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Twentieth Century Fox, meet award-winning director Chris Cunningham

cunningham_irobot_bjork.jpg
From L to R: Chris Cunningham’s 1998 music video for Bjork’s “All is Full of Love,” and Alex Proyas’ 2004 full-length I, Robot.

33 replies on “Twentieth Century Fox, meet award-winning director Chris Cunningham”

I saw the preview for I, Robot and downloaded that video (it’s my fav. music video ever) within the span of 6 hours and still didn’t make that connection. Kudos!

i made that connection as soon as i saw the preview for i, robot.
the worst part is the ‘interview’, where the designer says ‘i wanted to create a robot nobody’s ever seen before’.
guess he failed there.

I missed it the first time I saw the trailer, but your side-by-side makes it totally obvious. And, frankly, the animation and design in Chris Cunningham’s is far better than what it seems to be in the movie.
Do you have his video collection, the Directors Collection or whatever it’s called? Ridiculous that I don’t remember the name (I have all 3: Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze) and Cunningham’s work is really spectacular. Some creepy-ass art exhibitions, too.

Saw the I-Robot trailer today and was really pleased, though not for the reasons intended by Will Smith and Co.! The absolute first thought I had was “That looks awfuly like the robots I saw in the minute of a Bjork video that was left for me to see about six years ago at three in the morning while I was alone and drunk in France and that moved me to (admittedly alchohol enhanced) tears. Next thought was to hop on to internet and hey presto at http://www.glassworks.co.uk you get to see the video in full for free! So even if I will never go and the summer hollywood turkey that is I-Robot, at least it closed off one of those life loops that everybody has… Anyway, Cunningham’s robotesses are far superior than the I-Robot, at a time when special effects are supposedly far more advanced than in 1998…
P.S. Fancy making a million, Chris? Sue those american bu**ers to the ground for plagary (or however you spell it)!

I have the Chris Cunningham video collection, but I haven’t seen I, Robot yet. I must say, the similarities are striking, but the Bjork-bot is much better, cleaner and less CGI looking. I like the song, too!

I recognized the bjorkbots when I saw the I, ROBOT preview in a theatre, but I just assumed that the director had played nice and commissioned the robots from Cunningham or his robot men…

I can see many similarities, but let’s think about it. How many humanoid robot forms do you think people can dream up? Given specific design criteria (such as no skin nor hair, made of smooth plastic and metal joints), they’re all going end up looking similar in certain ways, because they are all made to approximate a human form. Don’t most mannequins look alike?

Wow – Did anyone notice that both robots look a lot like Robert Redford!
A head, two arms, two legs, and they are even in the same proportions!
And get this – the eyes, nose and month are all placed in approximately the same locations on the head. Incredible!! I think Bob should talk to his lawyer about this. Perhaps we can all get in on a class action lawsuit.

Three things seem to stand out:
1. The knock off is obvious.
2. The people who are implying that they don’t are fairly transparent ePersona associated with the movie.
3. The knock off is obvious.

It’s funny that Chris Cunningham stole his robot design from Masamune Shirow’s “Ghost in the Shell”.

I saw both the video and the trailer for the movie in the past week and never drew the conclusion that they looked alike, there is of course some similar features, but they are both robots, the bjork one is much more human looking in the face and the body has some female aspects to it, I think the I Robot one looks more like a generic butler type of robot with very little expression on his face with just a hint of possible evil in the contours

Even if it is a copy of the very obvious design for a robot, I’d like to draw your attention to a painting created BEFORE the ‘all is full of love’ video by an erotic artist called Marcus Gray.
http://www.marcusgray.com/fetish/erogenou.htm
I’m sure you’ll agree, the similarity is stronger than even the I-robot…robot
Tut tut Chris Cunningham ;o)

From the moment I saw the first news of I, Robot I thought “Oh cool what’s the Bjork robot doing on tv?” But then again, that’s the same thing I said when I saw the Animatrix and it’s “robots” and yes…countless OTHER Anime that’s been around for years. Hmm…looks like we’re just using inspired designs for inspiration folks. Oh yea then there’s Episode one…and etc. etc. etc.
Great movie though….better than the video by…uh..what’s that strange chick’s name again?

Um, what about the robot from “Metropolis”. Every robot mentioned so far on this blog has its lineage or inspiration from that robot.

They’re similar, but, then again, it’s not hard to come up with “similar” humanoid robot designs independently. After all, if it’s humanoid it will at least share some basics with all other humanoid robots. And there there are just some obvious design choices, like the chest plate and keeping the joints open. Then you start comparing their body plates with armor (an easy comparison) and the “similarities” start to look a lot like what they are – design choices that are made by history and contemporary technology.
I won’t claim there was zero influence – after all, just about anything we see is an influence – but to say it’s derived directly from or, worse, a rip-off, is way overreaching and reveals a startling lack of imagination on the part of the accusers.

Funny I thought the I,Robots looked a lot like the crash dummies used by US and European auto manufacturers — except that the Bjorkbot and Proyasbots are Caucasian 🙂
….perhaps Cunningham,Bjork and Proyas should ALL be paying royalties to Ford, General Motors,and Benz!

Hmm now that I think of it, mayhaps this site should pay royalties to the boy who cried wolf, after all he’s the one that started that racket oh so long ago in the interest of getting some “attention”.
Let’s face it. Bjork is not an “A” list celebrity and could use the 15 minutes of extended fame with this nonsensical accusation. I’m a 3D artist and I look around me for inspiration all the time. Yes there are similarities but if all we have to go on with our imaginations is what we see around us it’s obvious the art we create will be influenced by it. Should we start crying wolf because the Mona Lisa has a smile!? Should Colgate be in an uproar because a great smile was used by an artist!? Give us all a break…oh no wait, did I just violate the kit-kat commercial’s rights?

i think the i robot bot looks like me… but not latin, or from East Los Angeles otherwise in the trailer he would yell “iI didnt kill the vato ese'”

Why such the big bru haha? the music video ” rocket ” back in the 80’s had simular atomatons in it as well. Face it people…the human form is vesatile and as long as we want creepy yet sympathetic characters in dramatic vehicles you can only make so many variations on the human theme. It really comes down to someone thinks that someone else should get credit or is trying to steal someone elses 15 minutes…let it stand for what it is or give the props up to george lucas for white plastic costumes…fritz lang for humanistic robots…etc.

May I remind you all that “There is nothing new under the Sun”. The similarities are obvious, and the differances are obvious… Lets just agree that unique insparation in a time of mass media is diffacult. Besides, I had never seen the Bjork video until a minute ago… Its kind of good press 🙂
God Bless,

It’s a ripoff of the Bjork video, no doubt. And the Marcus Gray is a ripoff too, Mr. Aaron Browning.

“Bjork is not an ‘A’ list celebrity and could use the 15 minutes of extended fame with this nonsensical accusation.”
It’s not Bjork who’s making this accusation, or even Chris Cunningham.
“Should Colgate be in an uproar because a great smile was used by an artist!?”
I don’t get it. Mona Lisa came before Colgate. But “All Is Full of Love” came before the I, Robot movie. The situation is reversed.

Exactly – that’s my point. It’s all NONSENSE aka STUPIDITY. Thank you for helping me make it.
It’s ok you don’t have to get it. I’ll wake you again when the NEXT world crisis dares to rear it’s ugly head.

Mm. He told you. Seriously he wasn’t stating that it was “Bjerk” who was making the claims. He was just stating she could use the fifteen minutes of fame, duh. Just like you could stand to understand sarcasm. FYI – I know I typed Bjerk. It was on purpose. Yes, I meant to do that. Oh just forget it. Someone post the next topic please and let’s move on?

I think the Irobots look a lot like those wooden artist model you use for drawing anatomy.
the bjork droids are far better designs and do have a very japanimation look to them Re: Masumane Shirow’s work.Ghost in the shell or Appleseed,having said that I still think that I robot is one of the best Sci-fi films of the last 4 years.

I missed it the first time I saw the trailer, but your side-by-side makes it totally obvious. And, frankly, the animation and design in Chris Cunningham’s is far better than what it seems to be in the movie.

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