VGThuy
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One issue with The Shape of Water that I had was that it never fully addressed its plagiarism issues. Son of novelist and playwright Paul Zindel sued the writers of TSOW because he felt it was too similar to his father's play Let Me Hear You Whisper about a cleaning lady who works at a science lab who learns to communicate with a dolphin being experimented on and decides to break it out.
The case later got dismissed, but I still can't help reading about the similarities and knowing that the screenwriter Daniel Kraus was a huge fan of Zindel who even listed one of his books on his online profile as one of his favorites of all time.
That said, I guess the story of a human breaking another being out of captivity to be free from experimentation is a common trope, though I wonder how common that trope was when Zindel wrote his play in 1969.
I don't mind the romance angle of it because it is a semi-fantasy setting and people get married to animals in real life (though not legal and definitely weird to put it mildly and very concerning and inhumane for most people).
The case later got dismissed, but I still can't help reading about the similarities and knowing that the screenwriter Daniel Kraus was a huge fan of Zindel who even listed one of his books on his online profile as one of his favorites of all time.
That said, I guess the story of a human breaking another being out of captivity to be free from experimentation is a common trope, though I wonder how common that trope was when Zindel wrote his play in 1969.
I don't mind the romance angle of it because it is a semi-fantasy setting and people get married to animals in real life (though not legal and definitely weird to put it mildly and very concerning and inhumane for most people).