Avatar: A copy of Pocahontas or The Little Mermaid?

[SandrA9810]

I was very late in finally watching the Avatar (the one with the blue people, not the Last Airbender). But over the course of the past couple months I've had conversations on how the story line is similar to Pocahontas. I think it's an exact replica to The Little Mermaid. Which do you think?? And I'm sure there's other movies you think it's similar to, but just out of those two movies.

Here's a rundown comparison: *Spoilers for those have not seen it*

The Little Mermaid -
Ariel enters the human world but not fully - Jake enters their world but not entirely either, neither can walk prior to being part of the other life
Ariel falls in love with Eric - Jake falls in love Neytiri
Ursula = Colonel Miles Quaritch
Ursula's evil plan to take over the world (when she tries to marry Eric, then when she steals the Triton) - Quaritch wants to take over the Na'vi homeland
Ariel fights against Ursula to protect Eric - Jake fights against Quaritch to protect Neytiri
In the end Eric kills Ursula with the Triton through her even after she transformers herself into a huge monster - Neytiri kills Quaritch even after he uses the robot to make himself huge
Once the battle is over Ariel gets to be human forever to be with Eric - Jake gets to be a Na'vi forever to be with Neytiri
Side kicks like Sebastion and Flounder - Side kicks like Dr Grace and Parker (I believe that was other the guy who helped out). Kinda like the Jiminy Cricket of the main character for support.

Pocahontas -
The English invade the new world seeking gold - Humans invade Pandora for Unobtanium
John Smith finds contacts with Pocahontas - Jake finds contact with Neytiri
John falls for her - Jake falls for her
John goes against Ratcliffe's wishes for his own good - Jake goes against Quaritch orders for his own love
Pocahontas has Grandmother Willow and Meeko - Jake has Dr Grace and Parker for side kicks
The English fight the Indians - Humans fight the Na'vi
Ratcliffe is captured, John injured - Quaritch is killed, Jake injured


I'm sure there are more comparisons, but it's been a couple months since I've seen the movie.

**There was supposed to be a poll, but I got an error message, and now I can't put one up.**

 

[Hoodie]

That's the first I head of the Little Mermain comparison.

Honestly I haven't seen Avatar. It didn't hold a lot of interest for me and when I started hearing the Pochahontas comparisions it pretty much ensured i wouldn't see it. (I thought Pochahontas was one of the worst Disney movies ever!)

 

[Sorilla]

What is wrong about it, so many things in life are just the variations of the same story, take any love story for example .it's all about who can tell it better, lol

 

[SandrA9810]

Nothing is wrong with the movie. I just find it to be an over glorified, highly CGI, more "adult" way of telling the Little Mermaid story that Disney managed to kiddify and hand animate 20 years ago.

 

[Magic Mom]

Nothing is wrong with the movie. I just find it to be an over glorified, highly CGI, more "adult" way of telling the Little Mermaid story that Disney managed to kiddify and hand animate 20 years ago.

Wouldn't there have to be a mermaid for it to be a retelling of Little Mermaid? I really don't think it is in any way a remake of the Little Mermaid (Disney's or Hans Christian Andersen's.) However the theme of the story is similar and is seen in many stories.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

Actually, I think it is pretty darn close to Ferngully!! Almost exactly.

 

[Katie's Butterflies]

Actually, I think it is pretty darn close to Ferngully!! Almost exactly.

That's what I thought when I saw Avatar!

 

[themermaidgirl]

 

[Avalon_toon]

If I had to pick between these two movies, I think Pocahontas is a better fit. The Little Mermaid is the indigenous princess who moves into the "civilized" world - while John Smith and Jake Sully both move into the indigenous people's world. That seems to be a big difference (since the world the main character moves into is the portrayed as the "better" or "more desireable" world in the story.)

Personally, I think James Cameron ripped off Disney's Atlantis.

 

[tasha99]

Wouldn't there have to be a mermaid for it to be a retelling of Little Mermaid? I really don't think it is in any way a remake of the Little Mermaid (Disney's or Hans Christian Andersen's.) However the theme of the story is similar and is seen in many stories.

While I think it's closer to Pocahontas (and even closer to Fern Gully), there would not need to be a mermaid for a Little Mermaid retelling. Kind of like you could have a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a beast that was only figurative, you could have a "fish out of water" mermaid that was never really a literal mermaid.

 

[MomofKatie]

Dances With Wolves was the one I thought of (or maybe even The Last Samauri). Disillusioned man becomes a part of indigineous community, falls in love with woman and fights against the very society he comes from when they threaten his new people.

 

[SandrA9810]

Wow, it's amazing how many times a story can be retold. And still make millions at the box office.

I feel almost as ripped off as when my bf showed me that Disney reused a lot of older animation cells for movies released in the 70's and 80's. Just search google and youtube for "disney copy animation". It goes from dance/party scenes of Snow White to Jungle Book to Robin Hood to Aristacats. Then the famous prince/princess dance scenes of Beauty and the Beast, Aurora and Philip, Cinderella and Prince Charming...

 

[Jennasis]

It is clearly Dances with Wolves.

 

[ChrisFL]

It is clearly Little Big Man

The fact is that the story is not new, it's been told in many ways before, it's just a new take on it.

Oddly, no one complains about romance movies which are 99% the same plot...

 

[Conservative Hippie]

Actually, I think it is pretty darn close to Ferngully!! Almost exactly.

Yep, when I first saw it I thought of Fern Gully...and then Pocahontas.

 

[Planogirl]

Wow, Cameron ripped off a lot of completely different movies.

I liked Avatar OK. The story has been told many, many times before so it certainly wasn't unique in that regard.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

Yes, the story has been told a ton, but I thought there were certain elements that were ripped straight from Ferngully. I mean, right down to how the Navi look and the magic tree.

This is a pretty interesting Ferngully/Avatar mashup.

http://www.youtube.com./watch?v=D-SVpZrnF34

 

[Jennasis]

As an aside, I thought I read somewhere that Cameron had the script for Avatar written for something like 20 years prior to making it. He held off because at the time, the tech did not exist to make his film a reality.

 

[SandrA9810]

As an aside, I thought I read somewhere that Cameron had the script for Avatar written for something like 20 years prior to making it. He held off because at the time, the tech did not exist to make his film a reality.

From Wiki:

Development on Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film.[12] Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999,[13] but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of the film.

Ferngully was released in 1992
Pocahontas was released in 1995
The Little Mermaid was released in 1989
Dances with Wolves was released in 1990
Atlantis was released in 2001


The movie's CGI stuff was really cool, like when the forest would light up as they ran through it. It was a visually pretty film, but just such a lack of creativity in the story. You knew exactly what was going to be happening next.