# What's up with these ripoff Disney knockoff movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938 "2008-07-01T18:52:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938/1 "2008-07-01T18:52:40Z")
[Beauty and the Beast](http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Beauty_and_the_Beast/70057564?trkid=1767) [Aladdin](http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Aladdin/70057563?trkid=226870) I guess it isn’t illegal to make bad animated versions of stories that are in the public domain. Wasted two spots in my Netflix queue for these ripoffs. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938/2 "2008-07-01T19:10:26Z")
I take it you’ve never looked through the DVDs at the dollar store? Generic animated kiddie movies in the style of Disney are nothing new. At least the ones you linked to have some actual recognizable names involved (Christopher Lee, Derek Jacobi) (unless they found some other guys with those same names). ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938/3 "2008-07-01T19:11:47Z")
They’re hoping to trick people who don’t read carefully enough - or those whose kids will spot one of those and then beg and beg for another version of a movie they already love. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938/4 "2008-07-01T19:13:49Z")
They’re not the only ones. A series called “Enchanted Tales” had knockoffs of nearly every Disney animated feature from [The Jungle King](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125867/) on through the end of the 90’s at least. Hunchback, Pocahontas, Hercules, Tarzan, “[The Legend of Su-Ling](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125869/)” It’s to confuse/trick grandparents into buying it for the little ones. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938/5 "2008-07-01T19:19:41Z")
Jason Connery’s [dad](http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=sean+connery&x=0&y=0) was involved in another Aladdin movie, The Thief and the Cobbler, brilliant in its own right but lesser-known. Some of these “knockoffs” are pretty worthwhile. Most, though, are not. ---
**Author:** ![freekalette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938/6 "2008-07-01T19:58:50Z")
Heh, I came in here all prepared to rant about Disney knocking off other movies. Guess I’ll just take my _Kimba the White Lion_ somewhere else then. _harumph_ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938/7 "2008-07-01T20:06:46Z")
[quote] Jason Connery’s dad was involved in another Aladdin movie, The Thief and the Cobbler, brilliant in its own right but lesser-known. [/quote That’s not an Aladdin movie, and not a knock-off. It was a labor of love by Richard Williams, the guy responsible for the animation in **Who Framed Roger Rabbit** , and who’d been working on it for over twenty years. Its appearance at the same time as Disney’s Aladdin was mere luck. It got made, but still only as a bare shadow of what it should have been. Read and weep: > **[The Thief and the Cobbler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thief_and_the_Cobbler)** > > The Thief and the Cobbler is an unfinished animated fantasy film co-written and directed by Richard Williams. Originally devised in the 1960s, the film was in and out of production for nearly three decades due to independent funding and ambitiously complex animation. It was finally placed into full production in 1989, when Warner Bros. agreed to finance and distribute the film. When production went over budget and behind schedule, it was heavily cut and hastily re-edited by producer Fred Ca Ov... > **[Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos](https://www.yahoo.com/)** > > Latest news coverage, email, free stock quotes, live scores and video are just the beginning. Discover more every day at Yahoo! ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938/8 "2008-07-01T20:09:19Z")
[QUOTE=freekalette] Heh, I came in here all prepared to rant about Disney knocking off other movies. Guess I’ll just take my _Kimba the White Lion_ somewhere else then. _harumph_ [/QUOTE] [Cecil’s column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a991224.html) on the matter. _The Lion King_ is not a rip-off of _Kimba_, it’s a rip-off of _Hamlet_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938/9 "2008-07-01T20:21:12Z")
A YouTube fan-made trailer for **The Thief and the Cobbler**. Phenomenal animation: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeOq3O1MrzQ) ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-these-ripoff-disney-knockoff-movies/454938/10 "2008-07-01T20:29:28Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] [Cecil’s column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a991224.html) on the matter. _The Lion King_ is not a rip-off of _Kimba_, it’s a rip-off of _Hamlet_. [/QUOTE] It’s also kinda a rip of off Kimba. Personally I have never seen the similarity to Hamlet except in the most generic way possible. But the character models and names etc…very kimba. Aladdin is also a direct knock of of one of the Sinbad movies (7th voyage? I’m not sure.) Down to the evil Vasir dressed in red and black and the short pudgy sultan dressed in white and the princess Jasmine dressed in blue. I saw it on AMC when I was 14 or 15 and my jaw dropped. Ultimately, I am not sure that it really matters. And Derek Jacobi rocks, maybe those knock off’s don’t totally suck. (Unlikely, but you never know)