Did James Cameron's Avatar rip off Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke? Released in 2009, Avatar once again proved that James Cameron could create one of the biggest movies ever. The original sci-fi movie broke box office records until it surpassed Titanic to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. Despite the success of Avatar, the movie has repeatedly been called into question about the inspiration for this story.
Avatar is set in the year 2154 where Earth's natural resources are nearly gone thanks to humanity, which results in a severe energy crisis. Humans are forced to track down a new resource to help save the species and find a valuable mineral known as unobtanium on Pandora, a moon that is home to the Na'vi people. The story of Avatar follows former Marine Jake Sully as he becomes familiar with the Na'vi culture and people. He eventually chooses to side with them after falling in love with Neytiri and helps fight against the humans who are devastating Pandora. Throughout the entirety of the film, themes of imperialism and environmentalism are present.
The criticism of Avatar's originality has brought about comparisons to Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, Fern Gully, and several other sci-fi stories. The movie that Avatar is arguably a near copy of, though, is Princess Mononoke. The classic 1997 Studio Ghibli animated movie follows a young prince named Ashitaka as he becomes part of a war between the gods of a forest and humans who continually clear the plant life to use the resources. Ashitaka helps a woman named San fight back to stop the humans and heal the forest. Many have pointed out that Ashitaka's journey from an outsider to savior lines up with Jake Sully's, while San and Neytiri are both brave warriors who fight alongside the protagonist. Meanwhile, the similarities between locals losing natural resources to third parties are apparent.
The comparison between Avatar and Princess Mononoke is fair, but the belief that Cameron ripped off Miyazaki's animated hit is probably a stretch too far. Cameron has openly discussed how various properties influenced his idea for Avatar, beyond his own life experiences. He has stated that Princess Mononoke did partially inspire the movie and life on Pandora, but he didn't rip off the entire movie. Cameron originally began developing Avatar as a movie in 1994, three years before Princess Mononoke was released in theaters.
Since Cameron has spent years hearing the criticisms of how he told a rather unoriginal story within an original world, it should be fascinating to see what happens with Avatar 2 and further sequels. Filmmakers always borrow from other properties on purpose or subconsciously too. While it is understandable why so many people want to point to the similarities between Avatar and Princess Mononoke, Cameron's admittance that the fantasy anime movie inspired his sci-fi blockbuster on some level shows still allows the former to receive the proper credit it deserves. And, hopefully, this even drives more people to check out Princess Mononoke.
