James Cameron's Avatar

[EricJ]

Ponyo was a Japanese retelling of The Little Mermaid.
No mystery there to me...
I had no trouble following it.

I'd first thought Miyazaki was doing some Lasseter-buddy tribute to Finding Nemo, and Disney only hyping the "mermaid" comparisons to sell the studio name--
But when the script mentions "turning into ocean foam" if she doesn't get her preschool "prince"...yep, Hans Christian An-dersen, Andersen, that's him.

Princess Mononoke, on the other hand...
Still haven't gotten around to seeing Nausicaa yet....

If you've seen Mononoke, you've SEEN Nausicaa,--or more accurately, vice versa--but Nausicaa was the better movie. And the more sympathetic and less perpetually-cranky heroine.

And speaking of shameless plagiarism, no, we probably WOULDN'T compare Avatar to Ghibli (seeing as how Hayao hates CGI, and all), but you're sure to find plenty of Disney's Pocahontas comparisons if you hang around an animation site long enough.

[Ben]

Wow...George and Eric having a constructive conversation!?

Must be the dustbunny influences (I'm certainly counting two...must be having difficulty in trapping the third)...

[Severen]

Disney's Pocahontas sucked ass, it was the low point of the reniassance and nearly murdered it as it was the worst disney movie next to Home on the Range and everyone hates it. Hunchback and Mulan were better movies!

Would anyone else compare Avatar to Heavy Metal, Dune, Transformers. Starchaser Legend of Orin, Fantastic Planet and even Nausicaa as well? i mean there's a bunch of similarities to Dune in both movies and novels as Cameron replaced the desert with a jungle as he even replaced the spice with Unorbtanium and many more, there's Nausicaa influences with some parts of the story like the toxic jungle with the spores, some of the critters and even the ending was a homage with the tentacle spores bringing Jake to life and even references to Heavy Metal on Den and Taarna.

Avatar was WRITTEN in 1993 before Princess Mononoke, Pocahontas, Last Samurai, Braveheart, Delgo, Terra, Atlantis and all that, BEFORE. Cameron had the idea since 1986 and wrote an 80 page screenplay and treatment in 1993 as he stated he was influenced by John Carter of Mars, Frank Herbert's Dune novels, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Both the manga and fansub uncut tape he saw in 1992 that isn't the Warriors of the Wind cut), Heavy Metal Magazine (Possibly the animated movie as well since Cameron is a fan of both sources), Fantastic Planet, Broken Arrow (1950 with James Stewart western), Star Wars Trilogy and even a few Star Trek episodes. Cameron wanted a 1999 release date after Titanic as he announced it in 1997 but then he announced in 99 that the technology was not ready as he put the script in a drawer until the technology comes around. Then in 2006 Cameron was convinced after being blown by Lord of the Rings and King Kong that technology was ready as he dusted it off and thought read it as he thought it was time

Don't people bother to check or do their research like i do? i've been following the Avatar project since 1998.

I thought it was a well made and well done Sci-fi fantasy adventure epic that delivered like Cameron's Terminator 1 & 2 and Aliens that has awesome unique visual effects and some of Cameron's trademarks.

There are other Ghibli homages such as Castle in The Sky in which the mountains float like the island in the film and robots, there's also a bit of Pom Poko in which has creatures infiltrating certain people by disguising themselves, and Princess Mononoke with it's forest scenery and similar story plots with nature vs. man, Jake's tattoo being a homage to the demon wound on Ashitaka and Quatrich being like Eboshi. And for Totoro comparisions, Tree-Spirits.

[GeorgeC]

Wow...George and Eric having a constructive conversation!?

Must be the dustbunny influences (I'm certainly counting two...must be having difficulty in trapping the third)...

BUNNIES!

[Bill1978]

or maybe midgets?

[GeorgeC]

Now you're just talking crazy!

[Bill1978]

Sorry, bit of a random Buffy The Vampire Reference there. Not saying you didn't know that, just letting you know in case you didn't know.

Anyway back to Avatar, the reason it was easy to follow is that the story of so generic. Regardless of when Cameron wrote it, it is still a generic story which has been told a thousand times. And without general inflation of tickets PLUS the higher prices of 3D there is no way that it would be the highest grossing film of all time. I remember readin an article that said it had only sold half the amount of tickets that Titanic did. Which is very telling. And I think the same article did say how many less tickets Titanic sold compared to Gone With The Wind.

[Severen]

Does anyone else also see elements of 1981's Heavy Metal in this movie? James Cameron is a fan of both HM magazine and the 1981 animated cult classic as there's similarities to Den and Taarna in this movie.

Who could win in a battle of sexy animated femme warriors? Taarna or Neytiri?

[EricJ]

Does anyone else also see elements of 1981's Heavy Metal in this movie? James Cameron is a fan of both HM magazine and the 1981 animated cult classic as there's similarities to Den and Taarna in this movie.

Let's see, Capt. Stern and Harry Canyon vs. the Tree of Life?....Nnnnno.
(Heavy Metal came from a movie era that was just so NOT 90's-00's James Cameron.)

[Ben]

Dusty III, George? Did I find it? Did I, did I? Huh, huh, huh!?

[droosan]

Speaking as someone who was among the first twenty artists hired to work on the pre-viz development for Avatar immediately after it was 'greenlit' in 2004, I can safely say (without violating any NDAs) that none of the movies Severen lists was ever mentioned by Mr. Cameron in any conversations with the artistic team (of which I was aware).

For what that's worth.

[Randall]

Oh, way to go with killing a discussion with cold, hard facts, Droo.



Sure, there are similarities in a variety of sci-fi (and other) stories. There's little new under the sun, after all. And yes, Cameron is familiar with all these things. It's natural to be influenced by them. (That includes Cameron as well as his team of artists.) Creation cannot happen in a vacuum. I don't think anyone's ever said that Avatar's basic story was all that unique, and at this point it's very difficult to come up with anything that hasn't been seen somewhere else. Still, it was a great looking film, and had some fun moments, though it's not my favorite from Cameron.

If we did not allow any movie to be made that reminded us of something else... you can see where I'm going with this. Poof! No more movies.

[Ben]

I don't think even I - a fairly strong non-supporter of Avatar - have actually suggested Cameron "stole" from other non-credited sources. Like Rand said, films evolve from what has come before. At the end of the day, Avatar is Cowboys and Indians rehashed for the millionth time, but that's not to say that someone won't use elements in projects in the future that some folks will point back and say they've stolen from James Cameron!

[EricJ]

I don't think even I - a fairly strong non-supporter of Avatar - have actually suggested Cameron "stole" from other non-credited sources.

It's not so much "stealing", as in, there's a difference between shoplifting, and finding the store alarm went off on the way out when you forgot you put something in your pocket...
One's intentional, the other's just garden-variety stupidity.

Ie., Disney's "Pocahontas" wanted to kiss up the Virginia natives (as PR for their new park), Kevin Costner wanted to kiss up to the Lakota, and James Cameron wanted to kiss up to...everybody else, seeing as how the Na'vi used just about every single other native accent in the world in one scene or another--
Either way, it adds up to the same thing: PC white people wishing they could be spiritual natives too, and having the exact same wishful "Sign that paleface up!" fantasy. (And at least Eisner was straightforward enough to be insincere about it, when all the other Disney animators thought they were just making a romance about swirling leaves.)

If you have unoriginal ideas, you will make unoriginal films. THAT seems to be the detractor's chief major complaint against Cameron, even if they did think all the 3-D stuff looked neato: (Although I still didn't find any 3-D jungle scene as amazing as that first spaceship sleep-chamber shot.)
If Cameron HAD intentionally stolen from Costner or Disney, we'd at least have a little respect for the fact that he'd remembered seeing them...It's the "unintentional" part we're thumping him on the head for.

[Bill1978]

The sleep chamber was the best use of 3D, I really felt like the back of the cinema went way way way back. The only other time that I thought it was effective was when the pollen was falling off the trees and swirling around in a lovely tribute to Pocahontas' leaves and Princess Mononoke's sprite spirits.