A bit of controversy has arisen due to the striking similarity between some
scenes in James Gurney's DINOTOPIA books and George Lucas' STAR WARS
EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE. The questionable parallels include that
between PHANTOM MENACE's royal Naboo city of Theed and DINOTOPIA's
Waterfall City; the trip through PHANTOM MENACE's Naboo's core and a
submarine ride in THE WORLD BENEATH; the celebratory parade at the end of
the film and several scenes from DINOTOPIA books; and between Jar Jar Binks
and a character named Bix in DINOTOPIA. According to a statement posted by
James Gurney on the DINOTOPIA website, "Many people are asking whether I
had any role in designing the (Naboo) city of Theed in STAR WARS: THE
PHANTOM MENACE. I didn't. I'm in the process of trying to find out how it
came to be that scenes in that movie seem to resemble scenes from
DINOTOPIA. I am communicating with people from the Lucasfilm organization,
and have spoken with George Lucas directly." George Lucas was involved in
developing a DINOTOPIA film for Columbia in 1994, the same year he began
writing THE PHANTOM MENACE script. ILM did do some development work for
that film. Formal charges have not been made.