Watching The Empire Strikes Back, my childhood self had flashbacks to Toy Story 2 with Emperor Zurg and Buzz Lightyear. Next thing I knew, I also remembered Fairly Odd Parents with Darth Laser and Timmy Turner. I couldn’t believe how much of my childhood ripped off Star Wars. My curiosity was peaked and I decided to look up where else in childhood movies and television shows was Star Wars ripped off.
First off are all of Toy Story’s. In the first one there are two references. When Buzz first comes to Andy’s room and tells Woody that he has has top secret information that can destroy Emperor Zurg. In A New Hope, R2-D2 has information that can destroy The Empire. Also, when Sid tortures Woody and Buzz he quotes Darth Vader when he is torturing Leia. "Oh! A survivor! Where's the Rebel base!? Talk!!!" and "Where are your Rebel friends now? Hahahaha!" In the second movie, the dinosaur, Rex, and Buzz are playing a Buzz Lightyear video game. All of the sound effects are from Star Wars. The guns and laser sounds are the exactly the same as Star Wars. When Buzz touches the power source and finds out that its a hologram, the sound is the same as the lightsaber sound. Another point in the movie that has a Star Wars reference is when Buzz Lightyear gets trapped in the toy box by the second Buzz. The Buzz in the box is left in the same position that Han is left in when he is frozen. Of course the big scene is when Emperor Zurg and Buzz Lightyear fight on the elevator. Buzz accuses Zurg of killing his father and then Zurg revealed that he is Buzz’s father. Something else that I noticed, but was not mentioned on the website, was that Zurg loses an arm and in Star Wars Luke loses his hand. In the third movie, Big Baby throws Lotso into the trash can. This is a reference to Darth Vader throwing Emperor Palpatine into the reactor.
With Fairly Odd Parents, there are regular episodes that include Darth Laser, Eliminators, and the Death Star. Theres an episode where Timmy becomes part of the Dark Side. In another episode, Timmy dreams of being Luke and he loses his hand. Every episode that includes a Star Wars reference, the Death Star is destroyed. One demeaning factor of Darth Laser is that it shows that he is found of a dog toy called “Flipsy” which doesn’t make him as scary.
Other small references in other movies include movies like Meet The Robinsons with one of the robots looking and acting like C-3PO. The robots name is Carl and he constantly looks after Wilbur and is just as annoying as C-3PO. In Pokemon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, Lucario says “The Aura is with me” which is a reference to The Force. In Breaking Dawn Part Two, Jacob says “Surprised that you took a break from Jedi training.” In Wall-E, Auto shocks Wall-E like R2-D2 is shocked multiple times in the movies.
This realization really opened my eyes. I didn’t think that Star Wars really had a say in my childhood TV shows and movies. I didn’t realize how much it impacted me, without actually watching it. I wonder how long this will go on, especially with there being three new movies coming out soon. Rip offs happen when its such a popular movie!
