Last week we were treated to the first trailer for Avatar, James Cameron’s first movie since Titanic.  Shortly thereafter the collective power of the internet gave it’s feedback on Cameron’s work, and while the responses were varied there was a pretty common theme, people were seeking out flaws with what they had seen.  I guess it’s to be expected that when you do your followup to the highest world wide grossing movie of all time that that there might be some haters in the crowd.  When you have the type of commercial success that James Cameron’s enjoyed nobody should be surprised that there are naysayers out there, but once the initial wave of mixed reactions passed there was something that stuck behind.  It seems that there is a strong movement afoot to portray Avatar as a ripoff of the 2008 animated flick Delgo. Blogs everywhere were throwing up posts that read Avatar=Delgo with a Big Budget or 10 Biggest Similarities Between Avatar and Delgo and my personal favorite Avatar vs. Delgo: Just to Much in Common to be Coincidence.

Next came the Delgo screen shots side by side to Avatar screen shots.  The evidence was damning for the Titanic director.  Delgo had flying lizard mini dragon type things…so did Avatar; hey? wait a second didn’t Lord of the Rings have those?  There’s more though Delgo had stampeding Dewbacks…so did Avatar; er…sorry I forgot Dewbacks were from Star Wars first.  Hold on a second though what about the main character?  Delgo’s hero (who was named Delgo as fate would have it) was a reptilian looking salamander humanoid cross, and one of the guys in Avatar’s trailer stood on two legs and had dreadlocks like a man…but had blue slimy skin, amphibious if you will.  What’s that you say?  Both characters sound a little like Abe Sapien from Hellboy…you may have a point.  But…have you ever seen a movie with an army of people who have fairy type wings and fight like Tinkerbell did against the pirates in Peter Pan?….I may be doing more harm than good to my cause here.

Needless to say I was skeptical that anybody could make the argument that a movie all anybody had seen was 2 minutes of, could be called a rip off of anything.  Apparently though Delgo’s producers saw it differently.  A PR spokesperson for Fathom Studios, the Atlanta based company who produced Delgo (which incidently is the first ever independently produced CG animated movie) had this to say when asked about the similarities between their movie and the 120 seconds we got to see of Cameron’s upcoming movie.

From what we have seen, we are amazed by the visual similarities between the two films and we are reviewing what legal options may be available to us.

Unconvinced, but reminded that I meant to see Delgo last year, and then again when it came out on DVD in August, I figured that now was the perfect time to check the flick out and see for myself if the allegations have any basis whatsoever. The result…none at all. There were some things in Delgo that are also in the Avatar trailer, but they are things that are common in sci-fi or fantasy movies. There were also tons of things in Avatar’s sneak peak that weren’t in Delgo, small things like humans, spaceships, big guns, and wheelchairs. This whole controversy is ridiculous. Having said that though Delgo was a great pickup. So while you might not be getting a sneak preview of Avatar if you rent it. You will be getting a cartoon that is deeper and less intended for kids than most CG animation, and while you can clearly tell that there were budget limitations the story rises above those constraints and delivers a solid experience for viewers. Be sure to check it out.

Still unconvinced? Check out the Delgo trailer here, and the Avatar trailer follows