View source for In Name Only

{{trope}}
[[File:Cowboid 0.png|link=Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|frame|Although they weren't in [[Metroid]], it's undeniable that the [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|robot cowboy angel]] would be the coolest thing ever.]]

{{quote|'''Lois:''' There were no ''talking penguins'' in ''[[The King and I]]''!
'''Peter:''' There were in ''Peter Griffin Presents: The King and I''!
|''[[Family Guy]]''}}

This occurs when a derivative work (an adaptation, a sequel, a remake, a reimagining) is so different from the work it took its name from that the ''only thing'' actually tying it to the original work is the title. Occasionally this will expand to include character names and the setting.

This can happen when the work was originally intended as something completely different, but, being slightly similar to an existing franchise, it is changed to fit in that franchise, or it can be straight-up title hijack. Since titles cannot be copyrighted in common-law countries (including the US, Canada, and the UK), the project may not have any relation to a famous predecessor.

Established properties are ''much'' easier to get greenlit than original ideas. In some cases producers purchase franchise rights for the name alone, and slap it on their own original product as a way of getting it pushed through the studio system. Video games and cult franchises are especially popular for this approach as they are relatively cheap to buy and, being "only" popular art, so called, any established canon for the work can be dismissed as unimportant. Many a [[Cash Cow Franchise]] has descended to this at least once.

An '''In Name Only''' work [[Tropes Are Not Bad|may well be decent, or even good,]] if it's assessed on its own merits rather than being measured by how faithful it is to the original work.

If the work in question is not an attempted adaptation of another work, but merely sports a misleading name, that's a [[Non-Indicative Name]]. If multiple works share the same name but are unrelated, you have [[Similarly Named Works]].

Compare [[Dolled-Up Installment]].

Contrast [[Serial Numbers Filed Off]], [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], [[Expy]].

{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Despite the title and what the credits claim, ''[[Romeo X Juliet]]'' has nothing to do with Shakespeare's [[Romeo and Juliet]] aside of the characters' names (but not their personalities).
* This was the point of ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]'', which turned a [[Space Opera]] into a [[Gag Series]] when the first game was delayed. See [[Writer Revolt]].
* Despite its name, [[Go Nagai]]'s manga and anime and novel series ''[[God Mazinger]]'' has nothing to do with ''[[Mazinger Z]]''. The characters, the setting and the plot are completely unrelated, and the [[Humongous Mecha]] hardly looks like Mazinger. Apparently the similar title is due to it was intended to be ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' sequel, but that concept was scrapped, and ''[[Great Mazinger]]'' and ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]'' were created instead.
* ''[[Idolmaster: Xenoglossia]]'' retains ''some'' of the characters' personalities from the original video game, but changes... well, everything else.
** "[[Yandere]]", more specifically.
* The manga ''[[Blue Dragon]] Ral Grad'' has nothing in common with the ''[[Blue Dragon]]'' video game or anime series, except for the presence of [[Living Shadow]] [[Bond Creatures]] which themselves are very different in nature between sources.
* ''[[Tales From Earthsea]]'' only really borrowed a few ideas from the ''Earthsea'' books and made something completely different. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110717214649/http://www.ursulakleguin.com/GedoSenkiResponse.html LeGuin was NOT amused, meanwhile] (but she was still (slightly) more amused by the anime movie than by the maligned [[Syfy]] miniseries).
* ''[[Zeorymer|Hades Project Zeorymer]]'' - Originally a [[Hentai]] manga. The title mech and the name of a female character are the only thing the manga and anime share.
* [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s manga ''Metropolis'' is literally and intentionally an In Name Only counterpart to the silent film. Tezuka came up with the idea for his story after seeing a single still image of the movie's famous robot woman, then used the title because he thought it sounded cool.
* The [[Anime First|manga adaptation]] of ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' has little to do with the show—the names of Ahiru's friends were changed, Ahiru isn't a duck, Mytho isn't really a prince, Drosselmeyer never appears, and the only animal is Professor Cat, for some unexplained reason. The most unrecognizable is Edel, who goes from being a quiet, mysterious woman in doll-like clothing and a huge updo to an [[Genki Girl|energetic]] [[The Obi-Wan|Obi-Wan]] who wears slinky dresses and her hair down—oh, and just happens to be {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]] of the manga}}. The consensus among fans range from "It's sort of funny I guess..." to [[Fanon Discontinuity|pretending it doesn't exist at all]].
* The anime adaptation of ''[[Eat Man]]'' has very little to do with the original story other than Bolt Crank being the main character.
* ''[[Dancougar Nova]]'' would be better called ''[[Gravion]] Nova'' because of its similarity to [[Gravion|that series]] rather than ''[[Dancougar]]''.
* Subverted in ''[[Ga-Rei Zero]]''. The first episode introduces an entirely new crew of [[Badass]] main characters, completely different from the ones in the [[Ga-Rei|manga]].  {{spoiler|The episode ends with Yomi appearing and [[Kill'Em All|taking them all out]].}} Turns out  {{spoiler|the anime ''is'' related to the manga in that it centers around Yomi's [[Start of Darkness]].}}

== Comic Books ==
* When [[Vertigo Comics]] publish a series that shares a name with a [[DC Comics]] property, that, and a few loose concepts, will be ''all'' it shares (with a few exceptions, such as ''[[Animal Man]]'', ''[[Swamp Thing]]'', and ''[[Doom Patrol]]''). The most extreme example was ''Beware [[The Creeper]]!'' which was about a 1920s Parisian surrealist who wore a costume vaguely similar to Jack Ryder's.
* This trope is a deliberate unifying premise in DC's "[[Tangent Comics]]" line and the "Just Imagine Stan Lee" series. Unlike Elseworlds, which is a re-imagining of a DC character that usually retains most of the core elements, Tangent and Just Imagine attach the existing names to completely different characters with different powers, costumes, origins, appearances, and personalities—the latter having been co-designed by Stan Lee. Usually, the only common element is that they're metahumans in a modern setting.
** Several of DC's [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] [[Revival]]s fall into this category, as well. [[Green Lantern]] and [[Hawkman]] come close, but the prize goes to [[The Atom]], who went from a rough-and-tumble boxer who was kinda short to a physicist who could shrink to subatomic size.
* Since DC's business theory (such as it is) is about hanging onto trademarks as long as possible, they have a long history of reusing names in some odd fashion or another. Such as the 1940's Johnny Thunder, the 1950's cowboy Johnny Thunder, and the 1980's Jonni Thunder. Or all those characters named Starman.
** This often leads to the point where a story tries to [[Arc Welding|reconcile these different incarnations somehow]].
* In the foreword to the ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' Trade Paperback "Gods and Mortals", George Perez mentions that there were several proposals for the [[Post-Crisis]] reboot of Wonder Woman, some of which had nothing in common with the original but the name.
* Michael Fleisher's run on ''[[Harlem Heroes]]'' was focused on a gang of convicts caught up in a conspiracy to assassinate the President, rather than the sport of Aeroball the original strip. In fact, the only reason that the name came up in story was due to the games being played in prison and the skill of the protagonists at Aeroball.
* Back in the early 2000s, [[Marvel Comics]] decided to radically revamp two titles -- ''[[X-Force]]'' and ''[[Thunderbolts]]''. ''X-Force'' went from the exploits of a mutant paramilitary team to the exploits of a mutant celebrity superhero team obsessed with fame. The title was well-received (and rebranded as ''X-Statix''), partially because it inverted the whole "hated and feared" aspect of mutant culture. ''Thunderbolts'', on the other hand, went from the tales of a team of former supervillains seeking redemption to following an underground fight ring centered around C-list villains. This change was quite a bit less well-received.
* Many of the characters in Marvel's ''Noir'' series of [[Elseworlds]] are notably different from their mainstream continuity counterparts, but of particular note is Dr. Otto Octavius, one of the primary antagonists of ''[[Spider-Man: Noir]]: Eyes Without a Face''. ''Noir'''s version of the character is a sickly, emaciated, wheelchair-bound neurologist. He's a white South African, a Nazi sympathizer, and heir to a large fortune. His actions are motivated by racism. The only thing he has in common with mainline Dr. Octopus is the use of mechanical arms, in this case surgical aids attached to his chair.


== Fan Works ==
* [http://spoon300.deviantart.com/gallery/31302955 Doctor Who: The Manga]


== Films ==
* The 1998 ''[[Godzilla (film)|Godzilla]]'' strays so far from the source material, many fans like to call it ''GINO''. (Godzilla In Name Only)
** Fans? [[Canon Discontinuity|Toho went so far as to rename the beast "Zilla"]] because they believed that Emmerich managed to remove the 'God' from Godzilla.
*  ''[[Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within|Final Fantasy the Spirits Within]]'' is a noted example. Direct sequels notwithstanding, the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games all take place in different settings, but at least have some shared elements: fantasy worlds, heavy use of magic, swordplay, revolutionaries, tyrannical political institutions, series mainstay creatures like Chocobos, etc. Unlike the high fantasy settings of the games, the film was set in a distantly futuristic Earth, one that had essentially none of these mainstay elements. So why is this one the embodiment of the trope? Because Square ''themselves'' made it. Yes, even ''creators'' can fall victim to this trope.
* Most film versions of ''[[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'' are like this. They have a [[Frozen in Time|setting of Victorian England]] and a doctor who turns evil by drinking a self-made potion... and that's it. Jekyll is usually young, not middle-aged, and he has a girlfriend or wife; Hyde looks disfigured and terrorizes prostitutes, a bit like Jack the Ripper. And [[Hammer Horror|Hammer's]] crazy, wonderfully-enjoyable ''Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde'' has, like the title tells, a female Hyde, and Jekyll IS the Ripper...
** The main reason for this is that, in the original story, the revelation that Hyde and Jekyll are one in the same was a [[Twist Ending]], but is now a case of [[It Was His Sled]]. Since the chances of shocking the audience while sticking to the original narrative are nil, adaptations tend to show the story from Jekyll/Hyde's point of view (he's actually not the main character in the book) and spoil the "surprise" early on.
* The ''[[Stuart Little]]'' movies. The books were set in the late 1940s, Stuart was born from a human mother rather than adopted, and only the boat race in the first movie bears any resemblance to the events of the book.
* The new character Batgirl introduced in ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'' is considered by many fans to be this due to the liberties taken with her origin, changing her from Commissioner Gordon's daughter to Alfred's niece, and dropping any original characterization and [[Backstory]].
* ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]'', which was actually started as a completely unrelated script named ''Hardwired'' until the studio got the rights to the book and decided to use the name. They also included very nearly every action and line of dialogue from ''Robot Dreams'', an Asimov short that was published decades after ''[[I, Robot (literature)|I, Robot]]'' itself. The movie credits say that the movie is "suggested by", rather than "based on", the book.
* ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers]]'', which was really more of a [[Take That]] against [[Starship Troopers (novel)|the original book]] than an adaptation. It's not even a horribly-executed [[Take That]] — the producers [[Dolled-Up Installment|bought the rights to the original after the script was written]].
* Raphael Sabatini's novel ''The Sea Hawk'' was a tale of an English gentleman framed for murder by his fiancée's brother, getting shanghaied to the Mediterranean, and converting to Islam that he might become a pirate and wreak vengeance on the people that threw him away. The Errol Flynn movie is a tale of an English privateer and his affair with Queen Elizabeth, with a bit of background about the Spanish Armada.
* ''[[The Lawnmower Man]]'' has nothing to do with [[Stephen King]]'s short story of the same name. They had the gall, originally, to call it ''[[In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It|Stephen King's]] The Lawnmower Man'' anyway, and he successfully sued to get his name taken out of the title. The short story is about a creepy satyr who mows lawns. The movie is about a mentally deficient gardener who has his brain transplanted into cyberspace and becomes a god of computers.
** ''The Lawnmower Man 2'' had nothing to do with the first film. It was also utter crud.
* ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'' movie. One reviewer joked that "They only changed one thing in the plot — ''everything''", and it's not far wrong. The Stanton family, who in the books are warm, caring and British, are now dysfunctional and American; Will is changed from a thoughtful, wise-for-his-age eleven-year-old to a whiny fourteen-year-old [[Hormone-Addled Teenager|hormone-addled]] [[Jerkass]] who's more interested in stealing his brother's girlfriend than completing his quest for the Signs, and all the Arthurian mythology is hacked out and replaced with Christian allegory.
* ''[[The Bourne Series (film)|The Bourne Series]]'' have nothing whatsoever to do with [[The Bourne Series (novel)|Ludlum's novels]], aside from the name of the main character and his amnesia. They cut out the primary villain (since Carlos the Jackal was just a teensy bit in prison when the films were made), changed the time to present day, completely changed the backstory behind Bourne's skills, changed the last name, nationality, profession (and, in the second film, {{spoiler|lifespan}}) of his love interest... The movies are generally considered ''good'', mind you (especially the first one). They're just... expect to be disoriented if you read the books afterward.
* ''The Running Man'' [[The Running Man (film)|film]] and [[The Running Man (novel)|novel]] are both set in a dystopian world and center on a television show where a man is hunted. Beyond that, they have nothing to do with each other. In fact, the film adaptation has far more in common with an earlier [[Robert Sheckley]] short story entitled "The Seventh Victim", but presumably, Sheckley's relatively-obscure name wouldn't sell as many tickets as the [[Stephen King]] pseudonym. "Based on the novel by Richard Bachman" is placed in the opening credits, and copies of the novel featured [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]'s face on the cover, advertising the film.
* Given only 5 of the [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] films don't take at least the title from [[Ian Fleming]]'s [[James Bond (novel)|novels/stories]], it happened often.
** ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me]]'' [[Justified Trope|had to be done this way]]; [[Creator Backlash|Ian Fleming disliked the book]], and refused to allow them to use the storyline.
*** Except the adaptation of Horror, the novel's steel-toothed villain. Obviously, he was renamed Jaws.
** To a smaller extent, ''[[Moonraker]]'' also has little to do with [[Moonraker (novel)|the book]] outside of the villain being named Hugo Drax and the [[MacGuffin]] having a rocket engine.
** The short stories ''[[Octopussy]]'' and ''[[Quantum of Solace]]'' have nothing at all to do with the films.
*** While [[Octopussy|the film]] has nothing to do with ''Octopussy'', the short story is in fact the backstory to the title character, as revealed in a somewhat shoehorned-in dialogue sequence.
** The 1967 version of ''[[Casino Royale]]'' (done by a producer who had the rights to the novel) suffered through both [[Development Hell]] and [[Troubled Production]], and the final product bears only a slight resemblance to the novel.
*** Although the central idea behind the novel of ''Casino Royale'' (A British agent is hired to bankrupt an enemy agent by gambling against him) is used in the 1967 movie along with some plot points (such as the Bond character being captured by the enemy agent who is then killed by his own side).
** Averted in the 2006 remake of ''[[Casino Royale]]'' with Daniel Craig, which hews about as closely to the original novel's plot as can be expected, considering that approximately 50 years separated the writing of the book and the making of the film.
* ''[[Catwoman (film)|Catwoman]]'', which dumped the original character.
* [[Philip K. Dick]] stories sometimes get this treatment, except they tend to change even the name.
** ''[[Blade Runner]]'', while a fine and excellent movie, took the title of one book (''The Bladerunner'' by Alan E. Nourse) and slapped it on a movie made from a completely different story (Dick's ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?''). But except for a few names and concepts like the robotic animals that the movie borrowed, everything else differs from Dick's original.
** ''[[Total Recall]]'' is very loosely based on a short story called "We Can Remember It For You, Wholesale.". Actually, both the film and the story begin being roughly the same, but there's a point in which they divert: just after the protagonist has his malfunctioning memory trip. Viewers of the movie will instantly recognize that point as the same one in which the movie has a sudden [[Mood Whiplash]] from classic sci-fi to pull-all-the-stops action movie, while the story turns into a spectacular [[Mind Rape]].
** ''Next'' is based on ''The Golden Man'', and differs greatly from its source material even for a movie based on a Philip K Dick story: Both share the general idea of the government trying to capture a main character who has the ability to foresee the immediate impact of anything he does before he does it. However, the setting, the main character's background, personality, and appearance, and ''what'' the government wants with him are all changed beyond recognition: In the original story, it was a post-apocalyptic future, the main character was a golden-skinned, non-sapient mutant, and the government was trying to wipe out all mutants with superhuman powers. On the other hand, the film takes place in the present, where the main character is a perfectly normal-looking, sapient human, and the government wants him to use his abilities to help them stop a nuclear threat. Reportedly, the original script was much more faithful to the source material before some drastic rewrites kicked in.
* [[Andre Norton]]'s ''The Beast Master'' series tell the story of retired veteran Hosteen Storm, an American Indian in the far future who was recruited into an elite commando force, the titular Beast Masters, which were telepathically bonded to a team of genetically enhanced animals (a horse, tiger, pair of ferrets and hawk in Storm's case) to fight an interstellar war. With Earth destroyed on the way to a costly victory, he is discharged with honors to seek his fate and sort out his life on a distant colony world. It's been adapted to other media a number of times... In a manner of speaking:
** Three films were made, recasting him as Dar, a [[Mighty Whitey]] blond He Man knock-off with telepathically linked animal companions in a generic [[High Fantasy]] setting. While a box-office bomb, the first film was actually pretty good for what it was and received a [[Vindicated by Cable|cult following on TV]].
*** Marc Singer managed to pull it off, and is largely responsible for its cult following. It's debatable whether his other cult roles, such as [[V (TV series)|V]], contributed to it.
** A [[Sci Fi]] Original Series was made, seemingly through direct [[Popcultural Osmosis]] from the films.
* [[Roger Zelazny]]'s 1969 ''[[Damnation Alley]]'' was set in a post-apocalyptic Nation of California in which the aftereffects of WWIII twenty years ago have spiraled way beyond nuclear winter to bring the entire Earth to the [[Apocalypse How|brink of death]], including continuous several hundred mile an hour winds that continually roar by about 500 feet above the ground to produce a blanket of radioactive rubble and garbage mixed with the contents of a good part of the world's oceans (which regularly results in a shower of horribly mutated sea life raining down to feed the giant abominations that dominate the land) in the sky. The story follows a [[Sociopathic Hero]] (the last living Hell's Angel) who has been forced into a lone suicidal medicine delivery mission through the inland no-man's-land to the U.S. East Coast as the result of a murder conviction.
** This story would later be used in ''[[Escape from New York]]''.
** The movie was instead set in a toned down version of this two years after the fireworks, with the protagonist recast as a soldier at a missile base in the desert. After braving some drunken hillbillies and rubber cockroaches to investigate a mysterious radio signal, he and his [[The Squad|squadmates]] discover a [[Hidden Elf Village|completely untouched]] [[Viva Las Vegas|haven]] and live [[Happily Ever After]]. The film was the more strongly favored of two "Sci-Fi" films being made by Fox at the time. The other film was ''[[A New Hope|Star Wars]]'' (1977); this one's budget was 1.54 times larger.
* Happens all the time with comic book movies. Given that ''[[Constantine]]'' doesn't even keep the ''[[Hellblazer]]'' title out of confusion with ''[[Hellraiser]]'', you have to wonder why they bothered.
* The opening credits to ''[[Adaptation]]'' list it as based on Susan Orlean's book ''The Orchid Thief'', to which it bears very little resemblance. But then, [[Post Modernism|that was]] [[Intended Audience Reaction|the point of the movie]].
* This was common with movie versions of Broadway musicals produced in the 1930s, 1940s, and sometimes in the 1950s:
** The 1956 film version of ''[[Anything Goes]]'' bears next to no resemblance to the musical it's based on. Aside from five songs (sung in completely different contexts) and the fact that there's a boat (going to a different place), they may as well have called it something else and not stepped on anyone's toes.
** The 1949 film ''Red, Hot and Blue'' shares its title with a [[Cole Porter]] musical and absolutely nothing else.
** The 1936 movie version of ''Rose-Marie'' resembles the original musical play in score only. They share a number of songs and a few [[Leitmotif]]s, but the plots have almost nothing in common other than both having a title character trying to protect a wanted man from a determined Mountie. Between the versions, these three characters all have different names (the "Rose-Marie" of the 1936 movie is a pseudonym), and the relations between them are very different: in the musical play, the wanted man is Rose-Marie's lover, not her brother as in the movie.
** ''Broadway Rhythm'' was nominally an adaptation of ''Very Warm For May''; though the show had been a flop on Broadway, its writers, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, were hired to write [[Movie Bonus Song]]s. However, the film producers ended up throwing out almost everything from ''Very Warm For May'' aside from its [[Breakaway Pop Hit]], "All The Things You Are."
** The 1952 film version of ''The Belle of New York'' replaced all the songs, and most of the plot as well. However, the original musical dates back to 1897 and has not lasted well in popularity.
* Both film versions of ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' share nothing in common with the novel that inspired them except the existence of a planet ruled by intelligent apes with humans as savage animals. Both movies... well, ''ape'' the [[Twist Ending]] of the novel  {{spoiler|the narrator returns to Earth after his voyage only to find that it too has been dominated by intelligent apes}}, though in significantly different ways.
** Oddly, the third movie in the series, ''Escape from the Planet of the Apes'', is similar to that of the original novel (loosely), but with the roles of humans and apes reversed.
* The [[Natalie Wood]] romantic comedy ''Sex and the Single Girl'', though it references the original Helen Gurley Brown bestseller and its author, has nothing to do with the original, which was a ''self-help'' book.
** [[Woody Allen]] performed a similar "adaptation" on the advice book ''Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask)''.
** And somehow the book ''Please Don't Eat The Daisies'', which was a collection of essays and articles, became a feature film starring Doris Day and David Niven.
** ''[[Rebel Without a Cause]]'' was named after a book by a psychiatrist. Otherwise, it has nothing to do with it.
** Both ''Fast Food Nation'' and ''[[He's Just Not That Into You]]'' were based on (successful) non-fiction books as well, but both have little in common with them other than being about fast food and relationships, respectively.
** Yet another example of a (nominally) nonfiction book somehow turned into a movie: ''[[The Men Who Stare at Goats]]''.
** Still yet another example: ''[[Mean Girls]]'' is based on the self-help book "Queen Bees and Wannabes" by Rosalind Wiseman
* There is the 1990 film, ''[[Troll 2]]'', which is not related to the 1986 B-movie ''Troll''. Also, there are no trolls in this film (just goblins), nor is the word "troll" spoken once throughout the movie.
** ''Troll 2'' was followed by a ''further'' in-name-only sequel, ''Crawlers: Troll 3''. This one didn't have trolls '''or''' goblins, instead featuring the oh-so-terrifying menace of killer tree roots.
** Another movie claims the title of ''Troll 3'', a sword-and sorcery film, ''Troll 3: The Sword of Power'' (AKA ''Quest For The Mighty Sword''), both of which were directed by Joe D'Amato. The latter film DOES feature one of the goblin costumes from ''Troll 2''.
*** Four ''Troll'' movies, all of them having nothing to do with each other. What are the odds?
*** It's notable that only Troll 2 was made by the rights holders of the original, making it the only "official" sequel. Doesn't make it any better, though.
*** And there's another sequel in the works. The title? ''Troll 2: Part 2''.
* The 2003 film ''[[The Italian Job (2003 film)]]'' was fairly good, but any similarities to [[The Italian Job|the 1969 film]] are closer to [[homage]]s than anything else.
* The classic [[Ray Bradbury]] short story, ''[[A Sound of Thunder]]'' and the film of the same title both involve time travelers accidentally altering the past while hunting a dinosaur—and that's literally '''it'''. The movie even kills the concept on which the book was based ''in the first five minutes''. That's like Marty getting run over by a semi before he can hit 88 MPH in the first ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]''.
** The best part is how, in the original story, the possible effects of the altered past are built up to be unspeakably disastrous during the course of the story. When the Time Safari does get back, however, everything is basically the same... {{spoiler|and then they notice the wonky spelling...}} The story's ending was apparently too subtle for Hollywood, so we got a city overgrown with jungle (it doesn't even [[It Makes Sense in Context|make sense in context]]) and [[Everything Trying to Kill You|crawling with killer baboon-things and sewer sharks]]. Oh, and there's also something about a catfish-man. [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?|Of course]].
** The worst part is the movie can't even keep it's own mythology straight. In the book, it was simple - changing something in the past changed the future. In the movie, changing the past causes time to change in six "waves", and the protagonists remember everything that happened before the change. At the end, when the timeline is set right, the changes happen instantly and nobody remembers what happened.
* The only thing the ''[[Cheaper By the Dozen]]'' movies have to do with the original ''Cheaper By the Dozen'' novels is that they are both about a family with twelve children.
** The book is actually about the world's first efficiency expert and how he raises his twelve children, while the movie is about a husband trying to raise twelve kids while his wife is away on a business trip.
* ''[[Wanted (film)|Wanted]]'' takes out 90% of [[Wanted (Comic Book)|the original background]] (no supervillains, no parallel-dimension robbing), and replaces it with a society of assassins [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|who kill people to save the world]]. It's not ''bad'', but the changes [[Incredibly Lame Pun|weren't particularly wanted]] either.
** 90% is a ''remarkably'' low estimate, as really, only 4 things that were kept the same: 1) His girlfriend is a cheating whore who does his "best" friend on an IKEA table he bought, 2) He kills people (With an entirely different motivation and degree of competence from the comics), 3) There's a "love" interest that plays a role (Though a completely different one), 4) His father has some significance for his life (See point 3). Given that 2-4 are so common you can expect at least 2 of them in just about any movie of almost all genres, and point 1 isn't even used for much of an effect in the movie. That this results in a story that is only slightly less ridiculous than the comics while being far less over the top to compensate (Though still acceptable popcorn cinema) AND losing all of the message the original author intended is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on who you ask.
** Author [[Mark Millar]] [http://www.empireonline.com/interviews/interview.asp?IID=801 had no problem with the changes] and liked the film, though.
* Aside from a few throwaway lines and other minor elements—some of which don't actually match the game versions anyway (e.g. the beholders) -- ''[[Dungeons & Dragons (film)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' is nothing more than a generic (and not very good) fantasy movie with a famous brand name attached to it.
** The [[Dungeons and Dragons: Wrath of The Dragon God|second]], [[SyFy Channel Original Movie]], however, sticks much closer to the original game content, right down to mentioning established gods, demons, spells, monsters, and even having Gary Gygax involved.
*** In addition, the behind the scenes DVD features shows that each character had a character sheet; and the actors can be seen [[Shown Their Work|reading the Third Edition Player's Handbook]] to better understand their characters.
* ''[[Max Payne (film)|Max Payne]]'' keeps the general concept of [[Max Payne (series)|the games]] intact (rogue cop out for revenge) while making the story significantly less complicated (no specific frame job, and line between Max and his ultimate goal is much straighter). This isn't a bad thing, but it also calls into question the relationship of the movie to the game - the drug, the protagonist, and his target are all that remain.
** It also has the pseudo-supernatural feel of the first game.
** His final target is also different. While {{spoiler|Nicole Horne is the game's [[Big Bad]]}}, in the film, {{spoiler|her}} involvement is mentioned in a single conversation, and {{spoiler|she}} is not Max's primary target. The film's [[Big Bad]] is, actually, the game's minor boss.
** [[Femme Fatale|Mona Sax]] also doesn't have a twin sister named Lisa. Instead, she has a sister named Natasha. Oh, and they're Russian, for some reason. By the way, both actresses are Ukrainian.
* Similarly to the page image, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120401070419/http://cube.ign.com/articles/600/600860p1.html IGN once announced on April Fool's Day] a ''[[Metroid]]'' movie... directed by [[Uwe Boll]]... produced by [[Troma]]... and set on Earth, with a plot similar to ''[[Half-Life (series)|Half-Life]]''.
* ''[[Doctor Dolittle]]'', with [[Eddie Murphy]], is named after a literary character named Doctor Dolittle who talks to animals—but beyond [[Speaks Fluent Animal|talking to animals itself]], the two productions have essentially nothing in common with each other. The book is set in Britain sometime in the past, the movie is set in the USA of today. The main character got a [[Race Lift]]. And that's just the beginning.
* [[The Nostalgia Chick]], in her ''[[Bratz (film)|Bratz]]'' review, admits that it's only really about [[Bratz|the toy line]] In Name Only. But then again, considering the source material was just about implied attitudes (How the dolls they were based off of really were was up to the person who was playing with them) and what kind of setting they existed in other than Generic High... well, let's just say they ''really'' didn't have much to go on.
* The "remake" of ''[[Day of the Dead]]'' is nothing like the original except for being a zombie movie. Except for the setting, the monsters, the downbeat ending and the dying hero turning plot.
* ''[[The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]]'' only takes the basic premise and title from the F. Scott Fitzgerald story that it is based on. While the former is a good [[Magic Realism]] drama by itself, the latter is mostly a comic farce.
* ''[[I Am Legend]]'': The original ending would've given it some connection with the book it was apparently based on, but that was changed too... now the only thing they have in common is a disease that turns people into monsters. And even then they didn't get it quite right. In the new movie it's a virus, but in the old book, it was a type of bacteria. Also, a Caucasian-to-minority [[Race Lift]] for the main character, Robert Neville.
** Of course, ''I Am Legend'' isn't [[The Film of the Book]] so much as a remake of ''[[The Omega Man]]'', which is ''itself'' an In Name Only adaptation of the book ''I Am Legend''... Except for the name, of course.
* Quite a few supposedly "[[Very Loosely Based on a True Story|based on a true story]]" movies fit this trope -- ''[[The Exorcism of Emily Rose]]'' springs to mind. I'd include ''[[The Amityville Horror]]'', but the "true" events of that one [[Based on a Great Big Lie|were something of a hoax anyway]].
* The sequel to ''[[The Blair Witch Project]]'', ''Book Of Shadows'', is actually about some dorks, inspired by the previous (and acknowledged as fictional) film, trying to find the witch for themselves. [[Mind Screw]]iness, [[Fan Service|naked breasts]], and [[Faux Symbolism|random owl "symbolism"]].
* The ''[[Underdog (film)|Underdog]]'' [[The Movie|Movie]]
* The Russian [[Urban Fantasy]] movie based on the book ''[[Night Watch (novel)|Night Watch]]'', itself titled ''Night Watch'', was faithful to the book, except for the depth of the story, the ending and  {{spoiler|the fact that in the book Anton and Yegor are unrelated and Anton never went to that old witch}}. But the book is divided in three stories, and only the first was made into the movie ''Night Watch''. The second movie, ''Day Watch'' was completely unrelated to the book of the same name: it was a completely new story with the beginning taken from the second story of the book ''Night Watch'' and some elements from the third one (namely, the magic chalk).
** It should be noted that [[Sergey Lukyanenko]], the author of the novels, was involved with writing the script. The extent of his involvement is a different question. In the book ''Final Watch'', released after the first film, he makes a passing reference to the film as a dream one character has.
* Hitchcock's suspense classic ''[[The Birds]]'' was inspired by a Daphne du Maurier short story of the same name. The only thing they have in common is that [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|there are birds]] and they attack people.
** The same could be said for many of Hitchcock's films and is, in a way, what makes them appealing. Hitchcock distills story down to its most basic visual elements.
* Classic [[Humphrey Bogart]] film noir ''[[In a Lonely Place]]'' shares it's title and the character's names with Dorothy B Hughes' novel, and absolutely nothing else. One can see Dix Steele's (successful) attempt to adapt a trashy novel into a screenplay as a metaphor for adapting Hughes' book into a film,
* ''[[Halloween III: Season of the Witch|Halloween III Season of the Witch]]'' abandoned the Michael Myers storyline in favor of one involving an insane Irish toymaker and his army of evil killer robots trying to take over the world (or something) using Stonehenge and rigged Halloween masks that make the wearers' head explode into a writhing mound of insects and snakes if they watch a certain commercial. It bombed horribly and the idea of turning ''Halloween'' into an anthology series was dropped, with Michael coming back in the next installment.
** It's notable that the anthology part was the ''original concept'', it's just that the Michael Myers part ended up lasting two movies.
** The only reason that Halloween was not turned into a series of unrelated events was because the third film did badly. The Myers story was told completely within the first two films, then they moved on. It was intended to be like a big-screen, adult Goosebumps, with a new story every year. But people responded to Myers' films better than they did to ''Season of the Witch'', so the film makers decided that Myers should return. At one point, they also intended on having Jamie become the antagonist, but dropped it.
* The fourth and fifth entries in the ''[[Silent Night, Deadly Night|Silent Night Deadly Night]]'' are unrelated to the previous three movies, which features an [[Ax Crazy]] family of [[Bad Santa|Santa]] imposters. The fourth film is almost unrelated to Christmas and involves some kind of ancient Egyptian witch cult and the fifth has [[Living Toys|evil toys]] connected to an enigmatic toymaker by the name of [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Joe Petto]]. The films have homages to the original three though, with scenes of them being briefly shown on televisions and the villains dressing up as Santa at least once.
* The second ''[[Prom Night]]'' has no connection to the first outside the setting. Likewise, the fourth is unconnected to the previous three outside a brief appearance by Hamilton High. The remake is similar to the original in only the most basic sense, [[Stalker with a Crush|having a different story]] all together. Some even consider it to be a completely independent film.
* ''[[I Know What You Did Last Summer]]'' was based on a book from the ''1970s''. The film and the book have almost nothing in common, besides the vaguely similar plot and some character names. [[Lois Duncan]], the writer of the book, was apparently pretty unhappy about this.
* ''[[Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas]]'' has nothing whatsoever to do with the stories about [[Sinbad the Sailor]] other than featuring a character named Sinbad who happens to be a sailor. Further, it removes "Sinbad" from the original story's [[Arabian Nights]] background and places him in a completely Greek setting. (This being 2003, the producers might have felt that it was [[Too Soon]] after 9/11 for an Arab hero.)
* The third movie in ''[[The Neverending Story (film)|The Neverending Story]]'' series shares no plot at all with the book. The only element from the book it uses that wasn't in the first two movies is the Old Man of Wandering Mountain - and in a very different context.
** Not only does it share no plot, the third movie rips out and destroys the entire philosophical significance of the book and first two movies. The rules of the world of Fantasien (a.k.a. Fantasia, or Fantastica) are essential, they cause the story to exist and to move forward. The third movie [[Did Not Do the Research|blatantly ignored]] [[Continuity Snarl|these rules]], having torn out the whole heart of the story, to make it [[Ruined FOREVER|just another kids movie]]. It cannot truly be called ''The Neverending Story''.
*** As the Old Man of Wandering Mountain chronicles the story that is Fantasien, and the Childlike Empress is the collective imagination which allows the land she rules to exist, the two are never supposed to meet. The situation is akin to a mirror looking in a mirror, and can cause the end of the universe.
*** A person is only allowed to meet the Childlike Empress once, at least, until her name is changed again, and Bastian had already met her.<ref>a good part of the premise to the second half of the book hinges on this</ref>
*** AURYN can only exist in Fantasia, as its power is Fantasien, the world of human fantasy. A person cannot make things from their imagination magically appear in the human world.
*** The Fantasians are not supposed to enter the human world, due to the fact that they are then no longer part of the imagination, but become lies. That was part of the problem with the Nothing - the things it ate up were sent off to the human world, which destroyed both Fantasia and the human world.
* The movie version of ''[[Ella Enchanted]]'' had almost nothing in common with the actual book other than character names and the curse on the main character.
** Can you say, [[Disneyfication]]?
*** But the book ''was written for kids anyway''. It's not like the book was excessively violent or anything, In fact, the movie is probably ''more'' violent than the book. The movie wasn't actually bad though, it's just strange that they'd deviate so much from the original when the original was intended for the same audience.
* Pedro Almovadar's movie ''Live Flesh'' was supposedly based on a novel of the same name by Ruth Rendell. Both featured a policeman crippled by a shot from a criminal who, when released from prison has an affair with the policeman's partner... and that's it.
* ''Death Sentence'' the film has a different story, focused on a [[Papa Wolf]] [[Vigilante Man]] going on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]], as opposed to the original novel, which was a sequel to the ''Death Wish'' novel. Author Brian Garfield has stated that despite the differences, the film still did get the novel's point across.
** Garfield actually insisted on the changes. Due to his hatred of the sequels to the film version of ''Death Wish'', he would not sell the film rights to ''Death Sentence'' unless the main character was not Paul Kersey and the adaptation didn't follow the film series. This in turn led to a long development hell period for the project.
* For that matter, ''[[Death Wish]]''; the film's supposed glorification of vigilantism goes against the intended message of the novel.
* ''[[Shrek]]'' and all its sequels, though it is [[Pragmatic Adaptation|entirely justified]] - the William Steig novelty children's story that inspired the series would barely have stretched to a five minute short.
* The [[Kevin Costner]] [[The Postman (film)|movie]] of David Brin's very fine novel ''[[The Postman]]'' is barely recognizable (starting with the fact the movie is not so 'very fine'). The scene where the main character discovers the postman's uniform is pretty much the only scene from the book to make it into the movie. Otherwise the main character and his motivation is completely different (in the book he's much less of an obvious white-hat), the love interest is completely different, the villain is completely different (in the book being a genetically-enhanced warrior, in the movie just a weird guy with a beard), there is a second 'hero' who doesn't appear at all in the movie and there is an interesting subplot about a super-powerful AI that is guiding a remote village of survivors back to civilization that isn't even mentioned in the film. [http://www.davidbrin.com/postmanmovie.htm The author is quite aware of the necessary changes for a movie adaption and is rather pleased with the result].
* ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'': The first five minutes of the first movie is a faithful reproduction of the first few pages of the first issue of the [[Men in Black (comics)|comic]]. After that, they have almost nothing in common.
* There's a movie called ''Watcher in the Woods'' and there's a book called ''Watcher in the Woods''. The claim has been made that one was based on the other...
* The [[Dreamworks Animation]] [[How to Train Your Dragon (animation)|adaptation]] of ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (novel)|How to Train Your Dragon]]''. While some character names are the same, the plot and setting is otherwise completely different. (An article linked to on [[Wikipedia|The Other Wiki]] said the new directors found the original story too "sweet and whimsical") [[Tropes Are Not Bad|The original author approved of the changes, it got stellar reviews and did very well commercially, though, so who's counting?]]
* The 1939 film version of ''[[The Women]]'' is very faithful to Clare Boothe's play. The 2008 remake is basically ''[[Sex and the City]]'' with a different cast and [[Gendercide|no visible men]].
* The film of ''[[The Borrowers]]'' shares at least a few characters (even, sort of, down to their personalities) with the books, but the plot has nothing whatsoever to do with any of the books, and even the relationships between the characters were changed (a cousin became a brother).
* The ''[[Alone in the Dark]]'' video game series is a rather atmospheric experience, usually residing within the territory of [[Survival Horror]], but ''[[Alone in the Dark (2005 film)|Alone in The Dark]]'' is just a hardcore action flick with a few horror elements stolen from various sources, with almost no story elements from the games.
** When Uwe Boll was handed a working script, his first comment was "There weren't enough car chases."
* ''[[I Spy]]''. Has none of the wit or coolness of the original. In fact, the director begged the studio not to use that as the title for the movie, but [[Executive Meddling]] won the day.
* The movie version of ''[[How To Eat Fried Worms]]'' has nothing in common with the book other than that the main characters gets stuck in a bet that involves having to consume earthworms. And even then, the film still gets it wrong by saying he has to eat ten worms in one day, when in the book, he had to eat one worm a day for 15 days.
* The ''[[Earthsea Trilogy]]'' movie had very little in common with the books except the names, and sometimes it didn't even get the names right.
** And given that it's Earthsea, where knowing the correct names for things is the root of magical power, that's kind of horrible.
* As definitive proof that [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], [[David Cronenberg]]'s version of ''[[The Fly]]'' has very little, apart from the basic premise, in common with the campy 50s movie with [[Vincent Price]] and even less to do with the original French science fiction story. It is still widely considered to be better than either of them. By some people.
* If [[Kevin Smith]] is to be believed, Jon Peters' ''[[Superman]] Lives'', a movie that was never made, would have had Superman's iconic outfit be replaced by an all black one, Superman wouldn't fly, and he'd fight ''a [[Giant Spider]]'', it would have also given Lex a pet named "Chewie", as well as making Brainiac fight ''polar bears''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYhLIThTvk This is true folks]. Fortunately, Kevin Smith tried to make a script that worked the changes in while still throwing in the traditional Superman feel, but ''Superman Lives'' was never made to this day.
* The ''[[Resident Evil]]'' [[Resident Evil (film)|movies]] got the ''look'' of the games down for the most part. Too bad they threw out the plot, characterization, atmosphere, and everything else that makes the games so enjoyable. The movies should have been called "The [[God Mode Sue|Amazing Alice's]] [[Waif Fu|Kung-Fu Adventures]] in [[Zombie Apocalypse]] [[The Matrix|MatrixLand]]." It would have made much more sense as a title ''and'' pissed off far fewer ''[[Resident Evil]]'' fans.
** Which is such a shame, as the first few minutes of the film really capture the 'feel' of ''[[Resident Evil]]'', only to have it immediately thrown away to move out of the mansion and onto the technological underground bunker.
* The first ''[[The Princess Diaries (film)|The Princess Diaries]]'' film took the basic plotline of [[The Princess Diaries|the books]] and the character names and did its own thing, probably because they got [[Julie Andrews]] to play the grandmother, but the sequel basically did its own thing entirely. The fact that Mia's mother married Mia's teacher and had a baby is the only thing the sequel took from the book series.
* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)|The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]''. The [[Alan Moore]] [[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen|comic]] won't remind you of the film, and vice versa.
* ''A Cry in the Wild'' is an adaptation of Gary Paulsen's ''Hatchet'', but the sequel, ''White Wolves: A Cry in the Wild II'' has no relation to [[Brian's Saga|the series]] other than having the same director.
* ''Kemper: The Co-ed Killer'' has almost nothing to do with [[wikipedia:Edmund Kemper|the killer]] it claims to be based on.
** A few other biopics of serial killers and other infamous criminals also count, especially any created by Ulli Lommel.
* ''[[Jonah Hex (film)|Jonah Hex]]'' bears very little resemblance to [[Jonah Hex|the comic book]], save for the scarred protagonist. The filmmakers added an inexplicable super power to temporarily resurrect the dead, which served no purpose, as he just uses this ability to pump the dead for information, something the hardcore western Hex of the comic would have accomplished simply by shooting the living in the kneecap.
* The film ''The Hustler'' is a reasonably close adaptation of the book of that name. They each have a sequel called ''[[The Color of Money]]'' in which Fast Eddie is struggling to make a comeback against the new young pool players, but their storylines have nothing else in common.
* ''To Have and Have Not'', the film, has very little to do with ''To Have and Have Not'', the [[Ernest Hemingway]] novel. This may have something to do with the fact that the director, though a Hemingway admirer in general, hated the book.
* The 1934 movie ''[[The Black Cat]]'' starring [[Boris Karloff]] and [[Bela Lugosi]] has nothing to do with the [[Edgar Allan Poe]] story of that title.
* Virtually every movie with Poe's name in the publicity has little or nothing to do with the author. [[Roger Corman]] took this to an extreme when he made ''[[Lovecraft on Film|The Haunted Palace]]''; it's actually based on [[H.P. Lovecraft|HP Lovecraft]], but Corman thought Poe's name was more famous and thus would put more seats in seats. Today he'd probably do the opposite....
* ''[[Priest (manhwa)|Priest]]'' is a rather unique and strikingly drawn ''manwha'' combining [[Religious Horror]], [[Zombie Apocalypse]] and [[The Western]], as [[Badass Preacher]] Ivan Isaacs treks across the American frontier battling a band of rebel angels. [[Priest (2011 film)|The movie]]...is about a ''bunch'' of priests fighting vampires in the far future. About the only thing the two have in common is a main character with a cross on his forehead. The only people who are happy about this are the ones who've never read the comic.
** The director made this change as he didn't want people saying that he was copying his previous film ''[[Legion]]''.
* ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' scarcely bears any relation to the books (and comics), besides some few elements like names and most notably [[Mako]]'s narration at the start. Conan's character is fundamentally altered since he now grows up in slavery, becoming what he is all due to others (e.g. devoting his life to revenge against the warlord who [[You Killed My Father|left him an orphan]], being educated in the arts and in swordsmanship by Eastern masters). The Conan of the books was always master of his own fate, [[Walking the Earth]] because he felt like it and absorbing knowledge as he went.
* The film ''Pathfinder'' is a remake of the 1987 film of the same name. Other than having a Scandinavian main character and the same title, they are completely different films (the title even became ''Pathfinder: Legend of the Ghost Warrior'' when Fox realized this).
* The film ''[[Jumper (novel)|Jumper]]'' shares the title, the fact that the main character can jump, and two names with the book. The book is a character study with a science fiction twist, the movie is a science fiction action flick.
** The author of the original book tries to remedy this with the third book in the Jumper series, "Griffin's Story," which is slightly closer to the movie than the first book in the series "Jumper"
* ''[[Jumanji]]'' was vastly different than the book. Of course, the book, by [[Chris Van Allsburg]], was a children's picture book and so would've made a movie that lasted around 4 minutes. But the whole plot of the movie revolving around [[Robin Williams]]' character and his love interest was made just for the movie.
* Apparently ''[[City of Angels (film)|City of Angels]]'' is a [[Foreign Remake]] of ''Der Himmel Über Berlin (Wings of Desire)'', but aside of the central premise (angel longs to live a human life) there's nothing left.
* ''[[Masters of the Universe (film)|Masters of the Universe]]'', which was shot as a tribute to [[Jack Kirby]]'s [[New Gods|Fourth World]].
* [[Invoked Trope]] in film in ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' by Ian Malcolm: "At some point, we will see some dinosaurs on this dinosaur tour, right?"
** ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' itself counts more as a [[Pragmatic Adaptation]] (and a fine one at that). It condenses a few characters, cuts down on the chaos-theory technobabble (though that was arguably the [[Author Tract|entire point]] of the book), and is all in all a well-liked film. The sequel, ''The Lost World'', on the other hand bears very little resemblance to the book. Which is odd, since [[Michael Crichton]] specifically wrote the second book to closer resemble the first movie (revealing that [[Retcon|Malcolm actually survived]] for instance).
* ''[[Wild Wild West (film)|Wild Wild West]]''. [[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The original show]] was a merging of the [[Western]] with the [[Spy Drama]]. It didn't really have much [[Steampunk]] elements, just some technology that would have been high-tech for the time period. The movie ran with [[Steampunk]] and the specific [[James Bond]]-style "save the world" spy escapades. The show didn't have anything like the [[Spider Tank]] or the magnetic collars, which makes it a very stark contrast going between the two.
** According to ''[[Cracked.com|Cracked]]'', the premise of the ''Wild Wild West'' movie is based on a ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' episode that originally starred the above-mentioned [[Jonah Hex]]. It isn't exactly known how it became a ''Wild Wild West'' story.
** The above clip linked about Kevin Smith working on the unreleased Superman movie has him mentioning that the same guy that wanted all the weird changes worked on the script for ''Wild Wild West'', and he got the giant spider he was so adamant about.
* The play ''Stage Door'' by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber had so little in common with the movie nominally adapted from it that Kaufman joked that the movie might as well have changed its title to ''Screen Door''. The movie's vast changes in characterization, plot and dialogue (barely any of the play's lines were retained) were [http://zvbxrpl.blogspot.com/2005/03/calla-lilies-are-in-bloom-again.html arguably for the better].
* The 1999 adaptation of ''[[Mansfield Park]]''. They didn't like the book, so they converted the [[Extreme Doormat]] protagonist to a [[Deadpan Snarker]] [[Plucky Girl]], peppered with some "[[Anvilicious|subtle]]" hints on slavery, and crowned the whole with a dose of [[Ho Yay|Les Yay]].
* The movie adaptation of Andzej Sapkowski's Witcher books had little if any resemblance to the source material and many fans have decided to simply deny its existence. The later video games are much more faithful.
* The film ''Saint Sinner'' had nothing to do with the [[Clive Barker]] comic book series.
* [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[Alice in Wonderland (film)|Alice in Wonderland]]''. [[Lewis Carroll]] fans' general reaction to it is "Off with his head". Just go onto the "Movies" subforum of Lenny's Alice in Wonderland site if you need proof. The only way it resembles the books is that it has a girl called Alice in it...and some characters who are only vaguely like the ones she encountered in the books...and that's about it.
* ''[[Doom (film)|Doom]]'' has very little in common with [[Doom (series)|the game series]] it is supposedly based on other than the title. Both the games and the movie feature humans on Mars trying to repel a sudden outbreak of horrific monsters whose origins are initially unknown. The name of the [[Mega Corp|Evil Corporation]] responsible for the outbreak is the same, but that's where the similarities end. When the origin of the monsters is eventually revealed, it is completely different than the games, being more akin to [[Resident Evil|another video game series featuring similar monsters]].
** Even the monsters themselves (at least, the three types of them that actually appear in the movie) qualify for this trope. Though they do vaguely resemble their counterparts from the games as far as their physical appearances are concerned, the behaviour they display is noticeably different and they possess none of the signature abilities that their game counterparts have.
** AFAIK the original script was closer to the game, ''Doom 3'' at least, but the idea of opening a gateway to Hell was not considered acceptable for a mainstream film, so it was hastily [[retcon]]ned to be genetic engineering gone wrong.
* The 2005 movie adaptation of ''[[The War of the Worlds (2005 film)|The War of the Worlds]]'' features Earth being attacked by hostile aliens in three-legged "tripod" machines. After all the human military's attempted counterattacks are ineffective, the aliens are ultimately defeated by illness due to their immune systems not being able to cope with Earth's bacteria. Beyond that, it has nothing in common with [[H. G. Wells]]'s [[The War of the Worlds (novel)|original novel]]. Most notably, the movie is set in the United States in the early 21st century instead of the novel's late 19th century England and the aliens are never stated to be Martians in the movie as they are in the novel.
* There have been many modern day film adaptations of Shakespeare plays which may or may not retain the original play's title. These films typically follow roughly the same plot as the original play, but have next to nothing in common with it beyond that. They are usually set in the modern day United States as opposed to England during Shakespeare's time period and most of the characters have completely different names.
* The sequel to ''[[Pure Country]]'' shares literally no characters or actors with the first film.
* The upcoming movie adaptation of ''[[World War Z]]'' [http://io9.com/5830389/world-war-z-movie-synopsis-is-nothing-like-the-book-internet-melts-down is shaping up] to be an example of this.
* [[The Saint]]: Val Kilmer plays a character with the same name as the classic character created by Leslie Charteris, but Kilmer's character is an angsty,semi-OCD, nonentity. [[And That's Terrible]].
** The character is specifically said to have been inspired by Charteris's stories, which are [[Recursive Canon]] within the movie.
* ''[[The Wild Geese|Wild Geese II]]'' features no actors (or even ''characters''!) from the original, and also is in a different genre.
* [[Neil Gaiman]] used to tell a story about receiving a prospective script for a [[The Sandman|Sandman]] movie. Near the beginning, he read a scene in which the title character is attacked by soldiers while declaring "[[Puny Earthlings|Puny humans!]] Your weapons have no effect on Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams!" Gaiman then put the script down and refused to read another word.
* In Argentina, there's a pornographic film called ''Pollémon'', leading one to believe that it's a Pokémon porno spoof. The film's cover even advertises, ''"Vive las fascinantes aventuras de Pollachu!"'' ("Live the fascinating adventures of Pollachu!") If you were expecting to see someone in a poorly-designed Pikachu costume, Team Rocket, or anything else having to do with Pokémon, well... let's just say you'll be PRETTY disappointed.
* Neither the [[The Three Musketeers (1993 film)|1993]] nor the [[The Three Musketeers (2011 film)|2011]] versions of ''The Three Musketeers'' were at all like [[The Three Musketeers (novel)|the book]]. In particular, the 2011 film [[Anachronism Stew|had a]] ''[[Anachronism Stew|zeppelin]]'' [[Anachronism Stew|in 1630s France]].
** Not just one zepplin, but ''an entire battle sequence'' between two flying ships over Notre Dame [[Sarcasm Mode|which we all remember from the novel]]. At least one of those flying ships also had a flamethrower and a machine gun, and let's not get started on the ending when an [[Sequel Hook|entire fleet of these flying ships is preparing to invade England]]. [[Sarcasm Mode|After all, that's where the book's sequel]] ''[[The Man in the Iron Mask (1998 film)|The Man in the Iron Mask]]'' [[Sarcasm Mode|began]].
* The live-action film version of ''[[Aeon Flux]]'' had nothing in common with the TV series except for three character names, a couple of prop designs, and that it involved an [[Action Girl]]. The creator of the TV show has been complaining ever since.
** Interestingly, the video game is actually a wonderfully faithful adaptation of the cartoon, despite being produced as a tie-in for the movie.
* ''[[X-Men: First Class|X Men First Class]]'' has nothing to do with the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|comic book of the same name]] and features entirely different origins for many of the characters. Despite this, the movie was very well-received by critics and was a hit at the box office. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|In this case, the extreme liberties taken with the source material arguably made for a more successful film.]]
* ''[[Peter Benchley's Creature]]'' is almost completely different from the book its based on. Several characters have the same names from the book, but there is no guarantee that they will have the same personality, [[Race Lift]], or role. It has a completely different setting and backstory. Even the titular creature is completely different (the only similarities they have are that they are humanoid amphibious creatures, but {{spoiler|one is a scientifically modified human with steal claws and teeth and one is a genetically engineered shark with human DNA.}}) While some scenes from the book survived for the adaptation (often heavily edited), they are spliced in all over the place and interspersed with completely made up subplots. To top it all off, it really doesn't even share the name. The original novel was called [[White Shark]], but was renamed for [[The Movie]]. The original novel was retroactively renamed [[Peter Benchley's Creature]]. Although, that said, it wasn't really that bad of a movie....
* [[Steel (film)|The film version]] of [[Steel]] cuts all Superman references apart from the title character wearing a Superman tattoo...which is unintentional, since Shaquille O'Neal, who plays the title character, already had it.
* The 1960 film of ''[[Pollyanna]]'' has the title character, the Glad Game, something of the setup, and a few character names/traits in common with the book. The plot, much of the characterization, and some of the side plots are entirely different.
* The comic book [[The Spirit]] is about a [[Badass Normal]] with no powers, who is a [[Celibate Hero]] that gets nervous around women and wears an ugly, off the rack blue and white suit. ''[[The Spirit (film)|The Spirit]]'' is about a revived dead guy with a [[Healing Factor]], who is a [[Handsome Lech]] in a stylish, tailored, black-on-black suit.
** And his enemy, the Octopus, is an intimidating and powerful gangster obsessed with not letting anyone see his face. In the film, he's a lower-tier scientist with ambitions of godhood who is incredibly vain and showoffy about his good looks. It's like they were trying to do the exact opposite of the comics.
*** The irony? [[Will Eisner]] gave the rights to Michael Uslan, the producer, on the understanding that Uslan wouldn't give the project to anyone who 'Didn't get it'. There were further ironies in the fact that [[Frank Miller]] was a big fan of Eisner, one of Eisner's friends, and showed himself to be capable of understanding the concept of The Spirit as indicated by his Daredevil work.
* [[Hype Williams]], a hip hop video director, took a shot at directing a movie in 1998. The result was ''Belly''. Now it may not have won any oscars due to a mediocre plot, but the film became a cult classic with it's distinctive narrative and visual style that Williams videos were known for. Eight years later, Millionaire Boyz Club was finished and ready to be released straight to DVD. This movie has no connection to Belly whatsoever. For reasons unknown to even the actors, the film was released as Belly 2: Millionaire Boyz Club. The original film featured heavy [[Music Video Syndrome]] (specifically videos Hype Williams directed), narration from the main character, themes of self destruction, knowledge of self, redemption, salvation, albeit done very sloppy in terms of writing, and dropped many anvils towards the end. This "sequel" had a completely different cast and director, none of the themes of the first film, and lacked the visual style and narrative that the first film was known for.
** The title change may also have suffered from [[Comically Missing the Point]]. The title "Belly" was meant to mean "Belly of the Beast". The "Beast" supposedly meaning the evil of men, or in this case the evils of the ghetto (drugs, alcohol, violence, etc). The second film however was a cookie cutter "gangsta' flick" that glorified every tired cliche used in 'hood movies.
*** Ironically enough, a true sequel titled "Beast" was supposed to be released around the same time as Millionaire Boyz Club, and was meant to follow up on the two main characters since the last film. This was either scrapped or put on the shelf. The main cause was of course the many legal troubles of one of it's main actors, [[DMX]].
* Other than being about twenty-somethings entering a program to go undercover in a high school, does ''[[21 Jump Street (film)|Twenty One Jump Street]]'' have anything to do with [[21 Jump Street (TV series)|the show of the same name]]? It might has well been called ''[[Never Been Kissed]] Goes Undercover''.
* [http://www.cracked.com/article_18985_5-insane-early-drafts-famous-movie-characters.html Scroll down to number four in this list.] Yes, that's right, ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' would've been an In Name Only [[What Could Have Been|(and a pretty damn epic one, too)]] adaptation of the books if it weren't for [[Executive Meddling]].
* The Korean film ''[[Hansel and Gretel (film)|Hansel and Gretel]]'' borrows some concepts from the original tale but overall it's a completely different story.
* The film version of ''[[Black Butler (film)|Black Butler]]'' takes from the original manga half of a premise and some general concepts. The main character is turned into a girl, and the location is changed from Victorian England to near-future Asia. The movie also paraphrases some of the most dramatic lines from the manga, but freely changes the situation, delivery, and even the deliverer, so that every time this occurs, the effect is decidedly different from how it was in the original. For example, some lines that were said by a character who had just been turned temporarily [[Laughing Mad]] by a dramatic revelation are in the film said calmly at home in response to nothing in particular. Things like that. It goes on.
* The Disney film ''[[Bedknobs and Broomsticks]]'' has nothing at all in common with the original books by [[Mary Norton]] (usually printed in an omnibus editions under the title ''Bedknob and Broomstick'') save for the names of the characters, the fact that Miss Price is a witch, and the children are [[Blitz Evacuees]].  There is ''nothing'' else left of the original stories.
* The 2015 ''Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle'' is not even remotely an adaption of the ''[[Tom Swift]]'' novel of the same name. Instead, it's a documentary about the TASER and TASER International (since renamed "Axon Enterprise" after its body camera product), whose name derives from the book ("Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle"). Presumably this and licensing is why it was later renamed to ''Killing Them Safely''.

== Live-Action TV ==
* [[Super Sentai]] in Korea is named Power Rangers instead of the [[Super Sentai]] names of the series that air there.
** Especially [[Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger]] and [[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]] which aired as Power Rangers Dino Thunder and Power Rangers S.P.D. (the same name as their Power Rangers counterparts) despite not actually being those series.
* In-Universe: In one episode of ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'', some film execs buy the rights to one of Jessica's novels merely so they can use its title for a crappy slasher film.
* The series ''[[Poltergeist: The Legacy]]'' shares nothing in common with its namesake, the ''[[Poltergeist (film series)|Poltergeist]]'' films.
* ''[[Mad TV]]'' bore no resemblance at all to [[Mad|the magazine]] that is its namesake. For the first few seasons, there were ''Spy vs Spy'' cartoons in every episode, but even those were eventually removed.
* [[Japanese Spider-Man]]: He looked like [[Spider-Man]] and had the same powers, but he was more a [[toku]]satsu superhero (in fact being '''the''' predecessor for ''[[Super Sentai]]'''s [[Humongous Mecha]] elements) than a comic book superhero. He had a wrist-worm transformation device (although it merely stored the Spider-Man suit in this case), a Spider car (technically the comic had one too, but it was totally different and short lived), his webshooters were voice activated (he would shout ''Spider String!'') and last but not least, he had a ''[[Humongous Mecha]]''. Yeah. Imagine Peter "constantly strapped for cash" Parker being able to to buy, repair, refuel and run general maintenance on a robot the size of a skyscraper.
** Never the less, [[Stan Lee]] was actually involved in the production, and has said several times that he thought the series was excellent, even praising its creativity (and thus its deviance from the character ''he created''). There's an interview with him on the Japanese DVD box set.
*** Apparently, [[Stan Lee]] is not too familiar with Japanese media. While the [[Humongous Mecha|battle mechas]] would be seen as creative at the time, seeing how Spider-Man was the first too do that, everything else, from the transformation device to most of the plot, seems to be copied straight from [[Himitsu Sentai Goranger]] and [[JAKQ Dengekitai]], two show which were already released at the time.
** This was likely Lee's first exposure to Japanese Tokusastu as Marvel would later produce [[Battle Fever J]] and Lee would later attempt to unsuccessfully bring [[Super Sentai]] to America
* Slightly averted case: In the 1980s, an American production company approached [[John Cleese]] with the intention of remaking ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'' for an American audience. When he asked them about it, they told him they'd only made one slight change from the original; they'd removed the character of Basil Fawlty. They end up making it, without the Basil Fawlty character, but changed the name right before air. It was called ''Amanda's'' and it starred [[Bea Arthur]].
* ''[[Friday the 13th: The Series]]'' was unrelated to the [[Friday the 13th (film)|film series]], and despite common rumor there were never any plans to have Jason appear on the show or feature his mask as one of the artifacts. The films get a small [[Shout-Out]] in the episode "Crippled Inside" though, where the song the rocker chick from ''Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan'' plays on her guitar can be heard on the radio.
* The 2001 revival of ''[[Card Sharks]]'' had contestants predict whether cards were higher or lower than each other... but other than that? Where were the survey questions? The second player's row of cards? And what the hell are Clip Chips?!!? It quickly got the [[Fan Nickname]] of "CaSINO", an [[Fun with Acronyms|acronym]] for "'''Ca'''rd '''S'''harks '''I'''n '''N'''ame '''O'''nly".
* ''[[The Electric Company]]'': Its 2009 "revival" has almost nothing in common with its predecessor but its name! Bad enough they threw in a "they fight crime with superpowers" motif, that has little, if anything to do with phonics, but they even ruined the softshoe silhouettes. Why even bother calling it ''The Electric Company''?
* As the series went on ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' kept moving further and further away from its [[Robin Hood|source material]]. By the time Tuck shows up (black, fit, not a Friar and pontificating on the "idea of Robin Hood" instead of spiritual matters) and Robin Hood is paired up with a whiny village girl called Kate instead of Maid Marian, you begin to wonder what the point was.
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'': Take everything you thought you knew about Arthurian Legend and throw it out the window. Arthur is a Prince right from the start, there's a dragon under the castle, Merlin is Arthur's servant who is around his age rather than much older, magic is outlawed, Morgana is not a villain, Gwen is dark-skinned... Then again, the [[King Arthur|Arthurian Mythos]] has been doing this with every iteration of King Arthur since before the written word, so it's tradition.
** As of series 3, Morgana is, in fact, a villain - and, to be fair about that, the seeds of her [[Face Heel Turn]] were planted with the introduction of Mordred in series 1.
** For further deviations from previous versions, however, a number of the named Knights of the Round Table are killed off over the course of the series, well before the Round Table is formed. (EG: Owain and Pellinore at the hands of the Black Knight.)
* ''[[Legend of the Seeker]],'' while not technically bearing the same name as ''[[The Sword of Truth]],'' is very much in the spirit of this Trope. The series is "based" on the first book, ''Wizard's First Rule'', but past the first half of the pilot episode, you can basically take everything you remember from the book and just stop expecting any of it to match. There are a ton of characters that share the same names but have completely different appearances, attitudes and role, and while there are a few episodes that are closer to chapters in the book than others, overall most fans of the book who watch it would be sorely disappointed. Anyone who hasn't read the book or just doesn't care about the changes might enjoy it, though... if they could get past the campy fantasy stereotypes.
** Given that the first book's [[Big Bad]] is killed (rather anticlimactically and ''not'' by the protagonist) at the end of the first season, and the Zedd reveals the second wizard's rule at the beginning of the second season, it can be assumed that the show's creators hoped to have a book-per-season sort of deal. This leaves the viewers (even those who haven't read the books) wanting, when each season is quickly wrapped up in a single episode. Oh, and {{spoiler|Rahl}} gets better in the second season.
** Some of the changes were simply pragmatic. For example, the likeliest reason why {{spoiler|Darken Rahl is Richard's brother instead of father}} is that {{spoiler|Craig Parker (Rahl) is not much older than Craig Horner (Richard)}}.
** Some of the differences from the book, at least, received some nods in the show, such as one of the biggest complaints by the fans of the books that Rahl doesn't have white hair in the show. The flashbacks in season 2 reveal that Panis Rahl, his father, had white hair.
* The ITV/AMC remake of ''[[The Prisoner]]'' bears only the faintest resemblance to the original—it occurs in a place called The Village, the hero is called Number Six and the villain is called Number Two, and that's about it. The underlying premise is almost ''totally'' different.
** Given how unique the original version was, making an In Name Only version with some of the same inspirations and preoccupations was truer to the original spirit than a slavish remake would have been. Unfortunately, it wasn't awesome enough to deserve to carry the name.
* The 2010 ''[[Human Target]]'' TV show shares the title and the name of the main character. That's about it. Just like in the title sample, you get the feeling that they had a bodyguard show lying around waiting for a name.
* In the early nineties, a fifty-ish [[Terrence Hill]] starred in the Italian movie and following TV-series ''[[Lucky Luke]]'', about a gunfighter in [[The Wild West]] with a [[Badass Longcoat]], dressed entirely in white, who took up a job as sheriff in Daisy Town. The whole thing looked as if someone had read the back-cover of a Lucky Luke comic and based everything around that.
* In 2011, NBC made a pilot for a ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' TV series. Their version of Wondy is a vigilante who commits assault, battery, slander, [[Cold-Blooded Torture]], and dozens of other crimes all in the name of doing "[[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right|what's right]]"—all while telling the authorities (including the police and the US government) to smooch her backside. Also, her civilian identity admits that she's Wonder Woman while being the head of a corporation that sells Wonder Woman merchandise ([[Merchandise-Driven|her costume was specifically designed to sell toys]]), even getting into an argument over how big the boobs are on her action figure in one scene. In short, the character is more like the worst parts of [[Batman]] and [[Iron Man]] rolled into one and has absolutely nothing to do with William Moulton Marston's character.
* [[The New Monkees]], It's a musical/comedy starring a band, made up of four cute boys selected by the shows' creators; the similarities to [[The Monkees (TV series)|the classic series]] end there.
* The live-action version of Spanish children's books ''Manolito Gafotas''. The eponymous [[Kid Hero]] was [[Demoted to Extra]], his [[Ensemble Darkhorse|popular little brother]] even more so, and much of the plot centered on his parents and neighbours, most of which were bit players on the novels. In particular, Manolito's dad and his godfather became [[Ascended Extra]]s, getting even more role than ''Manolito himself'' at times. Oh, and the plots of the novels were all but ignored. In short, it was basically a generic Spanish [[Sitcom]] with the names of the ''Manolito Gafotas'' cast.
* Amazon tried to create a ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' prequel ''without'' legally licensing the content of ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]'' or ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', using only the appendices of the trilogy. The result, ''[[The Rings of Power]]'', has almost nothing to do with the history of the world beyond some names (most belonging to characters whose lifespans didn't overlap).

== Music ==
* [[Guns N' Roses]]. Actually, they have been In Name Only since 1985, two months after LA Guns and Hollywood Rose merged, when Axl Rose fired all the former LA Guns members (making the name of the band confusing) and replaced them with Slash, Duff McKagan, and Steven Adler. And now it is ''that'' band In Name Only, because, except for [[Face of the Band]] Rose, everyone in that lineup left the band by 1997; and besides, the band's style shifted more toward industrial metal than plain old hard rock.
* Pretty much ''any'' instrumental mix of a song which remains credited to the original singer, even when that person had no artistic input beyond their singing in the first place (which, of course, no longer appears!) Examples might include [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMDnA--eocc this] vocal-less mix of [[Kylie Minogue]]'s early hit "I Should Be So Lucky" (back when she was still a puppet of the Stock Aitken Waterman "hit factory"); she neither wrote, nor apparently appears on this mix of the song, but it's still credited to her(!)
* [[Underworld (band)|Underworld]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fr1x-N3-k8 "Born Slippy"] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlLWFa1b1Bc "Born Slippy.NUXX"] are two completely different songs. The latter became much more popular, [["Grand Theft Auto" Effect|due to being featured in the film]] ''[[Trainspotting]]''.
* All remixes of The Vengaboys - Kiss (When The Sun Don't Shine), the best known of which is the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMSzK-K38eQ&feature=fvst Airscape remix].
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB615_Ksvd0 Alice Deejay - The Lonely One (Airscape remix)]. The only connection is that Airscape also co-produced [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5eIrLsOdew the original version].
* The "Inferno Mix" of Xorcist's "Scorched Blood" sounds nothing like the original.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX-PoUAqNY0 Cygnus X's remix] of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXFwOjm0_MU The Art of Trance - Madagascar], which is the basis for most subsequent remixes, uses almost no material from the original version.
* Most [[Velvet Underground]] fans consider ''Squeeze'' to be this, especially since none of the original members - especially core songwriter Lou Reed - play on it.
* The 2008 reformation of Captain Jack bears no resemblance musically to their predecessors. (Francisco Gutierrez, the original [[Face of the Band]], passed away in 2005)
* [[Queen]] + Paul Rodgers on ''The Cosmos Rocks''. Might as well have been called 'Paul Rodgers, and two ex-members of Queen were at the studio that day'.
* In 2010 or so, [[ACDC]] released a compilation CD of several of their existing songs. It's called the ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]] 2'' soundtrack, apparently because the director likes AC/DC. Only two of the songs on the CD are in the movie (one was in the first one).
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7JZTLfntKI This is Steve Nalepa's "Monday".] And [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtnVduIY75Y this is The Glitch Mob's remix of it.] Other than the riff at the beginning, the two have very little in common.
* The recent reformation of Hole... with only [[Courtney Love]] as an original member. Her former partner [http://grungereport.net/?p=30 was much critical.]
* A rare case of a singer In Name Only-ing his own song. Ike Reilly's "Duty Free" was covered by Cracker. Reilly then re-wrote the song, keeping only the opening line and part of the chorus the same for his album "Salesmen and Racists."
* [[Insane Poetry]] was once a group consisting of three rappers and a DJ. One of the rappers, Cyco, continues to release music under the name Insane Poetry even though the group has pretty much disbanded.
* The group Gregorian is closest to its namesake in that it's a choral group. Their music involves harmony and full instrumentation, neither of which are involved in true Gregorian chanting.
* [[Red House Painters]]' fifth album, ''Songs For A Blue Guitar'' was originally supposed to be a solo Mark Kozelek effort, but when 4AD dropped Kozelek and his project and he got picked up by Island Records, he was pressured into renaming it to a Red House Painters effort. What listeners were treated to was something so vastly removed from the nightmarish, stark textures of the first 4 albums that the album was only lukewarmly received at first. Many were a little jarred to hear Mark suddenly singing slightly more upbeat, borderline [[Southern Rock]] songs with some minor folk influences. The album has warmed up in overall opinion, though.


== New Media ==
* There is a ''[[Flash Gordon (comic strip)|Flash Gordon]]'' comics series available for the iPhone, and probably other portables. Flash is a former CIA operative, and Dale a current one; they know each other from the Agency, and Dr. Zarkohv is a close friend of Flash. He's also considered a terrorist, and believed to be creating WMDs.
* [[Invoked Trope|Linkara has evoked it]] in ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'' more than once; Bearded Idiot for '[[Superman: At Earth's End|Superman]]' and Crazy Steve for '[[All Star Batman and Robin|Batman]]' stand out.
* In computing, there is a technology called "Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Disks" (RAID). One version, RAID 0, has no redundancy (which makes it extremely vulnerable to one drive error ruining the entire array, kind of defeating the purpose of a RAID, which is to set up multiple physical drives as a single logical array, wherein a single error does not necessarily mean a failure of the array).


== Professional Wrestling ==
* Some [[Professional Wrestling]] fans refer to [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'s [[ECW]] revival as ECW In Name Only, due to the fact that it seems completely opposite from the old ECW in terms of atmosphere, storyline tone, wrestling style, and talent level. Others [[Fanon Discontinuity|don't even give it that level of respect]].
** WWECW is another popular name for it.
* [[TNA|Total Nonstop Action Wrestling]]. The company seemingly embodies this trope increasingly by the day.
** The ultimate kicker here was on October 14, 2010, where there was so much emphasis on {{spoiler|putting over [[Hulk Hogan]]'s Immortal faction [[The Reveal|revealed]] at ''Bound For Glory'' as [[The Illuminati]]}} that in the first hour of ''Impact'' only {{spoiler|ten seconds of wrestling}} had occurred. That number expanded to {{spoiler|nine minutes}} by the end of ''Impact'', and {{spoiler|20 total minutes of wrestling}} within the full three-hour block of ''Impact'' and ''ReAction''.


== Radio ==
* The 1940s radio series, ''The Weird Circle'' specialized in Book-To-Radio adaptations that had nothing in common with the source material other than the titles.


== Religion ==
* This is [[Older Than Feudalism]]. [[The Bible|Jesus warned]] that people would pretend to serve Him, but actually be forging His signature on their own self-will. Talk about [[Harsher in Hindsight]].


== Sports ==
* As the old VFL expanded to become the [[Australian Rules Football|Australian Football League]], most of the Melbourne-based teams lost their links to the suburbs whose names they bear. Collingwood, Hawthorn, and St Kilda no longer have any connection to their original home suburbs, and the other local grounds are only used for training and social purposes. Also, the Brisbane Bears were originally based 70 miles from Brisbane, and their mascot was a koala ([[Artistic License: Biology|Koalas are not bears]]). They have since moved to actually play in Brisbane, and merged with Fitzroy to be known as the Lions.


== Tabletop Games ==
* This has been many fans' conclusion regarding several editions of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. There is a relatively natural progression from the original game to AD&D 2nd edition (with gradually increasing complexity and the quiet removal of the original creator's name from the book), but then D&D 3.0 adopts entirely new skill, magic, and monster rules, while 4th Edition scraps most older concepts save for ability scores to make a game that plays much differently. Thematically, however, each game remains a story of heroes and dragons and orcs and treasure.
** Meanwhile, [[Hackmaster]] (which started as a parody game inside a comic book) has continued the progression that AD&D 2e left off with, and Pathfinder is so close to D&D 3.5 that it's often just referred to as v3.75.
** It's worse with the settings. 3.x era have seen some cringe-worthy shenanigans and slide of the lore into [[Running the Asylum|fanfic-grade cheap gasps]] ([[Forgotten Realms]] fans use the abbreviation RSE for "Realms-Shaking Event") and [[No Except Yes|indecisive]] mumbling (look what happened to [[Planescape]]). [[Margaret Weis]] fed up and left even before that.
*** And above and beyond this stands 4e [[Forgotten Realms]], which is more of an unrelated setting of "[[Executive Meddling|That's How ''I'' Think]] The MMO-friendly Generic D&D Should Be" with some names from FR reused (which is meta-unoriginal, as [[Eberron]] crew did this one already), which was sold with a fig leaf on top shaped as a few novels, [[Idiot Plot|insulting the readers' intelligence]] and done by the invited writers who demonstrably never cared about FR lore enough to ''ask'' its authors for details.


== Video Games ==
* Variant: There really are video game adaptations where a developer takes a license, takes an existing game, and [[Dolled-Up Installment|just changes sprites in the original game based off the license]]. (Incidentally, this did ''not'' apply to the ''Nightmare on Elm Street'' game.)
* When Data East picked up the license to ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'', all they did with it was take the Japanese arcade game ''Maze Hunter G'' and replace the heroes and powerups with ''Ghostbusters''-related themes, before releasing it to the States. Nothing else in the game involves the Ghostbusters.
* ''[[Red Steel 2]]'', a sequel to ''[[Red Steel]]'', features vastly different settings, characters and artwork to the point of almost being a different franchise.
** [[Tropes Are Tools|Note that this is a good thing.]]
* Opinion is divided as to whether ''[[Command & Conquer]] Generals'' fits this trope or not. While a good game in its own right, it's noticeably lacking in the ''C&C'' series' hallmarks, being closely based on [[Age of Empires]] and Blizzard's -craft games.
* ''[[Breath of Fire]]: Dragon Quarter'' is ''Breath of Fire'' In Name Only, sharing almost nothing with its predecessors, apart from the spell nomenclature and character names. As per series tradition, the two central protagonists are named Ryu and Nina; the other two, Bosch and Lin, take their names from Bosch and [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Rinpoo]] from ''[[Breath of Fire]] II''.
** Fans have actually argued that Dragon Quarter is actually in the same canon, or rather takes centuries after ''Breath of Fire III'', which was all about Technology advancing the world.
* The ''[[Makai Toushi SaGa]] Final Fantasy Legend'' and ''[[Final Fantasy Adventure]]'' games. They were actually entirely different series (''[[SaGa]]'' and ''[[Mana (series)|Seiken Densetsu]]'', respectively) that were renamed for American consumption (although to be fair, ''Adventure'' was subtitled ''Final Fantasy [[Gaiden Game]]''.
* The NES version of ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' was advertised as being based on the "No. 1 Arcade Smash Hit", despite the fact that it was not a port, but a parallel project developed at the same time. The two games barely resembled each other aside for their vaguely similar premises (a ninja travels to America to fight his enemies) and a very similar setting for the first stage.
** The Xbox games are also completely different from the NES games, although they're stated to be prequels.
** ''Ninja Gaiden Shadow'' was a [[Dolled-Up Installment|modified]] [[Game Boy]] port of Natsume's NES game ''Shadow of the Ninja''.
* ''[[Ultima IX]]'' is so far removed from the other games in the series, that most fans consider it to be non-canonical.
* ''[[Quake II]]'' and its sequels have nothing to do with ''[[Quake (video game)|Quake I]]'' whatsoever, apart from all being [[First-Person Shooter|first person shooters]]. "''Quake II''" was originally just the game's working title, until id Software found themselves unable to find a different name they could use that wasn't already trademarked. ''IV'' is a direct sequel to ''II'', at least.
** There's also ''[[Enemy Territory: Quake Wars|Enemy Territory Quake Wars]]'', which is a ''prequel'' to ''II''. Furthermore, that game is a ''gameplay'' sequel to ''Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory'', despite taking place in the Strogg arc initiated by ''II''.
** ''[[Quake III Arena]]'' and its [[Expansion Pack]], ''Quake III: Team Arena'', fit this trope as well. Despite having similar weapons and some of the first two ''Quake'''s characters ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|and]] [[Doom (series)|the Doomguy]]), the most story connection you get is an [[All There in the Manual]] quip that the greatest warriors in the world have been teleported to an "Arena" to do battle for the amusement of a [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]]. Likewise, while the first two placed a large amount of focus on their single-player campaigns, ''Quake 3'' went all-out multiplayer. All of this is by-and-large because it was made as a competitor for ''[[Unreal Tournament]]''.
* The ''[[Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance|Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance]]'' games are ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldurs Gate]]'', and indeed ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' games, in name only. They're really ''[[Diablo (series)|Diablo]]'' with the serial numbers filed off.
* After [[Infocom]], the undisputed master of [[Interactive Fiction]] text adventures in the 1980s, went under, Activision released a CD-ROM graphic adventure called ''Return to Zork'', which had very little resemblance to the original [[Zork]] games outside the title. All the references to characters, items, and places from the original Zork universe sound painfully forced, as if the makers of the game [[Did Not Do the Research]] and just randomly took names and used them to fill in blanks in dialogue.
** Activision went on to release another two Zork games, ''Nemesis'' and ''Grand Inquisitor'', both of which were much better than ''Return to Zork'', were properly researched and (with a few exceptions) tied in nicely to the old games. Activision even promoted ''Grand Inquisitor'' by releasing a freeware [[Interactive Fiction]] Zork game, ''The Undiscovered Underground'', written by one of the original creators of Zork.
* The 2007 ''[[Shadowrun (2007 video game)|Shadowrun]]''.
* ''[[King's Quest: Mask of Eternity|King's Quest Mask of Eternity]]'', whose only connection to the previous installments is being ostensibly set in the same location, and a couple of cameos.
** However, there is still a [[Shout-Out]] in ''Silver Lining'', with more to be expected. (If the player tries to have King Graham grab something he can't reach, the narrator says, "Tis Beyond his REACH!" in a way similar to Connor in ''Mask of Eternity'').
* ''[[Phantasy Star Online]]'' is ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' In Name Only, for most critical points and purposes, not in the slightest connected to the Algol star system, setting for or at least critical element every previous game (including even basically disconnected side games). Then again, {{spoiler|Dark Force being ''dead for good'' in the last game kind of sealed that plot line - and the obvious way out was ''already'' explored to its end one game previous}}. Phantasy Star Universe, in turn, is ''both'' Phantasy Star Online In Name and Some Mechanics Only, and Phantasy Star In Name Only, with a muchly new setting.
** Though it was originally intended for ''Phantasy Star Online'' to be connected to the original series. The derelict starship that makes up the Ruins level was supposed to be the remains of the Alisa 3, the ship from ''Phantasy Star III''. This idea was dropped in development.
*** ''Phantasy Star Online'' and ''Phantasy Star Universe'' are in fact in the same universe, with characters and locations in the former appearing as virtual reality records in the latter.
* While some ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' games are actually direct sequels or prequels (The first three) as well as being related by other games (Monsters has Kiefer from ''VII'' star), most are pretty much In Name Only. Sans a few passing references or plot devices (Zenithia). ''VII'' and above go even further from any form of semblance to the previous games, unless you count the legacy bosses and DLC of ''[[Dragon Quest IX]]'' to count.
* ''[[Fallout Brotherhood of Steel]]'' is ''[[Fallout]]'' In Name Only. Interplay took a clone of their ''[[Dark Alliance]]'' console action games and slapped on the name of their ground-breaking series of open-world [[RPG]]s.
* [http://pc.ign.com/articles/922/922038p1.html As noted by the IGN reviewer], the plot of ''[[Far Cry]] 2'' is not connected to that of ''[[Far Cry]]'', although he also notes that this does not detract from its merits.
** The [[Expanded Universe]] novels try to [[Retcon]] this by introducing a character that ''supposedly'' served as a mentor to both the protagonist and [[Far Cry|Jack Carver]]. Riiiiiight.
** The developers themselves have discussed this in interviews. Apparently, rather than intending the game as a sequel in ''plot'', they intended it as a sequel in ''[[Spiritual Successor|style]]'', expanding upon and improving the mechanics of the original game. One wonders whether this will turn into the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' of shooters.
* ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]: Magna Cum Laude'' and ''Box Office Bust'' are mostly a separate series from the Al Lowe series, apart from being set in the same world. The Larry here is different (though related to the previous one), the gameplay is completely different, and the connections to the Al Lowe games feel sort of tacked on.
* An ongoing [[Broken Base|fandom debate]] revolves around whether ''[[Silent Hill 4]]: The Room'' is such a sequel, as it was originally intended as a separate title. On the one hand, Team Silent did make the game; it was turned into a ''[[Silent Hill]]'' project early in development, and there's no denying the similar concepts and atmosphere. On the other hand, most of the in-depth story connections to the rest of the series were only added later via an [[All There in the Manual|official Konami website]], in [[No Export for You|Japanese]], making their canonical value debatable.
** ''[[Silent Hill: Downpour|Silent Hill Downpour]]'' is getting this treatment by the fans as well, due mostly to the fact that composer Akira Yamaoka is not working on the game. Rumors of a [[Wide Open Sandbox]] level design doesn't help, when one thinks of the claustrophobic atmosphere of earlier games.
** However, none of this holds a candle to [[Silent Hill (comics)|the comic book adaptation]]. As [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] put it, all it shares is the name of the town and a monster list.
* The EA FPS ''[[GoldenEye: Rogue Agent]]'' was seen by many as a weak attempt to capitalize on the much revered ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|Golden Eye 1997]] 007'' for the [[Nintendo 64]]: the only connection to the movie/game is the presence of Xenia Onatopp and the "Uplink" multiplayer level. The only justification for the name "GoldenEye" is that you play as a [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|rogue MI6 agent]] that gets his eye shot out and is given a golden prosthetic replacement by [[The Man with the Golden Gun|Francisco Scaramanga]]. The rest of the game involves you being a pawn in a war between [[Goldfinger|Auric Goldfinger]] and [[Dr. No]] and fighting a bunch of iconic [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] villains in a pretty generic FPS. The only appearance by Bond lasts 10 seconds and is revealed to be a simulation.
** Averted when they remade the ''movie'' ''[[GoldenEye (film)|GoldenEye]]'', [[GoldenEye 007 (2010 video game)|as a video game for Wii]], with [[Daniel Craig]] [[The Other Darrin|replacing]] [[Pierce Brosnan]] as 007, and a generic unknown actor replacing [[Sean Bean]] as 006 as well as making it easier by allowing the player to regenerate health a la ''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' instead of using body armor.
* ''[[Total Annihilation Kingdoms]]'' was nothing like ''Total Annihilation'' at all. Different universe, different playstyles... everything except the graphics engine was completely different.
* Is [[Rayman]] even '''in''' the ''[[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|Raving Rabbids]]'' games?
** Some people believe he's the one shooting the rabbids.
** [[Michel Ancel]] took note of that fact when making ''Rabbids Go Home'', an adventure game for once, Rayman-less.
* ''[[Alundra 2: A New Legend Begins|Alundra 2]]'' has nothing to do with [[Alundra|the original.]]
* ''Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight'' was a futuristic platform game for the NES that really didn't have much to do with the original ''[[Street Fighter (video game)|Street Fighter]]'' other than its title. The localization team attempted to establish a connection by claiming that the main character Kevin, a cyborg policeman, was actually Ken from the first ''Street Fighter'' 25 years in the future.
** It also has nothing to do with ''[[Final Fight]]'' either.
* ''[[Contra (video game series)|Contra Force]]'' for the NES is a localization of an unreleased-in-Japan Famicom game titled ''Arc Hound''. The game has nothing to do with the rest of the ''Contra'' series, being set in present times with human enemies instead of aliens. The American localization of ''Contra III'' for the SNES did try to make a connection by establishing in the manual that the first stage of the game was actually Neo City, the setting of ''Contra Force''.
* The [[Game Boy Advance]] version of ''[[Shinobi|The Revenge of Shinobi]]'' has absolutely nothing to do with the original [[Sega Genesis]] game and is pretty much a generic Ninja game with ''Shinobi'' on the title.
* ''[[Shining Force]] Neo'' and Shining Force EXA for the [[PlayStation 2|PS2]] don't have anything in common gameplay-wise with previous Shining Force games; they're [[Action RPG]]s. Although the Shining series consists of installments with varying gameplay styles (as pointed out in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the [[Play Station 3]] and [[Xbox 360]]), it typically gives different names to games with different gameplay styles (as was the case with ''Shining Force'', a strategy RPG, having a different name than the first Shining game, ''[[Shining in the Darkness]]'', which was a dungeon crawler), which makes it odd that these installments were named similarly to strategy [[RPG]]s in the series.
** ''Shining Soul'' is also pretty much ''Shining'' In Name Only.
* Westwood's ''[[Dune II]]'' RTS game had very little to do with the book, movie, or the first game. The later remake ''Dune 2000'' and sequel ''Emperor: Battle For Dune'' tried a bit harder, but it still doesn't change the fact that ''Dune II'' is an RTS, and a completely different genre from the original ''Dune'' game.
* ''[[Star Raiders (video game)|Star Raiders]] II'' (Atari Corp's 1986 sequel to the pioneering 1979 original) started life as a never-released [[Licensed Game]] based on 1984 movie ''[[The Last Starfighter]]''. When the license fell through, the game was renamed into a ''[[Star Raiders (video game)|Star Raiders]]'' sequel instead, to generally positive reviews (though it was felt to be more "arcadey", less strategic and less intense than the original).
* The modern "[[Atari]]" is itself an example, being essentially a trading name for what is—or was—Infogrames (who acquired rights to the name and some IP in the early 2000s). It has little connection with the original Atari Inc., creators of the VCS console, arcade games, and home computers. It's open to question when the "true" Atari died- following the 1983 video game crash, its arcade and computer divisions were sold separately as legally new companies to new owners (Atari Games and Atari Corp), but with some continuity of business and products. However, both are now defunct; Atari Games was later renamed by Midway who then shut down their entire arcade division. Atari Corp basically threw in the towel after the failure of the Jaguar console and their merger of convenience with hard drive manufacturer, JTS, in the mid-90s; their name and IP were sold off separately and later ended up in Infogrames hands.
* Jaleco's ''[[The Astyanax|Astyanax]]'' for the NES has little to do with the arcade game of the same name. There are some similarities in gameplay, but the levels and story are completely different. The arcade version stars a [[Barbarian Hero]], while the NES version is about an [[Ordinary High School Student]] sent to a [[Magical Land]].
* ''LA Rush'', intended to be a [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[San Francisco Rush]]''. Also ''Cruisn'' for the Wii, although it was basically ''[[The Fast and the Furious]]'' with the [[Serial Numbers Filed Off]], which used the original ''Cruisn''' series engine.
* ''Die Hard Arcade'', being a [[Dolled-Up Installment|dolled-up version]] of ''[[Dynamite Deka]] / Dynamite Cop'', has nothing to do with [[Die Hard|the movies]], other than the protagonist being an [[Expy]] of [[Bruce Willis]]. The sequel kept its original name.
* ''Winback II: Project Poseidon''. [[Franchise Killer|It killed the franchise]].
* ''[[Free Space|Descent: Freespace]]'' has nothing to do with the ''[[Descent (video game)|Descent]]'' series except the name. The sequel dropped the act and is simply called ''[[Free Space]] 2''.
** The game was originally going to be called just ''Freespace'', but there was already a drive-compression product with the same name that could've caused trademark issues. In Europe it was called ''Conflict: Freespace'' instead.
* ''Mobile Light Force 1'' and ''2'' are [[Macekre]]s of two unrelated [[Shoot'Em Up]] games; ''Gunbird'' and ''[[Shikigami no Shiro|Castle Shikigami]]'', respectively.
* The arcade version of ''Ikari III: The Rescue'' is an overhead beat-em-up instead of a shoot-em-up like the original games. It still had Ralf and Clark in it.
* ''Daryl Gates' [[Police Quest]]: Open Season'' and ''[[Police Quest]]: SWAT'' (later just SWAT). ''[[SWAT]] 4'' also has absolutely nothing to do with the Police Quest series despite the ''name of the protagonist'' being Sonny Bonds.
* The sequel to Rockstar's ''[[Red Dead Revolver]]'', ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'', has no connection to its predecessor other than the Western setting, the title, the two main character's scars, and a single game mechanic. This is a rare positive example, as ''Revolver'' was a half-completed game Rockstar bought from [[Capcom]] and was a level based arcade shooter, while ''Redemption'' was wildly successful both financially and critically, being considered one of the best video games of 2010.
** Naturally, quite a few characters from the first game do get name-dropped, and eventually turned up as skins for multiplayer.
* ''[[Driver]]: Parallel Lines'', which ended up being [[They Copied It, So It Sucks|just another generic]] ''[[Grand Theft Auto (series)|Grand Theft Auto]]'' clone.
* ''[[Castlevania Judgment]]''. If not for the characters' names and the music, you probably couldn't tell that this game has anything to do with ''[[Castlevania]]''.
* The ''[[Turok (comics)|Turok]]'' comics were about a Native American (the title character) who finds a [[Lost World]] valley of [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]]. The [[Turok (series)|video games]] made "Turok" the ''title'' of a lineage of warriors fighting to keep the Omniverse from collapsing in an alien land. Some characters have the same name as characters in the comics, and there are bio-mechanical dinosaurs.
** ''Then'' you had the 2008 Turok game, which was this to both the comics ''and'' the video game franchise to date. Instead of being a chosen warrior, Turok was a [[A Space Marine Is You|Space Marine]] of Native American origin. Instead of a lost world, it was an alien planet that just happened to have dinosaurs on it. Instead of protecting it from an evil overlord or [[Eldritch Abomination]], he was protecting it from his CO, who'd pulled a serious Colonel Kurtz.
* ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' is an RPG that turned everyone's favorite plumber (and everyone else) 2D while the world (mostly) stayed 3D. ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' is a platformer (with RPG elements) that kept everyone's favorite plumber 2D, but also made the world 2D (but gave him the ability to switch to 3D for a short time). It's not a bad game, but most people don't consider it a ''Paper Mario'' game.
** Actually they do consider it a ''Paper Mario'' game, however in the same way 'Digital Devil Saga' is related to 'Megami Tensei' as a whole or how 'Torneko's Mystery Dungeon' relates to 'Dragon Quest'. In other words, they're angry how the fanbase is treating ''Super Paper Mario'' as a sequel rather than a spin-off.
* ''[[Space Invaders]] Infinity Gene'' for the iPhone is a game that has little to do with ''Space Invaders'' beyond a brief segment of the original ''Space Invaders'' and some returning enemies. Instead, it's a shooter that gradually "evolves" as you play it, going in gameplay style from a classic arcade shooter of the '70s or '80s to a modern [[Bullet Hell|danmaku]] shooter with multiple "characters", kill chains, and a special scoring method (in this case, called "Nagoya Attack", which triggers when you pass through an enemy's shot during a short window just after firing when it won't kill you). The resulting game was so [[Rule of Cool|cool]], [[Rule of Fun|fun]], and original that [[Tropes Are Not Bad|few people complained]].
* A rare positive example (also being a [[Licensed Game]]) is the ''[[Def Jam Series]]'', which has very little to do with hip-hop aside from the music and is instead a wrestling/fighting game hybrid, of which the first two were fantastic. ''Def Jam Rapstar'' is going to be a more traditional hip-hop rapping game, which provides a rare example of a traditional medium fitting for the source material actually being LESS accepted.
* ''[[Soldier of Fortune]]: Payback'' was outsourced to Cauldron, an East European budget title developer, and thus the gameplay and story have nothing in common with the first two games, other than the PC's organization being named The Shop.
* ''Still Life 2'' had large expectations following it, primarily due to its predecessor leaving the killer's identity unrevealed at the end. When the sequel finally came out, it barely resembled the original in any form. The cliffhanger was resolved in a couple brief flashback sequences that revealed the most obvious suspect as the killer. The remainder of the game, aside from its protagonist, had absolutely nothing to do with the original storyline.
* ''[[Monster Rancher Evo]]'' was a ''drastic'' departure from the ''[[Monster Rancher]]'' formula. It completely changed the training formula—instead of training stats one week at a time, you give your monsters "stat ''potential,''" which you can only turn into real stats via a rhythm mini-game. Tournaments were all but gone in favor of an RPG plot, with dungeons full of [[Random Encounters]]. While the old monsters were still in the game, one of the new species introduced—the Maya—was even quite stylistically different from other MR monsters, not quite fitting in.
* The only thing the ''[[Suikoden]]'' series has in common with [[Water Margin|Sui Hu Zuan]] is the fact that both have the protagonist gathering 108 heroes to oppose the government. Otherwise, they have completely different characters, a completely different plot, and are set in completely different universes. This isn't a ''bad'' thing by any means, but ''Suikoden'' is no more valid a name than, say, ''The Rune of Eternal Awesomeness''.
** Recent entries including ''Tierkreis'' and ''Centennial Tapesty'' (still doesn't have an official English name) have become this trope, given their setting in completely different worlds from I-V, although they do retain the 108 characters and some game mechanisms.
* Little known ''The New Adventures of the Time Machine'' from Cryo Interactive is said to be based on [[The Time Machine]] by [[H. G. Wells]], but the only thing it has in common with the book is a scientist from Victorian London who invents a stationary time machine and travels to the 8000th century (although the year was changed from 802701 to the round 800000), plus his servant is also named Mrs. Watchett. But once he gets there, Wells' plot is completely abandoned and instead of struggle between the Eloi and the Morlocks we have strange Hourglass City whose citizens randomly switch their age between childhood, adulthood and elderhood every time mysterious Wave Of Time comes from god Khronos. The funny thing is that some ten years ago Polish edition included copy of Wells' original novel, even though it wouldn't make much difference if it was "Treasure Island" or "Uncle Tom's Cabin" instead.
* ''[[Project Sylpheed]]'' has nothing in common with the previous ''[[Silpheed]]'' games, other than having the same developers.
* The Super NES game version of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (film)|Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' has nothing to do with the film itself, as it was originally intended to be a video game adaptation of the show's second season. While the Genesis version does remain true to the actual plot of the movie, the only things the SNES version has in common with the movie ([[Captain Obvious|aside from the Rangers themselves]]) is [[Big Bad|Ivan Ooze]] as the final boss and a [[Cameo]] by the Ninja Megafalconzord in the ending. That's it. The enemies are still Putties and a few monsters from the second season of the TV series (along with robot enemies made up for the game), and the Rangers fight their way through ''none'' of the same places they had been to in the movie.
* ''[[Fighting Force]] 2'' has almost nothing to do with the original. The first game was a pure 3D [[Beat'Em Up]] starring four characters and set in a contemporary setting. The sequel had a [[Cyberpunk]] setting, [[Genre Shift|was a 3D action/adventure platformer]] with very basic brawling elements, and featured only one character from the first game (Hawk Manson), who did not [[Not as You Know Them|act]] or even (after the CGI intro) [[You Don't Look Like You|look like]] his first game self.
* ''[[Kung-Fu Master]]'' was released in Japan as a licensed game based on the [[Jackie Chan]] film ''Wheels on Meals'', which was titled ''Spartan X'' over there. It has nothing to do with the movie, aside for the names of the hero and heroines (Thomas and Sylvia).
* ''Tetris Attack'' has nothing to do with ''[[Tetris]]''. It is a localization of a Super Famicom puzzle game called ''[[Panel de Pon]]''. Later versions of the game were localized under the ''Puzzle League'' name.
* Depending on how their stories and mechanics are handled, fan games can [[Sturgeon's Law|often fall into this]].
* The [[Turn-Based Strategy]] game ''Puyo Wars'' has no resemblance in gameplay or cast of characters to ''[[Puyo Puyo]]''.
* ''[[Out Run|Outrun 2019]]'' was originally supposed to be released under the name of ''Junker's High'', which in turn was a remade version of a canceled [[Sega Genesis|SegaCD game]] called ''Cyber Road''. The ''Outrun'' name was added to the released version with no other modifications made.
* ''[[Mario Golf]]: Advance Tour'' for the Game Boy Advance. A unique and fun little game, but the "Mario Golf" in the title (not to mention the [[Covers Always Lie|cover of the game]]) is about all that was carried over to remind you of what you're playing. You spend very little, if any time with Mario and his colorful crew. It's a Golf game with [[RPG Elements]] where you take the role of an amateur golfer working your way up the ranks.
** This applies to any of the portable Mario sports games, aside from (possibly) the 3DS ''Mario Tennis''.
* Invoked by the developer of the original ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'' when Codemasters announced ''[[Operation Flashpoint (Codemasters)|Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising]]'' and billed it as the sequel. The original's developer protested that all Codemasters had won from their legal falling-out years before was the ''name'', whereas the developer had kept both the engine (and implicitly gameplay-style rights) and the exclusive right to develop [[ARMA: Armed Assault|sequels to the original]].
* ''[[ToME 2]]'' (''Tales/Troubles of Middle Earth'') and ''ToME 4'' (''[[Tales of Maj'Eyal]]'') have hardly anything in common besides both being fantasy roguelikes. A small number of things like the standard fantasy races exist in both in some form but play very differently and and have different histories and cultures. (''ToME 3'' was closer to ''ToME 2'' but never got out of alpha.)
* The 2003 PC game ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' has piracy, is set in the Caribbean, features a token appearance by [[ Keira Knightley]] as the narrator, and calls the antagonistic [[Ghost Ship]] the "Black Pearl", but otherwise has nothing to do with ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]''. The game is actually a sequel to ''[[Sea Dogs]]'', but when the developers needed a publisher, Disney saw a chance to get a licensed game out quickly. Despite [[Dolled-Up Installment|having the name slapped]] on, it [[No Problem With Licensed Games|is actually considered to be one of the better games in its genre]], with the extra funding saving it from the "[[Obvious Beta|Eurojank]]" hole its Russian developer was otherwise famous for.

== Web Comics ==
* Over time, ''[[Concession]]'' changed drastically due to the [[Plot Tumor]] of Joel's revenge plot (and college life) to the point where the Concession stand in the title was merely where ''some'' of the cast worked, not the actual focus of the comic.
* [[Platypus Comix]]'s longest-running series, ''[[Scrambled Eggs]]'', received inspiration from a juvenile fiction novel titled ''Hello, My Name is Scrambled Eggs'', but the cartoonist says the only similarities the current comic and the novel have are some characters' names and the use of "No kidding!" as a [[Catch Phrase]].
* Parodied with ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]] 2: In Name Only'' - a [[Fictional Document]] sequel to ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]]'', starring The Detective and [[The Watson]].
* Invoked in ''[[Dresden Codak]]'' "[http://dresdencodak.com/2010/06/03/dark-science-01/ Dark Science]" arc: Ronnie Awning made adaptations of famous works without reading them. Which allowed his sponsor to use the authors turning in their graves for energy generation.
* ''Nerd Rage'' [http://www.nerdragecomic.com/index.php?date=2011-03-09 illustrates]:
{{quote|''Mr. David O. Russell''... Congratulations on acquiring the rights to the ''[[Uncharted]]'' movie!
I just wanted to let you know [[Shame If Something Happened|that I, too, have ''acquired the rights'' to adapt something.]] Your film ''"[[I ♥ Huckabees|I Heart Huckabees]]"''. I have this ''vision'' --}}
* ''[[Hijinks Ensue]]'' makes a guess on how the remakes will go in "[http://hijinksensue.com/comic/rebuffed/ Rebuffed]" and "[http://hijinksensue.com/comic/the-old-bait-and-switch/ The Old Bait And Switch]".
* ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' on ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]]'' movie [https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/12/08 here].

== Web Sites ==
* KidsWB.com, supposedly the relaunched version of the programming block from which it got its name, is more like a website for pre-1997 [[Cartoon Network]].
* Napster is another example. The original Napster shut down in 2001, but it was resurrected in 2002 as a new name for the subscription music site by the same people that shut it down. As one article termed it, "It was as if a victorious Darth Vader had licensed the rights to rebrand the Empire as the Rebel Alliance."
* TF-Media is a site called, "Transformation Media". However, the transformation you'll actually find ''on'' the site is limited to Transgender. (And even then, most people who go there think "female to male" transgender is "Pass the [[Brain Bleach]]" anyways, so it's really male to female) The users in the chatrooms are different, and have gotten ''much'' better about the transgender saturation, but the site is still predominantly Transgender transformations in between the one or two different types. Even the users are well aware of this and point out that it's really, "TG media".


== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The King and I]]'' forms the basis of a ''[[Family Guy]]'' parody of this trope. By the time Peter gets finished rewriting the Rodgers and Hammerstein script, it's changed from the real historical events of a British tutor dealing with the king of Siam to a ninja robot in the future ("A.N.N.A.") battling a post-apocalyptic dictator. Initially furious at the changes, and at the audience's approval of them, Lois later admits that "anyone who could take ''The King and I'' and turn it into, well, that, has gotta be creative."
* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', where [[Alan Moore]] is said to have had a run as the writer of ''Radioactive Man''. During his tenure, he changed the title character, a [[The Cape (trope)|cape]] with super-strength acquired from [[I Love Nuclear Power|exposure to a nuclear explosion]], into "a heroin-addicted jazz critic who's '''not''' radioactive". Bart didn't notice.
* ''[[Sonic Underground]]'': The only things from the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' games are Sonic, Robotnik, and a few appearances by Knuckles.
** ''[[Sonic Sat AM]]'' also fits the bill. Aside from Sonic, Robotnik, a few token appearances by Tails, the rings, and Buzzbombers, there wasn't much to tie it to the games.
* ''[[Voltron]]'' fans back in the day felt this way when the Lion series ended and they first saw [[Vehicle Voltron]]. The reason for this is because it is actually a [[Dolled-Up Installment]] of a completely unrelated anime series.
* The 1997 animated film ''[[Anastasia]]'' was supposedly "based on" the play by Marcel Maurette. [[Don Bluth]] turned it into a musical with Rasputin as an undead sorcerer with a talking bat sidekick, among other changes (the play had already been faithfully adapted to a 1956 film starring Yul Brynner and Ingrid Bergman).
* Disney's ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'' bears little resemblance to [[The Jungle Book (novel)|Kipling's original]] except for a few character names and the basic premise of a boy [[Raised by Wolves]]. Mowgli is changed from a [[Noble Savage]] to a [[Bratty Half-Pint]], the monkeys don't die, Baloo goes from wise mentor to "shiftless jungle bum", and the originally benevolent Kaa [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|becomes an]] [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]. An early draft that stuck closer to the tone of the books was rejected for being too dark. In the commentary from the Platinum Edition DVD is stated that Walt even warned his film crew to not read the original book.
* ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'' ain't got nothin' on ''[[The Fox and the Hound (film)]]'', though. How Walt Disney Studios managed to look at [[The Fox and The Hound (novel)|what reads like a fictionalized documentary about the life and times of a mongrel hunting dog and a human-reared wild fox who live through bear hunts, rabies epidemics, and the rise of suburbia among other things]] and thought it would make a wonderful talking animals musical about racism is a mystery for the ages.
* Also, ''[[The Fox and the Hound (film)]]'' has nothing on ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''. Compare the characters in [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (novel)|the original story]] to the Disney version and see the difference. The story is far darker than anything Disney had attempted at the time, and had considerable changes. Look at the ending to [[Tear Jerker|the original story]] compared to [[Earn Your Happy Ending|the Disney version]] and you'll see the difference.
** Considering that no movie adaptation has ever ''used'' the original ending....
** In fact, the ''only'' adaptation of that story to use the original ending is [[Recursive Adaptation|the German stage musical.]]
* ''[[Filmation's Ghostbusters|Filmations Ghostbusters]]'' had nothing to do with the 1984 movie ''[[Ghostbusters]]'', but was a followup to Filmation's 1975 live action TV series, '''''The''' Ghost Busters'', although it definitely intended to [[Follow the Leader|ride the coattails]] of the more familiar movie. The cartoon based on the movie is thus called ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]''.
* ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'' basically took the "super smart rats" premise and made an entirely different movie where Nicodemus becomes an [[Eccentric Mentor]], and the deserter was a murderer. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|Despite this fact, many people see this as Don Bluth's best work]].
* The 1987 ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]]'' cartoon pretty much took EVERYTHING from [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage|the original comics]] and flipped it on its head. Whilst the comics were aimed at those in their mid-late teens, the show was cheesy entertainment for kids. The personalities of the characters were changed quite a bit (Raphael was a jokester instead of an anger-laden badass) and the premise was made FAR more into Sci-Fi than anything seen in the comics (considering some of them included aliens and the main characters are mutant reptilians, that says something). Another thing to note is that in the comics, the 'Ninja' part of the title was actually relevant to what the Turtles' activities were (moved around at night, stayed out of sight of as many bystanders as possible and actually fighting other ninjas), whereas in the '80s cartoon [[Highly-Visible Ninja|they were known to the general public, had no problem walking around in daylight (albeit usually in disguise)]], and spent the majority of their time fighting robots.
** Played with, like everything else, in ''[[Turtles Forever]]'': the more comic-based [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|2003 Turtles]] had to keep the 1987 Turtles from running out in public.
* ''[[Martin Mystery]]'' was drastically different from the Italian comics they were adapted from. For example, changing Martin's lover into his ''stepsister'' and making him like 20 years younger.
* The ''[[Harry And The Dinosaurs]]'' books are about a boy called Harry who has a bucket of toy dinosaurs. The dinos don't have names, being referred to by their species names, and while they talk ([[Imaginary Friend|only to Harry]]), the books are about Harry doing ordinary things, like going to the dentist or his first day of school. In the [[Animated Adaptation]], ''[[Harry And His Bucket Full Of Dinosaurs]]'' the dinosaurs have names and the stories are mostly set in Dino-World, a [[Magical Land]] accessible [[Cool Gate|through the bucket]].
* In the original comics, ''[[Achille Talon]]'' (known in English-speaking countries as Walter Melon) is a pseudo-intellectual bourgeois who works for a magazine and occasionally has wacky adventures. In the [[Animated Adaptation]], he's a bumbling "hero for hire" who substitutes for various action hero [[Expy|expies]].
* The [[Adaptation Displacement|relative few]] who still remembered ''[[Magi Nation]]'' the TCG/video game did not like the [[Animated Adaptation]].
* Proof that [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], ''[[Iron Man: Armored Adventures|Iron Man Armored Adventures]]'' is a very good show, just so long as you ignore the fact that [[High School AU|that kid and his friends]] are named for the cast of ''[[Iron Man]]'' by some coincidence (despite bearing no similarities to them... save the robot suit and [[Rogues Gallery]], though often ''they'' have had their origins drastically rewritten) and enjoy the show for what it is.
* ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'' as a whole isn't this, but some of the episodes "adapted" from individual comic book stories take no more than the basic premise and invent an entirely new plot around it.
** Stories taken from the comics also inevitably starred someone other than [[Donald Duck]]; Fenton Crackshell or Gyro Gearloose usually took on his role, and Donald scarcely appeared in the show at all. Part of the problem is that he's [[The Unintelligible]] in animated form, a problem that doesn't exist in his comics.
* ''[[Tom and Jerry: The Movie|Tom and Jerry The Movie]]'' actually starts out pretty faithfully for a little while. When they start [[Suddenly Voiced|talking]] (although not unprecedented), they start singing about friendship. While they sometimes had loose alliances in the old shorts, they've never been "friends to the end". And then, the plot kind of drifts away from them and [[Human-Focused Adaptation|focuses on the orphan girl Robyn]] and they are [[Demoted to Extra|reduced to sidekicks]].
* The main cast of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' all take the names and basic appearances of characters from previous generations of the franchise, but the resemblance pretty much ends there. Most are, at best, [[Expy|inspired by completely different characters]] that Hasbro was no longer able to use. The show itself is a radical shift in tone from its immediate predecessor (where most of the names came from), but that's happened ''every'' time the franchise got a reboot.
* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' has virtually nothing in common with the original [[Young Justice (comics)|90's comic book of the same name]], though showrunner [[Greg Weisman]] has said that it was never intended to be an adaptation of the series to begin with and that the title was essentially given to them by some [[Warner Bros]] execs. However the title does fit the central theme of the show, and there are some shout-outs and callbacks to the series' comic book namesake.
** Originally, there was going to be a series closely based on the comic book, but it turned into ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', keeping the comedy of Young Justice while using the latter's characters. The new series essentially does the opposite, using Young Justice characters with serious stories more in line with the Titans comics.
* The ''[[Veggie Tales]]'' take on ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]''. It's about a bunch of grapes who act like jerks.
** That's [[Justified Trope]], ''VeggieTales'' is known for its parodies of various Tv shows, movies, etc. And it was told by Larry The Cucumber, as well as [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]].
{{quote|'''Bob''': "Are you ''sure'' that's how the story goes?"
'''Larry''': "Oh, yeah! :3"  }}
* ''[[Scaredy Squirrel]]'' has literally nothing in common with the children's books it's based on, save for the title character being a squirrel named Scaredy. To be fair, [[Tropes Are Not Bad|there really wasn't too much they could do if they'd stayed true to the books]].
* ''[[The Wacky World of Tex Avery]]'' has absolutely nothing to do with the real [[Tex Avery]] and his characters.
* ''[[The Superhero Squad Show]]'' features various Marvel heroes with most of their personalities and characterization set aside in favor of whatever best serves the [[Rule of Funny]].
* Despite having the same characters and taking place in a similar setting, the ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man (animation)|Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' cartoon has nothing to do with the comic of the same name, instead coming off as a strange hybrid of ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' and ''[[Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends]]''.
* The ''[[Fish Police (animation)|Fish Police]]'' cartoon had very little in common with [[Fish Police (comics)|the comic book it was based on]] other than character names and an underwater setting.

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[[Category:Media Adaptation Tropes]]
[[Category:Sturgeon's Tropes]]