What comic books, movies, and TV shows are blatantly copycats or rip-offs of previous comics, movies, or shows, but despite being a copycat or rip-off, are still pretty good?
Twilight zone! There are different run of the series. Many reimagined stories from the first run, some better than others, as is such with the first run. There are stale episodes by today’s standards.
I think early Disney movies are pretty good. They usually just took an archaic horror story intended for adults, got rid of all the gore and murder, rewrote the rest, and somehow ended up with a children’s movie. Those ripoff versions became so famous and influential that people no longer think of the originals.
Maybe in two hundred years someone will start ripping off Saw movies to make kindergarten holo-ventures. Oh no! Jeff Denlon, the ice cream merchant, got stuck in the freezer. Can you find the key to the door?
The Dog Man books are great and many are based on classic novels like A Tale of Two Kitties, Lord of the Fleas, Brawl of the Wild, Fetch 22, etc. They are among the best kids books I have ever read.
The Lion King is basically Hamlet with animals.
The Lion King is a rip-off of Japan’s Kimba the White Lion.
Jaws is basically “An Enemy of the People” (by Henrik Ibsen) in a modern wrapping.
And Avatar is pretty much space-Pocahontas
The Orville is clearly a copy cat of Star Trek and is too tier.
I think it’s just tier enough.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a Daredevil parody/love letter.
They get their powers from the same accident that gives Matt Murdoch his.
Mentor? Splinter / Stick. Enemy? The Foot / The Hand.
We talking, like, O Brother, Where Art Thou? being based on Homer’s Odyssey?
I still go back to listen to the music from that sometimes.
Battle Beyond the Stars is just The Magnificent Seven in space, which was The Seven Samurai in the west.
Romeo & Juliet was based on Tristan & Isolde
10 Things I Hate About You was based on The Taming of the Shrew
Clueless was based on Emma
“Immature artists imitate, mature artists steal.”
Ad Astra (2019) is Apocalypse Now (1979) but in space.
Avatar (2009) is Dances with Wolves (1990) but in space.
Avatar is absolutely not Dances with Wolves. It is Pocahontas. Throw in a couple musical numbers and it’s real close to being a shot-for-shot remake of the Disney movie.
Another example of the ‘gone native’ plot line in the wake of Dances With Wolves. Pocahontas had the advantage of Dances With Wolves coming out first. So it smoothed some of those edges.
Sure, same general premise, but the structure is very different between them. In Dances with Wolves, Dunbar is basically abandoned by his people and slowly assimilates into the local village. By the time Dunbar’s people return in the third act, they’re no longer his people at all. In Pocahontas and Avatar, Smith and Sully are part of an active and present colonial force, wind up on generally friendly terms with the locals, start dating the chief’s daughter, and wind up with a strong case of conflicting loyalties, having to pick between their people and their lover’s people when the fighting starts.
Back when Avatar came out, I heard someone call it “Fern Gully with better graphics.”
There was a YouTube trend of making Avatar trailers with the audio but then using the graphics for movies like Fern Gully and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). Turns out there are a lot of ‘going native’ movies.
The Punisher is just The Executioner with the serial numbers filed off. Any given person is much more likely to have heard of The Punisher.
Apocalypse Now is basically Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
But in Vietnam.
All of them.
There are only a couple dozen or so quality stories.
Everything is a ripoff or mashup of those.Some have narrowed it down to only 7 stories.
- Overcoming the Monster
- Rags to Riches
- The Quest
- Rebirth
- Comedy
- Tragedy
- Voyage and Return
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine being strongly influenced by the original pitch for Babylon 5 is a pretty famous, if variously disputed, example.
