Adaptations better than the originals

[Lupine]

Samurai Champloo and Attack on Titan both. Samurai Champloo's soundtrack, the insert of certain anachronisms, and a much more satisfying ending all combine to make it better than the manga from whence it came (edit: it seems the manga technically was after the series or rather premiered after the first few episodes). AoT, the art is thousands of times better, they cleaned up the pacing and dialogue, gave it good music.

Edit: Seems like the manga actually started a few months after the anime, so technically not a case but it did end first and with a much less satisfying ending. So yeah, just AoT which honestly is better in the same ways that Champloo is anyways without the anachronisms but totally the sound track that makes everything better.

Edit 2: lol Hilarious that I double posted, but the post deleted was the one with the original edit. XD

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I'm not sure about "better", but I had greater enjoyment from the Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers films than I did the books.

Way too weirdly paced, full of bad elf-songs and hobbit-shanties, the lyrics recorded over multiple pages for no discernible purpose.

Second that one. I tried reading the Lord of the Rings books, but I was bored to tears. It seemed like half the book was just them singing largely pointless songs that went on forever.

Everything else about it I liked the original graphic novel more, but I must admit I liked the ending of the 'Watchmen' movie significantly more than the comic's.

Not sure if this counts, but 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' the video game was about 100x better than the movie it was based off of.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

And then make a sequel, and a 3rd part.
To be fair, the 3rd movie represent the feelings of the books quit nice. But because of this you will HATE the "heroes" in the movie...

Well, I ike the first specifically because it threw the book in the trash. Wasn't perfect though, like no Filo for the role of Rico.... but I think that lends itself to another clever tongue-in-cheek critique of the book.

 

[Fox12]

And I hope Shinji and Fox don't crucify me for saying this, but I preferred the original Berserk anime over the manga. It's been awhile, but I remember there being so much more bits and pieces in the manga, some of it being lame or feeling unnecessary. Including, I actually preferred the fantasy elements being few and far between, or building up to it.

I liked the Manga more overall, but I think the show made small improvements. The pacing was better, for instance, and I'm glad that they cut the bit with Wyald and the sewer assasins. I also think that they did a better job of cutting down on the fantasy, so that when things DO happen it's a lot more memorable, and a lot more frightening. I wish they had cut the sub plot with Casca's period as well. Unfortunately they also cut out important moments, like Skull Knight, pieces of Guts's back story, and some of the philosophy, so it felt like they threw out the baby with the bath water, so to speak.

My ideal version of the story would probably be somewhere between the two versions.

 

[ccggenius12]

Starship Troopers. I hated the book, and I found the movie fun and deceptively brilliant.

And then make a sequel, and a 3rd part.
To be fair, the 3rd movie represent the feelings of the books quit nice. But because of this you will HATE the "heroes" in the movie...

Don't forget the animated series!
OT: Lupin III is most famous for the Red Jacket series, which followed the Green Jacket Series. More importantly it went for the less serious tone that Miyazaki (yes, that Miyazaki) had introduced halfway through the Green Jacket's run. Prior to that it had been following the gritty formula that the Manga used, which, while not bad, was still (in my opinion) less enjoyable. There's a reason the jacket in FLCL is red, and Shin Watanabe's self-insert character also wears the red jacket.

 

[Asclepion]

I like the Ghost in the Shell animated movie way better than the original Manga by Masamune Shirow.
Oshii made substantial changes to the source material. First and foremost he changed the character of the protagonist Motoko Kusangai from an outgoing tomboy to a melancholic introvert. For such a character it makes way more sense to question their very existence.

The tone is also very different. Scenes like the one with the garbage man finding out that his memories are artificial are treated with tragedy and gravitas in Oshii's film but are humorous chibi panels in the manga.

Although it's interesting to contemplate a world where everything is so digitized that someone's brain being subverted isn't really that big of a deal to them.

 

[UberGott]

Not to state the obvious, but Mark Millar is typically a great "ideas guy" but kind of a terrible storyteller. He also has a penchant for being mean to both his characters and his audience alike, since being an edgelord got him plenty of attention over the years. (Garth Ennis is far better at that sort of thing, but whatever.)

So really, the fact that both the Kick-Ass and Kingsmen movies are better than the books is to be expected. I say this as a guy who really loves Old Man Logan... up until the last chapter, anyway. Man, is that final curtain draw a disappointment.

If anyone has an argument for 300 being better as a comic rather than as a film, I'm all ears. Zack Snyder isn't perfect, but what he is good at is breathtaking.

I don't love the Starship Troopers novel, but I adore the smarmy parody that Paul Verhoeven made out of it. I totally understand why Heinlein fans hate the flick, but man, if I had to pick one version it'd be no contest.

I won't get into a fight with any hardcore Stephen King fans - I was one myself once, after all - but Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a masterpiece of a book that's all over the place. That said, King clearly wrote the book in part about his own struggles with addiction, so I can kind of understand why he hates the film, even if it's a hundred times better than the shitty miniseries adaptation King approved of years later.

Park Chan-Wook's revenge film Oldboy is, technically, based on a manga. Everything that makes the film iconic, however - the hallway fight, the sushi bar scene, the way Choi Min-Sik is unable to relate to the world around him, and the big twist - were entirely Chan-Wook's idea. The only similarity between the two are "A guy gets locked in a hotel foom for 15 years, gets released to find out why". That's about it.

I won't claim it's "better", exactly, but Mamoru Oshii's film version of Ghost in the Shell bears so little resemblance to Masamune Shirow's original books that they're entirely different characters and stories with a few common elements.

I adore the Shigurui manga, but my regret is that the TV series ended at 12 episodes because the pacing, art direction and deconstruction of the fighting styles was improved over the books, which were already fantastic. The character development and theming behind Gantz feels a lot more natural and sensible in the TV series, though in doing so they skip the dialogue that actually explains the friggin' plot, so... six of one, half-dozen of the other I guess.

...does Darren Aronofsky's Noah count?

Edit: The Berserk TV show is fantastic in its own right, particularly the score and Japanese cast. It's just not as good as the manga, which is a hell of a tall order to top.

The new CG trilogy, on the other hand...

 

[Vigormortis]

I know it's probably blasphemous to say, but....

I actually enjoyed Spielberg's adaptation of "Jurassic Park" more than the novel.

Don't get me wrong. I adore Chrichton's book. It's still one of my favorites. But, the film just resonated with me when I was younger, and my appreciation of it has only grown over the years.

I won't get into a fight with any hardcore Stephen King fans - I was one myself once, after all - but Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a masterpiece of a book that's all over the place. That said, King clearly wrote the book in part about his own struggles with addiction, so I can kind of understand why he hates the film, even if it's a hundred times better than the shitty miniseries adaptation King approved of years later.

Oh my gods, so much this. Kubrick's film was a masterpiece of horror. King's novel was....brilliant, but fundamentally flawed.

 

[Mister K]

Samurai Champloo and Attack on Titan both. Samurai Champloo's soundtrack, the insert of certain anachronisms, and a much more satisfying ending all combine to make it better than the manga from whence it came (edit: it seems the manga technically was after the series or rather premiered after the first few episodes). AoT, the art is thousands of times better, they cleaned up the pacing and dialogue, gave it good music.

Wasn't Samurai Champloo one of those rare cases when anime got manga adaptation, not the other way around (i.e. the usual way)?

OT: Green Mile. The book itself is good, but performances of Tom Hanks and Michael Clark Duncan and great soundtrack made this story truly great.

 

[Hoplon]

BladeRunner, plucked one of the ideas from the novelette and ran with that rather than the crush if ideas the novelette had.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

I might get lynched for this, but I like the Flowers of Evil anime more than the manga.

I liked the slower pace, and while the rotoscoping wasn't technically great, it did succeed in making it everything feel uncanny, and helps differentiate it from other anime. I find the anime to be a much more moody, creepy, and uncomfortable experience than the manga.

 

[Johnny Impact]

I hear the Godfather books where pretty bad, and the movies where good. That's the only thing that comes to mind, but I don't know I've never really read the books and I think I only saw part of the first movie. Hurray for hearsay!

I've read it. I don't know if I'd call it bad, but it's more than a little weird. For example, Puzo never misses a chance to mention Sonny Corleone's enormous dong. A third of the book is about two characters who I don't think are in the movies at all (been a while since I saw them). One is a woman whose defining characteristic is that her vagina is too big (therefore she could only ever get off with Sonny, I'm not kidding with the dick references), the other is a surgeon who fixes her. How a masterpiece of film came out of that is beyond me. I guess that's how powerful a director's vision can be.

Scott Pilgrim is way better on the big screen.

 

[the December King]

Does a movie remake count as a potential adaptation? Cause if it does, then I liked the remake of "The Blob"- the one from 1988.

Oh, and I liked Carpenter's version of "The Thing" better too, but I still thought "The Thing From Another World" was pretty cool. I haven't read "Who Goes There?", though.

 

[Super Cyborg]

The Persona 3 movies have been much better than the game was. A number of the problems the game had are fixed in the Movie. One advantage the movie has is a lot of the fat was able to be cut off. In the game, they had to insert scenes every once in a while to give a story motivation to keep people moving. This caused certain scenes to not be as effective, and be annoying somewhat.

Spoiler

In the game, Yukari blows up on Mitsuru twice in a short span of time. Yukari admits she may have been unfair to Mitsuru the first time, but then does it again knowing Mitsuru doesn't know much. I know she was in an emotional state, but it was handled badly with the two scenes happening not too far apart.

The main character actually has a character, which when adapting to a different medium is essential. One of the major gripes I had with the Persona 4 anime was the MC was still a blank slate, not given any character. As for Persona 3, the main character is growing over time, and actually gets you attached to him some what.

Also, one of the major plot points is done much better.

Spoiler: major spoiler for October

The whole Ken and Shinji thing was done really badly in the game. They didn't have much character, and there was little time to get attached to either of them before their confrontation. In the movie, they bonded somewhat, and you got to see more of their character before the major reveal. Add in seeing more concern from Akihiko, the scene plays out spectacularly, which really got to me on an emotional level.

So yeah, Persona 3 is better with the movies.

 

[the December King]

Damn, ninja'd! Thats what happens when you take forever to finish a post >.<

Horray, my first ninja-ing!

Ninjing.

...

I cut someone.

But to be fair, your post was far more erudite in execution, MarsAtlas. Carpenter's The Thing is also a personal favorite- in fact, I'd say it is my favorite movie- and constantly either find myself recommending it to a horror neophyte, or connecting through an appreciation of it with other horror fans.

 

[Asita]

It's a Wonderful Life, perhaps? I mean come on, it turned a 4100 word short story ("The Greatest Gift") into one of the most critically acclaimed movies made to date.

 

[infohippie]

Additionally, the Titanic movie was much more enjoyable than the original disaster was.

I'm having trouble accepting this. I mean, three and a half hours of Leonardo deCaprio and Kate Winslet? I think I'd rather take my chances with the North Atlantic.

 

[FPLOON]

I consider the 2003 FullMetal Alchemist anime to be better than the manga, especially when it deviated from the original source while still keeping the anime series consistent from start to finish... Then again, I could say the same about the FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood anime being better than the manga, so there's that...

Other than that, I consider Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated to be the best Scooby-Doo series adaptation to date...