MovieChat Forums > The Island at the Top of the World (1974) Discussion > 'stargate' : it's just a big rip-off... ...

'stargate' : it's just a big rip-off... (spoilers for both films)

posted 16 years ago by dandan_1976
4 replies | jump to latest

so, i love 'the island at the top of the world', it was one of the live action disney films which i would rent over and over again (along with 'swiss family robinson') as a child.

any how, i saw 'stargate' when that came out and, even though i enjoyed it, i did think that it was just a bit of a 'the island at the top of the world' rip off...

- people find a clue to the existence of an ancient race
- travel there in an unusual fashion
- find an ancient society in tact
- evil forces are oppressing people
- our adventurers intervene and triumph
- geeky archaeologist type decides to stick around when the others leave

i'm pretty sure there are more (specific) elements which were borrowed by the 'stargate' people, but i can't remember them at the moment. having watched 'stargate' with the commentary, they didn't even name-check this film as an influence...

[–] wimdall 15 years ago

I think your last point is the only real defendable one. The others are pretty broad.

[–] richard-III 13 years ago

Sounds like the many fantasy / sci-fi books that Edgar Rice Burroughs (creator of Tarzan, 1912) wrote.
Hollow earth's Pellucidar, the planet Mars, etc., all locations for stories written in the early years of the 20th century.

"Being lost in a film is totally fine."

[–] grendelkhan 12 years ago

Not to mention the works of Conan Doyle (the Prof. Challenger books) and H. Rider Haggard (Allan Quatermain and She). From there you can add the pulp writers, like Talbot Mundy and Clark Ashton Smith. Stargate is derivative of a lot of things (Star Wars, Lawrence of Arabia, amongst other films) butthis is probably the least of them.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."-Groucho

[–] alanake 9 years ago

Ha! I came on here to say exactly that but see you have beaten me to it, by seven years no less.

It's just the final scene really when the archaeologist says he wants to stay behind. I thought, uh, Stargate. The other things you mention are a bit stretched, they could be true of a million movies, but how many movies have an archaeologist deciding to remain in the lost culture they've found? Just fhese two I think