The Mockbuster: Difference between revisions

Mockbusters tend to be made in countries outside of the US, as if in "response" to a coming American blockbuster. Those might change the [[Applied Phlebotinum|plot based unobtanium]] to something more in touch with their national sensibilities (the Indian [[Superman|Ultraguy]] mockbuster has him getting his powers from a god, for example) and the genre might skew towards one more popular in that country (the Brazilian series ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Non-Villains]]'' is somewhat like a soap opera).

How do all of these [[Captain Ersatz|copyright friendly guys]] get away with it? Often times, it's simply a matter of obscurity. Sure, that "[[Harry Potter|Larry Baxter]]" guy on the back of the cereal box who has to find the "[[Golden Snitch|Gilded Stitch]]" is pretty similar to some book you read, but how much money is there really to be made from suing some company that designs bargain-basement cereal boxes?

Has nothing to do with the [[Myth BustersMythBusters|Mythtesters]] or [[Ghostbusters|Phantomgetters]].

UK [[Made for TV Movie|Created For Television Film]] channel Movies 24 ran a [[Mockbuster]] season, deliberately confusing the derivatives with the originals and calling out the trope by name. It includes [[Terminator|The Terminators]], [[Alien vs. Predator|Aliens Versus Hunters]], [[Transformers (Filmfilm)|Transmorphers Fall Of Man]] and [[Snakes Onon a Plane|Snakes On A Train]].

* EverythingAlmost everything ever made by [[Dingo Pictures]].

* EverythingPlenty everof films made by [http://www.videobrinquedo.com.br/ Brazilian company] [[Video Brinquedo]], responsible for:

** ''[[Wall WALL-E|Tiny]] [[Robots]]''

** For its English dubs Video Brinquedo uses 4Kids' regular voice actors.

* Because of the problems between South Korea and Japan, anime was not available to Koreans. Because of this, in the 80's, the South Korean animation industry produced many films that were ripped off from ''[[Mazinger Z|Mazinger]]'' and ''[[Getter Robo]]'', ''[[Transformers]]'' toys, and even films like ''[[Tron]]''. Later, a fella by the name of Joseph Lai and his company, IFD ,<ref>the same folks who brought us the [[Godfrey Ho Ninja Movies]] and, in turn, [[The Cinema Snob (Web Video)|Pierre Kirby]]</ref> , bought up the rights to these films, and edited bits and pieces of them together into [[Cut and Paste Translation|new, incomprehensible forms]], with titles like ''[[Space Thunder Kids]]'' and ''[[Protectors Of Universe]]'' and horrible English dubbing. A website called Teleport City does a remarkable coverage of these Joseph Lai chop-jobs.

* And from Thailand, videos released by [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20131230034557/http://happy2doo.com/ Happy2Doo]. While some of them are based on traditional fairy tales, others are obvious knockoffs of Disney movies like ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'', ''[[Beauty and The Beast]]'', ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]'', ''[[Dumbo (Disney)|Dumbo]]'', and ''[[The Princess and Thethe Frog]]''; and if it's not Disney, then it's ''[[The Land Before Time]]'' and... ''[[Doraemon]]''?

* ''[[Titanic: theThe Legend Goes On]]'' and ''[[The Legend of the Titanic]]'', both based off [[Titanic|some sinking boat movie]].

* ''[[Bee Movie|Plan Bee]]'', ''[[CharlottesCharlotte's Web|Spiders Web: A Pigs Tale]]'' (only a billion times [[Mind Screw]] - ier), and ''[[A CarsCar's Life: SparkysSparky's Big Adventure (Animation)|A Cars Life Sparkys Big Adventure]]'', a ripoff of ''[[Cars (Animation)|Cars]]'' (with the title being an obvious swipe from ''[[A Bug's Life (Animation)|A Bugs Life]]''), all three from [[Spark Plug Entertainment]]. There is now ''[[Cars Life 2]]'', which came out just in time to rip off ''[[Cars 2]]''.

** To be fair, ''Simba the King Lion'' has more to do with ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]''.

* Also, there was an animated film called ''Secret of the Hunchback'' that came out after Disney's ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' and even featured talking, singing gargoyles.

* ''[[Brave (Animation)|Kiara the Brave]]'' from Phase 4 Films

* ''Battle of Los Angeles'' - obviously referencing ''[[Battle: Los Angeles]]''.

** This one was even on [[Sy FySyfy]], thus fully cementing it within the same realm as the other examples of this trope.

* [[The Asylum]] is a company that only makes mockbusters and bad "Christian" movies, and are quite cynical about it. in fact, there's a [https://web.archive.org/web/20130822162213/http://www.theasylum.cc/blog/2009/06/were-moving/ news article] in their website that states (and these are the ''actual words they use'') "We've decided to use some of the billions of dollars we've made ripping people off..." The majority of the examples on this page are Asylum productions.

** ''Metal Man'', aka ''Iron Hero'', which is a mockbuster of the first ''[[Iron Man]]'' film but features bad characterization, dodgy special effects and suits and even Reggie Bannister of ''Phantasm'' fame who is not only the creator of the Metal Man suit but comes off as an asshole and dickish mentor to the hero of the movie. [https://web.archive.org/web/20131013163025/http://blip.tv/nostalgiacritic/bad-movie-beatdown-presents-metal-man-aka-iron-hero-6139427 See Film Brain and Obscurus Lupa tear this movie apart].

* ''[[Ten Thousand10,000 BC|10 Million B.C.]]''

* ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 film)||The Day The Earth Stopped]]'' -- Notable—Notable for prompting Fox to threaten to take legal action, though said threat wasn't carried out.

* ''[[Snakes Onon a Plane|Snakes On A Train]]''

* ''King of the Lost World'', which claimed to be based on [[Arthur Conan Doyle (Creator)|Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s book ''[[The Lost World (Literaturenovel)|The Lost World]]'', but was a clear ''[[King Kong]]'' ripoff. In fact, the cover art even went so far as to point out that Doyle's book inspired ''[[King Kong]]'' (which is true, but hardly justifies such ridiculousness).

** Then there's an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "The Land that Time Forgot" released just in time to counter the ''[[Land of the Lost (Filmfilm)|Land of the Lost]]'' movie.

* ''The [[Terminator|Terminators]]s'' (Again, note the plural).

** [[Bruno Mattei]], the director of the aforementioned Mockbuster, also directed ''Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws''. For an extensive look into Mattei's films, check out ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131006054818/http://thecinemasnob.com/categories/263/the-bruno-mattei-show.aspx The Bruno Mattei Show]'', in which [[The Cinema Snob (Web Video)|Brad Jones]] discusses the man's filmography with [[Dark Maze Studios|Ed Glaser]], [[The Spoony Experiment (Web Video)|Noah Antwiler]] and other friends. It's quite insightful into how a mockbuster comes to be. For that matter, Bruno's career consisted almost entirely of [[Nazisploitation]] and Mockbusters, though these were never mutually exclusive. It's almost too bad he's dead - his ripoff of ''[[Inglorious Basterds]]'' would be... something.

* ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]'' (the title is public domain now)

* ''[[Transformers (Filmfilm)|Transmorphers]]'' and ''Transmorphers: Fall of Man''.

* Certain ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000 (TV)|Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''-featured films such as the ''[[Conan the Barbarian|Conan]]''-inspired ''[[Cave Dwellers|Ator]]'' series, ''[[Escape 2000]]'' (in which people try to {{smallcapssmall-caps|Leave the Bronx}} instead of [[Escape Fromfrom New York|Escaping from New York]]), ''[[Mad Max]]''-alikes ''[[Warrior of the Lost World]]'' and ''[[City Limits]]'' , Japanese ''[[Planet of the Apes (Franchise)|Planet of the Apes]]'' clone ''[[Time of the Apes]]'', ''[[Hobgoblins (Film)|Hobgoblins]]'' ('''not''' ''[[Gremlins]]''), and ''[[Pod People]]'' (whose name invokes ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'', while the aliens look like ''[[ALF (TV)|ALF]]'' and the plot is ripped right out of ''[[ETE.T. the Extraterrestrial (Film)Extra-Terrestrial|ET the Extraterrestrial]]''.)

** Oh, and ''[[Operation Double 007 (Film)|Operation Double 007]]'' (a.k.a. ''Operation Kid Brother''), featuring an all-star cast of ''[[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]]'' veterans and starring ''Neil'' Connery ([[Sean Connery]]'s brother).

* ''[[Alien (Filmfranchise)|Alien]] 3000''

** And the Italian produced ''[[Alien (Filmfranchise)|Alien]] 2: On Earth''. Which incidentally was [[What Could Have Been|the originally conceived plot for the third movie]].

* A number of [[Bruno Mattei's films]]. The best known are:

** ''[[Predator|Robot WarRobowar]]'' with [[Space Mutiny|Reb Brown]]

** ''Hell Of The Living Dead'', not content with trying to shoe horn this movie into Romero lore, Bruno Mattei lifted most of the soundtrack from ''[[Dawn of the Dead (Filmfilm)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' to score this.

* And now - ''[[Titanic]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20150707034102/http://www.theasylum.cc/product.php?id=174 2]! That's not a sequel to ''Titanic'', though, but a ''new'' film about a ''totally different'' ship called the ''[[Tempting Fate|Titanic 2]]''!

* ''[[Sherlock Holmes (Filmfilm)|Sherlock Holmes]]'' ([http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_%28Asylum_film%29:Sherlock Holmes (Asylum film)|Asylum, again]]), which can use the name since he's a [[Public Domain Character]]. [[Hey, ItsIt's That Guy!|With]] Gareth David-Lloyd who played Ianto in ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' as Dr. Watson. [[Cool vs. Awesome|Holmes investigates a case with tentacle monsters, androids, dinosaurs, and robot dragons setting fire to Parliament.]] Attempts [[Rule of Cool]] to the twenty-third power.

** Also of note; despite using a character whose [http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/d#a69 entire works] (pretty much) are available for free online, they apparently couldn't even be bothered to spend five minutes skimming [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes:Sherlock Holmes|the Wikipedia article]]; in this film, Sherlock's name isn't actually Sherlock, his brother's name is not Mycroft, the brother worked as a detective alongside Lestrade instead of founding the Diogenes Club...

* ''[[John Carter of Mars|Princess Of Mars]]''. Made it out while the ''legitimate'' adaptation was still stuck in [[Development Hell]]. Comes from The Asylum, which pretty much gives away the intention. May be a mockbuster of ''[[Avatar (Filmfilm)|Avatar]]'' instead based on the promotional material. Starring ''Traci Lords'' in the title role.

* While [[Curse Of The Ring|Curse of the]] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387541/ Ring] doesn't have anything to do with the ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' movies, and is in fact originally called ''[[Der Ring Des Nibelungen|Ring of the Nibelungs]]'' - the plot being based off of the Sigfried/Brunhilde/Fafnir saga - the movie's marketing and even logo font really, REALLY tries hard to be mistaken for a Lord of the Rings movie.

* [[Twenty Twelve2012|2012: Doomsday]]

* ''[[The Exterminator 2]]'' and ''The Executioner Part 2'' -- no—no ''Executioner Part 1''.

** Late 80s ''Hells' Heroes'' was changed to ''Inglorious Bastards 2: Hell Heroes''. [[The Cinema Snob (Web Video)|The Cinema Snob]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20131009045827/http://thecinemasnob.com/2009/08/28/inglorious-bastards-2-hells-heroes.aspx reviewed it.]

* ''Mac and Me'', a 1988 movie that badly rips-off [[ETE.T. the Extraterrestrial (Film)Extra-Terrestrial|E.T.]], and is basically [[Product Placement|an 80 minute-long commercial for McDonald's, Coke, and some other stuff.]]

* ''[[Thor (Filmfilm)|The Almighty Thor]]'', featuring a Thor with an Uzi. Asylum, you've done it again!

* ''[[Godzilla (Filmfilm)|Gargantua]]''.

* Somewhat unfairly, the original ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic (1978 TV series)|the original ''Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'']] movie was accused early on of being a rip off of Star Wars - presumably on the basis that after Star Wars debuted, ANY movie set in space was ripping off Star Wars. Legal action was even mooted - but sensibly quickly dropped when it became clear that a setting in space was really the only obvious link between the two.

* [[Distaff Counterpart|Lady]] [[Terminator]]--basically—basically the same as its namesake, but instead of an android, it's an archaeologist possessed by the Queen of the South Sea. Other than that, according to [[The Cinema Snob (Web Video)|The Cinema Snob]], if you haven't seen Terminator, but you've seen Lady Terminator, you've pretty much seen Terminator.

* ''[http://a.dv1.us/p1/062/001062-d0.jpg Bloody Murder]'', which is about a group of young people hired to fix up and act as the counselors of a secluded summer camp with a dark past involving a drowned boy. Unfortunately for them, a maniac adorned in a hockey mask starts knocking them off. [[Friday the 13 th13th|Sound familiar?]]

* ''3 Dev Adam'' (''[[Three Big Men]]'') is a notorious 1973 Turkish film featuring three famous (and extremely unauthorized) superhero characters: [[Captain America (comics)]], [[Spider -Man]], and [[El Santo]]. Spidey, of all people, is actually the sadistic ''villain'' of the piece.

* The Hamas made kids show ''[[TomorrowsTomorrow's Pioneers]]'' features characters who are blatant ripoff of American cartoons. Though said characters are given Islamist twists by the writers.

* Since the source novel is in the public domain, musical versions of ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'' ran rampant in the 1990s (regional tours, community theaters, etc.) to cash in on [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]]'s adaptation -- enoughadaptation—enough so that [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] did [http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977856,00.html a whole article] on the phenomenon. But not ''all'' of them qualified as this trope: Ken Hill's version was the one that inspired Lloyd Webber to take his own stab at the story in the first place, and Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit's ''Phantom'' was actually written around the same time as Lloyd Webber's but couldn't get produced until afterwards due to the competition. One of the mockbusters was videotaped and later released on DVD, and the Phantom Reviewer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9MwZiSrx4M took it on].

* Similarly, a few stage musical versions of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Literaturenovel)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' appeared around 1996, perhaps hoping to compete with a [[Screen to Stage Adaptation]] of the Disney movie, which was considered likely in the wake of ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and Thethe Beast]]''. Disney's version had a successful [[Screen to Stage Adaptation]] in Germany in 1999 but has not been staged elsewhere.

* [http://www.cirqueproductions.com Cirque Productions] and [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20130601004740/http://cirquedestin.com/ Le Grand Cirque] are companies that are this to [http://www.cirquedusoleil.com Cirque du Soleil] (seriously, compare the websites), to the point that the former was [[Disney Owns This Trope|sued for using "Cirque" in their name]]; it didn't work since that's just the French word for "circus". Judging from reviews at Ticketmaster's website, the former's shows have successfully tricked ticket buyers who didn't do the research and thought they saw an actual CDS show. It doesn't help that until 2006 CDS tours only visited major cities, and thus knockoff troupes could make hay by visiting places that weren't. Alternatively, knockoffs often have extended runs in casino-heavy towns like Atlantic City and Reno as opposed to Las Vegas, where the real deal has put down roots.

* The company [[Gameloft]] applies a similar concept to video games, where they release shameless copies of well-known franchises (usually on cellphones); the difference here is that their games are usually quite well-made (although some of them, most notably the Mac OS X and 3DS ports of ''Gangstar: Miami'' and ''Asphalt'', respectively, were met with negative reception, being that they were lazily ported especially Gangstar, having outdated graphics compared to the [[Grand Theft Auto|the ones they were imitating]]). One of their more interesting examples is ''[[Shrek]] Kart'', which copies ''[[Mario Kart (Video Game)|Mario Kart]]'' but replaces the cast of well-known characters with a ''different'' cast of well-known characters rather than a bunch of [[Captain Ersatz]]'s (unlike with most of their games).

* ''[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/06/20/team-fortress-2-clone/ Final Combat]'', the Chinese ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]''.

** ''Rocman X'' (''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mega Man]]'')

* Several console rip-offs. [[Play StationPlayStation|Funstation]]? [[Wii|Vii]]? The list goes on...

* ''[[Punch -Out!!|Power Punch II]]''. It doesn't help that it '''was''' going to be an actual ''Punch Out!!'' game (hence the II, since there's no "first" ''Power Punch'' game).

* There's ''Pirates: Legend Of The Black Buccaneer'', which came out for the [[PSPlayStation 2]] on the heels of the success of ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: The Curse of the Black Pearl''.

* Several amusement parks that have been established in various parts of Asia are are not-so-subtle ripoffs of a [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland |certain iconic American amusement park]]. Some [http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2010/09/nara-dreamland-japans-last-abandoned-theme-park/ no longer exist], but others are [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Shijingshan_Amusement_ParkBeijing Shijingshan Amusement Park|still in operation]], complete with [[Captain Ersatz]] versions of characters such as [[Shrek]], [[Bugs Bunny]], and [[Hello Kitty]].

** [[Freeze -Frame Bonus]]: Though almost never featured in the skits, on the boards behind the proprietors, there's almost always a Mockbustered up title of a Nick movie: ''[[Rugrats|Rag Rats]]'', ''[[Harriet the Spy|Harriet the Guy]]'', ''[[Good Burger|Good Booger]]'' and ''Snowy Day'' (one skit actually has this featured).

* [[MAD (Animation)|MAD]] has been known to make parodies of these such as ''[[High School Musical|Home School Musical]]''.

* [[Monty Python's Flying Circus]] made fun of [[Mockbuster|Mockbusters]]s ''well'' before they were even a phenomena, with the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNOVdJ_2W5I Mr. Dibley sketch ], about a filmmaker who makes hideously bad, silent, one-reel versions of famous movies starring random people from shops.

{{quote| "Oh yes, well, I mean, there were some people who said my film ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey|2001 - A Space Odyssey]]'' was similar to [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s. I mean, that's the sort of petty critical niggling that's dogged my career. It makes me sick. I mean, as soon as I'd made ''[[Midnight Cowboy]]'' with the vicar as Ratso Rizzo, John Schlesinger rushes out his version, and gets it premiered while mine's still at the chemist's."}}

* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' parodies this in the SBEmail ''unlicensed'', with titles like [[Snow White and Thethe Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|"The Secret Princess]] [[Cinderella (Disney film)|and Her Oppressive Authority Figure 4"]] or [[The Lion King (Disney)|"Jungle Animals in Decidedly Non-Jungle Situations"]].

[[Category:TheSelf-Demonstrating MockbusterArticle]]