When an adaptation of a work is made in a different country than the source material.
Maybe the original work became so popular in another country that they decided to make their own adaptation. Or maybe it's lack of interest in the original's home country that led other countries to pick up the slack. Heck, maybe it's a Self-Adaptation by a multinational or expat creator who wants to make a Hollywood production out of that book they wrote back home. Whatever the reason, the adaptation has a different nationality than the original.
How the change of country will affect the work is up to the creators. Sometimes, the setting, names, and themes will be preserved meticulously, Values Dissonance be darned. Other times, a Cultural Translation will be made, either to make it easier for locals to understand, or because executives are afraid that anything foreign will flop, or maybe it's the oppressive government that doesn't want any foreign influence in a locally made product, even if it's based on foreign media. Regardless, depending on how iconic the source material is in the new country and how it has been translated before, expect some instances of Adaptational Name Change, Adaptational Nationality, and sometimes Race Lift.
The accuracy of the adaptation can also depend on how much the original creators are involved. Some authors and IP owners are willing to help out foreigners with the adaptation, while other adaptations are made with little to no input from the original creators, especially if it's a public domain work. Some of these adaptations aren't authorized by the original creator at all, which tends to happen if it's made behind a political border or just really far away.
While Adaptational Location Change tends to happen, it is by no means necessary, and the more faithful foreign-made adaptations tend to take place in the same country as the source material, although some California Doubling may be required for live-action works. Less-informed adaptations might end up with The Theme Park Version of the country, however.
Whether the adaptation is based on a specific prior translation of the source material or if it was translated from scratch might vary, again, depending on how prior translations have been received, if there are any at all.
See also Foreign Remake, when a work is remade in the same medium as the original in another country. Compare Transatlantic Equivalent, when European shows are remade in the Americas or vice versa.
Examples:
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Animation
- Adventures in the Emerald City is a Russian miniseries based on the first two Land of Oz books.
- Adventures of Mowgli is a Soviet adaptation of The Jungle Book.
- Cinderella is a Soviet adaptation of Charles Perrault's fairy tale.
- In the Magical Land of Oz is a Polish stop-motion series based on the American Land of Oz books.
- The 2010 TV series The Jungle Book is an Indian adaptation of The Jungle Book.
- Two featurettes based on Swedish author Astrid Lindgren's Karlsson on the Roof were made in the USSR in 1968 and 1970.
- Soyuzmultfilm's 1968 adaptation of The Little Mermaid, based on the Danish fairy tale.
- Moomin:
- A Polish felt cutout Stop Motion series, nicknamed "The Fuzzy Felt Moomins" by fans, ran from 1977 to 1982.
- A series of three shorts based on Comet in Moominland was made in the USSR in 1978. Another three-part series would be made in the country in the early '80s, this time based on Finn Family Moomintroll, but with drastically altered character designs.
- The story "The Last Dragon in the World" from Tales of Moominvalley would be adapted into a 2008 Armenian CG short titled Life of the Little Trolls.
- The Russian 1999 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.
- Stitch & Ai is China's contribution to the American Lilo & Stitch franchise, although it was produced with heavy involvement from American creators.
- Tom and Jerry (2023) is a Singaporean adaptation of the American Tom and Jerry franchise.
- Town Musicians of Bremen is a Soviet adaptation of the German folk tale The Bremen Town Musicians.
- Vinni Pukh is an unauthorized Soviet adaptation of Winnie-the-Pooh.
Anime & Manga
- Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros is a series of three OVAs featuring Super Mario characters in retellings of familiar fairy tales. One of them is an adaptation of Snow White.
- The Amazing Digital Circus, an Australian-American animated series, received a manga adaptation in CoroCoro Comic in 2024.
- Baby Felix and Friends is a Japanese show adapted from Felix the Cat, an American animated short series.
- Bannertail: The Adventures of Gray Squirrel is based on a Canadian novel by Ernest Thompson Seton.
- Batman Ninja is a Japanese entry in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies canon that places Batman and his Rogues Gallery in feudal Japan.
- Boarding School Juliet is based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
- Bosco Adventure is based on the Italian children's book Le storie del bosco.
- Bright: Samurai Soul is based on the American movie Bright.
- The American novel series Captain Future by Edmond Hamilton was adapted into an anime series by Toei Animation in 1978.
- The Chronicles of Rebecca is based on Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by American author Kate Douglas Wiggins.
- Three different manga adaptations of Crash Bandicoot ran in CoroCoro Comic. One of them spawned the character Penta Penguin, who would eventually appear in the games as well, most notably as a secret character in Crash Team Racing.
- Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is based on a Polish video game that's in turn based on an American tabletop game.
- Daddy Long Legs, a Japanese adaptation of Daddy-Long-Legs (an American novel).
- Deltora Quest is based on the Australian novel series of the same name.
- Several Disney works have been adapted into anime or manga:
- Disney and Pixar's Turning Red: 4*Town 4*Real: The Manga is a spinoff manga based on Turning Red.
- Lilo & Stitch has been adapted twice. First, there was the Stitch! anime, then the Stitch & the Samurai manga.
- Miriya & Marie is based on The Aristocats.
- Kilala Princess is a manga of the Disney Princess franchise.
- Osamu Tezuka wrote a manga of Bambi.
- Frankenstein was adapted into a manga by Junji Ito.
- Gankutsuou is a futuristic Perspective Flip adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo by French author Alexandre Dumas.
- An anime adaptation of the Chinese video game Genshin Impact has been confirmed to be in development at ufotable.
- I and Myself: The Two Lottes is based on Das doppelte Lottchen by German author Erich Kästner.
- Some adaptations of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West:
- Boku no Son Gokū, a manga by Osamu Tezuka. Later adapted into an anime film titled Alakazam the Great.
- Starzinger is a sci-fi anime adaptation.
- Dragon Ball started out as an adaptation of the novel during its first year, explaining why Goku takes his name from Sun Wukong and has a monkey tail. The rest, they say, is history.
- The Jungle Book, adapted from British author Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.
- Laura, the Prairie Girl was adapted from the American novel Little House on the Prairie.
- Little Lulu, a Japanese adaptation of Little Lulu (an American comic strip series).
- The Little Mermaid is an adaptation of a Danish fairy tale.
- Little Women, a Japanese adaptation of Little Women (an American novel).
- Maeterlinck's Blue Bird: Tyltyl And Mytyl's Adventurous Journey is a Japanese adaptation of The Blue Bird, originally written by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. Notably, Maeterlinck had written in his will that his plays should never be performed in Germany or Japan due to his bitter memories of the countries' actions during World War II, so Toei Animation had to jump through a few hoops and practically beg his family for permission to make the show. Another anime adaptation of The Blue Bird would be made in 1989 by Sanrio, starring their characters Kiki and Lala as Tyltyl and Mytyl.
- Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic is a series loosely based on Aladdin and the One Thousand and One Nights.
- The Magic Tree House, an American book series, has been adapted to manga and anime in Japan.
- Marvel Comics has crossed over into Japanese-produced anime multiple times, including the Marvel Anime series made in cooperation with Madhouse, the Marvel Future Avengers series also by Madhouse, and Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, done with Toei Animation. The Marvel Mangaverse, on the other hand, was a totally Western creation, and it showed.
- The Midnight Library, an England-originating YA horror anthology book series, was adapted into a short manga series with 3 stories per volume, which was never translated into English. Notable considering how obscure the books are.
- Mischievous Twins: The Tales of St. Clare's is one of the British St. Clare's book series.
- The 1983 Studio Pierrot series Mrs. Pepperpot is based on a children's book series by Norwegian author Alf Prøysen. Ironically, the show proved to be unpopular when it was aired in Norway, and it was yanked off the air midway through its run, with the unaired episodes being released direct-to-VHS.
- The 2012 Ninja Hattori animated series is co-produced with India and Japan due to the 1980s show's popularity in the former of those two countries. The original manga and other adaptations are purely Japanese.
- Nobody's Boy: Remi and Chibikko Remi to Meiken Kapi are both Japanese adaptations of Sans Famille (a French novel).
- Powerpuff Girls Z is an anime adaptation of Cartoon Network's hit series.
- Princess Tutu is based on Swan Lake, a Russian ballet.
- Radiant is a manfra series written and drawn in French by Tony Valente, a Frenchman of Portuguese descent who lives in Canada, and published in France by Ankama Éditions. The manfra has been adapted into anime in Japan by Lerche.
- Rita et Machin is based on the French children's book of the same name.
- Ratchet & Clank: Bang Bang Bang! Critical Danger of the Galaxy Legend is a manga adaptation of an American video game series.
- Romeo × Juliet is based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
- Studio Ghibli's 2014 Ronja the Robber's Daughter series, based on the book by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata had previously attempted to do this with Pippi Longstocking, but Lindgren wasn't too keen on animated adaptations of her works at the time.
- RWBY: Ice Queendom is Japanese anime based on the American webseries RWBY. That's said, it's a coproduction with the original studio Rooster Teeth.
- Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is adapted from the Canadian comic book Scott Pilgrim, executive produced by original author Bryan Lee O'Malley.
- Osamu Tezuka's Shakespeare Manga Theater is an anthology by Osamu Tezuka which reinterprets William Shakespeare's plays in manga format. Tezuka created his version of Shakespeare's works between 1959 till 1982.
- An anime adaptation of Shaun the Sheep was in the works
around 2008, as a result of the series' being very popular in Japan. Development didn't get very far before it was canned, although Larry Bundy Jr. did produce a few character designs for it.
- Space Oz no Bouken was a 26-episode sci-fi adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was condensed into a feature-length direct-to-video film titled The Wonderful Galaxy of Oz for the American market.
- The Secret Garden (NHK): Japanese adaptation of The Secret Garden (a British novel).
- Solo Leveling was adapted from the Korean Web Serial Novel/webcomic by the Japanese studio A-1 Pictures.
- Star Wars:
- The three movies in the original trilogy were each adapted into a four-volume manga by MediaWorks in the late 90s. The Phantom Menace was adapted as well into a two-volume series by Kia Asamiya and published by Shogakukan. All four were published stateside by Dark Horse Comics.
- Star Wars: Visions is an anthology anime series based on the franchise, featuring multiple anime studios. Season 2 expands to a worldwide focus, featuring episodes made by studios in Chile, Spain, the UK, Ireland, India, France, South Africa and South Korea.
- Superman Vs. Meshi is a manga featuring the all-American hero, Superman, as he takes a deep dive into Japanese cuisine.
- Supernatural: The Animation is a Japanese anime series based on the then ongoing American live action series Supernatural. Some of the original episodes involves Japanese folklore.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Supermutants is an OVA by Ashi Productions based on the American Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
- Terminator Zero is an anime series based on the American Terminator franchise.
- Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline is an anime based on the classic French comic book Valérian. It's an International Coproduction, with involvement from French company EuropaCorp.
- Tom & Jerry Gokko is based on the famous American cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry.
- Uho'uho Daishizen Gag: Donkey Kong was a manga based on the French-Canadian Donkey Kong Country TV series, which was in turn based on a British game series that was in turn spun off from an older Japanese game series, essentially bringing the trope to a full circle.
- Uncle Tom no Koya was an abridged anime adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin that ran as an episode of Manga Fairy Tales of the World in 1977.
- Unico: Awakening is a reboot series of Osamu Tezuka's Unico originally written in Japanese. The English-language manga is written by American author Samuel Sattin.
- Viral Hit, a South Korean webtoon, was adapted into a Japanese anime.
- Wandering Girl Nell is based on The Old Curiosity Shop by British author Charles Dickens.
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a Japanese animated adaptation of the first four novels of the Land of Oz series, by American writer L. Frank Baum. In addition, the English-language dubbed version was produced in Canada.
- As the name indicates, the vast majority of World Masterpiece Theater is based on stories from all over the world (mostly from the West), including but not limited to:
- 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, based on the Italian novel Heart by Edmondo De Amicis.
- The Adventures of Peter Pan, based on the British children's classic.
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, based on the novel by Mark Twain.
- Anne of Green Gables, based on the novel by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery. It later received a prequel series based on the officially endorsed prequel novel by Budge Wilson.
- The Bush Baby, based on the novel by Canadian author William Stevenson.
- Heidi, Girl of the Alps an adaptation of the Swiss literary classic.
- Little Prince Cedie is an adaptation of Little Lord Fauntleroy.
- Tales of Little Women and Little Women II: Jo's Boys, based on the works of Louisa May Alcott''
- Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow, based on an Australian novel.
- Moomin (1969), based on the works of Finnish author Tove Jansson. This wouldn't be the last time her books would be handled by Japanese animators; the smash hit Moomin (1990) would follow years later.
- Rascal the Raccoon, based on the 1963 novel by American author Sterling North.
- Remy: Nobody's Girl, based on the French novel Sans Famille.
- Rocky Chuck the Mountain Rat, based on the works of American author Thornton Burgess.
- Romeo's Blue Skies, based on a 1940 novel by Swiss author Lisa Tetzner.
- The Story of Perrine, based on the French novel Nobody's Girl.
- The Story of Pollyanna, Girl of Love, based on tha American novel Pollyanna
- Swan Lake (1981), based on the Russian ballet Swan Lake.
- The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island, based on the novel by Swiss author Johann David Wyss.
- Trapp Family Story, based on the memoir of Austrian author Maria Augusta von Trapp.
- In fact, the only show in the series to be based on a domestic work was the 1969 Dororo series, based on a manga by Osamu Tezuka.note
Comic Books
- Aggretsuko (Oni), produced by artists and writers throughout the US and Canada and published by the Portland-based Oni Press, is based on the Japanese cartoon Aggretsuko.
- Before the Astro Boy manga gained official translations to the American market, two unauthorized comic adaptations were created in the United States without Tezuka's permission:
- A one-shot American comic was created by Gold Key in 1965 based on the first anime incarnation and adapts the episode “Gademu/Gangor the Monster”. Considered to be the first OEL Manga.
- A second American adaptation called "The Original Astro Boy" ran from 1987 till 1989, published by NOW! Comics. The series takes an Americanized approach to the series.
- Las Fantásticas Adventuras de Astroboy is an Argentinian comic adaptation of Astro Boy made during the 70s. It loosely follows the manga's premise and takes some creative librities to the source material.
- Batman: The Dark Prince Charming is a French comic by Italian author Enrico Marini based on the American hero Batman.
- Capitaine Albator : Mémoires de l'Arcadia (Memories of Arcadia) is a French comic based on Japanese manga Captain Harlock.
- Capitaine Flam: L'Empereur éternel (The Eternal Emperor) is a French comic based on Japanese anime Captain Ultra itself based on the tokusatsu of the same name adapted from the American novel series Captain Future by Edmond Hamilton.
- Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy is an American comic based on the Japanese Castlevania franchise.
- Conan the Barbarian: French editor Glenat published comic adaptations of the short stories from American author Robert E. Howard as Conan le Cimmérien.
- French editor Réflexions published an anthology based on the American comic book The Crow simply titled The French Crow.
- Felix the Cat: The Movie, an American/Hungarian film, got an obscure German comic book adaptation that was never released anywhere else, although an English Fan Translation was made many years later.
- An American comic adaptation of Final Fantasy was in the works in the early '90s, but all that materialized was this cover◊, with the two men depicted being supposed to be Cecil and Kain.
- A French-Belgian team of authors made a comic sequel to Japanese anime UFO Robo Grendizer titled Goldorak (which is also the localized name of the show).
- The English novel Groosham Grange by Anthony Horowitz has a French comic adaptation titled L'île du Crâne (Skull Island).
- There was a Lord of the Rings comic book based on the 1978 movie that was never published in English.
- Vertigo Comics, an American imprint, released the Mad Max comic book, based on the Australian film series.
- The Japanese Mega Man franchise has had multiple foreign comic adaptations, including two American and one infamous Brazilian.
- Mickey au Camp de Gurs is an unauthorized Mickey Mouse comic drawn and written by German cartoonist Horst Rosenthal during his internment at the Gurs concentration camp in France.
- Nintendo:
- Nintendo Comics System was a line of American comics published by Valiant Comics in the early '90s, featuring Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Punch-Out!!.
- Club Nintendo was an official German magazine featuring comics based on Nintendo games. Initially, they were drawn by Japanese mangaka and written by German writers, but later these comics made way to the Club N comics, which were fully made in Germany.
- The German magazine Nintendo Fun Vision featured a one-off Donkey Kong Country comic titled Bumm-Badabumm im Urwald in 2000. It was billed as an adaptation of Donkey Kong 64 but took most of its plot elements from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Land 2.
- Another Donkey Kong comic would be released that year, an American four-page adaptation of Donkey Kong 64 published in Disney Adventures. Unlike the German one, this one really was based on 64, albeit in extremely compressed form that borders on In Name Only.
- Saint Seiya: Time Odyssey is a French comics series adapted from Japanese manga Saint Seiya. However, story is canon to the manga and was approved by Masami Kurumada.
- The Sceptre and the Kingdom is an Italian comic book adaptation of the Japanese video game Kingdom Hearts I.
- The Song of Saya, a Japanese visual novel, got an American comic book adaptation before the game itself got localized into English.
- Sonic the Hedgehog has had four different Western comics so far, of varying length: two American, one British and one French.
- While the core parts of the Disney Ducks Comic Universe was defined by American authors like Carl Barks and Don Rosa, many other authors from different countries, especially Italy and the Nordics, have contributed their own stories and canon to the universe as well. Brazil additionally makes its own stories featuring José Carioca, who appears in solo stories, with Mickey and Donald, or with his own auxiliary cast.
- Titan Entertainment, a British company with a comics and magazine division:
- Blade Runner.
- Several Dark Souls books.
- Cowboy Bebop, based on Netflix's live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop
- Horizon Zero Dawn, based on the video game by Sony and Dutch studio Guerrilla Games.
- They published a monthly Star Wars comic series from 1999 to 2014. It started out with just reprints of Dark Horse's series but eventually grew to include original stories as well.
- The British novel series The Wardstone Chronicles has a French comic adaptation titled L'apprenti épouvanteur (The Spook apprentice).
Comic Strips
- The short-lived American daily Pokémon Newspaper Strip, written by American comic writer Gerard Jones and drawn by Japanese artist Ashura Benimaru, based on the Japanese hit franchise.
Films — Animation
- Some American adaptations of the British A Christmas Carol:
- A Christmas Carol, featuring Jim Carrey as Scrooge
- Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas. featuring Daffy Duck as Scrooge
- Barbie in A Christmas Carol, featuring a gender flipped Expy of Scrooge named Eden Starling
- A Flintstones Christmas Carol, featuring Fred Flintstone as Ebonezer Scrooge
- The Adventures of Tintin, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the Franco-Belgian classic. It didn't exactly win over American audiences as hoped, but it did well on Hergé's side of the Atlantic.
- The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina is an American movie featuring the British folklore character Tom Thumb and the Danish fairy tale character Thumbelina.
- Some adaptations of Aladdin, a fairy tale of Middle Eastern origin:
- Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, a 1982 anime feature by Toei Animation.
- Golden Films' Aladdin, an American adaptation.
- Aladdin and the Adventure of All Time, a Filipino-American adaptation.
- Aladdin and his Magic Lamp, a 1970 film from France.
- The Angry Birds Movie, and by extension The Angry Birds Movie 2, were produced in the United States and are based on Angry Birds, a Finnish video game series.
- Asterix Conquers America, an installment in the French Asterix franchise, was made in Germany. So far, it is the only Asterix film to be made outside France.
- Astro Boy is a Hong Kong-American adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy.
- Backkom Bear: Agent 008 and its sequels Agent Backkom: Kings Bear and Backkom Bear: Mars Mission are Chinese films based on Bernard, a Spanish-South Korean series. They were all produced by Alpha Group Co., Ltd., who has the Chinese rights to Bernard which is known as Backkom there.
- Burbank Films Australia created many, many animated movies based on American and European literature, including but not limited to:
- Eight movies in total based on the works of Charles Dickens:
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Ivanhoe
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame, twice in fact.
- Around the World in Eighty Days
- Peter Pan
- Wind In The Willows
- The Corsican Brothers
- Many examples by the all-American Disney:
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Tangled are based on the Brothers Grimm versions of European fairy tales.
- Pinocchio, based on an Italian book.
- Bambi, based on an Austrian book.
- Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Oliver & Company, Treasure Planet and the The Wind in the Willows half of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, are all based on British literature. Jungle Book, Pooh and Oliver in particular are rather Americanized while the rest stick more closely to their British origins.
- Cinderella, Sleeping Beautynote and Beauty and the Beast are adapted from French fairy tales.
- The Little Mermaid and Frozen are based on Danish fairy tales. The Emperor's New Groove borrows part of its title from one, but is only superficially related to said story.
- Aladdin, based on the Middle Eastern folk tale.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame, based on a French book.
- Hercules, a sanitized adaptation of Greek mythology.
- Mulan, based on a Chinese folk legend.
- DreamWorks Animation, an American company:
- Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, based on the Middle Eastern folk tales.
- The How to Train Your Dragon series, based on a book series of the same name by British author Cressida Cowell.
- The Trolls series, based on the Troll Dolls of Danish origin.
- The Bad Guys is based on an Australian series of books of the same name.
- The Emoji Movie is an American production, while the emojis themselves are originally Japanese.
- Érase una vez... is a Spanish adaptation of "Cinderella".
- Fantastic Planet is adapted from the French novel Oms en série by Stefan Wul. Director René Laloux and writer Roland Topor are both Frenchmen, and they did some preproduction work in France, but all the animation had to be done in Czechoslovakia because they couldn't find any animation studio in France that could take on a feature production.
- Fantastic Mr. Fox is an American adaptation of British author Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox.
- Gulliver's Travels (1939) by Fleischer Studios, based on the novel by Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift.
- Hong Kong-based Imagi Animation Studios was planning to adapt Japanese properties such as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, The Legend of Zelda and Trigun, as well as the American Heavy Metal story Fluorescent Black into animated films, but it was only able to make a Zelda test reel before the studio went bankrupt due to the failure of the Astro Boy movie.
- The 2002 animated Karlsson on the Roof movie, based on Swedish author Astrid Lindgren's work, was produced in neighbouring country Norway.
- Latte and the Magic Waterstone is a 2019 German/Belgian CGI movie adaptation of a Finnish children’s novel.
- The LEGO Movie is based on a toy of Danish origin.
- Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, a Japanese adaptation of the comic strip by American cartoonist Winsor McCay.
- The Lord of the Rings is an American adaptation of the British original.
- The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an anime prequel film to Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.
- Many of the companies who dealt in mockbusters of Disney's (and others') movies, such as Golden Films, Jetlag Productions and GoodTimes Entertainment (all three American), Dingo Pictures (German) and Bevanfield Films (British) would also fall into this, although they would also adapt stories that Disney hadn't touched, and Dingo and Bevanfield would sometimes find themselves adapting domestic works as well.
- In addition to Disney's version of The Adventures of Pinocchio, a few other foreign adaptations have been made:
- Pinocchio in Outer Space, a Belgian-American version set in outer space.
- Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, Filmation's unauthorized sequel to the Disney version.
- Pinocchio 3000, a Canadian-French-Spanish sci-fi reimagining of the tale
- Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, a collaboration between the US, the director's native Mexico, and France.
- The Russian Pinocchio: A True Story is marketed as one, although it's really an adaptation of the Soviet retelling of the book, The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino.
- Robinson Crusoe is a French/Belgian adaptation of Robinson Crusoe.
- The American movie Rock-A-Doodle is an extremely loose adaptation of the French play Chantecler by Edmond Rostand.
- Smurfs: The Lost Village: An American animated film adaptation of the Belgian comic book series. The 2025 Smurfs movie was also produced by Paramount, but was animated by an European company.
- Two feature-length Russian adaptations of The Snow Queen have been made, a hand-drawn one in 1957 and a computer-animated one in 2012.
- Studio Ghibli:
- Howl's Moving Castle and Earwig and the Witch are both based on books by British author Diana Wynne Jones.
- The Secret World of Arrietty is also based on British literature, namely The Borrowers by Mary Norton.
- Tales from Earthsea, based on American author Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series.
- When Marnie Was There is based on the novel of the same name by British author Joan G. Robinson.
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a French-American adaptation of the Japanese-made, world-famous Super Mario Bros. franchise, overseen by its creator Shigeru Miyamoto himself.
- The Swan Princess is an American adaptation of the Russian Swan Lake ballet.
- Thumbelina is an American adaptation of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina.
- Tokyo Godfathers is a Japanese adaptation of Peter B. Kyne's novella The Three Godfathers, which moves the setting to contemporary Tokyo.
- Tom And Jerry Forbidden Compass is a Chinese film based on the American Tom & Jerry cartoons, with the film officially licensed and produced by Warner Bros. along with Chinese companies.
- Top Cat: The Movie is a Mexican adaptation of the American series Top Cat.
- Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island was adapted into a Russian-language animated film by Ukrainian studio Kievnauchfilm. A few years before that, it had also been adapted with a sci-fi twist as Planetata na Sakrovishtata in Bulgaria, two decades before Disney did the same.
- Los Trotamúsicos is a Spanish adaptation of the German fairy tale The Bremen Town Musicians.
- The 2021 Israeli movie Where Is Anne Frank is an adaptation of The Diary of a Young Girl with a touch of Magical Realism.
- Toho and Topcraft's 1982 version of The Wizard of Oz was a feature-length anime adaptation of the Land of Oz books made specifically for the US market, with the English dub being recorded first, and wasn't even released in its native Japan until 1986.
- Ultraman: Rising, an American-made CGI film adapted from the Japanese Ultra Series.
Films — Live-Action
- An American Live-Action Adaptation of AKIRA has been going in and out of Development Hell since 2002. The last attempt was by Taika Waititi and Warner Bros., which was officially called off in 2025.
- Akira Kurosawa made a career of adapting Western works for Japanese cinema.
- Yojimbo was an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest.
- High and Low was an adaptation of the 87th Precinct novel King's Ransom.
- Alice is a Czech adaptation of the works of British author Lewis Carroll.
- Alita: Battle Angel is a Hollywood adaptation of a Japanese manga. Notably, James Cameron bought up the international adaptation rights to the manga in order to make it, so that no other film, streaming, or TV adaptation can be made even in Japan.
- The 1990 film Aladdin is an American movie based on a Middle Eastern fairy tale.
- The 1956 Anastasia starring Ingrid Bergman was adapted from a French stage play.
- Several American adaptations of A Christmas Carol:
- An American Christmas Carol, which moves the setting to The Great Depression
- An American Carol, a modernized conservative 4th of July-themed parody featuring a Michael Moore pastiche in place of Scrooge.
- Ebenezer, a Canadian adaptation starring Jack Palance
- Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, a non-Christmas modern day rom-com adaptation
- The Muppet Christmas Carol
- Scrooged, a modernized, comedic take featuring Bill Murray
- Spirited, another modernized take featuring Ryan Reynolds
- A Fistful of Dollars, is an unauthorized Foreign Remake of Yojimbo, and thus by extension an Italian adaptation of Red Harvest.
- The Archies is a Bollywood film based on the American Archie Comics.
- A Shot in the Dark was based on an unrelated French stage play, and got dolled up into a The Pink Panther sequel after Peter Sellers read and liked the script.
- Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, based on Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
- Blancanieves is a Spanish adaptation of Snow White.
- The 1918, 1940 and 1976 adaptations of The Blue Bird, a Belgian play, were all American productions (with the 1976 version being an American-Soviet co-production). There was also a British adaptation made in 1910.
- Bullet Train is an American adaptation of the novel Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka.
- Casino Royale (1954) is an American adaptation of the first book in the British James Bond series, starring Barry Nelson as an American Bond (to compensate, it also turns Felix Leiter British).
- Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella was an American adaptation of a French fairy tale.
- City Hunter: The Cupid's Perfume, a French adaptation of the Japanese City Hunter series.
- The 2002 version of The Count of Monte Cristo starring Jim Caviezel was an American adaptation of a French novel.
- Some adaptations of Cyrano de Bergerac, originally written by French playwright Edmond Rostand:
- Cyrano de Bergerac, a 1950 American adaptation starring José Ferrer.
- Roxanne, an American adaptation set in '80s America starring Steve Martin.
- #Roxy, a Canadian adaptation set in '10s Canada with a high school-aged cast.
- It Takes Three, an American remake of #Roxy.
- Cyrano, a British-American adaptation starring Peter Dinklage, based on Erica Schmidt's 2018 stage musical adaptation.
- Dave is an American adaptation of the British novel The Prisoner of Zenda set in the modern-day USA.
- The Death of Stalin is an English-language adaptation of a French comic albeit an International Coproduction between France, United Kingdom and Belgium.
- The Diary of Anne Frank is an American adaptation of Anne Frank's diary, originally written in a secret partition of an Amsterdam townhouse.
- Don Quixote, originally by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes:
- A German adaptation was made in 1933, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.
- Orson Welles filmed an American adaptation between 1957 and 1970, but it was never completed during his lifetime. Jess Franco finished it in his stead.
- There was a 2000 TV movie by Hallmark Channel starring Bob Hoskins and John Lithgow.
- Dragonball Evolution, a Hollywood adaptation of the Japanese Dragon Ball series.
- Drakula İstanbul'da is a Turkish adaptation of Dracula.
- The American Death Note (2017) movie, based on the popular manga and anime.
- Edge of Tomorrow, a Hollywood adaptation based on the light novel All You Need Is Killnote
- Fahrenheit 451 is an American novel, but its 1966 film adaptation is a British production. The setting is likewise changed from a future dystopian America to a future dystopian Britain.
- Ghost in the Shell, based on the manga by Masamune Shirow.
- Gulliver's Travels is an American production based on the novel by Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift.
- The 1964 Soviet version of Hamlet.
- Based on the works of H. Rider Haggard:
- King Solomon's Mines was adapted into a 1950 American film with Steward Granger, and a 1985 American film with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone. Both received a sequel each.
- She:
- French filmmaker Georges Méliès did a short adaptation in 1899, titled The Pillar of Fire.
- She (1935) is an American adaptation.
- The 1984 American film She starring Sandahl Bergman is a loose adaptation, set in a post-apocalyptic America.
- Hanuman vs. 7 Ultraman is a Thai adaptation of the Japanese Ultra Series that is now best known for starting a massive legal battle that would seriously impact the franchise's international availability for a long time.
- Movies based on the works of British author Jane Austen:
- Clueless is an American Setting Update adaptation of Emma.
- Fire Island is an American gay gender-flipped Setting Update adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
- Material Girls is an American adaptation of Sense and Sensibility set in modern-day Los Angeles, directed by Martha Coolidge.
- Hallmark Channel made an American made-for-TV adaptation of Sense and Sensibility in 2024 with an all-Black main cast.
- Václav Vorlíček, the director of Three Wishes For Cinderella, directed a Czech adaptation of the Russian Swan Lake ballet in 1998, titled Jezerní královna.
- The 1995 Judge Dredd movie, based on the character from the British comic book, was an American production.
- The 2019 Indian movie Kia and Cosmos is a very loose adaptation of British mystery novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, notable for being a Hard-to-Adapt Work.
- The Killer (2023) is an English-language American adaptation of the French comic book series Le Tueur.
- Lady Frankenstein is an English-language Italian adaptation/continuation of Frankenstein.
- Lady Oscar was a French Live-Action Adaptation of The Rose of Versailles by Jacques Demy, based on a hastily done translation of the manga done by Frederik Schodt. Ironically, it was never released in France.
- The Last Days of Pompeii, a novel from the United Kingdom, received seven film or television adaptations from Italy. The fact that it was set in ancient Italy probably helped, and the fact that it received so many adaptations from that country proves that the novel was especially popular in Italy.
- Lederstrumpf was a two-part 1920 German film adaptation of The Leatherstocking Tales, starring Bela Lugosi as Chingachgook.
- The 1932 Czech film Lelíček ve službách Sherlocka Holmese adapted two British literary classics at once by sticking Sherlock Holmes into the plot of The Prisoner of Zenda.
- Several foreign adaptations, most of which are made-for-TV movies, of Little Lord Fauntleroy, originally written by British-American author Frances Hodgson Burnett:
- A 1918 Hungarian silent film
- O Pequeno Lorde, a 1957 Brazilian TV film
- Der Kleine Lord, a 1962 West German TV film
- Lille Lord Fauntleroy, a 1966 Norwegian TV film
- Il piccolo Lord, a 1971 Italian TV film
- An Italian-German co-produced TV film from 1994
- Cedie: Ang Munting Prinsipe, a 1996 Filipino adaptation that borrows heavily from the World Masterpiece Theater anime adaptation
- Die kleine Lady, a gender-flipped Austrian TV film from 2012
- The French police novels Maigret have received several film adaptations in their native France, but also outside:
- The Man on the Eiffel Tower (USA, 1949), with Charles Laughton as Jules Maigret.
- Maigret in Pigalle (Italy, 1966), with Gino Cervi as Jules Maigret.
- Enter Inspector Maigret (West Germany, 1966)
- Maigret (UK, 1988), a TV film with Richard Harris as Jules Maigret.
- Rock 'n Roll Wolf is a 1976 Romanian/French/Soviet pop musical adaptation of the German fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids.
- A Minecraft Movie is a Hollywood adaptation of the originally Swedish video game.
- Despite Agatha Christie mandating that no adaptations can be made of The Mousetrap as long as the show is still running, an unauthorized film version was produced in the Soviet Union in 1990.
- There were talks of Neon Genesis Evangelion getting a Hollywood adaptation by WETA, but it never came to be.
- Nosferatu and Nosferatu the Vampyre are German adaptations of Dracula, originally written by the Irishman Bram Stoker. Robert Eggers' 2024 remake is an American production.
- Oldboy is a Korean adaptation of the manga of the same name.
- The 1937 German movie Pan was adapted from the 1894 book of the same name by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun. When it was shown in Norwegian theatres, it became the first movie ever to be dubbed to Norwegian.
- Several adaptations of The Adventures of Pinocchio:
- The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996), an American adaptation featuring Martin Landau
- Turlis Abenteuer, a 1967 East German adaptation.
- The 1988 American film The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking is based on the Swedish Pippi Longstocking book series.
- French novel The Plague was adapted in Argentina on film in 1992 (with American actors and a French actress).
- Pokémon Detective Pikachu, an American adaptation of the Japanese multi-billion multimedia franchise.
- The Resident Evil films by Paul W. S. Anderson are European adaptations of a Japanese video game franchise. His Monster Hunter movie also counts.
- Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky is a low-budget Hong Kong adaptation of a Japanese manga.
- Films based on the works of British-Norwegian author Roald Dahl:
- The BFG is an American/Indian adaptation of The BFG.
- Matilda is an American adaptation of Matilda.
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was an all-American adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Meanwhile, the 2005 version and Wonka were both British-American co-productions.
- Both the 1990 and 2020 adaptations of The Witches were done by American studios, although the 1990 version was a co-production with Dahl's native UK.
- Films based on Robinson Crusoe, originally written by British author Daniel Defoe:
- Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N., a comedic adaptation by Disney, starring Dick Van Dyke.
- Robinson Crusoe on Mars, an American sci-fi adaptation set IN SPACE!!!
- A 1947 Soviet adaptation titled just Robinson Crusoe is considered the world's first glasses-free stereoscopic 3D film.
- Many adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, a British stage play:
- Romeo and Juliet, an American adaptation;
- William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, an American/Mexican/Canadian/Australian adaptation;
- Los Tarantos, a Spanish adaptation;
- Tromeo and Juliet, by Troma.
- Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny is an American film consisting of an adaptation of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina, as well as some framing footage featuring Santa Claus and an ice cream bunny.
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, based on the Canadian comic book, was an International Coproduction between the US, the UK, and Japan.
- The Sheep Detectives is a British-American film adaptation of the German novel Glennkill by Leonie Swann.
- Some adaptations of Sinbad the Sailor:
- Sinbad the Sailor, a 1947 American adaptation with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
- Captain Sindbad, a 1963 West German/American adaptation with Guy Williams
- Sinbad of the Seven Seas, a 1989 Italian adaptation with Lou Ferrigno
- Ray Harryhausen made a Sinbad trilogy, sort of. It consists of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.
- The Smurfs duology are American live-action adaptations of the Belgian comic book series.
- The Snowman is an American adaptation of one of the Harry Hole novels by Norwegian author Jo Nesbø.
- Snowpiercer is an international adaptation of a French comic by the same name, headlined by Korean director Bong Joon-ho.
- Sonic the Hedgehog, an American film series based on the Japanese video game series.
- Street Fighter (1994) and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li are American adaptations of the Japanese Street Fighter franchise.
- Super Mario Bros. was the first big Hollywood adaptation of a Japanese video game.
- The Shop Around the Corner was based on the Hungarian stage play Parfumerie by Miklós László.
- Tekken is an American adaptation of the Japanese franchise of the same name.
- The Three Musketeers and sequels (written in and set in France):
- The Three Musketeers (1921) and The Iron Mask (1929), a series of American films.
- The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), an American film.
- The Three Musketeers (1948), an American film.
- The Three Musketeers (1973-1989), a series of American-British films.
- D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1978-2009), a series of Soviet miniseries/movies.
- The Three Musketeers (1993), an American film.
- The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), an American film.
- The Musketeer (2001), an American film.
- The Three Musketeers (2011), a British-French-German film.
- The Three Musketeers (2023), a British film.
- Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne) is a French adaptation of the American novel by Harlan Coben.
- The 2025 Norwegian movie The Ugly Stepsister is a Grimmified Perspective Flip adaptation of the French fairy tale "Cinderella".
- The 2021 Norwegian movie Three Wishes for Cinderella is an adaptation of a variant of the classic fairy tale that originated from the old Kingdom of Bohemia. The movie is also a Foreign Remake of the earlier 1973 Czech/East German film adaptation, which has been shown on Norwegian TV each Christmas since 1975 and is beloved in that country.
- The Trojan Cycle (the ancient Greek epics The Iliad and The Odyssey):
- Helena (1924). German film.
- Ulysses (1954), American film.
- Helen of Troy (1956), American film.
- Troy (2004), international co-production.
- The Odyssey (2026), American-British film.
- Twist is a Canadian modern-day adaptation of the British novel Oliver Twist.
Literature
- Titan Publishing has published many novels written by British authors about the American Alien franchise, including the Alien: Out of the Shadows trilogy and the Aliens: Bug Hunt series.
- The first two of the three Baldur's Gate novelizations were written by American author Philip Athans, who also worked as an editor for the main Forgotten Realms books. The games themselves were developed by Canadian studio BioWare.
- Bienvenue Chez Les Loud and Bienvenue Chez Les Casagrandes are serial novelizations of the American animated series The Loud House and its spin-off, The Casagrandes, respectively, licensed and published in France by Hachette Jeunesse. They were never translated into English, and outside of their native France, they’re only known to have been released in Spain with Spanish translations.
- Atlantyca Entertainment published four Italian-language Code Lyoko novels between 2009 and 2010. Only the two first books were translated to French, the show's native language, and none were translated to English.
- A Russian teenage girl once wrote an amateur novelization of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (which she had played during a stay in Germany) for her mother with no intention of publishing it, with some principal character and location names changed, but the story, setting and many other character names (including Ganondorf) intact. Her mother didn't know it was an adaptation, and pushed for it to get published, which eventually happened. It briefly received some acclaim from Russian media outlets before some gamers who recognized the story called the author out for plagiarism; the book was withdrawn and she hasn't published anything since.
- The Black Swan, by American author Mercedes Lackey, is based on the Russian ballet Swan Lake.
- Mass Effect: Deception was not written by BioWare regular Drew Karpyshyn like the other Mass Effect novels, but rather by American author William C. Dietz.
- Nintendo:
- American author Michael Teitelbaum wrote three licensed junior novels based on the British-Japanese Donkey Kong Country series.
- Scholastic published several books based on several Nintendo properties:
- Mario and the Incredible Rescue, a semi-adaptation of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars written by Tracey West.
- Link and the Portal of Doom, a semi-adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time also written by Tracey West.
- A series of Pokémon chapter books, based on Pokémon the Series, handled by various authors, but mostly Tracey West.
- The Pokémon Junior series, consisting of 15 books in total.
- A series of four gamebooks based on Super Mario Bros. 2, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Wario Land 4.
- Pokémon:
- Pathways to Adventure was a junior novel series by American author Jason R. Rich released in 1999-2000 that adapted the plots of several Nintendo games, mostly Pokémon games, but also The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Donkey Kong 64.
- American company Golden Books published five Pokémon picture books written by Diane Muldrow in 1999, with four of them adapting an episode of Pokémon the Series and the last being an adaptation of Pokémon: The First Movie.
- French publisher Hachette released a series of Pokémon junior novels written by Natacha Godeau from 2012 to 2017, each based on an episode of Pokémon the Series: Black & White or Pokémon the Series: XY, as well as a single choose-your-own-adventure book.
- A Pokémon Super Story! was a series of three interactive eBooks that each tied in to a corresponding Pokémon movie, written and published by The Pokémon Company International.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic and the Tales Of... is a duology of children's books written and illustrated by Americans.
- Four different American Sonic the Hedgehog books were written by "Martin Adams", a pseudonym for a collective of authors, and published in the West. These are Sonic the Hedgehog and the Silicon Warriors, Sonic the Hedgehog in Castle Robotnik, Sonic the Hedgehog in Robotnik's Laboratory and Sonic the Hedgehog in the Fourth Dimension.
- To Be or Not To Be: That Is the Adventure and its successor Romeo and/or Juliet are gamebook adaptations of William Shakespeare's stage plays by Canadian author Ryan North.
- Willow: Defeat Nockmaar Castle! is a Japanese gamebook adapted from the American movie Willow, albeit with the Japanese-made NES game adaptation as the main inspiration.
- The Worlds of Power was an American series of adaptation of several NES games, all but two of which were Japanese in origin (and one of the two exceptions being the British-made Wizards & Warriors).
Live-Action TV
- The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe was a 1964 French 13-episode TV serial based on Robinson Crusoe.
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson is a Soviet live-action adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's OEL Sherlock Holmes novels. The show ran from 1979 to 1983 and adapted A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Sign of the Four (1890), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), and a number of short stories into a single narrative.
- The Adventures of Sinbad is a Canadian series based on the Middle Eastern folk tales of Sinbad the Sailor.
- There's also Sinbad, a 2012 British series.
- Bet is a Canadian series based on the Japanese manga Kakegurui.
- Boys Before Flowers is a Korean Live-Action Adaptation of a Japanese manga. It has adaptations in other countries too.
- The American Captain Future series of novels were adapted in the 1960s into a tokusatsu series in Japan titled Captain Ultra, which was unrelated to Tsuburaya's Ultra Series despite the name, although it was treated by the network as such since it was picked up as a filler series between the finale of Ultraman and the premiere of Ultraseven.
- Cat's Eyes is a French series based on a 1980s Japanese manga and anime.
- Netflix's Cowboy Bebop (2021), based on the hit anime.
- D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers, a Soviet miniseries based on The Three Musketeers
- Ezel is a Turkish present-day adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo.
- Fate: The Winx Saga is a British-produced Live-Action Adaptation of the Italian Winx Club.
- Homeland is a loose American adaptation of the Israeli drama series Prisoners of War.
- Jeremiah is an American series loosely based on a Belgian comic.
- King Solomon's Mines was adapted into a 2004 American miniseries with Patrick Swayze.
- Kvodo*, an Israeli thriller series, spawned a whole bevy of these, including an American one (Your Honour), an Austrian-German one (Euer Ehren) and a Russian one (Ваша честь).
- La Femme Nikita and Nikita are both American TV shows based on Luc Besson's French movie Nikita.
- Several TV series based on Maigret, a French series of police novels:
- Maigret (UK, 1959-1963), with Rupert Davies as Jules Maigret.
- Tokyo Megure Keishi (Japan, 1978), with Kinya Aikawa as Megure.
- Maigret (UK, 1992-1993), with Michael Gambon as Jules Maigret.
- Maigret (UK, 2016-2017), with Rowan Atkinson as Jules Maigret.
- The Les Miserables miniseries is a British-American adaptation of Victor Hugo's French classic.
- Love Me Licia is an Italian live-action sequel to the Japanese anime Ai Shite Night.
- Monkey is a Japanese TV series based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.
- Also from Netflix, the One Piece series, based off of the popular manga series.
- VeggieTales of all things received a Brazilian Live-Action Adaptation titled Os Amigos Vegetais.
- Supaidaman, the infamous toku adaptation of Spider-Man.
- Still Star-Crossed is an American adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
- Tales from the Neverending Story is a Canadian series based on The Neverending Story by German author Michael Ende.
- Tarzan is a French-Canadian-Mexican adaptation of the works of American author Edgar Rice Burroughs.
- Tolkien's Legendarium:
- The Tale of the Ring. a 1971 two-part 30-minute Swedish miniseries based on the infamous Åke Ohlmarks translation of Lord of the Rings (not that this mattered much anyway due to the aggressively Compressed Adaptation).
- The Hobbits, a Finnish 1993 nine-part miniseries based on an earlier stage play.
- The Keepers, a low-budget two-part miniseries from the final days of the Soviet Union.
- Voltes V: Legacy is a Philippine Live-Action Adaptation of the Voltes V anime.
- The Witcher is an English-language American adaptation of the Polish book series, albeit with some cooperation with Polish production companies.
- XIII: The Conspiracy and XIII: The Series are both English-language Canadian adaptations of the Belgian comic XIII albeit a coproduction with France.
Pinballs
- Alien (2017), based on the American films Alien and Aliens, was originally produced by the British manufacturer Heighway Pinball. After they went bankrupt, the game was remade by the Swedish company Pinball Brothers.
- Doctor Who is based on the British television series of the same name and was manufactured by the US-based Williams Electronics (released under their Bally label).
- The Empire Strikes Back, designed by the Australian company Hankin Manufacturing, is themed around the American film of the same name.
- 2021's Godzilla was made by the American company Stern Pinball and uses footage from ten Japanese Godzilla films.
- The British film series James Bond has been adapted into pinball machines produced by three separate American companies:
- GoldenEye, specifically based on GoldenEye and released by Sega Pinballnote in 1995.
- James Bond 007, released by Gottlieb in 1980.
- James Bond 007, two separate games produced in The New '20s by Stern Pinball.
- Judge Dredd was based on the British comic book series Judge Dredd and created by the American-based Williams Electronics (using their Bally label).
- The Phantom of the Opera, an adaptation of the French novel of the same name, was developed in the United States by Data East Pinball.
- Space Invaders, loosely based on the Japanese video game Space Invaders, was created by Bally in the USA.
- Street Fighter II (1993), designed by the American company Gottlieb, was based on the Japanese fighting game of the same name.
- Super Mario Bros., a game series created in Japan, was adapted into two separate pinball machines by Gottlieb in America:
- Super Mario Bros. (1992) is a standard pinball machine.
- Super Mario Bros. Mushroom World is a more child-focused variant of Super Mario Bros.
- Thunderbirds, produced by the Chinese company Homepin, is based on the British Supermarionation show Thunderbirds.
- Ultraman Kaiju Rumble, made by the American company Spooky Pinball, is based on the Japanese television series Ultraman.
Radio
- In 2009, the BBC put on a radio play of the American book The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
- There have been multiple German and Slovak, plus a single American radio plays based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
- There was a South African radio adaptation of Moonraker in the 1950s, on Springbok Radio.
- BBC Radio 1 adapted The Death of Superman and Batman Knightfall.
Tabletop Games
- James Bond 007, a tabletop RPG based on the James Bond movies, was published by American company Avalon Hill.
- Pokémon:
- The third installment of Pokémon Master Trainer was made by US-based companies Hasbro and Milton Bradley, unlike the first two versions, which were made by Takara Tomy in the Pokémon franchise's native Japan, then imported stateside by Milton Bradley.
- The Digital Tabletop Game Adaptation of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon Trading Card Game Online, as well as its successor Pokémon Trading Card Game Live, were developed by Western studios.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters was a board game by American company Mattel, based on the Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.
Theatre
- La Cenerentola is an Italian opera based on Cinderella, a French/German fairy tale.
- A stage adaptation of the French animated series Code Lyoko was produced and performed in Spain in 2011.
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, or possibly the original short story, was loosely adapted for the West End and given an Adaptational Location Change to Cornwall.
- Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame was adapted into a German stage musical in 1999, titled Der Glöckner von Notre Dame. The 2014 English-language musical would not use this one as a base, and was later translated into German itself.
- Into the Woods is a Broadway musical based on several European fairy tales.
- Jungelboken is a Norwegian stage musical adaptation of The Jungle Book. A few years later came A dzsungel könyve, a Hungarian stage musical adaptation.
- The Last Trial is a Russian musical adaptation of the American Dragonlance Legends book trilogy.
- Lucia di Lammermoor is an Italian opera based on a Scottish novel by Walter Scott.
- Pokémon Live!, based on the Japanese Pokémon franchise, debuted in the USA, with several other locations like Portugal, the Netherlands and Dubai later getting their own versions.
- The Sound of Music is based on the memoir of Austrian author Maria Augusta von Trapp, as well as a 1956 German film adaptation of said memoir.
- The Takarazuka Revue has done many adaptations of non-Japanese movies and literature, including but not limited to:
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- Anastasia
- Anna Karenina
- Catch Me If You Can
- Casablanca
- Casino Royale, featuring the world's first female Bond, no less.
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- The Great Gatsby
- Ocean's Eleven
- Om Shanti Om
- Pride and Prejudice
- Roman Holiday
- Singin' in the Rain
- The Sting
- A Tale of Two Cities
- War and Peace
- A Very Potter Musical, based on the British Harry Potter books, was made by Team StarKid, who operates in the United States.
Toys
- Ame-Comi Girls is a Japanese series of collectible figures based on various female DC Comics characters.
Video Games
- Two different Japanese NES games based on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer were released in 1989, one by Winkysoft (which got exported) and one by Square (which was Japan-only).
- American McGee's Alice and its sequel are, respectively, American and Chinese-made video game adaptations of works by British author Lewis Carroll.
- The Amazing Spider-Man for Game Boy was developed by British company Rare.
- Two different, but very similar, Japanese arcade beat-em-ups based on the Arabian Nights were released in 1992: Arabian Fight by Sega, and Arabian Magic by Taito.
- The 1983 Asterix game for the Atari 2600 was developed in the US by Atari themselves. Then again, it was a Taz game in its native US, and only got reskinned into Asterix for the European release.
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, based on James Cameron's movie series was developed by Swedish studio Massive Entertainment.
- The first two games in the Baldur's Gate series, which is based on the US tabletop classic, was developed by the Canadian BioWare. After a long Sequel Gap, Baldur's Gate III was developed by the Belgian Larian Studios.
- Beenox, a Canadian studio most known for their work on Skylanders, Call of Duty and the newer Crash Bandicoot games, developed a few licensed games based on American IP:
- Castle Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse was developed by Japanese company Sega. Its 2013 remake also counts, as it was done by their Australian studio.
- Japanese company Capcom:
- They have made many games based on Disney movies and shows:
- DuckTales and DuckTales 2
- TaleSpin
- Darkwing Duck
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (Capcom) and its sequel
- Bonkers
- Goof Troop and the SNES version of Aladdin, both headed by Shinji Mikami
- The Little Mermaid (Capcom)
- Disney's Magical Quest
- Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge
- The Game Boy version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1989)
- A few Marvel games, including:
- Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, based on the American tabletop game
- Spawn: In the Demon's Hand, based on Spawn
- The arcade and NES titles based on Willow
- They have made many games based on Disney movies and shows:
- Captain America and the Avengers was developed by Japanese company Data East.
- The DS version of Chicken Little: Ace in Action, based on an American animated movie, was developed by British studio DC Studios.
- The 1997 PC/PS1 Adventure Game The City of Lost Children, based on the 1995 French movie of the same name was developed by British developer Psygnosis.
- The first Code Lyoko game for the Nintendo DS was developed by British studio DC Studios and published by Danish company The Game Factory. Later games in the series would be developed in the show's native France, by Neko Entertainment.
- Cyberpunk 2077, also based on an American tabletop game, was developed by the Polish CD Projekt RED.
- Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows, a game based on the Italian superhero alter-ego of an American cartoon character, was developed by French company Ubisoft.
- The three Duel Masters games for the Game Boy Advance were made by Montreal-based Mistic Software despite being based on a Japanese IP that never really took off in the West.
- The Polish Familijny CD Romek titles (later exported to other countries by Phoenix Games) are all based on various fairy tales from around the world. Only one (The Golden Duck) was based on a tale of Polish origin.
- Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau, featuring American cartoon character Woody Woodpecker and his co-stars, was made in Brazil, for Brazil, by Tec-Toy, the regional distributor of Sega products.
- Funcom, a Norwegian company:
- Age of Conan and Conan Exiles, both based on the Hyborean mythos created by American author Robert E. Howard
- Casper for the Sega Saturn
- DragonHeart: Fire and Steel, loosely based on the 1995 American movie Dragonheart
- Dune: Awakening, an MMO based on the book series by Frank Herbert.
- Disney's Pocahontas for Sega Genesis
- We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story for the Super NES
- Gray Matter, a Canadian company, did some games based on American movies and shows:
- Dirty Harry (1990) for NES
- James Bond Jr. for Super NES
- The Ren & Stimpy Show: Veediots! for Super NES
- The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles for NES
- The Crow: City of Angels, their Creator Killer, for PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn
- Both The Hobbit (1982) and The Hobbit (2003), were made outside J. R. R. Tolkien's native Britain. The former was developed by Australia-based Beam Software, and the latter by Midway Austin.
- Kemco, a Japanese company:
- They had a series of Mickey Mouse games for the NES and Game Boy that had to be reskinned into other franchises when they got released internationally due to their Disney license only being valid in Japan.
- Their Crazy Castle series also had to change licenses overseas, but they were always based on Western characters like Bugs Bunny and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout
- Batman: Dark Tomorrow
- They handled the console ports of Daikatana, which included the reformulated 2D Zelda-like Game Boy Color version.
- The Kingdom Hearts series is developed in Japan by Square Enix, and directly adapts the plots of several Disney movies for most of its worlds.
- Knights of the Old Republic, an adaptation of the American Star Wars franchise and the also American Star Wars d20 game system, was developed by Canadian studio BioWare. They would later go on to create Star Wars: The Old Republic as well.
- Konami, Japanese company:
- The Simpsons Arcade Game based on an American animated series.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time are based on an American franchise.
- Tiny Toon Adventures and its sequel, as well as several other games for the SNES, Genesis and Game Boy were based on the American cartoon show.
- Asterix is based on a French comic book series.
- Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa based on an American animated series.
- X-Men (1992) based on an American comic book series.
- Bucky O'Hare based on American comic book, or rather, it's Animated Adaptation.
- The Legend of Korra, based on the American cartoon of the same name, was developed by Japanese studio PlatinumGames.
- Lies of P is a Souls-like adaptation of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio by South Korean studio Neowiz Games.
- LJN Toys subcontracted the development of several licensed games based on American IP to several overseas studios like Japanese studios Atlus and Westone Bit Entertainment, British studios Rare and Software Creations, and Australian studio Beam Software.
- The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, based on the works of British author J. R. R. Tolkien, was made by German studio Daedalic Entertainment.
- Mad Max: The 1990 NES game was developed by Canadian studio Gray Matter, while the 2015 open-world game was made by the Swedish Avalanche Studios.
- Metro 2033 is made by Ukrainian studio 4A Games, while the novel it is based on was written by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky.
- Mickey's Speedway USA was developed by British company Rare.
- Neverwinter Nights was made by Canadian BioWare based on American Dungeons & Dragons.
- Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl was developed by Swedish indie studio Ludosity.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King was developed by Japanese studio Tose.
- Both Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous are based of the American Pathfinder tabletop game, but were made by a Cypriot (originally Russian) company, Owlcat Games.
- There are four Nintendo-licensed Philips CD-i games developed in the United States and based on Nintendo's properties:
- Hotel Mario, based on Super Mario Bros.
- The Legend of Zelda CD-i Games, consisting of Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda's Adventure.
- The Swiss-originated Pingu got a handful of Japanese-developed, Japan-exclusive games owing to the show's huge popularity over there.
- Pokémon Naranja is a Spanish-language ROM hack of Pokémon Ruby that adapts Pokémon the Series' Orange Islands arc into video game form.
- Popeye, Nintendo's adaptation of the classic American comic strip and animated cartoon character. It was followed up by Popeye no Eigo Asobi.
- Radical Entertainment, a Canadian studio:
- The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends for NES
- Beavis and Butt-Head for Sega Genesis
- The infamous Bébé's Kids game for the Super Nintendo.
- Several CSI games
- Dark Angel for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
- Hulk and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
- Independence Day for PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn
- Monsters, Inc. 1: Scream Arena
- Scarface: The World Is Yours
- The Simpsons: Road Rage and The Simpsons Hit & Run
- Speed Racer in My Most Dangerous Adventures for the Super Nintendo
- The Terminator for NES
- Wayne's World for NES and Game Boy
- Additionally, they were tapped to develop the console versions of the Licensed Game based on Sam Raimi's prospective fourth Spider-Man movie, but the game was scrapped when he and Tobey Maguire left the project and the movie got retooled into The Amazing Spider-Man 1, with fellow Canadian studio Beenox doing the tie-in game.
- Tengen's unlicensed NES port of the American Road Runner arcade game was developed by Beam Software in Australia.
- The arcade and NES RoboCop games, based on an American film series, were developed by Japanese company Data East.
- Shadowrun (Super NES), based on an American tabletop RPG, was developed by Australian studio Beam Software and published by Japanese company Data East.
- Smurf Rescue In Gargamel Castle, based on the Belgian Smurfs, was developed by American company Coleco.
- Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, based on the Finnish The Moomins franchise, was developed by Norwegian studio Hyper Games.
- The 1991 Spider-Man arcade game was developed by Japanese company Sega.
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is an Ukrainian video game based on the Russian novel Roadside Picnic
- The first three games from the Streets of Rage series were made in Japan by Sega, but the fourth was made by French companies Lizardcube and Guard Crush Games.
- Japanese company Sunsoft developed many Licensed Games based on Western properties:
- Batman for NES, Genesis and TurboGrafx-16, as well as Batman: Return of the Joker
- Fester's Quest
- The Game Boy Looney Tunes game, which was later ported to the Game Boy Color with extra minigames
- Several Speedy Gonzales games, such as Speedy Gonzales in Los Gatos Banditos and Aztec Adventure
- Daffy Duck: Fowl Play
- Gremlins 2: The New Batch for NES
- Platoon for NES
- Additionally, some of their original games were Divorced Installments from Western properties, such as Journey to Silius originally being a Terminator game before they lost the license.
- Super Don Quixote was a Japanese arcade FMV game in the vein of Dragon's Lair that served as an In Name Only adaptation of Don Quixote.
- Superman 64 was developed by French studio Titus Software.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, based on the American Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, is made by a Canadian company based in Montreal named Tribute Games.
- The same goes for Marvel Cosmic Invasion which is also made by Tribute Games.
- Terminator 2D: No Fate is based on an American property and the game was made by a British company named Bitmap Bureau.
- Games based on the works of American author Tom Clancy have been made by many studios from all over the world, chief among them French company Ubisoft and their various studios and subsidiaries located around the world. They have since gained exclusive rights to adapt his works into games.
- Traveller's Tales, a British company:
- Their many LEGO Adaptation Games are fundamentally based on a toyline of Danish origin, but all of them except LEGO The Lord of the Rings and LEGO Harry Potter are also based on American IP. They have also made many other LEGO games:
- LEGO Worlds
- LEGO Dimensions
- LEGO City Undercover
- BIONICLE Heroes.
- LEGO Rock Band, in cooperation with Harmonix
- LEGO Legends of Chima Online
- The home console versions of several Pixar games:
- Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse
- Muppet Race Mania
- Transformers: The Game (Console)
- Their many LEGO Adaptation Games are fundamentally based on a toyline of Danish origin, but all of them except LEGO The Lord of the Rings and LEGO Harry Potter are also based on American IP. They have also made many other LEGO games:
- UFO Robot Grendizer: The Feast of the Wolves is based on a Japanese series, but was developed by the French studio Endroad.
- Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is based of British's company Games Workshop, but the game was made by Owlcat Games, a Russian company.
- The 2005 video game based on The Warriors, an American film, was developed by Rockstar Toronto.
Web Animation
- Dead Fantasy is a series of Dead or Alive/Ninja Gaiden/Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts crossover fan films created by American animator Monty Oum.
- Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures is an English-language web series starring Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters aimed at the Western market by Split studio based in Brazil.
- Pokémon:
- The one-off short Bidoof's Big Stand and the four-episode series Pokémon: Path to the Peak were both produced by TAIKO Studios, which operates out of the US and China.
- Multiple other Chinese-produced web shorts have been made, including The Journey of One Dream, Homecoming and the Pokémon Animated Encyclopedia series.
- Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers, an Australian-produced machinima series, has many spoof adaptations of movies and games of Japanese and American origin, mostly through the "If Mario was in..." series and the "Stupid Mario ___" series.
- Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City is a Canadian adaptation of the American Strawberry Shortcake franchise.
Webcomics
- 8-Bit Theatre is a webcomic adaptation of the Japanese video game Final Fantasy I, written by American comic artist Brian Clevinger.
- Metroid: Third Derivative is an English-language webcomic acting as a sequel to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes,note a Canadian-developed installment in a Japanese franchise.
- Sonichu, a webcomic based on two different Japanese franchises, was created by the American Christine Weston Chandler.
- Zelda Comic is an English-language comic based on the Japanese The Legend of Zelda franchise.
Web Video
- A VHS Christmas Carol is an '80s-themed adaptation of A Christmas Carol by the Chicago-based Team StarKid.
Western Animation
- Little Astro Boy is a French adaptation of the Japanese manga series Astro Boy aimed at the preschool demographic.
- Blazing Team was the American toy company Hasbro's attempt at adapting Blazing Teen, a Chinese toy/television series.
- The 2014 CGI reboot of Calimero, originally an Italian character, was produced in France. It was even lip-synced in French!
- Canadian studio Cinar had some of these.
- The Busy World of Richard Scarry, for instance, was based on the works of American author Richard Scarry. Similarly, they also adapted American author Robert Quackenbush's A Miss Mallard Mytsery as the series of the same name and the American comic strip Animal Crackers.
- The Adventures of Paddington Bear was of course based on the iconic British children's book. Mona the Vampire, itself a co-production with France's Alphanim was based on the creation of a British author.
- The Count of Monte Cristo is an Australian TV special based on the novel by French author Alexandre Dumas.
- Cybersix is a Canadian/Japanese adaptation of an Argentine/Italian comic book.
- The Darkstalkers cartoon was an American production based on a Japanese video game series.
- Dav Pilkey is American, but two of his works, The Dumb Bunnies and The Dragon Series, received Animated Adaptations in Canada (the former also an Australian co-production).
- In the late 1980s and the 1990s, DiC Entertainment made several American adaptations of Japanese video games by Nintendo and Sega:
- The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
- The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3
- Super Mario World (1991)
- The Legend of Zelda (1989)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)
- Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
- Sonic Underground
- Captain N: The Game Master, which features characters and settings from mostly Japanese games, but also from the British Wizards & Warriors.
- Disney did many shorts based on European fairy tales and fables like the ones from the Brothers Grimm and others during The Golden Age of Animation, most notably The Three Little Pigs. Due to their massive success, a bunch of imitators sprang up; every major animation studio of The '30s would have a crack or two at adapting (or riffing, if they felt creative) at least one of these tales. Before that, Disney's Alice Comedies would serve as American adaptations of the works of British author Lewis Carroll.
- Doki stars the mascots of the Latin American Discovery Kids channel and was produced in Canada.
- Donkey Kong Country is a French/Canadian/Chinese series based on the British/Japanese Donkey Kong Country games.
- Fangbone!: The series was produced by Canadian studio Radical Sheep Productions for the Canadian Disney XD (later WildBrainTV), but both series creator Michael Rex and the Fangbone! Third Grade Barbarian books are American.
- Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, based on the American superhero team, was made by French company Moonscoop.
- In 2021, it was announced that French animation studio Cyber Group Studios was tapped to create an animated series based on the Japanese video game Final Fantasy IX, but it is currently languishing in Development Hell due to the studio's assets getting liquidated in 2025.
- The Garfield Show: Garfield is an American brand, but the show is a French production. And while production studio, Ellipse Animation, is known for their Animated Adaptations, The Garfield Show is one of their very few not based on a French property.
- Guess How Much I Love You is a British children's picture book, but the animated adaptation had zero involvement from the UK. For Series 1, the voices were originally Australian, produced by an Australian company alongside broadcasters from Germany, Canada, Finland and Sweden, with animation taking place in Singapore. Series two was again voiced in Australia for the original version, animated in Canada, and funded by Australian and German broadcasters.
- Godzilla: The Series, despite officially being a sequel to the 1998 American Godzilla movie, still counts as a Western adaptation of a Japanese film franchise.
- Hanna-Barbera:
- The Adventures of Gulliver, based on the writings of Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift.
- The Godzilla Power Hour, an Animated Adaptation of the Japanese Godzilla films, done in cooperation with Toho.
- Pac-Man, based on the Japanese arcade classic.
- The Smurfs (1981), based on the Belgian comic book
- Trollkins, based on the Danish Troll Dolls
- Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater was co-produced between Japan and the United States and is based on the Japanese Hello Kitty character and other Sanrio characters.
- The 1967 ashcan short adaptation of The Hobbit was done by producer Bill Snyder and Gene Deitch at Rembrandt Films in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
- James Bond Jr., produced by the American Murakami-Wolf-Swenson company, based on the legendary British spy series.
- Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters, a co-production between the Korean Moi Animation and American Hasbro, is based on the Japanese card game Kaijudo.
- Little Dracula is an American cartoon adapted from a British series of picture books.
- Looney Tunes, an American cartoon series, would sometimes adapt European fairy tales into animated cartoons, just like Disney and all their imitators did at the time. Unlike Disney's versions however, these were almost never played straight, and they would be full of American humour, references and sensibilities. Notably, volume 5 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection has an entire disc dedicated to only these kinds of cartoons.
- Their Three Bears characters, Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Junyer Bear, are based on "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Their first short was an adaptation of the classic tale with Bugs Bunny as Goldilocks, but they would later be used in original plots.
- A different set of bears had been used in an earlier take on the tale, titled The Bear's Tale, released in 1940 and directed by Tex Avery. Another version would be done in 1960, pitting Sylvester and his family against Goldimouse.
- Chuck Jones made two very different adaptations of "Tom Thumb" during his tenure at the studio: the Disneyesque Tom Thumb In Trouble in 1940, and the off-the-walls comedic I Was a Teenage Thumb in 1963.
- Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs was an all-black adaptation of Snow White, featuring an eclectic jazz soundtrack and a laundry list of racist jokes and stereotypes, which got it listed as one of the Censored Eleven.
- The tale of Little Red Riding Hood would be tackled several times, two of them involving Sylvester and Tweety.note
- Señorella and the Glass Huarache, the very last cartoon produced at Termite Terrace before it was shut down and the production was outsourced to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, is a Mexican-influenced take on Cinderella.
- Mainframe Studios, a Canadian company, has created movies and shows based on a handful of non-Canadian properties:
- Beast Wars and Beast Machines, based on the American Transformers franchise.
- Several Barbie projects, including most of the direct-to-DVD movies,Barbie: A Touch of Magic, Barbie: It Takes Two and Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures.
- Hot Wheels: World Race and Hot Wheels: AcceleRacers, based on the American Hot Wheels toy line.
- Casper's Haunted Christmas
- Spider-Man: The New Animated Series
- Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild
- Marsupilami was Disney's attempt at introducing the Franco-Belgian comic book character to American audiences. It didn't exactly pan out, because its perceived In Name Only nature and Disney's blatant mismanagement that ended in premature contract nullification upset creator André Franquin so much that he sued Disney out of the rights to the character.
- The Japanese Mega Man franchise has two American adaptations, Mega Man by Ruby-Spears and Mega Man: Fully Charged by Man of Action Studios.
- Mermicorno: Starfall, produced in Canada, is based on a toyline produced by the tokidoki company based in the United States.
- Mickey's Christmas Carol is an American adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Uncle Scrooge as Ebenezer Scrooge.
- Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol is an American adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scrooge.
- Mondo TV, an Italian studio, has adapted a few non-Italian works:
- Kim, based on a book by British author Rudyard Kipling.
- The Last of the Mohicans, based on the James Fenimore Cooper novel.
- The Trash Pack, based on a toy line from Australian company Moose Toys.
- YooHoo to the Rescue, based on a Korean toy line from Aurora World.
- Monkie Kid is an Australian/American/Danish series based on the Chinese Journey to the West.
- Mumfie is a French CGI reboot of the animated series Magic Adventures of Mumfie, based on a book series from the UK. Like the Calimero reboot, it was actually lip-synced in French!
- Canadian studio Nelvana is well known for its Animated Adaptations, but the vast majority of the source material its shows are derived from are not Canadian.
- Numerous examples of series based on American children's books, such as Little Bear, George and Martha, Max and Ruby, The Berenstain Bears (2002), Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, Rolie Polie Olie, The Magic School Bus, and Maggie and the Ferocious Beast.
- The mid-80s incarnation of Care Bears are based on greeting cards from American Greetings. note Similarly, The Get Along Gang is also based on characters from greeting cards by American Greetings.
- Other productions of theirs based on American media include Beetlejuice (1989), Cadillacs and Dinosaurs , The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police, and Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5.
- They were also behind Babar and The Adventures of Tintin (1991), both of which are Franco-Belgian in originnote . Similarly, they also made adaptations of the British works, Rupert and Redwall.
- They made Ruby Gloom, which is based on a line of apparel by the US-based company Mighty Fine.
- The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is an American Disney adaptation of the British Winnie-the-Pooh. Unlike most other adaptations, including Disney's other Pooh projects, this one actually moves Christopher Robin to the US and timeshifts him to The '80s.
- During the peak of his cartoon career, Popeye would thrice find himself involved with the Arabian Nights. This produced Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor, Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves, and Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp.
- Had it gone through, the 70's tokusatsu show Ganbare!! Robocon would've gotten a Cartoon Network animated series.
- Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid is an American series based on the originally Danish The Little Mermaid.
- Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist is an American series based on the originally British Oliver Twist, with all the characters as anthropomorphic animals.
- Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch is an International Coproduction based on the American comic book character Sabrina the Teenage Witch, being produced at France's MoonScoop animation studio, best known for creating Code Lyoko.
- Secret Level is an American anthology series featuring IPs from all over the world, such as the Japanese Pac-Man and Mega Man, the Korean CrossfireX and the Chinese Honor of Kings.
- Sonic the Hedgehog, in addition to the three DiC Entertainment shows, has had the French-American Sonic Boom and the Canadian Sonic Prime.
- The New Adventures of Speed Racer was a western cartoon adaptation of the classic Speed Racer anime.
- Street Fighter (1995) is an American adaptation of the Japanese Street Fighter franchise.
- The 1987 Sylvanian Families cartoon is American and Canadian and was based on a Japanese toy franchise.
- Tamagotchi Video Adventures is an American videocassette of the Japanese Tamagotchi toys.
- Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go is a North-American-producednote Continuity Reboot of Thomas & Friends, which, in turn, makes the reboot indirectly based on the British children's book series The Railway Series.
- Toon Makers’ Sailor Moon was an attempt at creating an American adaptation of Sailor Moon, with all-new scripts, character designs and several other major changes, but only a pilot episode was produced and the rights were eventually aquired by DiC, who opted to just import and dub the original anime instead.
- Several American shows based on Troll Dolls, a Danish invention:
- Trollkins, by Hanna-Barbera
- Trollz, by DiC
- Trolls Holiday, Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, Trolls: Holiday in Harmony and Trolls: TrollsTopia by DreamWorks Animation, all part of their larger Trolls franchise.
- Disney made two adaptations of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling as Silly Symphonies. The 1931 version was an In Name Only version about an actual duckling saving a chicken family from a storm, while the 1939 version is a more faithful adaptation.
- Viva Piñata was co-produced by the American 4Kids Entertainment and the Canadian Bardel Entertainment, based on the video game of the same name by British studio Rare.
- DreamWorks Animation's 2019 American Where's Waldo? series, based on the classic picture books by British artist Martin Handford.
