10 Terribly Cheap Mockbusters That Ripped Off Famous Movies
Pacific Rim, Cars and High School Musical are just some of the films to have been ripped off.
It takes a lot of money to produce a blockbusting movie extravaganza.
Frequently it costs tens of millions of dollars to produce the glossy silver screen experience we've become accustomed to. If the movie you're making has got franchise potential, then that figure can quickly spiral into costing hundreds of millions of dollars. After all, the business of making big bucks at the box office is an expensive one to get into. Or is it?
On the eve of many tentpole movies releases, after gazillions are spent on marketing, and cast and crews have devoted months of shooting to bring us the biggest and best new movie out there, it would not be unusual for you to find a similarly titled movie that sounds the same and looks the same.
Well, friends, these movies are mockbusters.
Purposely titled features that go straight to DVD to cash in on the success of the next big thing at the box office, these small productions with practically no budget intentionally push copyright law to the limits, hoping to siphon off a fraction of the success a new blockbuster might have.
It's led to some hilariously named movies, and some of the wonkiest animation your eyes will ever see, and these are just some of them.
10. The Little Cars
Disney know how to make money, and they know how to capitalise on a successful franchise. Just take a look at one of their hottest properties, Cars. In 2006, the movie made a huge splash, earned hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, and probably much more in toy sales.
But they aren't the only studio to exploit the popularity of animated talking cars. No, sir. A little-known animation studio out of Brazil, called Vídeo Brinquedo, must have seen the potential in this cash generator and created the utterly risible movie series known as The Little Cars.
Now, you have to give a modicum of credit to some mockbusters for their hilarious movie title wordplay, but not this one. Not The Little blooming Cars. It's possibly the worst mockbuster movie title there is. It does nothing to tickle the funny bone, it's not even a humorous use of words, it's just stating that the cars in the movie are little.
Admittedly, it's no different to Disney just calling their movie Cars, but if you're going to rip a movie off, at least try to make the title moderately interesting. At least the third movie is called The Little Cars: Fast and Curious (whatever that's about).