They say that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery“. The first record of that quote is from Charles Caleb Colton’s book Lacon: or Many Things in Few Words, published in 1820. People often attempt to emulate those that they look up to in the hopes that they might attain the qualities they find admirable.
Often, enterprising individuals look up to movies produced by other studios, not so much for their admirable qualities, but for the absolute boatloads of cash they are able to rake in. While some companies are always chasing the next big thing, some are content simply to set up shop at the current big thing while it’s still fresh in everybody’s minds. This is how society ends up with legally-questionable knockoff toys of the current hot property, and how people browsing the selection of movies to watch end up coming across little treasures known as “mockbusters”.
Identifying a mockbuster is easy if one is knowledgeable enough about the film it’s clout-chasing. Usually it’s a watered-down looking version of the original, trying it’s absolute best to look the part in all of the areas that seem to count. For instance, if someone were to inquire about a movie where an alien from outer space accidentally winds up on Earth and is found by a human child who assists the alien in hiding from nefarious government authorities, pretty much everybody knows that the movie in question is E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. However, if that person were to then specify that the movie they’re looking for also features the life-saving properties of Coca-Cola, extended product-placement in a large dance party sequence at a McDonald’s, and the kid (temporarily) dying in an inexplicable shootout with the police, well that person happens to be searching for MAC n Me.
MAC n Me, it should be noted, is a bit of an exception when it comes to mockbusters, though, in that it received an actual full theatrical release and released six years after ET. MAC n Me can be given credit for at least trying to be somewhat different than its predecessor, even though its director did state that their intention was to make ET for a newer generation (which is a strange claim considering, once again, that ET had only come out six years prior). The majority of mockbusters are usually released in straight-to-video format, shying away from the glitz and glamour of large theatrical releases. Mockbusters are usually produced for a fraction of the budget of the major Hollywood studio-produced original.
A lot of mockbusters aren’t content to just be almost the exactly same as their source material, many go as far as to name themselves as similarly to the film they are imitating as is within their legal rights. For instance, there was Aliens vs. Avatars, a movie that was released in 2011 in an attempt to cash in on the massive success of Avatar, with a healthy dose of hoping people would think it’s a sequel to Alien vs. Predator. The movie currently stands at a 1.5/10 user rating on IMDB, and the director would follow up the massive success of that film with The Amazing Bulk (pictured below), which would score .02 points better on the site.
Speaking of The Asylum, they’re pretty much the company that’s made their mark in the film industry for being the production house of mockbusters. They’ve released such classics as the aforementioned Snakes On A Train, The Da Vinci Treasure, The Day The Earth Stopped, Pirates of Treasure Island, and Transmorphers (which was given a sequel, Transmorphers: Fall of Man). Another of The Asylum’s mockbusters, Atlantic Rim, was featured for scorn on the latest season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, becoming the most recently released film to ever be riffed on in the show’s history. Not surprisingly, The Asylum has had lawsuits filed against it to change its film titles or release dates.
To The Asylum’s credit, they have found moderate success with some of their original properties. The Sharknado series of movies has become something of a cult-hit because of the sheer ridiculousness of its concept, and the studio would eventually make six movies for the franchise. They also produced a TV series, Z Nation, which ran for five seasons before being cancelled, though it’s obvious the series was made to counter the massive success of The Walking Dead. Both of these IPs were SyFy originals, the network actually being quite the purveyor of a fair number of mockbusters such as The Asylum’s Battle of Los Angeles, a mockbuster of Battle: Los Angeles which aired on the network a day after the Columbia Pictures film’s theatrical release. The poster for Battle of Los Angeles evokes the iconic imagery of Independence Day, and the mockbuster’s trailer would evoke the popular imagery of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, mostly because the trailer actually used gameplay footage from the military FPS.
Even Netflix has gotten somewhat in on the mockbuster game. A Quiet Place was a critical and financial success, and Netflix clearly wanted to benefit. They bought the rights to Bird Box, a twin film, shortly after John Krasinski was brought on to direct A Quiet Place. They also began principal photography on what is very akin to a mockbuster, The Silence, shortly after that. Though the book the movie is based on was released in 2015, Shane Van Dyke, who adapted the screenplay for The Silence, had also written The Day The Earth Stopped, Transmorphers: Fall of Man, and Paranormal Entity, so comparing The Silence to a mockbuster is not unfair.
Pixar movies are big money-makers too, not least of all because they have some of the most talented people in the industry producing high-quality, heartfelt films that are enjoyable for all ages. So it only makes sense that people want to rip them off. Ratatouille is a delightful movie about a rat with an advanced palate who controls a human like a mech in order to serve delicious French cuisine at a restaurant in Paris, where everybody inexplicably speaks English. Ratatoing, on the other hand, is something entirely different. Animated by Brazil-based Vídeo Brinquedo, known for such classics as Little Cars (Cars), The Little Bee (Bee Movie), and The Little Panda Fighter (Kung Fu Panda, more on that in a moment), Ratatoing was released the same year as Ratatouille no doubt in order to capitalize on its inevitable success. Ratatoing is a movie about a group of rats who own a restaurant and the hijinks they get into, which mostly involves stealing food from the human kitchen they get their ingredients from. A group of rat spies do try to usurp the restaurant and its owners for their own business venture, but they are met with the not-at-all grim fate of being captured and sent to a laboratory to be experimented on. Just standard, run-of-the-mill, average kids’ movie stuff.
On the topic of Kung Fu Panda, it should be noted that the franchise was a massive success. The first was the second-most successful animated film of 2008 (closely following WALL-E), the second the most successful animated film of 2011, and Kung Fu Panda 3 was just pretty successful. So, with every success comes a wannabe who thinks they’ve found fish in a barrel. Hence the existence of 2008’s The Little Panda Fighter, 2011’s Chop Kick Panda and Legend of Kung Fu Rabbit, and 2012’s The Adventures of Panda Warrior. Kung Fu Rabbit features a veritable who’s who of vocal talents with Michael Clarke Duncan, Jon Heder, Tom Arnold, and Rebecca Black. The Adventures of Panda Warrior has Rob Schneider, Norm Macdonald, and Tom Kenny comprising a large amount of its voice cast. Chop Kick Panda is a notable example in that group of mockbusters for being the only one being a 2D animation despite its poster making it look very much so like it is 3D animated and a DVD back cover that gets the name of its own characters wrong.
It should be noted that the average viewer is plenty discerning enough that they won’t be fooled by a mockbuster when trying to find their preferred choice of film on video. Somebody looking to watch Avatar will not be fooled by the DVD cover of Aliens vs. Avatars. Those going to Netflix to watch The Silence aren’t doing so because they have it confused with A Quiet Place. Rather, the most successful mockbusters seem to revel in their B-movie aesthetic, understanding that it’s part of their charm. A lot of folks enjoy watching these movies because they’re so half-baked, with a lot of folks usually arranging viewing parties (well-stocked with alcohol) so everybody can have a good time shouting at the screen.
Oscar Wilde would go on to eventually add to that Charles Caleb Colton quote, stating “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness”. Perhaps that’s a bit harsh considering how much fun some of these imitations provide. Entire websites are dedicated to showcasing knockoff brands of toys because it’s funny to see how many different variations of The Justice League cash-grab companies can come up with while never using the word “justice” or “league” (at least, not in that order). In the case of Mystery Science Theater 3000, they made their bread and butter on enjoying the spectacle of the vain attempts of independent filmmakers to dress their films up in another’s clothes. Sometimes it’s fun to watch a train wreck when the only casualty is the dignity of everybody involved.
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