There’s this article listing similarities between pixar flms and other films, and that they could be knock offs.
open.salon.com/blog/scott_mendel … dio_around
Toy Story:Has similar things to The Christmas Toy
A Bug’s Life: Simply a variation of The Seven Samurai, The Magificent Seven and Three Amigos (oh my!)
TS2: None (at least not in that list, though is sequal to possible knock off, Toy Story)
Monsters, Inc.: Has similarities to Fred Savage’s Little Monsters
Fiding Nemo: Similarities to an American Tail
The Incredibles: Similarities to The Fantastic Four, Watchmen and Unbreakable
Cars: Ripped off Doc Hollywood as a scene-for-scene animated remake
WALL-E: Similar to Idiocracy (isn’t it also similar to Johnny 5 and Short Circuit?)
Up: Similar to Above Then Beyond
Dug from Up is also similar to the talking dog from Dexter’s Laboratory in the episode Dexter’s Lab: A Story.
It would be shocking if the Pixar company did rip off people in their films, which they may of already done with Cars. They also cancelled Newt becauseit had a plot similar to 2 other films.
If they did rip off, is that why they haven’t sued the makers of Ratatoing, Little Cars, etc.?
What do you think?
I definently don’t think they’ve ripped anyone off. As I believe I read someone saying here, it’s near impossible to create a story without any similarities to already made ones, but Pixar does a fine job of making absolutely fresh ideas. While there may be a similar concept or idea of the movie, the way the story goes around and is told is incredibly different.
Pixar’s been more original to me than anyone else nowadays.
I don’t see how they could do that. They start their amazing stories years in advance!
Umm, plots of movies can be almost the same. That doesn’t mean that they’re ripping anyone off.
Most of those are a big stretche. Pixar did borrow some ideas from various sources (art does not exist in a vacuum) but Pixar took those ideas and went into very different directions with them.
Has anyone heard about the Monsters, Inc. lawsuit involving Mike directly ripping off a character named “Wise-geye” (or something like that) before? It’s in The Pixar Touch, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen it online.
I have, Bryko. There was also the lawsuit concerning that children’s author’s play, which I thought was kinda ridiculous.
No, but I’ve seen or mostly seen a video asking if Mike was a rip off of pee wee. Wasn’t there also a lawsuit where Pixar’s FN characters were similar to this guy’s book’s characters?
Well I guess it’s good to know that Pixar aren’t people who rip off things, though there are spooky coincidences (like the Dexter’s Lab dog being similar to Dug).
I’ve seen this article before. I don’t see any significant similarities except for the Cars one. Yeah, it sounds a little too close, but I don’t think it’s a big deal, since I’m pretty sure Cars was more popular than the Doc Hollywood movie they talk about.
And I don’t think that Wall-E was anything like Idiocracy. Like, they both had similar themes in the, the dumbing down of humans, but they had completely different story lines and content. Also, I think that Wall-E would have been written before Idiocracy came out, so any similarities would be coincidental, IMO.
For the record, I think Pixar is one of the most original studios in Hollywood nowadays. Their constant desire and drive to push the benchmark of what constitutes ‘animation’ and film in general is something to be admired.
That said, though, I roll my eyes when people say Pixar’s stories are unprecedented. This is something of an impossibility nowadays, due to the long history of film as a medium. There are very few ‘truly original’ stories nowadays. There are bound to people before you who have covered similar themes and plots.
Everyone (or at least, a Pixar fan) would know about the Monsters Inc debacle a few years ago, where a writer accused Pixar of plagiarizing her characters from a children’s book about monsters for Monsters Inc. The details are a bit sketchy to me at the moment, but it is covered in The Pixar Touch. But it was the beginnings of my first skepticism about the originality of Pixar’s stories.
Then along came the hoots about Doc Hollywood. I have not watched the movie, so I can’t say if it’s a-scene-for-scene replicant, but it does raise concerns. After that, Wall-E, with the Johnny-5 and a short comic from the inaugural issue of Mad Magazine. Again, I have not watched Johnny 5 nor read Blobs in its entirety, but the resemblance is uncanny. Then Up, which I always mention shares some plot-lines from Fitzcarraldo and Howl’s Moving Castle, both of which I have indeed watched and confirm there are some similarities.
And as I kept researching, I kept discovering more deja vu examples. Incredibles and Watchmen. Toy Story and The Brave Little Toaster (Toy Story 3 in particular shares some parables, especially the finale). A Bug’s Life and Antz. Oh wait, Antz was the rip-off.
So I guess the lesson here is, no one is original. Not even Pixar, as much as we’d like to think they’re immune to this. The Pixarians have even admitted that they even take a page from Miyazaki sometimes, although, of course, they put their own brilliant spin on things. Even if it’s unintentional, there is a high chance that the story you’re telling has been told before.
Which is why I always say that the excuse ‘It’s Been Done Before’ does not constitute as a bad point for a movie. It’s not what the story is, but how you tell it, and I’m sick and tired of people dissing on Avatar, Alpha & Omega, and Megamind because Pixar or some other movie has done it before. That, to me, is nothing short of intellectual snobbery.
End Rant 
Remember Anton Ego’s words, people! 
I see no reason to be disappointed with Pixar for that. The ideas are recycled, but I see no “rip offs”.
I really wouldn’t say TS is a “copy” of BLT, considering how a ton of the BLT folks worked on Toy Story at the same time/immedietly after. It had John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, and a few others. I think the finale of TS3 was more like a “Hey, anyone remember this from ANOTHER movie we made?” I was completely reminded of that scene and started singing “Worthless”.
But Antz was definitely a rip-off, since it went into production AFTER ABL did. It was just released earlier 
.