Spared by the Adaptation in Animated Films.
- Anastasia in Anastasia (if you consider reality to be the source material, since it's so historically inaccurate it may as well be an Alternate Universe). This is somewhat justified as during the time the film was produced her actual fate had not been confirmed.
- The Batman vs. Dracula took some influence from the Batman Vampire trilogy—but much like the series it's tied into, it's a movie aimed for kids, so no one outside of Dracula dies, Batman never becomes a vampire, and he even manages to cure the Joker. Additionally, Commissioner Gordon, Catwoman, Tanya, the Riddler, Two-Face, and many others were Adapted Out.
- Grendel's Mother in the 2007 Beowulf movie.
- In the Book of Exodus, the Pharaoh drowned when the Red Sea crashed underneath him and his army once Moses and the Hebrews reached the other side of the sea. Ramses in The Prince of Egypt survived the crashing waves washing away him and his soldiers as the torrent throws him back to his side of the sea. Justified, since the real Ramses II is known to have lived to old age and died of natural causes.
- DC Universe Animated Original Movies:
- Ms. Li in Batman: Under the Red Hood. Mr. Li, her Spear Counterpart from the original comic, is killed by the titular Red Hood, while Ms. Li simply ends up Bound and Gagged by The Joker. Whether her survival is due to the plot changes or her being a girl is uncertain.
- The Boyscouts in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, in the original comic they were poisoned to death by the cotton candy The Joker gave them, in the film Batman is able to stop them from eating it, this was because the crew thought it would've been in bad taste because of the recent Sandy Hook school shooting. Dr. Ruth Weisenheimer is mentioned on Dave Endocrine's show, but doesn't appear in person. This spares her from The Joker's TV studio massacre, in which she was the first victim in the comic.
- In Superman vs. the Elite, the Elite are depowered and presumably jailed at the end, and that's the last we see of them. In the original comics, Black ended up lobotomizing Menagerie and, after a failed attempt to get revenge on Superman, committed suicide.
- Superman Unbound doesn't see Jonathan Kent die, like he did in the Superman: Brainiac arc it's based on.
- While it was published after The Killing Joke, The Long Halloween featured the death of Sal Maroni. Batman: The Killing Joke features Batman barging into a nightclub to talk to some people after the Joker cripples Barbara Gordon and kidnapped Commissioner Gordon. The guy he talks to is unmistakably voiced by Rick D. Wasserman, who's credited in the role of "Maroni", suggesting Maroni's alive in the animated version and is the guy Batman talks to.
- Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox has the "comes later" version: in the Flashpoint comic, Lex Luthor died when he was ten. In this version he's alive as an adult, but winds up getting killed anyway.
- In the original The Death of Superman storyline, Coast City is obliterated by Mongul and the Cyborg Superman. In Reign of the Supermen, as Mongul is Adapted Out, Coast City is spared its grisly fate. As well, as Coast City is spared, so is the Eradicator, who, in the original, is killed shielding Superman from a torrent of Kryptonite fuel, repowering Superman by accident.
- In the Injustice: Gods Among Us games and comics prequels, Shazam and Huntress killed by the Regime in gruesome ways. In Injustice (2021), being a Compressed Adaptation, spares the two.
- In Gnomeo & Juliet, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet with lawn gnomes, the only character to die is Tybalt—and somehow he gets reassembled for the Dance Party Ending! (Though he then was absent from the sequel.) This wasn't a surprise. The trailer for the movie claimed, "The only tragedy... Would be missing it!" (Which was followed by a character's voice saying, "I don't get it...")
- Lampshaded during Gnomeo's conversation with a Shakespeare statue, where he calls the original a "horrible ending."
- Green Lantern: Emerald Knights features Laira as one of the Green Lanterns appearing in the film, avoiding her comic counterpart's fate of being killed by Sinestro to spite Hal Jordan (namely because the film takes place before Sinestro's turn to the dark side and Laira doesn't go down the path that leads to her joining the Red Lantern Corps).
- Green Lantern: First Flight: Ch'p in the comics met his end from getting run over by a yellow truck in the second issue of Green Lantern: Mosaic. In this movie, he doesn't get killed and is notably among the Green Lanterns who survives Sinestro's violent coup.
- Even compared to the below mentioned live-action version, Professor Bruttenholm gets this is the second Hellboy Animated movie, Blood and Iron, surviving the events of the movie.
- The Giant from the Golden Films production of Jack and the Beanstalk most versions including the original story have the Giant fall to his death after Jack cuts down the beanstalk, in this version however just before he hits the ground he gets sealed inside the magic harp he had sealed Jack's father in years earlier along with his wife somehow, who did not accompany him in chasing Jack.
- Soren's parents in Legend Of The Guardians The Owls Of Ga Hoole are shown to have made it to the great tree by the end of the movie. In the books, we never see them (alive) again after Soren is kidnapped, and it's very strongly implied that they were killed shortly after that.
- Mondo TV (the same people who did The Legend of the Titanic) also did a version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, where EVERYONE is spared by the adaptation (yes, even Frollo). note
- The 2015 French adaptation of The Little Prince implies this with regards to the Author. We never learn the name of the Aviator, but certain facts (former pilot, war hero, respected despit equirks and, well, wrote "The Little Prince") imply he is an aging St. Exupery who survived the war. In Real Life, St. Exupery died during World War Two when his plane was shot down.
- In 9, everyone except 9 died in the original short; in the full-length movie he, 7, 3 and 4 all make it out alive.
- The Soviet Animated Adaptation of Adventures of Captain Vrungel applies this to their ship "Beda" (meaning "trouble". Vrungel actually wanted to call it "Pobeda", as in "Victory", but lost two first letters due to accident). In the source material, the ship gets destroyed halfway through the book, forcing Vrungel and his crew to complete their journey around the world via increasingly unbelievable means. In the film, the ship survives till the end and successfully completes the journey.
- In the original novel of The Suicide Shop, the book ends with Alan committing suicide, believing he has nothing to live for now that he's made his family see the upsides of life. The animated film instead has him live to avoid the story concluding with a Downer Ending (and presumably to avoid creating a Broken Aesop when the story's message was condemning suicide).
- This happens in several Disney Adaptations, via Disneyfication:
- In Aladdin, Jafar isn't killed, but turned into a genie and then sealed in a lamp. (He's finally Killed Off for Real in the first sequel, though.) In the original tale, depending on the version, the sorcerer is either killed by the princess with poisoned wine or put to sleep with drugged wine by the princess and then beheaded by Aladdin.
- Bambi: Every major character dies in the novel except for Bambi, his fawns, and Faline (who features prominently in the sequel). Many of the non-deer central characters in the film don't actually appear in the book, and so are not affected by this trope either.
- John Luther "Casey" Jones from The Brave Engineer. In real life, he actually died in the train crash.
- Both The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Ballerina from Fantasia 2000. The main reason why they both lived in the Disney adaptation is because the writers of the film actually did not want to cause any Soundtrack Dissonance considering the fact that the musical piece accompanying this scene is an optimistic-sounding one.
- Practically everyone in The Fox and the Hound. Chief was actually supposed to die in the film (and did in Disney books adapting it), but someone nixed the idea of killing off a character who wasn't exactly evil. Thus he opens his eyes in what was meant to be his death scene, and later we see that he only has a broken leg. This is universally seen as a bad decision, since his death would make Slade and Copper's vendetta, and the subsequent reconciliation, much more powerful.
- Esmeralda, Quasimodo, Clopin... and all of the main cast except for Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The musical on the other hand...
- Shere Khan from The Jungle Book (1967). He retreats with a burning branch tied to his tail. Seconds after he's out of sight, it rains. In fact, he's still alive by the end of the sequel! Also the monkeys, who were eaten by Kaa originally.
- Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Instead of dissolving into sea foam (and, depending on the version, becoming a spirit of the air), she survives and gets to marry the prince. Conversely, sea witch equivalent Ursula gets upgraded to Big Bad status and thus suffers from Death by Adaptation.
- Peter Pan
- In the book, Captain Hook decides to Face Death with Dignity once the crocodile catches up with him. In the movie, he immediately jumps out of the crocodile's mouth unharmed shortly after being swallowed up and later swimming away screaming for Smee with the crocodile still behind him. There's an interesting story behind this. Originally, Disney was going to make Hook an evil, intimidating character who would die like his literary counterpart. However, they discovered that the slapstick scenes with the crocodile effectively ruined any sense that he was a serious threat. Therefore, they went all out and played him as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. They kept him alive because they figured the audience wouldn't want to see such a humorous, non-threatening villain die.
- The book also has a brief mention in the epilogue that fairies have very short lifespans ("as long a time as a feather is blown about the air on a windy day" in the play version), and the next time Peter sees Wendy, he's long forgotten Tinker Bell. In the film, no mention is made of fairy lifespans, and Tink becomes a Breakout Character with her own franchise!
- If The Lion King (1994), as it commonly is, is taken as an adaptation of Hamlet, then the equivalents of Hamlet himself (Simba), Ophelia (Nala)(Or perhaps not, if one considers her to be the counterpart of Horatio), Gertrude (Sarabi), Polonius (Zazu), and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Timon and Pumbaa) all live. On the other hand, we get to watch King Hamlet (Mufasa) die, while in the play he was Dead to Begin With.
- The Talking Cricket (renamed Jiminy Cricket) in Pinocchio. In the book he's killed early on and becomes a ghost, but eventually changes back into a living cricket. In the Disney version he lives from beginning to end.
- Pocahontas in Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. In real life, she died during her stay in England.
- Maleficent in the Disney Theme Parks version of Sleeping Beauty, whose cackling can be heard at the very last part of the ride, implying that she had survived being stabbed by the Sword of Truth and falling off a cliff. However, this was eventually removed and replaced with a scene where the fairies are still bickering over what color Aurora's dress should be. There was also a sequel storybook which also had Maleficent survive the above and still cause trouble.
- A similar thing happened in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, though Justified since that was a prequel to a game where she's a major antagonist. Though since the Sleeping Beauty world is said to have been "lost to the darkness" in the original game, this possibly turns the story into a case of The Bad Guy Wins...
- Mad Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone. In the book, she was killed after Merlin became an infectious disease, but in the movie, she is merely bedridden, and Merlin actually had to use sunlight in order to cure her.Mim: "I hate sunshine! I HATE horrible wholesome sunshine!! I HATE! I HATE IT! I HATE HATE HATE HATE..."
- Kala, Tarzan's adoptive ape mother in Tarzan.
- Leland Hawkins from Treasure Planet. Not that this makes matters any less heartwrenching.
- The three brothers, Treeshaker, Stonecrumbler and Irontemperer in Son of the White Horse all survive, while in the original folk tale Son of the White Mare kills the treacherous Irontemperer, which causes the other two to die of shock. There are other versions of the tale though that combine Son of the White Mare and Treeshaker, who then lets his brothers/helpers live despite them betraying him. The movie is more closely based on these alternate versions. In the film, Treeshaker first tries to kill his brothers, mistaking their fumbling for intentional treachery, but in the end cooler heads prevail.
- The True Meaning of Smekday has a century-long Time Skip at the end where Tip suddenly dies of old age during the unveiling of the time capsule. The film adaptation Home (2015) lacks the Time Skip ending whilst Tip is still a child.
- At the end of The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, Julius Caesar starts a new life as a farmer in the countryside with Cleopatra as his wife, as Brutus has no reason to kill him anymore.
- Herr Kleiser is killed and eaten by the Hulk in The Ultimates, but survives the events of both Ultimate Avengers films. However, Black Panther seals him inside Wakanda's Vibranium reserves for all eternity, making death look like a much kinder alternative.
- Also Black Widow and Edwin Jarvis both survive the events of the films despite being killed in The Ultimates 2.
- The Kingpin of the Ultimate Marvel universe was killed by Mysterio in the immediate aftermath of Ultimatum, well before Miles Morales replaced that universe's Peter Parker. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sees the Kingpin of its version of Miles's universe still alive and the Big Bad.
- The Dr. Seuss book Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, ends with Thidwick shedding his antlers and leaving the various animals who had taken residence in them to the hunters who were chasing him, where they shoot them off panel and one of them mounts them on his wall, the animated adaptation from Russia has him leave them behind after having outrun the hunters.
- The 1975 Hanna-Barbera produced version of The Last of the Mohicans Uncas, Cora, and Magua survive.
- In the film of A Scanner Darkly, when Charles Freck attempts suicide, it fails, and he's later seen in the rehab clinic. In the book, his suicide attempt is the last time he appears at all, with the book never saying if he succeeded or failed.
