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Did Michel Gondry steal the idea from Be Kind Rewind from an episode of Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show (starring Amanda Bynes) from eight years ago? Probably not, but watch this video that is circulating around the interwebs.
Discuss: Did Michel Gondry steal the idea for Be Kind Rewind from Amanda Bynes?
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February 20th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
i think it is absolutely possible for people to have the same idea without prior knowledge of each others work/idea. further proof that as humans we’re all connected baby…
February 20th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I had an idea for a show just like Heroes before it came out, complete with a character like Hiro, and one of the first shots in the show was a shot idea that I had. At no point did the actual creators of Heroes copy me though, however similar our ideas were.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
the amanda show was terrible, anyway.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
it is 2008 and there are about 5 original ideas out there right now. eventually we will run out of ideas for movies and eventually musicians will run out of original things to sing about. sooner or later we will all die and people will just come up with stuff that has already existed SOMETIME in the past and get bank off it. im willing to out money down that in 500 years someone will come up with the idea for star wars and make money off it.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I remember that… Ever since I first saw the preview of Be Kind, Rewind I’ve known I’d see it somewhere before… I guess I know where now!
February 20th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I invented the internets
February 20th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
after watching this, makes you think. now im really curious what gondry have to say about this.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Is not “Be Kind Rewind” … Is better! Much better!
February 20th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
mkpmedia:
I had an idea for a show just like Heroes too! But Marvel stole it and called it Xmen ;)
“…whackity smackity doo…”
February 21st, 2008 at 12:27 am
Oh wait, you mean Be Kind Rewind isn’t a re-make of this amazing skit from The Amanda Show?
Wait until I tell Michel Gondry the terrible news. He’s going to be devastated when Be Kind Rewind didn’t turn out like his favorite tv show he ALWAYS watched, because he was a huge Amanda Bynes fan.
Next Up: Kenan and Kel: The Movie, Directed by Michel Gondry.
February 21st, 2008 at 1:21 am
Wait! You mean Michel Gondry saw a terrible skit on a 2nd rate kids variety show and said “I can make millions off of that idea!”? No! Of course he didn’t. I would almost be willing to bet my next month’s paycheck that he has never even seen that poor slot-filler on Nickelodeon.
What we should be bringing attention to is the video’s creator and their poor choice in programming. I promise you that there is television out there that may seem similar to your current stable of DvDs, only they’re (…………wait for it…………..) “Better! Much Better!”
February 21st, 2008 at 2:09 am
I doubt sincerely that any theft is going on here. Michel Gondry just had a similar idea and ran with it. Besides, I’m sure (okay have a gut feeling) that Be Kind Rewind will be better scripted, better acted, and be forty-thousand times less annoying than ever having to sit through a viewing of that low rent kid friendly Carol Burnett Show rip-off.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:09 am
I always say it whenever i see the flippin trailer for this.!!!
February 21st, 2008 at 6:40 am
I’ll take Be Kind Rewind over the Amanda show thank you very much.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:47 am
I can’t believe this is actually an article on the site. Did he steal it? Of course he didn’t! Michel Gondry doesn’t need to steal ideas from shitty Nickelodeon shows to make his creative films.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:19 am
I can’t believe Thomas said we’re running out of orginal ideas for music and movies. It may seem like that in the mainstream, because everything is a result of some sort of formula to appease the masses. If you focus on Indy films and so-called “Underground” music, you’ll come to find that original ideas are out there, They’re just drowned out by all the dreck.
People have been around writing, acting, directing, and all that creative nonsense for a LONG ASS TIME! I don’t think we’re anywhere NEAR running out of original ideas.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:33 am
@ Nick O.
So if Gondry does it, its creative and if Nickelodeon does it, its shitty?
February 21st, 2008 at 7:48 am
10 years ago a friend and I developed a story that is exactly the same as what James Cameron is doing in Avatar. Like exactly the same. We both freaked out when we read about Avatar. But neither one of us told anyone about it. It just happens sometimes.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:48 am
I seriously doubt a director like Michel Gondry was even aware of something like the Amanda Show back in 2000. And plus it’s not quite the same idea. No one WANTS the videos in that sketch. In any case, I don’t hear Amanda Bynes getting up in arms, so unless this becomes a legal matter, I think this may just go down as one of those urban legends.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:52 am
I mean the two ideas certainly posses extremely similar aspects, but Be Kind represents a much more in depth and better story, of course. So just because some crappy children’s program did it 8 years ago means that Its forbidden ground and can’t be touched upon or elaborated and developed into a better idea?
If you watch the clip from the show it seems there is a possibility that the idea was borrowed, but at the same time there are great differences in the plot structure so who cares if it may have been “stolen”.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:15 am
This idea was already old by the time that clip was made. I have seen similar things at least 2 or 3 times before and I had never seen that clip until today.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:27 am
Truth be told, “Be Kind Rewind” is a rip-off of “Krippendorf’s Tribe.”
February 21st, 2008 at 10:38 am
be kind rewind will be much better than the amanda show,or at least i hope so….btw,is that supposed to be back to the future in the pic in the article?
February 21st, 2008 at 1:09 pm
@Zac Shipley
No. but are you trying to say that Nickelodeon’s “Blockblister” skit is better than Be Kind Rewind? I certainly hope not. I can’t believe there’s even a debate about this.
February 21st, 2008 at 2:05 pm
It is little known but I did in fact invent bread.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Nothing is original anymore! its be kind rewind!
February 21st, 2008 at 7:19 pm
lies dude i just made bread yesterday A.J. you stole it from me before i made it…
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:07 am
The lines are directly from the skit show. Even the situation of someone returning the movie and saying this isn’t the movie. “This is much better.”
Instead of being an original movie, it’s a stolen and lame idea.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 am
@FD
I seriously doubt you’ve seen anything of Gondry’s if you feel this way.
Watch the film and tell me then that it’s a rip off.
From the mouth of Gondry:
“I had this concept for years, this kid who would remake these movies. It sort of fuses this idea I’ve had for years, believing that people could create their own entertainment and they would enjoy it better, because they are in it. And the film would not have to be technically achieved, because it’s like watching a home movie. You don’t watch it for the technique, you watch because it’s reminiscing on good moments you spent with your friends. It reflects you. It belongs to you. So I was thinking people could, instead of spending their money to go and see a blockbuster, make their own movies. Collect the money and make a new one every week. I thought it would be nice to create a world that makes this construct possible.”
I highly doubt Amanda or any of her writers had this concept in mind… their’s is about a foreign family making remakes just to cheat people out of their money. Jack Black and Mos Def do it to save the store and later for the love and renown they’ve received from it.
http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/michel_gondry
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Agreed kyle.
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:55 am
God The Amanda Show was one of the worst shows on Nickelodeon.
February 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 pm
that was really stupid. really stupid. not worth being referenced wikipedia stupid.
February 24th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Be Kind Rewind was butter, much butter. So maybe they Sweded Amanda? There is no copyright infringement here based on what I’ve seen. And Be Kind Rewind is laugh out loud funny and artistic to boot.
February 24th, 2008 at 11:09 am
lol, at this arguement.
I say ‘be kind rewind today.
I’ve also watched clips of the amanda show.
It might have been a idea out there, for years, but gondrey has, gave me many perspectives on certain subjects.
class acting from Danny Glover, Mos Def and Jack Black makes this one of my favorite movies.
February 24th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
yeah there was also a fairly oddparents episode with a similar plotline. so what, man?
February 26th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
I used to love The Amanda Show when i was like 8, but now im starting to wonder what i was on…
Anyway, i seriously doubt that the Amanda Show was the first with this idea, i’d be willing to bet a hundred bucks on that, and i dont even have that much money
March 15th, 2008 at 12:47 am
This is an interesting artistic issue. On one level, Gondry’s take is certainly going to be deeper (and probably better), and ultimately it doesn’t matter, as long as the product is good. Good art stands, or falls, on its own.
On the other hand, what protection do the creators of the Amanda show have? The idea that video store employees make their own movies isn’t merely incidental to Gondry’s movie–it’s the whole concept of the movie. It’s a very specific concept, and someone else had it, or something very close to it, first. The idea that Gondry’s take is more thoughtful, which it almost certainly is, doesn’t address the issue of whether it’s fair to use the idea, whether you were aware that someone else had done it or not. (The Blair Witch Project–another concept-driven movie–borrowed its premise from another, apparently inferior, movie, and faced a similar minor comntroversy.)
And, obviously, this is a a grey area. No idea is completely original. (Monty Python, for example, had a sketch about a bookstore that sold knock-off versions of famous books (like David Coppperfield, with three p’s.)) But I also don’t think it’s fair to entirely dismiss the idea of intellectual property either. The Amanda show had an idea, and very publicly put it out there, and then somone made a movie using a very similar idea. I don’t know who’s right, but it IS a fair question to address. Obviously, similar themes and ideas recur all the time in books and movies, yet at the same time, it’s important to be respectful of, and give a wide berth to, other people’s ideas. Again, it’s a tricky issue, but the creators of the Amanda Show, certainly have reason to be a little concerned.
As an aside, a lot of people are criticizing the Amanda Show, which I had never seen, or even heard of, except for this clip, but the scene in question seems like a pretty decent idea for a sketch for a children’s show. It’s not high-art, but it’s not a bad concept, and it’s kind of silly.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Who cares if it’s a rip-off if it’s better. Gondry is great and Jack Black and Mos Def are funny. Amanda Bynes is not, has never been, and will never be funny.