The Mockbuster: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Another great knock-off is DVDs. The ones that are slight variations of slightly animated kids' movies. The kind they put right next to the check-out line, so Grandma might accidentally mistake it for the real thing. And they have titles like, ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|The Secret Princess and Her Oppressive Authority Figure]] [[Sequelitis|4]]'', and the always-popular ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|Jungle Animals in Decidedly Non-Jungle Situations]]''."''|'''Strong Bad''', ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', Strong Bad Email #190, "licensed"}}
In principle, the Mockbuster is a bit like a movie with an [[Parallel Porn Titles|Alternative Pornographic Name]], but there's generally no nudity. It's not part of a pair of [[Dueling Movies|Battling Films]], because it can't even afford the fare to get to the ring where the shows duke it out. A mockbuster is a movie that is ''suspiciously similar'' to another more popular, more well-
Because they're generally made by no-name studios to make a quick buck, the biggest difference between mockbusters and the movies they're based on is budget. The mockbuster has ''serious'' budget restrictions. Think "three kids with a cellphone" production values. The writing is usually subpar,
However, if there's one thing mockbusters can do well, it's [[Copycat Cover|Mimicfeline Boxart]]. Their designs and logos, like the colors of a viceroy butterfly, are designed to resemble the "real" movies they're copying as closely as possible. Remember, [[Covers Always Lie|Covers Deceive All The Time]]. They also pick titles similar to the original, often containing similar words, or made-up words that sound the same.
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** For its English dubs Video Brinquedo uses 4Kids' regular voice actors.
* And everything ever made by [[Spark Plug Entertainment]].
* 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
* And from Thailand, videos released by [http://www.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]]'', and ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]''; and if it's not Disney, then it's ''[[The Land Before Time]]'' and... ''[[Doraemon]]''?
* ''[[Titanic: The Legend Goes On]]'' and ''[[The Legend of the Titanic]]'', both based off [[Titanic|some sinking boat movie]].
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* ''[[Alien vs. Predator|AVH: Alien Vs. Hunter]]'', which despite it's source pulls out a surprising twist ending {{spoiler|the hunter aliens are humans...from another planet}}
* ''[[I Am Legend|I Am Omega]]'', which even also bills itself as an adaptation of the book ''[[I Am Legend]]''. Their choice of "Omega" is interesting because "The Omega Man" was the title of a previous film adaptation of "[[I Am Legend]]."
* ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still|The Day The Earth Stopped]]''
* ''[[Snakes on a Plane|Snakes On A Train]]''
** Incidentally, that one ''did'' provoke a lawsuit.
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* ''Universal Soldiers'' (note the plural)
* ''[[The 40-Year-Old Virgin|The 18 Year-Old Virgin]]''
* ''The [[Terminator
** Back in 1990, there was ''Terminator II''. Which was actually released before the official sequel. Humorously enough, ''Terminator II'' is actually a remake of ''[[Aliens]]''.
** Bruno Mattei, the director of the aforementioned Mockbuster, also directed ''Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws''. For an extensive look into Mattei's films, check out ''[http://thecinemasnob.com/categories/263/the-bruno-mattei-show.aspx The Bruno Mattei Show]'', in which [[The Cinema Snob|Brad Jones]] discusses the man's filmography with [[Dark Maze Studios|Ed Glaser]], [[The Spoony Experiment|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.
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* While [[Curse Of The Ring|Curse of the]] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387541/ Ring] doesn't have anything to do with 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.
* [[2012|2012: Doomsday]]
* ''[[The Exterminator 2]]'' and ''The Executioner Part 2''
* Almost everything released by Video Asia, the masters of [[In Name Only|In Name Only Sequels]]. One of the worst offenders, they don't even make their own mockbusters: they just re-release old foreign movies with different titles.
** Late 80s ''Hells' Heroes'' was changed to ''Inglorious Bastards 2: Hell Heroes''. [[The Cinema Snob]] [http://thecinemasnob.com/2009/08/28/inglorious-bastards-2-hells-heroes.aspx reviewed it.]
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* ''[[Godzilla (film)|Gargantua]]''.
* Somewhat unfairly, 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]]
* ''[[Cowboys and Aliens]]'' was ripped off by ''Cowboys And Vampires'' and ''Cowboys And Zombies''.
* ''[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 13th|Sound familiar?]]
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== Theater ==
* 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
* Similarly, a few stage musical versions of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (novel)|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'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 [http://www.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.
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* [[Hsu and Chan|Tanaka Bros Game Development]] does this with all their releases. Including ''[[Gran Turismo|Bad Mileage]]'' and ''[[Pokémon|Pocket Morons]]''.
* [[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
{{quote|"Oh yes, well, I mean, there were some people who said my film ''[[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 the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|"The Secret Princess]] [[Cinderella (Disney film)|and Her Oppressive Authority Figure 4"]] or [[The Lion King|"Jungle Animals in Decidedly Non-Jungle Situations"]].
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