Nothing is completely original. We all know that. One thing
is always inspired by something that preceded it, in some form or another. But
there is nonetheless a substantial distinction between merely having been inspired
by something, and creating what is essentially a copy. While I’m not
necessarily accusing certain studios of stealing ideas, it’s clear that some
works are less ‘original’ than others. Throughout the latter half of the 90s,
and the early 2000s especially, there were some rather conspicuous examples of
animated features released around the same time that seemed to derive from the
same basic concepts. The acknowledgement of this is nothing new; as a matter of
fact, it’s now widely recognised, although some examples have been alluded to
more so than others since their release.
First, let’s address the obvious. In 1998, Disney released Pixar’s
A Bug’s Life, which focuses on one brainy
inventor ant’s quest to save the colony from a horde of greedy grasshoppers. In
addition, as a B-plot, he manages to win the affections of Princess Atta. That
same year, Dreamworks and PDI released
Antz,
which, apart from the obvious similarities, contains a neurotic, geeky protagonist
who too falls in love with a princess. There are numerous visual likenesses
too, such as the design of the females’ antennae. Yet the film maintains a
certain dark tone that distinguishes it quite substantially from the former, as
is the case with numerous Dreamworks animated features.
But that’s not where it started, as least in my opinion. Disney/Pixar’s
Toy Story (1995), a film about toys
coming to life, was followed two years later by Dreamworks and Amblin’s
Small Soldiers (1997).
In this case, Dreamworks is only
credited with its distribution, as suspicious as it may seem that they should
be involved in a partly animated film with the same basic premise. While the
films may not look alike at all,
Small
Soldiers does indeed derive from the same concept, albeit from a more adult
and somewhat more audacious perspective. In fact, it is the film’s more
‘mature’, dark tone that distinguishes it from
Toy Story, so much so that its derivativeness is barely noticeable.
In 2000, Dreamworks Animation released the vastly underrated
The Road to El Dorado. Inspired by
the
Road to films starring Bob Hope
and Bing Crosby, the feature focuses on two wanted thieves locating an ancient,
lost city based in
Spain.
The same year, Disney released
The
Emperor’s New Groove, which, while not set in
Spain,
bears some similarity to
El Dorado in
the structural designs of the film’s buildings, settings and artefacts. Even
more conspicuously, the following year, Disney released
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), an adventure-based flick which
also revolves around the discovery of an ancient, lost city. Furthermore, the
way in which the golems protecting the city illuminate at the film’s conclusion
bears considerable resemblance to the incarnation of the Stone Jaguar in the
aforementioned Dreamworks picture.
The similarities don’t stop there, of course. It could even
be argued that
Shrek (2001), a film
about an ogre who saves a princess, bears some resemblance to the Disney/Pixar
effort of the same year,
Monsters, Inc.,
that is if you consider ogres and monsters to be of the same ilk. In addition,
it’s also somewhat ironic that Dreamworks and PDI’s greatest critical success
happens to be a parody of the typical Disney flick. More similarities include
Finding Nemo and
Shark Tale (2003), both undersea adventures with fish occupying the
main roles, and
Treasure Planet (2002)
and
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003),
both seafaring adventures (despite the one being set in space), the latter even
containing a flying ship near its conclusion, as if the similarities weren’t
striking enough.
Another conspicuous similarity concerns Dreamworks and PDI’s
Madagascar (2005) and C.O.R.E. Feature Animation’s
The Wild (2006), which was distributed by Disney. Both films focus
on the adventures of a group of animals who break out of a New York Zoo. In
addition, they both feature a lion and a giraffe as protagonists, but
ultimately, that’s where the similarities end. Neither film is perfect, and
both have severe pacing issues, though the latter is perhaps a little harder to
swallow, being as it lacks the slapstick, fast-paced humour of the former, and
seems far too dependent on its plot, which proves altogether too dark and
tortuous, particularly in its concluding scenes. In 2007, Disney/Pixar released
Ratatouille, a film about a rat with
a yearning to cook, while that same year Dreamworks and Aardman released
Flushed Away, which also focuses on the
adventures of a rat.
Again, however,
the similarities seem to end there, suggesting that there may be likenesses
conceptually, but little else to acknowledge. Moreover, since the release of
these films, the similarities in the companies’ output seem to have diminished
quite substantially.
Of course, deriving inspiration from other works is nothing
new. A sequence in
Monsters Inc. (2001),
in which Sulley believes Boo to have been crushed into a garbage cube, is
obviously inspired by a similar scene in Warner Bros short
Feed the Kitty (1952), in which bulldog Marc Antony believes his
newly adopted kitten Pussy Foot has been whisked and cut into biscuit shapes.
The squash-and-stretch animation style of
Madagascar (2005) is also inspired by the
Looney Tunes anthology, as are the
slapstick antics of Scrat in Blue Sky’s
Ice
Age franchise, while
The Road to El
Dorado (2000) utilises the same music team behind
The Lion King (1994), including Elton John and Tim Rice, in a
less-than-subtle attempt to garner a similar following. Even Disney have been
accused of plagiarism in the past;
The
Lion King (1994) was criticised for having copied artwork and story
elements from the first Japanese colour TV cartoon
Kimba the White Lion (1965), although their likenesses have since
been dismissed as purely coincidental.
Ultimately, however, whether or not these films are wholly
‘original’ or not, it makes little difference. Most often, while they may be
similar conceptually, their respective storylines and styles enable them to
appear entirely distinct and disparate from their inspiration. It may, of
course, be the case that the aforementioned films’ similarities are in fact
coincidental (although, let’s face it, it seems unlikely!).
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