Heavy Metal similarities to James Cameron's Avatar

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secretprincess

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Since Cameron is a fan of animation and that HM is one of his favorite animated movies and he is a fan of the comic magazine, i'm sure that this movie and the magazine are one of his inspirations to his new movie and did some homages as well.

There are huge similarities to Den and Taarna in Avatar big time.

For Den similarities:
A weakling of a man is transported to a new world to find himself in a new body then wonders through an exotic planet, finds a new love and joins with warrior creatures to battle against a tyrant.

For Taarna similarities:
Sexy but strong willed female warrior who kicks ace, rides a dragon and the climax between Neytiri and Quatrich was a huge homage to that battle scene where Taarna fought the barbarian king. Quatrich is preety much like the Barbarian King in that movie including his soldiers being like the barbarians.

For similarities to the magazine:
I assume Cameron used some of Richard Corben, Moebius and Bernie Wrightsen for some parts of the world of Pandora including the creatures, sexy half naked alien girls, warriors, and that kind of thing for inspiration as he made a movie that was like a live-action HM magazine story come to life.

In terns, he made a cocktail of HM, Ferngully, Princess Mononoke, Dune, Nausicaa, Starchaser Legend of Orin, Fantastic Planet, LightYears (aka Gandahar), Star Wars Trilogy, Star Treks 2-3-4-6, Last of the Mohicans, Atlantis The Lost Empire, Castle in The Sky, Dances with Wolves, Man Named Horse, Broken Arrow (1950), Forte Apache, Lawrence of Arabia, Willow and Wizards in one package.
 
You know, everyone makes Smurf jokes about Avatar, but aside from the fact that they're both about characters who are blue, they have NOTHING to do with each other.
 
Yeah, it's not like Colonel Quaritch was some crazy wizard with a cat who wanted to eat the Na'vi...though it makes you wonder what was really in that coffee.
 
Since there's nothing even remotely original (or for that matter, interesting) about Avatar, I'm sure you could find paralells between it and just about everything. Even in his golden years, Cameron was never much for originality. Just ask Harlan Ellison.
 
Anyone familar with Rene Laloux's French animated cult classics like Fantastic Planet and LightYears (aka Gandahar)? those movies also inspired this movie since Cameron is a fan of animation, anime, European animation, adult animation and Sci-fi/fantasy novels/movies. FP had blue giant aliens and those were what really inspired Avatar's aliens and some scenes are homages like the mystic tree to the whole humans vs aliens and savage thing.

Cameron had this idea for his movie since 1988 when he wrote his plot and ideas on a piece of paper then in 1993 he wrote an 80 page screenplay treatment as he announced in 1996 he would make his movie after Titanic but in 98 he decided to hold off his movie by putting it in a drawer until the technology does justice to satisfy his vision. Then in 2005 after being convinced by Lord of the Rings's technology he greenlighted it and rechanged his script including using alien language he created.

Face it, Cameron is never original. He did borrowed from a Sci-fi novel for Terminator including using 2 twilight zone episodes, Wizards (Peace was his inspiration for the good T-800) and Metropolis as well. Cameron borrowed from Starship Troopers (the novel), Apocalypse Now and Them for Aliens, The Abyss was borrowed from 2001 A Space Odyssey and True Lies was a remake of a French action comedy from 1991.

But Cameron is definitely one of the best directors/storytellers and i adored his works since i saw Terminator on video when i was 4 and saw Aliens 2 times when i was 5. Seen all his movies in theaters since like The Abyss 2 times in theaters at 8, Terminator 2 4 times (Had the merchandise) at 10, True Lies 3 times at age 13, Titanic 7 times at 16 and now Avatar 14 times in theaters (Both versions 2D and 3D), i grew up with him and he never disappoints me.

Does anyone also see Ghibli elements in this movie as well? Cameron is a fan of Hayao Miyazaki and cited that Miyazaki is one of his inspirations. There's the jungle of toxic where people need masks to breath, the similar insects and resurrection of people by tentacles of Nausicaa, some of the jungle to the riding of a wolf-like beast to the similar female warrior, stampede and similar villain of Mononoke, the same floating islands to the floating rock substance and similar robots of Castle in The Sky and the idea of disguising as another creature to helping the enviroment of Pom Poko.

And who agrees with my HM similarities in the movie like i mentioned?
 
It also reminds me of the original plan for Atlantis the Lost Empire before the budget got cut, with more creatures to fight and a scene showing Kida to be a skilled huntress.

Look, a movie designed to be an international blockbuster has to be on the generic side. I personally liked Tim Burton's Alice better myself.
 
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