"Swim Away! Swim Away!"

Why, goodness me, what have we here?

It would appear that somewhere in the Big Book of Hollywood Rules there is a bit that says: "Underwater + sharks + animation = Huge success! Go make your own one! Now!"

Now, I haven't seen Shark Bait (The Reef) yet, (although others have) , and up until today I haven't even known about it, so I couldn't possibly comment on the story or animation, but just looking at the poster...well, it looks like a copy, really. I can forgive Shark Tale (2004); Dreamworks had already been working on it for a couple of years when Finding Nemo (2003) was released, although you hear rumours...but anyway.

However, I know the creators of Shark Bait/The Reef/Pi's Story/The Pearl at least knew about Nemo before they started on their version. Okay fine, so you're making an animated movie set under water.
No problem...not the most original concept, but acceptable. Now you work in a shark, a little orange orphaned fish and his love interest, and the concept starts going runny. Before you've even begun, you've come up with something that will inevitably be compared to and measured against the other two. Bad start right there. Already you look like you're just recycling someone else's story, and find yourself in the critics' firing line.

We've seen similar occurances before;
Antz(1998), Bug's Life(1998), Ant Bully(2006)...which were all different enough.
Madagascar(2005), The Wild(2006)...which was pretty blatant.
Shrek(2001 and 2004), Hoodwinked (2005), Happily N'Ever After (2007)...similar concept (the anti-fairytale).

I'm sure the list goes on.
My dad once worked with a guy who often said "Originality is the art of hiding your source." Hmm...enough said, I think.