014. They are Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends, both adapting the manga's most famous storyline, The Kyoto Arc.
• Saikano was given a live-action film in 2006.
• Saki and its spin-off Saki Achiga-hen each got four episodes, a TV special, and a movie, airing over the course of 2016 to 2018.
• Screaming Lessons got one despite never really having an anime.
• Sgt. Frog: Parodied (but of course!) at the end of episode 293. The platoon's reaction is what seals it.
  • Keroro also says George (or Johji) Nakata—in reality the voice of Giroro—is rumored to be starring in the live-action Captain Geroro movie in a much earlier episode.
    • Finally, there are in fact, actual live-action adaptations by this point. Some of them are quite strange.
    • A roadshow and an appearance at a wrestling match don't actually count, but it's worth noting that 1. Mine Yoshizaki would definitely approve of hot chicks in a Keroro roadshow, and 2. Keroro's voice actor is a wrestling fan.
• Slam Dunk, retitled as Kungfu Dunk. The only thing in common is the sport.
• A big-budget live-action adaptation of Space Battleship Yamato hit the big screen in Japan back in December 2010.
• Speed Racer got an extremely trippy live-action adaption in 2008, courtesy of the The Wachowskis. Despite a massive ad campaign banking on the popularity of the show and attempts by the film to pull in both the American and Japanese fanbases (right down to including clips of both the Japanese and American themes), it became a huge disaster at the box office, putting the brakes on yet another potential franchise revival.
• A live-action version of Sukeban Deka hit theaters in Japan in September 2006 (and was imported to the United States under the title Yo-yo Girl Cop). There are also three live-action Sukeban Deka TV series, and a Made-for-TV Movie.
• Team Medical Dragon had a two-season live-action adaptation.
• Thriller Restaurant got one in 2010. Oddly though, it was one part animated before the second half went live-action.
• A live-action adaptation for Tokyo Ghoul was announced on June 17th, 2016. Word of God reports that his Hypothetical Casting for the protagonist became reality.
• A live-action movie of Tomorrow's Joe, with Tomohisa Yamashita as Joe Yabuki, was released in 2011.
• 20th Century Boys was turned into a live-action movie trilogy that is among the most expensive (and successful) Japanese film projects to date. However, it has been said that it is difficult to follow if you haven't read the original manga, as the films try very hard to be faithful to it, which means trying to cram 24 volumes into three (albeit long) movies.
• Video Girl Ai adapted into a Hong Kong film (which used a laser disk instead).
• A live-action Voltron movie has been talked about since 2006, but lawsuits over the franchise rights blockaded it from happening. It's seen some steady progress since then, with the most recent rumor as of November 2016 being that Universal had inherited the Voltron film rights from DreamWorks Animation and that David Hayter was being tapped to write the movie.
• The Way of the Househusband had a live-action adaptation starring Kenjiro Tsuda in 2020.
• What Did You Eat Yesterday? received a live-action show adaptation in 2019.
• Wicked City had a live-action version produced in Hong Kong that uses little from the original aside from the Vagina Dentata scene.
• Spoofed in-universe in the 77th episode of Yo Kai Watch, where Jibanyan says that Next Harmeowny is making a Sailor Pears film of this type.
• You're Under Arrest!, which had a fairly 'normal' setting. It only lasted nine episodes, but short Japanese dramas are fairly common and this length does not mean that the show failed.
• A Japanese YuYu Hakusho adaptation was announced by Netflix in 2020.
• Taiwan has seen releases of drama series based in manga, being the most notorious the ones who adapted:
  • The Devil Does Exist
  • Marmalade Boy (Which also had a 2018 film adaptation in its home country)
  • Boys over Flowers
  • There was a Hong Kong adaptation of Initial D as well.
  • Ditto for Itazura Na Kiss.
  • Also Mars (1996).
  • Hayate the Combat Butler, starring a Taiwanese actor and a Korean actress as the counterparts of Hayate and Nagi.
• Josei manga in general are much more likely to be adapted into live-action than anime, considering their target audience might not be that much into cartoons. Most 20+ volume series, like Waru, Galboy! and Keirinyarou, were adapted into live-action shows.

Asian Animation

• Happy Heroes received one in 2023 called No Way! I've Become a Superman (不是吧! 我变成超人了).
• Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf has an animated/live-action movie called Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: I Love Wolffy, which later got a sequel titled I Love Wolffy 2 which uses the Roger Rabbit Effect and scenes that have Live-Action Cartoon elements that are straight out of old American theatrical cartoons and 80's and 90's live-action family movies.

Audio Play

• The Confessions of Dorian Gray, as part of a Milestone Celebration for its 10th anniversary, released a ten minute short film with Alexander Vlahos reprising his role as the main character from the audios.

Board Games

• Battleship
• You know Hollywood is running out of ideas when they're developing movies based on Board Games: Risk and Monopoly both have movies in development.
• Clue — actually a pretty good movie.
  • There was even a Game Show adaptation in the UK, under its original name Cluedo.
  • And now a Hub Network miniseries featuring teenage versions of the suspects hunting down a killer who is none of them.
• Ouija, which got a prequel called Ouija: Origin of Evil.

Comic Books

• Archie Comics:
  • The series typically sticks to cartoon adaptations, however in the early 90s they tried out a live-action Made-for-TV movie called Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again.
  • There is also the series on The CW named Riverdale.
  • There has been talk of a movie adaptation of Afterlife with Archie.
  • Josie and the Pussycats got a 2001 movie starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson, and Tara Reid as Josie, Valerie, and Melody, respectively.
    • They also appear in Riverdale.
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch is an adaptation of Sabrina the Teenage Witch comics with a lot of changes (with several being added into canon later).
    • From the creators of Riverdale comes Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, an adaptation of the Darker and Edgier horror comic of the same name.
  • Katy Keene is a series based on the obscure Archie's comic Katy Keene. It's another spinoff of Riverdale.
• There have been five live-action adaptations of René Goscinny's and Albert Uderzo's Asterix: 1999's Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar (based mostly on Asterix the Gaul, with many elements lifted from several other comic book stories), 2002's Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (based on Asterix and Cleopatra), 2008's Asterix at the Olympic Games (based on Asterix at the Olympic Games), 2012's Asterix & Obelix: God Save Britannia (based on Asterix in Britain) and 2023's Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom (a wholly original adventure).
• Atomic Blonde, adapted from the graphic novel The Coldest City by Antony Johnston.
• Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame is a two-part film adaptation of the 6-issue The Infinity Gauntlet comic book series.
• Batman is much the same way as Superman. There is rarely a few years that go by without some new incarnation.
• Catwoman also managed to receive a movie adaptation in 2004, although it wasn't exactly well-received and the character was an original one only tangentially related to Batman's Catwoman.
• The Crow has had four movies and a TV series.
• Franco-Belgian Comics: After the success of both the Asterix movies mentioned above, there's been an rapid increase in Francophone live-action adaptations of comic books, both classics like Iznogoud (2005), Lucky Luke (1991, 2004, 2009), Marsupilami (2012), Spirou & Fantasio (2018) and Gaston Lagaffe (2018), as well as contemporary humor comics like Lou! (2014), L'Élève Ducobu (2011, sequel in 2012), Les Profs (2013, sequel in 2015), and Tamara (2016). Spirou and Fantasio, Marsupilami and Gaston Lagaffe are actually part of a Shared Universe in the comics of André Franquin, but invokedsadly none of the movie adaptations (2012, 2018 and 2018) are related (jokes about the "Dupuis Cinematic Universe" abound).
• Green Lantern (2011) and Watchmen can now be added to the list of DC comics that got a live-action adaptation.
• Judge Dredd has been adapted to live-action twice: Judge Dredd in 1995 (with Sylvester Stallone as Joe Dredd) and Dredd in 2012 (with Karl Urban as Joe Dredd).
• Mark Millar:
  • Kingsman: The Secret Service based off of The Secret Service.
  • Jupiter's Legacy was adapted into a Netflix series.
• Before developing their own film company, Marvel Comics licensed out their characters to other studios, and still do for some of their properties. Notable versions include the film adaptations of Spider-Man, X-Men Film Series, The Fantastic Four and Deadpool.
  • Of course, there's the The Avengers movie that ties in four years worth of Marvel superhero motion pictures and brings together the heroes of The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America for the culmination of one of the most ambitious superhero movie projects to date. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become the biggest and most successful film franchise in history, with over 24 critically and financially successful films released as of 2020.
• Men in Black, believe it or not, is loosely based of a comic of the same name.
• Many people forget that Road to Perdition starring Tom Hanks and David Cronenberg's A History of Violence starring Viggo Mortensen were based on graphic novels of the same name.
• The Scott Pilgrim series of comic books were adapted into a live-action film that shares its name of the second book in the series, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Despite being a failure at the box-office (thank you, The Expendables) it was well-received by critics.
• The Sin City movie is one of the most faithful comic-to-film adaptations made with an almost complete recreation of three stories from the comic. It was even co-written and co-directed by Frank Miller. Its sequel, on the other hand, didn't fare so well. Not because it was any less faithful, but because of an inexplicable Sequel Gap.
• The Smurfs got their own live-action movie, with the eponymous Smurfs being CG. The first of a planned trilogy, with the second film released in 2013. Unfortunately, the performance of The Smurfs 2 has caused Sony to cancel plans for the third movie in the trilogy, instead opting for an all-CGI Continuity Reboot with their next movie in 2017.
• The Superman franchise has had many live-action incarnations dating all the way back to the late forties and early fifties. Among the more famous ones are George Reeves's The Adventures of Superman, Christopher Reeve's Superman movie series, and Christopher Nolan's Man of Steel reboot.
• Tank Girl (which is mostly live-action, with some animated sequences).
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has had three live-action films, as well as the live-action television series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, all of which were produced during the 1990s. The 2007 movie, however, is straight-up CGI animation.
  • And now a fourth in the form of a Continuity Reboot, with the Brothers and Splinter as Serkis Folk. Unlike the previous series, though, this only had one sequel, Out of the Shadows.
• The Tick had a short-lived prime-time live-action adaptation on Fox in the early 2000s. It had some problems. The problems weren't with the show.
  • Amazon has rebooted the live-action series.
• Predating the above by some 40-50 years, there were two films made out of Tintin in The '60s, Tintin and the Golden Fleece and Tintin and the Blue Oranges. Those were original adventures, their plot was not adapted from any album of Hergé.

Comic Strips

• ITV actually made a live-action Andy Capp sitcom in 1988. It only lasted for six episodes.
• Blondie (1930) has been adapted in several media, most prominently in a series of live-action films from 1938 to 1950. They made 28 movies!
• Dennis the Menace (US) had a live-action TV series from 1958 to 1963, a 1987 TV Movie called Dennis the Menace: Dinosaur Hunter, and a 1993 movie with two direct-to-video sequels.
• Dick Tracy inspired a film serial in the 30s, a TV series in the 60s, and a feature film in 1990.
• The Trope Maker is probably the 1906 film Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, adapted from Winsor McCay's newspaper comic Dream of the Rarebit Fiend.
• Garfield, going into the "how Jon got his pets" story. The sequel, meanwhile, was straight-up Prince and Pauper. The live-action film made Jon much less of a dork than he is in the comics and even had him successfully wooing Liz. The comic strip accordingly hooked the two of them up around the same time, though movie Jon married her while comic Jon has yet to get that far. Curiously, Bill Murray played Garfield, who had previously been played by the late Lorenzo Music in the popular 80s cartoon series. Lorenzo Music previously played Peter Venkman, Bill Murray's character in Ghostbusters (1984), in the cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters.
• The first live-action adaptation of Little Orphan Annie was made in 1932. Since then we've had Annie (1982), Annie (1999) and Annie (2014), all based on the Broadway show, and Annie: A Royal Adventure!, written as a sequel to that story.
• Sweden has a very long tradition of turning humor comic strips and comic books into live-action movies, with the 1940s and 1950s being the golden age. Swedish comics that have been made into live-action movies more than once include 91:an Karlsson, Kronblom, 47:an Löken, Åsa-Nisse, and Biffen Och Bananen.
• There's a live-action parody of Peanuts about Black Friday, which is more of a "where are they now" sort of deal rather than being about the actual holiday.
• Popeye, starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall.
• Skippy was a 1931 film starring child star Jackie Cooper, based on a comic strip about a mischievous boy. For many years, it was the only film based on a comic strip, comic book, or graphic novel to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, until Black Panther (2018) and Joker (2019) came along.

Fan Works

• The infamous Harry Potter Fan Fic, My Immortal has been loosely adapted into an ongoing Web Series.

Films — Animation

• AKIRA was going to get one. It was going to be set in (Neo-)Manhattan and get a giant Race Lift to boot, before George Takei boycotted it and the director flounced from the project in a flurry of bad publicity. However, there are still talks pertaining to the film's production.
• The Disney Live-Action Remakes to the Disney Animated Canon:
  • 101 Dalmatians (1996), the first example of a in-house live-action remake by Disney.
    • 102 Dalmatians (2000), the sequel.
  • Alice in Wonderland (2010) by Tim Burton.
    • Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016), sequel to the above.
  • Maleficent, a P.O.V. Sequel to Sleeping Beauty is the first true example of this becoming a trend.
    • Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019), sequel to the above.
  • Cinderella (2015).
  • The Jungle Book (2016).
  • Beauty and the Beast (2017).
  • Christopher Robin (2018), which, like Alice, is a live-action sequel to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
  • Dumbo (2019).
  • Aladdin (2019).
  • The Lion King (2019) is an odd case: it's entirely CGI, but the animals look photorealistic, giving the impression of a live-action movie.
  • Mulan (2020).
  • Cruella, Perspective Flip on 101 Dalmatians following the example of Maleficent and Start of Darkness for the titular character.
  • Pinocchio (2022)
  • Peter Pan & Wendy
  • The Little Mermaid (2023)
• Grave of the Fireflies, though it should be mentioned that the anime was itself an adaptation of a well-known novel from the 1960s.

Literature

• The Artemis Fowl book series got a live-action movie in 2020, courtesy of Disney. The film notably makes enough changes from the books (giving the eponymous character an Age Lift is just one example) that it reaches In Name Only levels.
• Clifford the Big Red Dog had one in November 2021, sharing the name with the rest of the series, courtesy of Paramount. Clifford himself is animated in CGI.
• The Little Witch has been adapted into two live-action films and eight stage plays.
• The Estonian series Mommi Ja Aabits is adapted from Karu-aabits, authored by Hejlo Mann.

Puppet Shows

• Although the original was not, strictly speaking, animated, the live-action film adaptation of Thunderbirds is very much in the same spirit. Though confusingly, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction refers to the original as an animated puppet series, apparently defining animation broadly as giving the illusion of life rather than the usual definition.

Theme Parks

• Films based on Disney Theme Parks rides: The Haunted Mansion (2003), The Country Bears (based on the now-defunct — at least at Disneyland — Country Bear Jamboree), Mission to Mars (which got a ride of its own with EPCOT's "Mission: Space"), Pirates of the Caribbean (the only really successful one so far), Tomorrowland, Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion (2023). A film based on the Magic Kingdom by Jon Favreau was in the works but has been stuck in Development Hell.

Toys

• The American Girls Collection also had a share of live-action films released to mixed or positive reception, starting with a Made-for-TV Movie based on Samantha Parkington's stories in 2004, and was followed by Felicity: An American Girl Adventure (2005), Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front (2006) and the 2008 theatrically released film Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, as well as films based on Girl of the Year characters like Chrissa Stands Strong (2009). McKenna Shoots For The Stars (2012) and Saige Paints the Sky (2013).
• And then there's even a live-action Barbie movie in the works.
• Bratz, though it was based on dolls anyway. Little to nobody saw it, and that's probably for the better as even the fans hated it.
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which had aims to start a franchise along the lines of Bayformers. It also had a sequel in the form of 2013's G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
• A Gormiti movie was supposed to come out, but ended up not happening (unless we cound the Chinese bootleg Gormiti: Ace Mission).
• A Jem and the Holograms (2015) movie was released in 2015 and bombed, ending up with the worst opening of the year. It was a very loose adaptation of the Jem cartoon and toy line.
• A Masters of the Universe live-action movie was released in 1987. It bombed at the box office, and plans for a sequel fell through.^note Sets and costumes had already been built, they ended up in the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Cyborg (1989) A new Masters movie has been in Development Hell for the past several years, though recent news suggests that casting might be starting soon.
• Monster High was supposed to get one in 2012, which has been Saved from Development Hell (albeit now part of the franchise's second reboot) and came out in 2022.
• The 2007-2017 Transformers Film Series directed by Michael Bay, adaptations of the Transformers toyline.

Video Games

• The music video for Poets of the Fall's "War" adapts a few scenes from Alan Wake, featuring Ilkka Villi, Alan's model and live-action performer, fighting Taken played by the band members, while the vocalist also plays a solitary camper singing the lyrics.
• Assassin's Creed (2016): It's an original story instead of a straight adaptation and it's notable for being one of the few examples of this trope that takes place in the same continuity as the games.
• DOA: Dead or Alive.
• Doom, starring Dwayne Johnson and Karl Urban. Infamously tried to make the franchise's usage of Hell and demons figurative instead of literal.
• Double Dragon (1994)
• Two Dungeon Siege movies. By Uwe Boll, of course. At least, the first one had a few well-known actors (Jason Statham, Ron Perlman, Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds).
• While the planned Halo theatrical film (which was supposed to be Neil Blomkamp's first movie) never got off the ground, 343 Industries did manage to release two live-action webseries (Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn and Halo: Nightfall), both of which are original stories set in the games' continuity. However, an official adaptation of the "main" story wouldn't come until 2022, when an Alternate Continuity live-action TV series was finally released by Paramount+ (after the original deal with Showtime fell through).
• The Fallout (2024) TV show is an adaptation of the Fallout game series.
• A YouTube video of a live-action adaption of Hotel Mario.
• Uwe Boll's House of the Dead. The first in a long line of painfully shallow video game adaptations for Boll.
• Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun got a live-action TV drama, with the pilot episode screened at the Shitamachi Comedy Film Festival on September 14, 2013.
• The Last of Us (2023)
• The Legend of Neil
• These are the live-action Faces of Evil!
• In seemingly perpetual Development Hell for the 2010s: Mass Effect, BioShock, Castlevania, Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid, Heavy Rain, Shadow of the Colossus, The Sims and Mortal Kombat (again).
• Mortal Kombat: The Movie and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Then there's the 2021 Continuity Reboot, Mortal Kombat.
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. A surprisingly Disney backed adaptation, one that's not even that bad, really. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince, named "Dastan" here.
• Rampage (2018), based off the Midway arcade game of the same name featuring Dwayne Johnson and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
• The Resident Evil movie franchise, spanning six films and a reboot. Not exactly the best adaptations out there, though the reboot film at the very least attempts to follow the plot of the games (despite making numerous questionable changes). Netflix in 2022 released a TV series somewhat based on the games but like the film series isn’t a particularly good adaptation and got cancelled after just one season.
• The MMORPG Roco Kingdom got a hybrid live-action/animated television series titled 洛克王国魔法学院 (Roco Kingdom Magic Academy) in 2014.
• Takashi Miike did the live-action adaptation of Ryu Ga Gotoku, also known as Yakuza in the west. It was an adaptation in name only, focusing on a minor character and original characters as well as dumbing down any important plot elements from the game. Still was an entertaining film, just an adaptation in name only.
• Silent Hill adapted from the video game of the same name (although it also had some elements from Silent Hill 2). There is also a sequel that follows the daughter of the previous lead as she becomes an older teen. Essentially an adaptation of the third game. A third film, Return to Silent Hill, is in development and is adapting the second game.
• Paramount produced a hybrid live-action/CGI film adaptation based on Sonic the Hedgehog for a 2020 release. It is currently the highest-rated video game movie adaption on Rotten Tomatoes. A sequel would release in 2022, while a third film and a Knuckles-focused series are scheduled for a release in 2024.
• Street Fighter had two official live-action adaptations:
  • The 1994 movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raúl Juliá is the first and better known of the two, having come out at the peak of the franchise's popularity shortly after the release of Super Street Fighter II Turbo and features its entire roster minus Fei-Long and Akuma. It was criticized for taking creative liberties with the established canon of the games at that point, mostly due to the filmmakers ignoring the tournament plot of the games in favor of having the movie revolve around Guile leading an international task force against M. Bison and Shadaloo. It has since developed a bit of a cult following throughout the years.
  • The Legend of Chun-Li released in 2009 starring Kristin Kreuk was released to tie-in with the console ports of Street Fighter IV. It barely had much to do with the games outside the names of the characters.
  • A few fan-films had also been made such as Street Fighter: The Later Years, Street Fighter High (and The Musical), and the officially endorsed Street Fighter Legacy and Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist.
• Super Mario Bros.
  • The much-dismissed Super Mario Bros. (1993) film. It was bad enough for Nintendo to declare that film adaptations based off their video game franchises were to be rejected.^note At least until 2018, when they announced they would team up with Illumination Entertainment to make an animated Mario film that hit theaters in 2023. Anime adaptations, such as Pokémon: The Series and Animal Crossing, were always exceptions.
  • The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! used live-action wrap around segments, though the main segments were animated.
  • The webseries There Will Be Brawl.
  • The Super Mario Bros. Ice Capades. The one where the Bros. defeat enemies with what looks to be semi-realistic bazookas.
  • King Koopa's Kool Kartoons, to the most limited degree possible, featuring Pat Pinney, who would later do live-action segments for SpongeBob, in its second season. Well, it was Bowser in live-action anyway, just no one else.
• Tekken (2010) and a direct-to-video sequel.
• Trauma Team by Atlus was going to be made into a live-action television show, by the same man behind the Cowboy Bebop adaption, but it ended up being canceled, though a single "work-in-progress" pilot episode was later unofficially released.
• Uncharted (2022), starring Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Sully. The first production from PlayStation Productions.
• In April 2016, reports of an auction for the live-action film rights to Pokémon began circulating. The reports were confirmed several months later when Legendary Pictures confirmed they would produce a live-action Pokémon movie for a potential cinematic universe. However, rather than base the first film of the main games or anime, the studio instead made Pokémon Detective Pikachu based on the spin-off game Detective Pikachu, focusing entirely on the Pokémon of that name, with potential "main" entries being held off for now. The film was initially set up at Universal until negotiations with Legendary broke down, resulting in former Legendary partner Warner Bros., who has experience with the Pokémon franchise, replacing them as the distributor. The film has since been confirmed to be part of an Alternate Continuity with subtle nods to the main games and anime. A notable aversion to Video Game Movies Suck, featuring Ryan Reynolds as the voice of Detective Pikachu.
• Warcraft (2016), although it's heavy on CGI.
• Wing Commander
• A movie based loosely on Zombies Ate My Neighbors was confirmed to be in production in 2011, and although it isn't confirmed to be live-action yet, the previews seem to be pointing that way. Here's the info. As of 2023, there has been no further updates on the project.

Visual Novels

• Japanese film director Takashi Miike (of Ichi the Killer fame) released a live-action version of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in 2012. Trailer. The movie, despite darker and more serious tones compared to the game (which deals with murder cases on a day to day basis, but still) was received warmly and achieved modest success from audiences and reviewers. It helps that the Narumiya/Saitou pair (Naruhodo or Phoenix/Mitsurugi or Miles) wasn't too hard on the eyes and that Miike wasn't shy in having fun with the gravity-defying hair as well as the special effects.

Webcomics

• All of Us Are Dead is a Netflix adaptation from a 2009 webcomic of the same name created by Joo Dong-geun.
• The Korean webtoon Itaewon Class has a completed live-action TV adaptation with the same name.
• A live-action adaptation of the Krakow Studios comic Spinnerette has progressed far enough to post trailers on YouTube.
• The prologue of the popular Korean webcomic Weak Hero got adapted into a short 8-episode series titled Weak Hero Class One.

Western Animation

• Alvin and the Chipmunks got one with CGI chipmunks in 2007, and had a sequel in 2009, a third in 2011, and a fourth in December 2015.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender got an M. Night Shyamalan adaptation in 2010 — The Last Airbender. (The name was changed to avoid confusion with James Cameron's Avatar; they agreed to change it even though Avatar: The Last Airbender came first.) They condensed the first season into a movie, hoping to make another two movies based on the other two seasons. However, the film was a disaster (largely because of the original creators not being involved as well as changing a number of things around) dashing any hope for more movies despite the film ending on a Sequel Hook. In 2018, Netflix announced a live-action version of the series with show creators DiMartino and Konietzko as executive producers until they backed out of the project.
• Ben 10: Race Against Time, with Lee Majors as Max Tennyson and Sab Shimono and Robert Picardo in supporting roles. The second movie, Ben 10: Alien Swarm was based off the Sequel Series, Ben 10: Alien Force.
• Casper the Friendly Ghost had three live-action film adaptations, with Casper released in 1995 and was the first to have a fully CGI character in the lead role, and was followed up by two direct-to-video prequels: Casper: A Spirited Beginning (1997) and Casper Meets Wendy (1998) that don't follow the same continuity as the original.
• Code Lyoko was adapted into a live-action(/3D) sequel series, Code Lyoko: Evolution, released in early 2013.
• A movie based on Dora the Explorer, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, came out in Fall 2019. Of course, the non-human characters were animated in CGI, since the original series had a cast of animate objects and funny animals. The plot revolves around Dora and Diego as teenagers.
  • This is separate from the CollegeHumor Dora the Explorer and the Destiny Medallion live-action Dora shorts.
• The Electric Company (1971) is probably the Ur-Example for this trope relative to Western Animation, as it occasionally remade its own animated sequences into live-action skits, sometimes Lampshading and Parodying the original. Either way, Hilarity Ensues.
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! is a live-action film starring Drake Bell as a twenty-three-year-old Timmy Turner still in the fifth grade; he still has his fairies due to acting like a kid since if he does, he gets to keep them. However, Timmy winds up falling in love with a beautiful, twenty-three-year-old Tootie, who threatens to break them apart since it's a rather adult thing for which fairies aren't needed. The movie was so popular that it got two sequels—one about Christmas vacation and the other about summer vacation, except it ends up with Timmy becoming a fairy at the end. This was yet another in a long line of attempts to bring an end to the series.
  • The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder is a live-action series set eight years after the animated series, with an adult Timmy Turner passing on his fairies to his cousin, Vivian.
• Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids got Fat Albert, starring Kenan Thompson as the lead character and used a plot in which a depressed teenage girl ends up summoning the characters from the cartoon into the real world.
• Robert Rodriguez and Sony are currently making Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta's Fire and Ice (1983) into one.
• A few Hanna-Barbera properties managed to make flesh-and-blood out of their Limited Animation.
  • The Flintstones has two live-action films, one featuring a star-studded cast of John Goodman as Fred, Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma, Rick Moranis as Barney, Rosie O'Donnell as Betty, Elizabeth Taylor as Wilma's mother and even saw Halle Berry in a small role before she was truly famous. While poorly reviewed, it was a financial success and seemed destined to spawn a franchise... except that the eventual sequel languished in development hell so long that the entire cast moved on. The later prequel, trying to tell how Fred and Wilma fell in love, came out six years later and became a Box Office Bomb despite receiving better critical reviews.
  • Scooby-Doo, the first film which heavily parodied the original and featured the title character (and The Scrappy himself) as CGI creations. A theatrical sequel (Monsters Unleashed) and two direct-to-video prequels (The Mystery Begins and Curse of the Lake Monster) followed, and a spin-off starring Daphne and Velma was released in 2018.
  • Yogi Bear, which features the characters from the show as CGI creations. It's basically the cartoon in live-action, unlike other adaptations that take the In Name Only approach.
• Inspector Gadget had Inspector Gadget (1999), starring Matthew Broderick. Though the film was a critical disaster and despised by fans, it made enough money to spawn a direct-to-DVD sequel, Inspector Gadget 2... starring French Stewart. Ironically, the latter was more faithful to the cartoon show that spawned it.
• Kim Possible was adapted into a Disney Channel Original Movie over a decade after it ended. The Kim Possible film came out in 2019.
• The Loud House: A Loud House Christmas is a live-action film released in November 2021 on both Nickelodeon and Paramount+. Its success spawned a live-action series, The Really Loud House, that premiered November 2022, with most of the above film's cast reprising their roles. The series itself has a Halloween special, A Really Haunted Loud House, that premiered September 2023.
• The Rocky and Bullwinkle show spawned several live-action films from its numerous segments.
  • Boris and Natasha was a made-for-television film (though it eventually got a theatrical release) that had little to do with the show thanks to rights issues, but starred the titular spies. Instead of Rocky and Bullwinkle, the duo had to contend with Agent Moose and Agent Squirrel.
  • The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle eventually got made almost entirely because Universal had the film rights and needed to make the film. It had languished in Development Hell for years beforehand. Since the resulting film had No Fourth Wall, it made hay out of this as the plot begins when FBI Agent Karen Sympathy has to climb a lighthouse and literally greenlight the entire film herself.
  • Dudley Do-Right put Brendan Fraser in the title role, not long after he had just donned a loincloth to play George of the Jungle, another Jay Ward creation. Unlike that film, however, this one tanked.
  • Speaking of George of the Jungle, it had two live-action films, one with Brendan Fraser that was a massive success for Disney and one that went straight to DVD. As both films operated on the principle of No Fourth Wall, the second film engaged in Lampshade Hanging over the cast change.
  • The horrible performance of both the Rocky and Bullwinkle film and Dudley Do-Right killed production on a live-action Peabody and Sherman film. The project was revived as a CGI film at DreamWorks Animation instead...which, despite positive reviews, also became DreamWorks' lowest-grossing animated film, costing DWA $57 million.
• While SpongeBob SquarePants and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie contain live-action sequences, The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water is a rather strange example of this. Only the last 20 minutes and part of the beginning could be considered this trope, despite the trailers saying otherwise.
• A spin-off series of VeggieTales titled Os Amigos Vegetais was released exclusively in Brazil, showing the veggies as live-action characters.
• Winx Club was adapted into Fate: The Winx Saga, which premiered on Netflix in January 2021, with a second season already in the works.

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