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When a work is adapted into a different medium, there is a tendency to subtitle that work with the format of the new adaptation. For example, a TV show called Bob And Alice, when adapted into a movie, will be called Bob and Alice: The Movie.
Because this is an uncreative and predictable method of naming something, it's a good sign that the adaptation is a cheap tie-in product knocked out to ride the coattails of a more popular work (this is especially true of things adapted into video games). This is not necessarily true, however, and just as frequently the system is simply used as a way to disambiguate different works in a franchise.
This is a fluid trope. Sometimes, if an adaptation becomes more popular than the original work, it'll drop the subtitle, while in other cases, if a new adaptation is produced, a show that didn't originally have a subtitle will have one added on. Many times, these are even added on by fans.
Colon Cancer is a frequent result of this trope, especially if an adaptation of an adaptation is made. Take, for example, this gem: Star Trek the Next Generation: The Manga.
Compare Trope 2000, Super Title 64 Advance. Contrast Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo. See also The Foreign Subtitle.
Examples (listed by medium):
Parodies:[]
- I Wanna Be the Guy: The Movie: The Game
- Parodied by The Critic with Hee Haw: The Next Generation
- AMV Hell 3: The Motion Picture
- AMV Hell 3: The Motion Picture II: AMV Hell 4: The Last One.
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
- Parodied in-film for Spaceballs: The Merch
- Lego Star Wars: The Movie
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Movie.
- The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!.
- Penny Arcade's Dungeon Siege: The Movie (directed by Uwe Boll)
- Movie: The Game
- Game: The Movie
- Homestuck Act 6 has Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff: The Moive [sic]
- Also The Movovie, The The Film and The Movle.
- Star Trek: The Animated Series (on screen title was merely Star Trek, used on video releases)
- Batman: The Animated Series
- Superman: The Animated Series (well before this one came out, there had been several Superman cartoons that didn't get this treatment)
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series
- Spider-Man: The NEW Animated Series
- The Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series - That's what it says in the title sequence.
- Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series
- Back to The Future: The Animated Series
- The Mask: The Animated Series
- Sabrina the Animated Series
- Spaceballs: The Animated Series
- ALF: The Animated Series
- RoboCop: The Animated Series
- Clerks the Animated Series
- Kong: The Animated Series
- Azumanga Daioh: The Animation (Because Azuanime just doesn't sound right.)
- Godzilla: The Series ("animated" is missing in this one)
- Ragnarok The Animation
- Police Academy: The Animated Series
- Persona 4: The Animation
- Xenosaga The Animation (There's no colon)
- One Hundred and One Dalmatians: The Series
- Transformers Animated (More an Alternate Continuity than an adaptation)
- Kurokami: The Animation
- Rayman: The Animated Series
- The Mummy: The Animated Series
- Evolution: The Animated Series, better known as Alienators: Evolution Continues
- Iria: Zeiram The Animation (based on a Japanese live-action movie called "Zeiram")
- El Chavo: La Serie Animada (or alternately, "El Chavo Animado")
- Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series
- Beetlejuice: The Animated Series
- Calvin and Hobbes The Series (which is actually a fan fic)
- S.O.S. Fantômes: La Serie Animée[2]
- Green Lantern the Animated Series
The Comic Book or The Manga:
- The aforementioned Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Manga.
- Likewise, Star Trek - The Manga
- Clerks: The Comic Book
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's/StrikerS The Comics
- Up: The Game
- Miami Vice: The Game
- Beowulf: The Game
- Hells Kitchen: The Video Game
- Hannah Montana: The Movie: The Game
- Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie
- James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
- Lost: The Game[3] and Lost: The Video Game (also known as Lost: Via Domus in North America)
- Lego Adaptation Games Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and Lego Batman: The Video Game
- Disney's Hercules: Action Game
- TV Tropes: The Party Game. No, really.
- Black Rock Shooter: The Game
- The Simpsons Game
The Movie: (see also, The Film of the Book)[]
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture
- Pokémon the First Movie, Pokémon 2000 and Pokémon 3: The Movie.
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.
- The Transformers: The Movie
- The Simpsons Movie
- The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
- Superman (1978) was also called Superman: The Movie
- Santa Claus: The Movie (called that everywhere except in the opening credits)
- Batman: The Movie
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st
- Slugs: The Movie
- Subversion: The live-action film adaptation of Street Fighter II is simply called Street Fighter. However, the two video game versions that were released both carried the title of Street Fighter the Movie.
- The anime version on the other hand, Street Fighter II the Animated Movie, plays this straight.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie
- Digimon: The Movie (Two Digimon Adventure films and one Digimon Adventure 02 film edited together)
- Looney Tunes: Back in Action is retronymed to have a ": The Movie" tag on its DVD case.
- Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa and Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: The Sacred Star of Milos
- Naruto The Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow
- Naruto The Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel
- Naruto The Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom
- Naruto: Shippuden: the Movie
- Bleach The Movie: Memories of Nobody
- Bleach The Movie 2: The DiamondDust Rebellion
- One Piece the Movie: Dead End no Boken (Dead End Adventure)
- One Piece Movie: The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventures in Alabasta
- One Piece Film Strong World
- Chou Gekijou-ban Keroro Gunsou (literally, "Sgt. Frog: The Super Movie")
- Gekijouban, literally meaning Theater Edition, is commonly prefixed before movie adaptations of Japanese series.
- Zeitgeist The Movie, technically not an adaptation of anything, but the name makes a lot of people think that it is.
The Musical:[]
- Evil Dead: The Musical
- Fellowship! The Musical
- Legally Blonde: The Musical
- David Warrack's Rob Roy - The Musical
- The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein (This is actually the official title of the musical. No colon. It's so official, they had to read out the whole name for each of its nominations on the Tony awards broadcast.)
- Vanities: A New Musical
- Human Centipede the Musical
The Next Generation: (and similar names)[]
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Degrassi: The Next Generation
- 90210: The Next Generation (working/advertised title)
- Speed Racer: The Next Generation
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre the Next Generation
- Revenge of the Nerds: The Next Generation
- Bonanza: The Next Generation
- Love Boat: The Next Wave
- Poltergeist: The Legacy
- Hee Haw: The Next Generation. Worf can do a mean hambone solo.
- Saved by the Bell: The New Class
- Castlevania: The New Generation (in Europe)
- Street Fighter III: New Generation (the first installment in the trilogy)
- Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (a subversion; this movie is a Continuity Reboot)
The Series:[]
- Highlander the Series (later dropped when it became more popular than the movie)
- Lexx: The Series
- Police Academy: The Series
- Friday the 13th: The Series
- F/X: The Series
- Blade: The Series
Other[]
- Several theme parks have "Batman: The Ride", "Batman: The Stunt Show" or both.
- The heavily mocked On Ice! phenomenon of the 1990s.
- Parodied on Homestar Runner with Dangeresque: Put 'Em on Ice!
- Also parodied by the name of The Simpsons 20th anniversary documentary The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice!
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition
- The Live Bloginations forum section of this site has a number of "Title: The Liveblog" or variations thereof.
- Threads in general sometimes get titles like "Subject of the Thread: The Thread."
- The Abridged Series: The whole genre.
- Michael Jackson: The Experience (a video game)
- Moyashimon: The Drama