Do you agree with this list? I agree with Shadow, Iron Giant, Galaxy Quest, Small Soldiers, Mulan, and Jurassic park? Others not so much?

https://www.cbr.com/iconic-90s-movies-deserved-cartoon/

Since all of these were told in the "longer form" of a movie, and generally with some success, I'd agree that every one of them could have been adapted into serialized versions. I mean, the article itself provided the means by which each would work. The devil, of course, would be in the details.

Interestingly enough, some of these actually were adapted. Jurassic Park, for instance, became "Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous" with at least five seasons.

I think turning them into series would have diminished them. I can't think of many movie-to-series adaptations I really enjoyed. Stargate became a huge TV franchise, of course. And some people would say that Battlestar Galactica began as a (made-for-TV) movie but it only lasted 1 season. The first 3-hour episode was edited down to a 2-hour theatrical release. But it wouldn't be until the Ron Moore reboot that the series really became successful.

I don't think any of the Superman-inspired TV shows count as they were really inspired more by the long-running comic books than by the Christopher Reeve movies. Maybe the George Reeves series from the 1950s was inspired by Superman and the Mole-men but that was way before my time and I'm not sure if there was any connection.

(March 21st, 2024, 12:37 AM)Michael Wrote: I think turning them into series would have diminished them. I can't think of many movie-to-series adaptations I really enjoyed.

Oh, I thought you enjoyed Buffy the Vampire Slayer?  Maybe I'm misremembering.

I am absolutely not going to attempt to persuade you, but I do think there have been many movie-to-TV-series adaptations that have worked nicely.  Not all, certainly, and I'll bet there are some real doozies out there, but these were the ones that came to mind for me:

Cobra Kai
Westworld
Friday Night Lights
MASH
Snowpiercer
Ash vs. Evil Dead
What We Do in the Shadows
Young Indiana Jones
Samurai 7
Stargate

Less successful, I think, but still out there for fans were:

The Crow - I think I caught two episodes, barely, and never went back.
Highlander and I think there was a spinoff of that and also an animated version?  I didn't hate the Duncan McLeod version, but I wasn't dedicated by any means
Ferris Buhler's Day Off - I was actually a fan of Parker Lewis Can't Lose, which was pitted directly against Ferris Buhler, so I never watched this one.

Whoa, that really took me back to a lot of places!