Avatar Ripoff Origins -- er, Inspirations

CoriSCapnSkip · Feb 3, 2010

Steal from one, it's plagiarism. Steal from many, it's research.

How many sources does Avatar rip off?

I already pointed out that this guy http://blog.brightlightsfilm.com/201...s-sources.html is doing a great job. Here's more. Anyone recognizes anything or notices anything left out, don't be shy to speak up.

First off, Dances with Wolves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9uo4nOD__s

was so obvious Cameron even admits it.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.co...-is-gimcrackery.html

He denies or ignores some others:

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00028333.html

http://blog.spout.com/2009/08/...rtunately-resembles/

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertai...els/story?id=9561339

http://www.soufron.com/post/29...-avatar-a-big-ripoff

http://doodiepants.com/2010/01...a-pocahontas-ripoff/

Matt Bateman's notes can be more clearly read here: http://www.boredville.com/3102...p-Off-of-Pocachontas

http://www.comicsalliance.com/...1993-story-firekind/

Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan!

Zoombie · Feb 3, 2010

And my current WIP is Men In Black crossed with Unknown Armies, what's your point?

Snapz · Feb 3, 2010

But plagiarism pays so well

If you go fishing for similarities, of course you're going to come up with a long list. Same with any movie or piece of fiction.

Any big film gets hit up with plagiarism talk, remember the Matrix? The Terminator? The Da Vinci Code? etc...

Oh, and who could forget Tarantino. But he pleads the "homage" defense.

LOG · Feb 3, 2010

Cori, I can nearly guarantee that any book written in the past few decades could be looked at, and then, if I wanted to, I could find stories out there with similar elements.
That in no way makes it plagirism. Plagirism is directly copying someone's work and not giving them credit, that's illegal.
There are almost no original stories anymore in terms of content. What matters nowaday is execution. Rowling's HP series was hardly revolutionary, but she was a good writer.

DavidZahir · Feb 3, 2010

I have a friend who watched Avatar and dubbed it Dancing With Smurfs.

Methinks we have a little too much of an "originality fetish" in that we get suspicious if any idea is re-used. Presumably this would somehow taint West Side Story, Clueless, Salem's Lot, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, all of Shakespeare, etc.

Claudia Gray · Feb 3, 2010

I think, for me, the problem isn't that "Avatar" deals so heavily in old tropes -- it's that (a) it doesn't bring anything new to those tropes but special effects, (b) in so doing wastes a cool scifi concept on the same old story and (c) those tropes [white man comes to save the natives who are so helpless without him, and he is instantly the master of their whole culture] have gotten to look skankier over time.

Wavy_Blue · Feb 3, 2010

"Bad artists copy. Great artist steal." -Pablo Picasso

maxmordon · Feb 3, 2010

ClaudiaGray said:
I think, for me, the problem isn't that "Avatar" deals so heavily in old tropes -- it's that (a) it doesn't bring anything new to those tropes but special effects, (b) in so doing wastes a cool scifi concept on the same old story and (c) those tropes [white man comes to save the natives who are so helpless without him, and he is instantly the master of their whole culture] have gotten to look skankier over time.

Agreed.

Jess Haines · Feb 3, 2010

Don't forget the Gorean animals and Jurassic Park sound effects...

Regardless, it was a good movie. I'd watch it again.

Celia Cyanide · Feb 3, 2010

CoriSCapnSkip said:
Steal from one, it's plagiarism. Steal from many, it's research.

That's not really plagerism, though. Plagerism is when you steal someone else's actual writing. Not writing a similar story. People are allowed to do that. They aren't allowed to plagerize.

CoriSCapnSkip · Feb 3, 2010

ClaudiaGray said:
I think, for me, the problem isn't that "Avatar" deals so heavily in old tropes -- it's that (a) it doesn't bring anything new to those tropes but special effects, (b) in so doing wastes a cool scifi concept on the same old story and (c) those tropes [white man comes to save the natives who are so helpless without him, and he is instantly the master of their whole culture] have gotten to look skankier over time.

Your concerns have been duly noted: http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar

CoriSCapnSkip · Feb 4, 2010

This is pretty funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9uo4nOD__s

There's a Pocahontas one as well!

Celia Cyanide · Feb 4, 2010

ClaudiaGray said:
I think, for me, the problem isn't that "Avatar" deals so heavily in old tropes -- it's that (a) it doesn't bring anything new to those tropes but special effects, (b) in so doing wastes a cool scifi concept on the same old story and (c) those tropes [white man comes to save the natives who are so helpless without him, and he is instantly the master of their whole culture] have gotten to look skankier over time.

Yes, that is true, but I liked that about it, though. I don't watch movies like Dances With Wolves. I like sci-fi.

It's probably the same thing when people who don't read comics see comic book movies and think they're so cool, and all I see is the same old boring origin story crap. But it is what it is.

Zoombie · Feb 5, 2010

I thought the creators of south park made up the dances with smurfs joke.

PLAGIARIST!

SPMiller · Feb 5, 2010

Cameron has been known to borrow ideas. Consider the settlement he reached with Ellison regarding The Terminator.

CoriSCapnSkip · Feb 5, 2010

Zoombie said:
I thought the creators of south park made up the dances with smurfs joke.

PLAGIARIST!

An Internet Movie Database poster called it The Last of the Mohicans with Smurfs, though I am still a bit partial to someone else's phrase of Smurfahontas.

Sage · Feb 5, 2010

I've been comparing it to Fern Gully. Of course, I've never watched Dances with Wolves...

Zoombie · Feb 5, 2010

What always strikes me as odd is that the whole Dances with Smurfs joke is just...the side note on an episode that is mostly focusing on lampooning political pundits via Eric Cartman...

small axe · Feb 14, 2010

The tale of John Smith and Pocahontas is a basic touchstone of American (meaning USA) folklore, and it's been the stuff of romantic novels or movies for over a century. Star-crossed lovers, cultures in collision, a protagonist torn between love and loyalty to his own clan ... it's basic. It's universal.

It's freakin' Romeo and Juliet ... along with everything else.

Cameron gave it a mind-blowing new visual imagining, so I'm all 'yayyyy, can't wait for the sequel!" Ultimately, it's entertainment, and better than 90% of the other re-cycled carp at the theaters, imo. (I said 'carp' so that makes me cutting edge and original! woohoo!)

I tip my hat to the guy who owns the #1 and #2 $$$-making movies in movie history.

It's over a billion dollars at the box office. Sorry, haters ...

But there are plenty other films to see or books to read.

HistorySleuth · Feb 14, 2010

Went to see this with my teens today. First thing I thought of was whether my best friend, who is Seneca, is going to like it, hate it, be insulted by it? I can't wait to find out. To me it was more like a rip off of a real event, wounded knee -- something like that. Or actually, the Iroquois. The whole tree at the center -- that is at the center of the Six Nations culture --as evident in their wampum belts -- mother earth, stealing the land, bareback riding to tame the beast, etc etc. Special effects were great. Still I wonder if she will like it or feel its another example of using their culture and tragedies to make a buck. Sure wasn't anything new (except for the graphics/special effects) that's for sure.

CoriSCapnSkip · Feb 15, 2010

It may well have been outdated before it was made. In the future, paraplegics awaiting surgery would probably use some form of this: http://www.israel21c.org/health/israeli-device-helps-paraplegics-stand-tall

Noah Body · Feb 16, 2010

Where was all the outrage when The Last Samurai was released?

James81 · Feb 16, 2010

Meh, it's not plageurism.

But it IS a testament to how completely and totally and utterly unoriginal the plot line of Avatar really was.

HistorySleuth · Feb 16, 2010

Noah Body said:
Where was all the outrage when The Last Samurai was released?

I didn't see The Last Samurai so I cant comment on it. I didn't even pay attention enough to know there was anything controversial about it. Could be a thread some where here about it, you never know.

SPMiller · Feb 16, 2010

Noah Body said:
Where was all the outrage when The Last Samurai was released?

There was plenty as I recall, and rightfully so. Maybe you weren't in the right place or weren't paying attention.

Avatar Ripoff Origins -- er, Inspirations

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