why do people complain about movies,etc being a rip off of other movies, etc?

I went to see the The Muppets Movie today with mom. Well one of the movies in the "20s" (name for the trailers which happened before the main feature) was for a movie called "Brave". Well I was looking it up so I could find out when it came out. I always checkout the Messageboards on IMBd..too..and someone was crabbing about Brave being a rip-off of How to Train Your Dragon. But somehow on that thread, someone else says that Antz always reminded her of A Bug's Life. Sharks=Finding Nemo,etc.

Well from my experience being both a student of both history and literature. "Borrowing" from someone else is very common. I mean we would never have gotten Emma Waston's character's first name if it wasn't for Helen of Troy's daughter, Hermione (which Shakespeare borrowed). Or we would never have gotten the name "Perdita" either. Since if Shakespeare never invented that name..we wouldn't have it for the female dog in 101 Dalmatians. Not to mention would we have Gandolf, and Dumbledore if King Arthur never happened? I mean even Harry Potter borrows a lot.. Cerberus (Fluffy), the 2 sisters that Ron and Harry take..their names come from Hindu..I mean even the Ravenclaw ghost's is mythology (kind of). You kind of get what I'm trying to say?

sorry for the wall of text I had..

It's not the "borrowing", or borrowing of names, that makes a movie people say it's a rip-off. It's the Character development, concept, storyboard etc. that makes people complain of movies being similar, or "rip offs".

However, if I see a new movie about wizards/witches with magic and the heroine of the movie is named Hermione, then I'm going to say it's a rip off of the character development of Hermione from Harry Potter because the concepts would be the same. The name would be a minor addition to the "rip-off". It goes beyond borrowing names for the characters, as I stated in the first paragraph.

If the originality lacks in more than one aspect of the movie, or in one very large area of movie (usually the concept/storyboard) that's where the "rip-off" term comes from.

But most films/books/whatever..do borrow from another film/book/whatever. I mean two TV sci-fics shows I watch when they're on.. Doctor Who and Torchwood..well they both involve a lot of shouting "run" and running. There was an article a in Sept about similitires in stories,etc in my local paper. I mean people crap that Percy Jackson was a Harry Potter rip-off. But the two have almost nothing in common-they both have powers and go to a "special" place to be "trained"..but that's about it..in terms of the similarities

I mean we would never have gotten Gandolf or Dumbledore..if Merlin hadn't paved the way for them.


I mean even if my spoof fairytale story.. borrowed from other stories. (mostly Sleeping Beauty/Snow White..but I'm trying to figure out how to change that.).

MadameChung wrote:But most films/books/whatever..do borrow from another film/book/whatever. I mean two TV sci-fics shows I watch when they're on.. Doctor Who and Torchwood..well they both involve a lot of shouting "run" and running. There was an article a in Sept about similitires in stories,etc in my local paper. I mean people crap that Percy Jackson was a Harry Potter rip-off. But the two have almost nothing in common-they both have powers and go to a "special" place to be "trained"..but that's about it..in terms of the similarities

I mean we would never have gotten Gandolf or Dumbledore..if Merlin hadn't paved the way for them.


I mean even if my spoof fairytale story.. borrowed from other stories. (mostly Sleeping Beauty/Snow White..but I'm trying to figure out how to change that.).

And that is why they say it's a rip-off of Harry Potter. In order for someone to say a movie ripped-off another movie, it has to have some close similarities. That doesn't meant he whole movie has to mirror its predecessor. It has nothing to do with two shows that both shout "run", or the name of a character (unless the character in question also has similar characteristic's to its predecessor, then it's a rip-off)....

like I said, if I saw a wizard movie with a heroine named Hermione and she shared the same characteristic's as Rowlings Hermione , then yes, I (along with a lot of other people) would say they ripped off J.K. Rowlings character of Hermione because they share the same idea, concept and characteristic's. Not because of the name. You can have a character named Hermione and have it not be a rip-off IF the characteristic's of the 2nd Hermione do not mimic the characteristic's of Rowlings Hermione. It's a similarity in concept/storyboard/character development that makes something a rip-off.
Percy Jackson was/is referred to as a rip off of Harry Potter. It posses the same qualities (along with concept etc.) as Harry Potter.

When people say a movie is a "rip-off" of another movie, it doesn't necessarily mean that the whole movie is the same, but it does mean that there are similarities in the movie, somewhere, that make them think of another movie that is similar to that one. Again, that doesn't mean that the whole movie, story has to be exactly the same...it can be a scene, a character's characteristic, a concept...it can pretty much be anything that makes the viewer think, "hey, this feels familiar, I've seen this before somewhere".

The reason people complain of movies, and other things being a rip-off, is because they lack the originality.

I don't think I'll ever comprehend "people stealing film/book/game idea from other films/book/games", until it of course happens to me.

I look at it as Inspiration. Don't you ever watch something, or read something that just interests you and then inspires you to do something similar to the original thing? I often fall victim to that, but I wouldn't call it ripping off something, or stealing the concept/idea.

But, of course, then there are situations where things really DO feel "stolen" or ripped off.

Conorsim wrote:I don't think I'll ever comprehend "people stealing film/book/game idea from other films/book/games", until it of course happens to me.

I look at it as Inspiration. Don't you ever watch something, or read something that just interests you and then inspires you to do something similar to the original thing? I often fall victim to that, but I wouldn't call it ripping off something, or stealing the concept/idea.

But, of course, then there are situations where things really DO feel "stolen" or ripped off.

Disney's spoof movie Enchanted, inspired me to write "Anne in Ellabur" story. With a bit of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty movies mixed in..