Rick and Morty was created as a parody of what film?

Rick and Morty was created as a parody of Back to the Future.

The show’s central relationship echoes the 1985 film: Rick is a reckless, eccentric scientist in the tradition of Doc Brown, while Morty is his anxious teenage companion, much like Marty McFly. Both stories use science-fiction adventures, time travel, and dangerous experiments as engines for comedy and chaos.

The connection began before the television series. Justin Roiland created a crude animated short called The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti for the Los Angeles comedy collective Channel 101. It directly parodied the names and relationship of Doc Brown and Marty McFly. After legal concerns and creative development, the characters were transformed into Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith, and Dan Harmon joined Roiland to develop the Adult Swim series.

Rick and Morty quickly became its own science-fiction satire rather than a simple remake. It borrows the film’s basic duo while adding alternate dimensions, existential humor, grotesque animation, and references to dozens of other movies and shows.