The 7 Eeriest Parallels Between Avatar and Delgo
For better or worse, I consider myself something of a Delgo connoisseur -- a fascinated observer and loyal fan of perhaps the most misconceived animated film and biggest box-office debacle in the history of movies. But maybe Delgo's creators were on to something when they undertook their story of two races battling it out for the soul of a planet, with some wicked fantasy adventure and a tender love story tossed in for good measure. After all, James Cameron seems to have been influenced by some oddly similar visuals and themes you'll find threaded throughout his new trailer for Avatar.
Or was he? Can two films on opposite ends of the Hollywood spectrum actually be kindred spirits of creativity -- and/or too close for comfort? See some of the uncanniest parallels after the jump, and judge for yourself.
· First of all, both films have heroic male leads who sprint through woodsy shadows in foreign lands:
· Both films feature tough but emotional female leads:
· Both films feature those female leads (among others) flying on the backs of winged reptilian beasts:
· Both films feature aircraft zooming through fields of massive floating rocks:
· Both films feature big, scary, fanged monsters of various types threatening their heroes:
· Both films feature alien warriors uncorking their fiercest battle cries:
· And both films feature all of the above as individual hurdles in the undying quest for love.
Oh, and both films harbored ambition and vision that required the better part of a decade to produce. Coincidence?
· Delgo Trailer [Apple]
· Avatar Trailer [Apple]
Subscribe to the new Movieline on YouTube
Comments
It looks nothing like Delgo. Those frames are all typical of the sci fi/fantasy genre.
"Both films feature big, scary, fanged monsters of various types threatening their heroes". Like we never saw those before.
It appears Delgo is the only movie the author has ever seen. Of all the movies he could have drawn comparison from, he chose a film that made little money and few people cared about.
If anything, it reminds me more of Star Wars (the prequels) and Starship Troopers rather than Delgo.
This is the stupidest thing I have seen in a long time. Tell me one good movie you like and it can be picked apart like this. Completely meaningless.
That said, the trailer WAS in fact underwhelming. I am no geeked out fanboy but I was looking forward to this and was disappointed by the trailer like everyone else and their mom. But I did attend Avatar day in Oslo a few hours ago, and I must say that it looked VERY different in 3D, fortunately! It was actually kinda amazing to be honest, not just the 3D, because you completely forget that youre watching it in 3D after about 5 minutes (due to sober and controlled use of it of course). But the animations, CG etc. I think looked much better when you actually saw it in clips that lasted longer than the 2 second clips in the trailer.
Well Delgo is very much a rip off of Avatar. Cameron wrote the screenplay back in 1994 which circulated the web for a few years, and in 1996 he announced that he planned to make the film. Delgo on the other hand began production in 1999 after the script hit the web and the announcemnt of Avatar. Now looking at the two movies it appears as if the creators of Delgo read the script for Avatar and decided to change it a bit and make their own film.
This is like taking a light skinned black man and mexican and standing them side by side and saying that they are the same thing. This is an absoloutley pathetic comparison.
I don't need this - I have a Master's in Folklore and Mythology....
is it really fair to try and set similarities after seeing just the first trailer? besides as others pointed out, cameron had this film on the drawing board for years now
and with these similarities:
the picture of the them cuddling, well i cant imagine anybody having the camera be used to examine somesones hair while this is happening
the running pic, doesnt most films with action have running at some point?
the big war cry, i would imagine a race would do this to raise moral and set things for a more epic scale for the big fight ot come
an emotional scene, well this being a cameron film i expect emotion and a good portion of time to be used to help establish those emotions
a ship flying by giant rocks, ever heard of an asteroid field?
a giant monster, where would the fun be if their was a alien planet and not have giant monsters
dispite that i will not judge the film until i see the finished product on the big screen because knowing cameron the film will probably be just completed a week before release
I loved your thesis "The Lord of the Rings translated into Klingon".
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/04753d25d0/avatar-as-delgo
Yes, although it makes sense if that is where you are going. Let's not make out Avatar to be some great original thought by Cameron. ALL of the comparison's from Delgo to Avatar are not Cameron's creations. They have all appeared in some form since the dawn of time. It was said earlier...just go read anything by Tolkien, and you get the picture.
And as I said earlier. This article is spot on...why? Because we are responding to it in droves. It doesn't matter if the comments are negative or positive. The reaction is all that matters. I mean for any article here to get more than a handful of comments is good. The way these comments are piling up, makes this article freakin' fantastic!
Erm, well Delgo reminds me of Bugs Life
It's not the story that is the issue. It is the images. You can't copyright an idea, only an execution of that idea. Delgo came first. Avatar ripped off Delgo. Delgo's art direction is incredible! I guess the Avatar team agreed with me. My momma always said "imitation is the most sincere form of flattery'!!!!!
This IS a joke right? You seriously think Cameron, after being in preproduction for years, suddenly decided to change the entire look of the film after seeing Delgo less than nine months ago?
Umm one has Freddie Prinze Jr and one has Sam Worthington. 'Nuff said
and Cameron ripped-off the title from the Nick animated show forcing them to change their title to "The Last Airbender." Does he have an original bone in his body?
In reality, this film is more of a ripoff of Dances with Wolves.
"Our once injured American warrior goes to the Frontier (final frontier) where he meets a squaw, goes 'injun' and turns against his cavalry compadres to fight the morally superior fight."
Dances with ELVES
What this article does point out is the pool of common elements that everyone in Hollywood (and Hollywood wanna-be) draws from, when making their "original" contributions. Yes, many of these conventions are genre conventions, and will be threaded in most narratives of that genre. But in literature (as in film), you separate the "fascinating" fantasy from the "dime-a-dozen sale-bin" fantasy by looking at how the text departs from the incestuous pool of conventions and adds something unique, interesting, captivating. So far it seems like all the main things that separate Avatar from a film like Delgo revolve around effects and computing power (the fact that it's rendered better, the fact that it's 3D, the fact that it had a bigger budget). Which is kinda a disappointment for a film that was built up so much. I wanted more than just awesome effects.
We'll see once the full version comes out...
"Both films feature aircraft zooming through fields of massive floating rocks"
I don't give a crap about either film but I don't think those are floating rocks in "Avatar". Looks more like a series of land masses reflected in a body of water. There is even a waterfall on the side of the big one.
No, he just pointed out the blatant truth. Your only rebuttal was childish name-calling. Hilarious.
Sorry dude, those are definitely floating rocks.
true true...
however I do believe people like Cyrano De Bergerac and others were writing science fiction as far back as the 1700's, a little before Jules Vernes time..
The main similarity is that they both rely on a narrative that is as ancient as they come. Neither showing any originality either in terms of depiction of an alien world.
I laughed when I read this. How much is Fathom Studios paying people to write this garbage.
You can't copyright this stuff:
"heroic male leads who sprint through woodsy shadows in foreign lands"
Are you suggesting that other films don't have heroic male leads? what about woodsy shadows? Is this the only film that has ever featured that? X Files must have had dark woods and not woodsy shadows.
"tough but emotional female leads"
Because all films have weak emotional female leads and Delgo was revolutionizing the concept.
"big, scary, fanged monsters"
They need to sue a lot of horror movies and video games for stealing this idea.
"alien warriors uncorking their fiercest battle cries"
We'll ignore that Predator did this first so they don't sue you for stealing their idea, but you go ahead and act like you came up with this story beat first.
Flying rocks?
The artwork looks just like Concept art for Guild Wars. But they didn't think of it first. Who else has used it? X-men, Beast Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender, & pretty much anything with an Airship in it.
The female and male lead holding each other for a kiss?
Are you serious? How stupid does that sound?
The only similarity these two have are the flying winged lizards but you don't have a copyright on that either. Besides, He-man or for those of you that remember, Blackstar, did it over thirty years ago.
Star Trek producers should sue Battlestar Galactica because they have "humans" on "spaceships."
They are both based off of Romeo and Juliette.
You can't copyright a type of shot or even shot composition.
This was surely a joke. Both movies have love as a part of the story? Man, this is something new in the industry. Warriors have battle cries? What a surprise. Heroic male lead? They have stolen from Superman and Spiderman, I guess. They have emotional women? What a similarity. They probably stole the flying beasts from the Lord of the Rings, but it's nothing serious.
Both films feature big, scary, fanged monsters. Like other 1000 movies don't...
Let me see:
Guy in wheelchair controls remote "alien lifeform" in hostile remote planet: checked (wikipedia "call me joe", 1957)
"Realistic CGI": checked (8 years old Final Fantasy)
"Realistic CGI" in stereoscopic 3D: checked (Beowulf)
"western" invasor comes to foreign land to conquer only to fall in love with native girl and fight on her side: checked (Pocahontas, dancing with wolves)
"Floating islands": checked (many, many, many, like Delgo)
"Dinasour" attacks people: checked (Jurassic Park)
"Mecha" battle suits: checked (Matrix, Mangas)
"Flying dragons horses": checked (Delgo, Dragons'n'Dungeons galore)
Tough marines+Sigourney Weaver in space+Tough female pilot+war "airplanes-spaceships": checked (Aliens)
Yeap. Definetly Avatar is absolutely, completely, unlike nothing anybody has ever seen before. At all.
Why do people with no sense of humor like to use words like "hilarious" and "laughing" when these must be foreign terms to them which have no meaning? I imagine the most they would be capable of producing would be a snort.
Even areaderofthegenre thought it was funny. Notice his brilliant comment below... (which, I assure you, FGSFDS will not get.)
Next » « Previous