The Autobots
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese汽車人總動員
Simplified Chinese汽车人总动员
Production
company
Bluemtv
Distributed byG-Point
Release date
  • July 4, 2015 (2015-07-04)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryChina
LanguageChinese/Mandarin
BudgetCN¥3 million[1]
Box officeCN¥6 million

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 motorsports comedy film directed by Zhuo Jianrong. It was released on July 4, 2015. The film received heavy criticism for its plot, animation quality, characters, and being a direct plagiarism and knockoff of Pixar’s Cars 2.

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 those from Cars). Shen Lu, Katie Hunt, and Anna Hsieh of CNN stated that the Chinese title of the film was similar to the mainland Chinese title of Cars (赛车总动员; Sàichē Zǒngdòngyuán).[2]

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]

Cancelled sequel

A sequel for the film, The Autobots 2, was scheduled for release in summer 2017.[1] However, the sequel was canceled due to The Walt Disney Company winning a copyright case. The latest information about the sequel announcement is from 2016.

References

  1. 1 2 "Chinese 'knock-off' of Disney's 'Cars' set for sequel". GantNews.com. 2016-04-26. Retrieved 2016-11-27.
  2. ↑ "Copycat movie? Filmmaker denies knocking off Pixar's 'Cars'" (Archive). CNN. July 7, 2015. Retrieved on July 9, 2015.
  3. ↑ Frater, Patrick (2016-12-30). "Disney Wins 'Cars' Copyright Case in China". Variety. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
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