Animated movies are not simply for kids.
Everyone knows that films like Toy Story 3 and The Incredibles 2 were made as much for the generation who grew up with the originals as for kids today.
Though often light-hearted, animated movies are still a serious business. Six of the highest grossing animated movies have each made over $1 billion worldwide and eleven animated films are ranked among the top 50 worldwide highest-grossing films of all time.
It is notable when animated movies made by different studios release suspiciously similar movies at very similar times. It leads to questions of who got in first? Who wore it better?
It would be very easy to tote out a list of B-movies that are blatant ripoffs of more famous ones. No prizes for guessing which movies A Car’s Life, Frozen Land and What’s Up are aping. Instead, we are interested in similarities between movies you might have actually seen. Let’s face it, you would have to be mad to actually sit through those infamous copies.
Your mileage may vary on some of these entries as, objectively, what you consider a better animated movie is down to personal taste and what you look for in a story. When looked at through a lens of nostalgia, it is difficult to be objective.
With that in mind, here are 15 Animated Movies That Ripped Off Better Ones.
15. Antz / A Bug’s Life
Antz and A Bug’s Life may very well have been the catalyst for the curious feud running through this list, where Pixar and DreamWorks release obviously similar movies at oddly similar times.
Antz may have beaten A Bug’s Life to the theatres but when DreamWorks began working on their bug-based flick, Pixar was already deep into production on theirs.
Antz essentially has the same premise as A Bug’s Life: an odd, misfit insect discovers that he is more than a faceless drone of an oppressive regime and goes on to great things. Antz was made faster and so skimped on animation quality but had plenty of gags and a cast of famous actors to paint over inadequacies with star power.
During production, there was a public feud between DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and John Lasseter of Pixar over the controversial parallels.
Despite such a shady start, both movies were largely positively received by audiences.
14. Coco / The Book of Life
The announcement of Disney’s Coco was met with enthusiasm. The film boasts a gorgeous style, lively songs, and is a celebration of one of Mexico’s most iconic celebrations, The Day of the Dead.
Though described by Pixar as a “unique idea” done in the colourful style of Mexican folk art, many angry fans reminded the studio that this film was not so original after all.
In 2014, 20th Century Fox released The Book of Life, a computer-animated musical made by Reel FX Creative Studios, also set during the Day of the Dead. It had moderate success but those who did see it applauded it for the sensitive portrayal of the subject, beautiful animation, and exceptional soundtrack.
Of course, there is no harm in enjoying two Day of the Dead inspired animations, but it would be unfair to forget about The Book of Life just because Disney steamrolls across the same ground.
13. The Nut Job / Over the Hedge
When DreamWorks release Over the Hedge in 2006, it did not exactly change the way we see animated movies. However, it at least gave audiences a raucous comedy about a con-artist racoon, an energetic squirrel, and their furry friends finding out that suburbia is encroaching on their woodland lives.
Roll forward to 2014 and another film about a squirrel planning a heist of his human neighbours comes to the big screen. The Nut Job spent less time on characters and plot, and more time on bad puns about nuts.
The Nut Job was received negatively by viewers. Of course, DreamWorks did not have exclusive rights to squirrel-related heists, but if you are going to re-tread such a similar story, at least make it funny.
12. Shark Tale / Finding Nemo
It was noticeable when fish-focused animated movies Finding Nemo and Shark Tale came out consecutively in 2003 and 2004.
Comments were made on the similarity in theme and in interviews at the time DreamWorks Animation's CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg, said: "any similarities are mere coincidence. We've been open with the Pixar people so we don't step on each other's toes."
Granted, the plotlines of both films are very different. Could the two studios have just hit on a fun, promising setting concurrently?
While Dreamwork’s Shark Tale features characters with adult problems, such as debt with loan sharks, Pixar's Finding Nemo is about parental love, a plot that young audiences could more easily identify with.
It is undeniable that the two films have a lot in common. The adverse comparison between the more successful Finding Nemo and confusingly targeted Shark Tale means if they did copy Pixar’s premise, it didn’t work out so well.
11. The Secret Life of Pets / Toy Story
Illumination Entertainment, already responsible for the disgustingly popular Despicable Me and Minions Movie, released The Secret Life of Pets in 2016.
The premise is simple: it follows what pets get up to when their humans are not around. In itself this is a premise we have seen before, with movies like Cats V Dogs. Yet these movies about our favourite four-legged friends all had wider plots of their own to distinguish them.
The Secret Life of Pets seems to rip off Toy Story’s formula beat by beat.
Like Toy Story, we have a comfortable setup for the pets. The lead character is used to getting all of the attention of his owner, exactly like Woody. Then they adopt a new pet who attracts all the attention of the owner and causes conflict, just like Buzz.
It could be worse, but one can’t help but feel that we have seen this done before.
10. Dinosaur / The Land Before Time
The Land Before Time is incredibly influential. Released by Universal in 1988, it spawned many "sing-a-long" direct-to-video sequels, and even became a television series in 2007. Very few households in the ‘90s did not have at least some of the many sequels on VHS.
When Disney released Dinosaur in 2000, it was impossible not to compare it to the other animated dino flick.
It followed a suspiciously similar formula to The Land Before Time, with long-neck dinosaurs for the protagonists, who lose parents and travel with a small band of friends to a greener haven, stalked by a "Sharptooth."
Although boasting stunning computer animated visuals, Dinosaur’s plot was generic. It aimed for a sweeping storyline but lacked enough emotion to make it feel epic. Perhaps if Disney had pulled off a decent movie, no one would have bothered to compare it to the clearly similar predecessor?
9. Surf’s Up / Happy Feet
Warner Brothers’ Happy Feet came out in 2006, with Sony’s Surf’s Up following closely on its stubby penguin tail in 2007.
The similarities are obvious: both movies are about penguins. But penguins are popular. There have been plenty of other movies cashing in on the fad, arguably started by March of the Penguins in 2005.
In theme, the two movies have little in common. One is a mockumentary, looking into the annual Penguin World Surfing Championship. The other is a serious drama about environmentalism, religious fundamentalism, and accepting who you are.
Although both well-received, neither film quite hits the mark. Surf’s Up has a plot that could have worked just as well with humans rather than penguins, and Happy Feet has so many messages it gets confusing.
8. Treasure Planet / Titan A.E.
Following the successful rise of Pixar, animation studios began making mostly CG films. This sort of trend does not happen overnight and there were a few bumps along the CG road. Disney’s Treasure Planet and Don Bluth’s Titan A.E. were two such bumps.
Both movies combined hand-drawn traditional animation and 3D computer animation in a way that didn’t completely gel.
They were also both animated sci-fi adventures featuring an angsty young hero in possession of an important map. The heroes a motley spaceship crew, including a father-figure and a shady traitor, on an adventurous journey.
The dystopian Titan A.E. is certainly aimed at an older audience and gained something of a cult following. For the more light-hearted Treasure Planet, the goal is treasure, while in Titan A.E. it is a new home for the human race. Yet the characterizations and the setting are so obviously similar that many fans noticed parallels.
7. The Wild / Madagascar
If it had happened once, it could have been considered a coincidence. If it had happened twice, eyebrows might have been raised. The fact that repeatedly DreamWorks and Disney release very different movies with almost identical premises makes it seem naïve to believe it is anything but on purpose.
A group of animals, raised in captivity, find themselves accidentally leaving New York's Central Park Zoo and find themselves bound for Africa. The creatures band together to help get home safely as they discover that the jungle is meaner than they had anticipated.
That summary could have been describing both Madagascar (2005) and The Wild (2006).
The movies have almost identical set ups and very similar messages.
As animated movies take so long to develop, the release date does not necessarily necessitate which one ripped off the other. In fact, Madagascar landed a lot better, with dance numbers and songs that made it more popular.
6. Quest for Camelot / The Sword in the Stone
Based loosely on Vera Chapman’s ‘The King’s Damosel’, Warner Brother’s Quest for Camelot: The Magic Sword is an Arthurian tale in the same vein as Disney’s beloved The Sword in the Stone.
In actual fact, besides the same setting and the importance of the same magical sword, the movies are quite different. It might be forgiven, if the rest of it wasn’t such a blatant Disney ripoff in every other way.
With animated sidekicks, colorful musical numbers, and a plucky heroine who looks a lot like Belle (especially as she stands atop a cliff singing about how she wants something more), the film tries far too hard to fit the Disney formula.
It has some redeeming features. The voice acting is stellar, featuring talent such as Cary Elwes, Gary Oldman, and Pierce Brosnan, and some of the songs (notably Celine Dion’s "The Prayer") had a popular life of their own outside of the mediocre film.
