The Autobots
The Autobots (simplified Chinese: 汽车人总动员; traditional Chinese: 汽車人總動員; pinyin: Qìchērén Zǒngdòngyuán) is a 2015 Chinese computer animated film directed by Zhuo Jianrong. It was released on July 4, 2015.
Traditional | 汽車人總動員 |
---|---|
Simplified | 汽车人总动员 |
Production company | Bluemtv |
Distributed by | G-Point |
Release date |
|
Running time | 85 minutes |
Country | China |
Language | Mandarin |
Budget | CN¥3 million[1] |
Box office | CN¥6 million |
Production
The production company and filmmaker stated that it was an independently produced film, while several critics and people who watched the film accused it of being copied from Disney and Pixar's Cars franchise (with the characters looking like the characters from Cars). Shen Lu, Katie Hunt, and Anna Hsieh of CNN stated that Chinese title of the film was similar to the Mainland Chinese title of Cars (赛车总动员; Sàichē Zǒngdòngyuán).[2]
Copyright infringement lawsuit
In July 2016, The Walt Disney Company filed a copyright case through the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court and on December 29, 2016 the court ruled in favor of Disney, fining Bluemtv and G-Point $190,000 and ordering them to cease copyright infringement.[3]
Sequel
A sequel for the film, The Autobots 2 was scheduled for release in Summer 2017.[1] However, the sequel appears to be put on hold or canceled, as the latest information is from 2016.
References
- "Chinese 'knock-off' of Disney's 'Cars' set for sequel". GantNews.com. 2016-04-26. Retrieved 2016-11-27.
- "Copycat movie? Filmmaker denies knocking off Pixar's 'Cars'" (Archive). CNN. July 7, 2015. Retrieved on July 9, 2015.
- Frater, Patrick (2016-12-30). "Disney Wins 'Cars' Copyright Case in China". Variety. Retrieved 2016-12-31.