Inception: Stolen idea?

[Cogwulf]

I've copied this from someone who copied it from somewhere else. I just thought I'd post it here.
If you haven't seen the film yet you probably wont want to read this

Inception was the biggest film release in a long time, and audiences and critics alike gushed over how original it was. It pioneered such innovative story mechanics as dream sharing, thought theft, psychological limbo and escaping the subconscious through specific triggers, or "kicks." Those are, no doubt brilliant devices. Devices that, to a one, can be traced back to Scrooge McDuck.

n a 2002 comic book, eight years before Christopher Nolan's little dream exploration film, Scrooge got his mind hijacked by the Beagle Boys. The Boys were trying out new careers as dream-thieves and went into Scrooge's mind to steal the secret combination of his vault. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because that's exactly how Inception opens up, except you have to replace DiCaprio with talking dogs. Which, incidentally, would probably improve every single one of his movies.

After they're inside Scrooge's mind, the Beagle Boys have trouble differentiating dreams from reality -- again, exactly like the characters from Inception, who need special items, or "totems" in order to tell dream from reality.

When Donald Duck enters Scrooge's dream to help, he has to figure out a way to pry the Beagle Boys out of there. In Inception they use "kicks" to make controlled exits, like how the feeling of falling usually snaps you out of the dream. In McDuck's head, they do, well, the exact same thing.

n order to escape danger, Scrooge starts jumping from dream to dream, but like Cillian Murphy's character, he can't remember the last dream once he's in the new one. Donald, however, is the invader (like DiCaprio) so he alone is able to remember the progression.

But Inception was a sci-fi thriller, and that was key to its appeal: It took metaphysical concepts, like Lucid Dreaming, and used them to fuel the action. The characters can't break the rules, but they can "imagine a bigger gun," and that's hardly something you'd see in some Disney duck carto-

Anyone who's really bad at pattern recognition might at this point be saying, but wait, there's Limbo! That, at least, is definitely the exclusive work of our favorite dark genius ... Gyro Gearloose.

These are all from the same issue of one 24-page comic book, by the way -- not some collection of random panels throughout the years that we've strung together to make a point. Then there's Mal, DiCaprio's wife who's being kept alive solely in his dreams. And yes, even that sad, emotionally complex motivation is echoed in this comic about pantsless waterfowl

This is Goldie, Scrooge's old girlfriend. She may or may not be dead, but he certainly hasn't seen her in about 50 years. See, she's in the dreamworld because Scrooge carries a lot of guilt from the way he treated her when they were together (i.e., he kidnapped and tormented her. Yeah, Ducktales skipped over Scrooge's violent criminal phase.). Kind of like the guilt DiCaprio feels, believing that he killed his wife, whom he constantly visits in his dreams.

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Nolan has never commented on the similarities between the two properties, probably because there isn't much he would be able to say besides, "Well ... f**k." He has mentioned that he isn't sure where the inspiration for the movie came from though, probably because "I owe it all to Donald Duck!" is kind of an embarrassing Oscar speech. Nolan "may not know" where he got his ideas from, but some directors sure do

Summary: Scrooge/Disney>>>DiCaprio/Nolan :wave:

 

[Cognisant]

YouTube - It's All Been Done - a Stargate: SG-1 Jack/Daniel vid

Stargate isn't relevant but at least this video works and doesn’t take ages to load.

Edit: And remember, writing a good story is hard, there needs to be an introduction, conflict, payoff, other stuff so you actually give a damn about the characters, action scenes to and comedy to glue it all together, you can only reinvent the wheel so many times before it looks like someone else's.

 

[Puffy]

That's awesome, thank you for sharing I used to love Donald Duck when I was a kid - I think this almost makes Inception better for me. It is interesting to know from what experience Nolan shaped his story.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I've actually read this comic before; Don Rosa is fairly popular in Sweden. I actually recall misplacing the Donald Duck issue I had with this particular comic in it and it really bothered me because I liked it a lot.

 

[Jennywocky]

I'm amazed the article quoted in the OP wasted so much time proving its point... which is that literature is just a recycling of ideas that have already been done over and over again, and that's it's more a matter of how it's done and packaged than what basic framework can be distilled out of it.

We pay to experience the customization of the idea, not the idea itself.

Then again, maybe it was just one big tongue-in-cheek commentary.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

 

[snafupants]

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.” Jim Jarmusch quote, and thank you wikipedia.

 

[Deleted member 1424]

Watch Paprika and Inception back to back; many of the premises are the same.

I'm amazed the article quoted in the OP wasted so much time proving its point... which is that literature is just a recycling of ideas that have already been done over and over again, and that's it's more a matter of how it's done and packaged than what basic framework can be distilled out of it.

We pay to experience the customization of the idea, not the idea itself.

Then again, maybe it was just one big tongue-in-cheek commentary.

It's written to entertain, not efficiently educate.

Now give the devil his due.

 

[Melkor]

Brilliant.^_^

Though I'm dissapointed at the uncharacteristic passiveness of Cili-.. er... Donald duck.

 

[Glordag]

I dunno... I think this goes a little bit beyond the simple "we have to borrow ideas when we make our own work" premise. This is sort of absurdly similar :P.

 

[Jennywocky]

Brilliant.^_^

Though I'm dissapointed at the uncharacteristic passiveness of Cili-.. er... Donald duck.

Oh, that's just what the duck wants you to think.

But never turn your back on him.
Never.
That's exactly what he wants.
He's a fowl schemer.

 

[scorpiomover]

Cool. I always thought that the Duck family adventures were really complex and clever. Now I know that major motion picture makers turn to them for inspiration.

Long live cartoons!:smiley_emoticons_mr

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

Inception was a pretty bad movie.

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

All ideas are stolen from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage

 

[darude11]

Interesting stuff!

 

[Linsejko]

I'm sorry, did you say a fowl schemer?



I almost want to call that a foul joke, but I have to admit I grinned.

 

[Lobstrich]

Inception was a pretty bad movie.

I disagree.

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A lot.

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This is kind of like Inception.. You know the layers.... I'm funny.

I was bored.

 

[Question Authority]

Honestly this seems to me a bit of a Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy, mixed with some inherent coincidences due to the nature of the material. The Texas sharpshooter Fallacy essentially states, if a man were to shoot at the side of a barn a number of times, there would end up be an area where most of the shots would cluster. If the shooter were to paint a target on the cluster, he'd look like a better shot than he actually is. In this case, it means that there are a ton of fictional works out there, and two people are bound to have similar ideas, and thus, if we paint a bullseye on there, it'll look like one copied another, but in reality, it could just be a coincidence.

Sure, but what about the details that are almost eerily similar? Well, a lot of that comes down to merely knowing about dreams and lucid dreaming. Dreams seem real while you're in them, so obviously that would make it into both works. Falling is one of the most common ways to wake up suddenly from a dream, so it shows up in both. In lucid dreaming, once you realize that you are dreaming, you have control over the world you dreamed up, so the "imagine a bigger gun" appears in both. And finally, it's not like having an old flame, trapped in the protagonist's subconscious, especially when complex feelings such as guilt are involved, is a new concept.

And for all you say that you didn't just string together a bunch of panels to make a point, I can't help wondering what was omitted. Obviously you can't post the entire comic, but it seems that if it were really that much of a 1-to-1 copy, I'd give more concrete examples, and what I see just isn't that convincing. I have no doubt Inception is derivative, but not of this; Inception copied Paprika. The only connections these two seem to have are the same premise (Entering someones' dreams not being a very complicated one), and the use of dream tropes.

 

[Lydia]

That is rather interesting, although Inception was an intelligent movie. But I guess nothing is orignal these days. You always get one legendary movie, then realise that it was cheaply copied or atleast copied then molded into something better.

I haven't seen Donald Duck that much. But I still believe that Inception was a profound movie. Enjoyed it.