Things Disney Has Ripped Off

As... phenomenal? Eh, iconic, as Disney is, and as much as they've been ripped off, they aren't above ripping other companies off themselves now and then.

## Classic Cartoons

When Walt Disney lost the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, he created a new character called Mickey Mouse who looked almost identical except for the ears, the pants, the shoes, and the gloves. But, *technically* that isn't a rip-off, since Walt also made Oswald, and the Disney company managed to buy Oswald back in 2009. The *actual* rip-off is Oswald himself, who has an uncanny resemblance to one Felix the Cat.

## *The Little Mermaid*

I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know that something's starting right now! Watch and you'll see, someday I'll be, somewhere that's green- I mean, part of your world!

## *The Lion King*

Contrary to popular belief, Disney did not in fact rip off *Kimba the White Lion* when making *The Lion King*, and most (if not all) similarities between the two are entirely coincidental. The writers didn't really need to rip anyone off to get the idea to use an evil lion as the main villain (the usurper figure is not an invention of Osamu Tezuka), hyenas as the main henchmen (hyenas are natural enemies of lions), feature a character who is a bird (Africa has plenty of birds; plus, the bird character in *The Lion King* serves a different function to the one in *Kimba*), have Simba's father die (killing off a parent is nothing new for Disney), and have a mandrill character (Osamu Tezuka didn't invent those, either). As for the name, as many have pointed out before, Simba's name means 'lion' in Swahili, and the word just *happens* to sound similar to Kimba. It's also worth pointing out that Scar was originally supposed to be an ape, then was changed to a rogue lion leading a rival pride, before finally being made Mufasa's brother in the final product. Finally, Disney knowing about *Astro Boy* does not mean they were aware of Osamu Tezuka's entire catalogue.

This is all just a product of apophenia. If you look hard enough at any two things, you're bound to find similarities. In fact, chances are, people wouldn't even be *having* this conversation if it weren't for the fact that both works feature a lion as the main character. The same thing happened when *Madagascar 2* came out, since that also heavily features a pride of lions (but had little else in common with *The Lion King*). So, it stands to reason that *any* animated feature with lions in it will be compared to (and be accused of ripping off) other popular animated works featuring lions.

## *Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show*

The reason this crime against animation was created was so Disney could cash in on *Ren and Stimpy*

## *Dinosaur*

Devastating cataclysm? Check. Small band of friends? Check. Quest to find a magical valley? Check. Pursued by predatory monster? Okay, we won't count that one, but this film has too much in common with *The Land Before Time* to be a coincidence.

## *The Country Bears*

Okay, this one *might* not count since the "getting the band back together" plot wasn't necessarily invented by *The Blues Brothers*, but it's worth mentioning anyway just as another reason to say that this movie sucks.

## *Pirates of the Caribbean*

As many have pointed out before, the plot of this movie has an uncanny resemblance to the plot of *Monkey Island*. This is interesting for two reasons, the first being that this was originally supposed to *be* a *Monkey Island* movie. The other reason is that Disney would eventually buy Lucasfilm and LucasArts along with it, meaning that Disney technically owns *Monkey Island*.

## *Chicken Little*

When Dreamworks got famous with *Shrek*, everybody wanted a piece of that "computer-animated fractured fairy tale comedy with pop songs instead of original music" pie, including Disney. This is the movie that resulted.

## *Cars*

The whole movie is a direct copy of *Doc Hollywood*, but with cars instead of people.

## *The Princess and the Frog*

As fans of *The Swan Princess* have pointed out, *The Princess and the Frog* delightfully borrows the transformation animation from the "beloved classic". They've also claimed that Prince Naveen borrows from Jean-Bob, but that one is probably coincidental.

## *Inside Out*

The dream studio and the subconscious in this movie resemble the dream studio and subconscious from *Osmosis Jones*. A few people have also drawn parallels between the movies' round screens, but chances are the screens are only round because eyes are round.

## *Descendants*

A toyline about the children of famous fairy tale characters in high school, and specifically focusing on the children of traditionally evil characters who don't want to follow in their parents' footsteps? That sounds absolutely nothing like *Ever After High*. They're produced by different companies after all, and that's a huge difference.

## *Pickle and Peanut*

Two losers, a tall guy and a short guy, work a minimum wage job. They like to play video games, and sing improvised songs on the fly. They drive around in a trademark vehicle connected to their job. And, they fight supernatural threats on a regular basis. Some claim it's a rip-off of *Breadwinners*, but if that's the case, it's still a retroactive rip-off of *Regular Show*.

## Disney Ripping Off Themselves

* Nearly every single one of Disney's animated features (and even a few of their live-action films) follow the exact same formula
	+ The princess movie almost has its own formula
* *Treasure Planet*, despite being a superior movie to *Atlantis: The Lost Empire*, was still quite similar to it in many ways (though considering the source material, it's unlikely that any of it was intentional)
* As mentioned above, *Pirates of the Caribbean* borrows the plot of *Monkey Island*, which is owned by Disney as of the Lucasfilm acquisition
* Considering that Wikia's userbase isn't made up of the sharpest knives in the drawer, it should probably be mentioned that *Enchanted* was a parody of other Disney movies, and that the aspects taken from other Disney movies were meant as part of the joke
* *The Muppets* might as well be a remake of *The Country Bears*, just with better casting, better characters, and much better writing
* *Brave* borrows the "character gets turned into a bear" plot from *Brother Bear*, your mileage may vary on the results
* Oh sure, if every Disney movie ever made uses a romantic couple, nobody bats an eye. But if more than one Disney movie focuses on a pair of sisters, then it's a total rip-off. There's also absolutely no difference between Hans and Gaston at all, and *Frozen* totally rips off *The Lion King* because it has a usurper character in it. This is sarcasm, by the way, in case you couldn't tell. This is just another instance of apophenia. You might as well be saying *Toy Story 3* is a rip-off of *The Brave Little Toaster* because both movies have a climax that takes place at the dump. Because the only possible way to get the idea to do that had to have come from the earlier movie. ...That was sarcasm, too.