The parallels on the link are absolutely uncanny. The remarks of director Kirk Wise are even more suspicious-- Japan is one of the world's largest markets for Disney films as well as the number one source for anime techniques.
For Wise to say he never heard of Nadia is like a doctor publishing a research study which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine as his own work and claiming he had never heard of the journal.
If Nadia hadn't been GAINAX, maybe I'd believe them. For Wise not to be at least familliar with GAINAX is ridiculous. I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of all animators working today, even in the US, have been influenced by something they put out. I think it'd be even harder to find anyone in the animation business under 30 who didn't get into it because of anime, and for the last decade or so, its either been either GAINAX or Studio Ghibli that's been drawing people in.
Well, Walt had his moments of expedience, too. When he was putting together "Fantasia," one of the classical pieces he used wasn't copyrighted in the US. When the composer objected to Disney just using his music with no payment, Disney told the guy to go take a hike.
This is typical movie business stuff. It's cheaper in many cases just to _take_ what you need. (When George Lucas was putting together the "Phantom Menace" he needed a celebration scene at the end. Well, it turns out ILM had done preliminary work on a project for James Gurney' "Dinotopia" that fell apart. So, since the footage was already created, Lucas just incorporated the material at the end of "Phantom Menace." (Gurney knows who has the money -- they settled the issue out of court.)
Mark W.