The inspiration for my wacky movie monster story is mostly obvious (uh, movie monsters), but I'd say it has three main influences: gothic horror like the original Dracula, more recent action comedies like Axe Cop and Dr. McNinja, and old-school science fiction like Ray Bradbury's work.
I guess I get a lot of my inspiration from taking existing ideas and putting a twist on them. Speculative fiction twists especially. Like, "The anime is awful, but the synopsis sounded so good. What interested me about, and how can I create THAT show?" Or, "Usually this type of show is about X type of hero, but what if they were Y instead?"
Then, of course, there's the inspirations that feel more like core drives: stuff I liked as a kid, and new ways of using a story to express wonder, adventure, and discovery.