Around the time that Monsters, Inc. came out, I had an
idea for a Pixar film with birds as the main characters (I was probably inspired by “For the Birds”).
This is all a very rough summary, as I don’t remember all of it, but at the time it was pretty laid
out:
The story involved a family of birds with a nest located in a tree at a local park. One day the
parent’s only son was out trying to learn how to fly, when he slipped and fell out of the tree. An obnoxious
little girl who was playing nearby saw him land and
snatched him up to take back to her house as a pet. She put him in a cage in her
room and he’s trapped there, alone and scared for the first time in his life. This fear is only worsened when
he discovers that the family already owns several cats. Soon, however, he discovers that he is not alone in the
cage, but is accompanied by a handful of other birds, all desperate for a chance to one day escape. Meanwhile,
the parents must try to find their child and rescue him, but this is especially difficult for the father, who is
very overprotective and paranoid about everything.
No, I didn’t copy Finding Nemo. I developed this idea
almost a year before learning anything about Nemo. In fact, if I were to tell more
of my story idea, it would have even more similarities to FN. So, after finally seeing Finding Nemo in theaters,
I decided I wouldn’t come up with any more ideas, because the similarities were just too creepy.