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107-533: Vídeo Brinquedo (also known as Toyland Video or Toy Video in English, formerly known as Spot Films ) is a Brazilian animation studio, located in São Paulo , known for producing animated films widely viewed as cheap mockbusters of comparable, more successful films from studios such as Walt Disney Animation Studios , Pixar , DreamWorks Animation , 20th Century Animation and Blue Sky Studios . The company

214-424: A Sonic X educational math game for its Leapster handheld game console. The game stars Sonic and Chris, who must rescue Tails, Amy, and Knuckles from Eggman. It is a fast-paced platform / action game in which Sonic runs and jumps through levels and destroys Eggman's robots along the way. Periodically, Sonic must answer math questions to continue. The game features three levels, each with its own math concepts:

321-627: A " drafting opportunity". For example, Kiara the Brave (a mockbuster of Pixar 's Brave ) and Puss in Boots: A Furry Tale (a mockbuster of Puss in Boots ) use soundalike titling to "draft off" the marketing success ("slipstream") of popular films. "Can you trademark an actual noun? The idea of a battleship?", asks Boxoffice magazine editor Amy Nicholson. The original Puss in Boots was made by DreamWorks Animation by 300 people working for four years at

428-621: A Chinese character. In 2011, it was removed from Toronto Public Library due to complaints about being "offensive and racist". Two of Vídeo Brinquedo's productions were parodied in an episode of The Amazing World of Gumball called " The Treasure ", in which Gumball picks up a mockbuster DVD called How to Ratatwang Your Panda , a poorly rendered CGI film where a panda farts in front of several rats. The film parodies both The Little Panda Fighter and Ratatoing , which themselves are cheap imitations of Kung Fu Panda and Ratatouille . Mockbuster Unlike films produced to capitalize on

535-550: A Plane . Besides the aforementioned film, The Asylum has also released The Land That Time Forgot , Transmorphers , AVH: Alien vs. Hunter , The Da Vinci Treasure , Battle of Los Angeles , Atlantic Rim and Paranormal Entity . In an earlier example, Astor Pictures compiled a collection of early Bing Crosby short films to create Road to Hollywood , a mockbuster of Paramount Pictures ' Road to... buddy comedies that featured Crosby with Bob Hope . Mockbusters and ripoffs can be filmed and released outside of

642-543: A Train , but they're more excited about the poster, which showed a snake swallowing a train. It was meant to be, you know, metaphorical. But the buyers wanted it, so I was given the mandate that the ending had to have the snake eat the train." At the same time, another representative of Asylum, David Rimawi, says that while a handful of their films do have "artistic elements", that's just not something they're concerned with. The Asylum does not claim to be an "artsy" production house. Released by The Asylum in 2015, Avengers Grimm

749-587: A comedy-drama based on the 1993 film Mrs. Doubtfire , and Tataynic , a 1998 parody of James Cameron 's Titanic . Other Filipino knockoffs include Bobo Cop (a parody of RoboCop ) and Rocky Plus V (a spoof of the Rocky series). Turkish cinema was known, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, for knockoff films done at a cheap, amateur level. The Man who Saved the World became infamous for its theft of clips and songs from Star Wars and Raiders of

856-557: A few copies until the release of the 2003 Pixar film Finding Nemo . Kingdom Under the Sea and Finding Nemo had several similarities, such as the presence of a clownfish and a story centered on parent-child relationship. From the huge number of sales the company had on the cartoon, Brinquedo wanted to start not only distributing cartoons but also create their own. Brinquedo's first animations were traditional and in 2D, based on public domain fairy tales and classics such as Pinocchio and

963-529: A film released in other countries is renamed as a sequel to another film in contrast to the original title. Two Italian directors directed unofficial sequels to George A. Romero 's 1978 Dawn of the Dead : Lucio Fulci 's Zombi 2 sold itself as the sequel to that film (which was called Zombi in Italy), and even used a line originally written for Dawn of the Dead . In a similar, more infamous Italian example,

1070-428: A generic card game with Sonic characters than like a wholly Sonic -based product. Sonic X received divided reviews. Many reviewers were critical of its American localization. Conrad Zimmerman of Destructoid cited Sonic X 's "horrible localization" as a main reason for negativity. Tim Jones of THEM Anime gave the show two stars out of five and criticized the English voice acting: "It's really annoying how all

1177-487: A loose adaption of Sonic Battle ). Eventually, after Eggman is thwarted from another world conquering scheme, the government learns that Earth and Sonic's world are slowly merging together, threatening to end time for them. As a result, Sonic, Eggman, and the others are forced to return home to prevent this, with Chris having to bravely allow his new friends to go, but with hope of seeing them again. Six months after returning home, Sonic and his friends find themselves battling

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1284-829: A machine in the desert and thinks nothing of it, but after fighting with Eggman in Paris and a bizarre world created by the doctor, Eggman reveals the desert machine was his and it begins to wreck Station Square. Sonic defeats it, but he is accused of working with Eggman, so he and Eggman are both locked up. Nelson bails Sonic out of jail, and he saves Cream and Chris from some ghosts. Eggman enacts more malicious schemes based on holidays like Christmas , Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day . Afterwards, he temporarily fires Decoe and Bocoe and creates replacements, Dukow and Bukow, who kidnap Sonic and give him to an organization called S.O.N.I.C.X. Sonic escapes with ease, but S.O.N.I.C.X. repeatedly tries to ruin his reputation. Meanwhile,

1391-546: A new threat in the form of the Metarex—a race of villainous robots who seek to conquer the galaxy—aided by Cosmos, an antromorphic plant girl, who seeks to stop them. At the same time on Earth, where six years have passed , Chris finishes completing a portal device to take him to Sonic, arriving in his world to assist with his new found knowledge, despite the differences in time between the two worlds causing his body to revert back to that of his 12 year-old self. Departing their world,

1498-555: A segment of people who watch them because they know they're bad and they're funny, and they're fun to make fun of with their friends", says Kyle Ryan, the managing editor of The A.V. Club , a sister publication of The Onion . In 2012, Warner Bros. Pictures , New Line Cinema , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , WingNut Films , and The Saul Zaentz Company (SZC) sued The Asylum for trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution, false advertising, and unfair competition. Plaintiffs alleged that defendant's film title Age of

1605-531: A still frame of a silver anthropomorphic hedgehog who never appeared in the series. Fans nicknamed the character "Nazo", based on the Japanese word for "mystery" ( 謎 , nazo ) . Years later, on April 20, 2015, Sonic Team producer Takashi Iizuka clarified the character was simply Super Sonic in its early contour. Several of the Japanese performers had voiced their characters in the games, but they were also given ample information about their characters' roles in

1712-736: A subtitled Blu-ray release of the complete series in its original Japanese language. While remastered, the series is still presented in standard definition like the previous release. Yoshihiro Ike composed the score for the Japanese version of Sonic X . Its opening theme was "Sonic Drive", performed by Hironobu Kageyama and Hideaki Takatori . The series included three ending themes: "Mi-ra-i" ( ミ・ラ・イ , Future ) by Run&Gun for episodes 1–13, "Hikaru Michi" ( 光る道 , Shining Road ) by Aya Hiroshige for episodes 14–39 and again for episodes 53–78, and "T.O.P" by KP for episodes 40–52. Three songs by Off Course , "Kotoba ni Dekinai", "Midori no Hibi" and "Natsu no Hi", were featured as insert songs in

1819-507: A time; whichever card has a lower number value is eliminated. Eliminating the other player's cards and combining the special abilities of one's own cards allows one to score rings; whichever player has the most rings at the end of the turn wins an Emerald. As the game does not emphasize collecting rare cards, a few booster packs are enough to build a competent deck. KidzWorld gave a positive review, praising its ease of learning, low cost, and inherent strategy, but also noting that it feels more like

1926-454: Is Mega Powers! , which bears a close resemblance to the series Power Rangers and Super Sentai , but was not produced by Vídeo Brinquedo themselves. The series is a production of Intervalo Produções. Vídeo Brinquedo's animated films have been heavily criticized for how they copy other mainstream animated films, as well as for their very poor animation, voice acting and questionable writing, alongside scenes which merely exist as "filler" so

2033-749: Is a cross between The Little Panda Fighter and Ratatoing , mockbusters based on Kung Fu Panda and Ratatouille . Sonic X This is an accepted version of this page Sonic X ( Japanese : ソニックX , Hepburn : Sonikku Ekkusu ) is a Japanese anime television series based on Sega 's Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. Produced by TMS Entertainment under partnership with Sega and Sonic Team , and directed by Hajime Kamegaki, Sonic X initially ran for 52 episodes, broadcasting on TV Tokyo from April 2003 to March 2004. A further 26 episodes aired in North America, Europe, and

2140-473: Is a mockbuster hybrid of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Once Upon a Time . Released in 2018, Tomb Invader is a mockbuster based on the Tomb Raider series. Mockbusters often use a title with a similar-sounding name to the mainstream feature it intends to piggy-back upon. For instance, the 2006 mockbuster Snakes on a Train traded on the publicity surrounding the theatrically released Snakes on

2247-477: Is based entirely on the sales of their DVDs. Low budgets also mean that directors need to think of creative yet cheap ways to achieve the endings that they desire. For example, Snakes on a Train capitalized on the Internet hype surrounding Snakes on a Plane . Consumers wanted what they saw. Latt said, "With only four days left of shooting my partner called and said everyone is really excited about Snakes on

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2354-435: Is negotiating with the current owners of Dingo Pictures to release the films as radio plays; the new CEO also want to make new films and a documentary behind the studio. In August 2021, the first radioplay released. The 2011 film Aliens vs. Avatars was named to market it as a crossover to Alien and Avatar , even though the latter two films have no connection outside of director James Cameron . The film follows

2461-463: Is unclear who the current owners of the studio's output are. For the first nine years, Vídeo Brinquedo distributed Portuguese -dubbed home video releases of shows such as Sonic X and The Little Lulu Show in the Brazilian market. One of the studio's early distributions was an obscure religious-themed cartoon called Kingdom Under the Sea ( Portuguese : Reino submarino ), which only sold

2568-464: The B movie model, being produced on a small budget and derivative of the target film and other similar projects. The lower costs of using modern video and computer graphics equipment and the tie-in to the mainstream film's advertising have allowed the mockbuster to become a profitable niche in the home video market. Blockbuster , once the largest DVD rental chain, implied support to the concept by buying 100,000 copies of The Asylum 's version of War of

2675-499: The FoxBox block of Fox channels. On June 16, 2012, the bankrupt 4Kids sold its Sonic X license to Saban Brands 's Kidsco Media Ventures. On April 29, 2013, Saban Brands's Vortexx would partner with Kabillion to add shows like Sonic X to the lineup. TMS Entertainment has since taken US rights, and in 2015, Discotek Media licensed the series alongside several other TMS properties for home media releases. In 2021, FilmRise

2782-541: The Three Little Pigs , but with scripts that modernized the characters. They later expanded to 3D animation , their first title being The Little Cars ( Portuguese : Os Carrinhos ), loosely based on the 2006 Pixar animated film Cars . Originally aimed at children between two and three years old, the film sold over a million copies in its first month in Brazil, as well as selling over 5,000 copies per week in

2889-610: The United Kingdom , and Janson Media on Amazon Prime Video . In the United States, the company exploited its low costs to distribute its discs through video rental outlets, along with rental kiosks such as Redbox . Usually, it timed its releases to a major movie release either in theaters or their home video debut, often acting as a "last resort" choice for harried parents or children who saw Brinquedo's look-alike covers and confused them with Hollywood film releases, or

2996-529: The United States at stores like Walmart . The original idea of the company was to jump on trends raised by the major studios, and start production of animation with two to three years in advance. With the company borrowing ideas established in Hollywood , company director Mauricio Milani stated "we tried to imagine what it will be in advance". The films are often only just over 40 minutes in length ,

3103-497: The fourth wall , and numerous sexual scenes. Unlike some other series that 4Kids translated around the early to mid 2000s, such as Kirby: Right Back at Ya! , Sonic X suffered no full episodes being cut. Producer Michael Haigney personally disliked realistic violence in children's programs, but had not intended to make massive changes himself. Instead, he was bound by Fox Broadcasting Company 's strict guidelines, which forbid content such as smoking and strong violence. In 2006, near

3210-523: The rock music from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 , as well as the "pretty piano music" and "catchy" Japanese intro and outro themes. He also found the backgrounds "nice to look at" but did not like the use of CGI for Sonic's homing attack. The human characters and, to a lesser extent, the animal ones were also criticized. Jones described Chris as "a dull, boring, uninspired character" and also described Tanaka and Ella as "bland" stereotypes of Japanese and African-Americans , respectively. Jones also criticized

3317-574: The 1990 goblin-themed Troll 2 was hastily marketed as a sequel to Troll . The Philippine film industry is also known for its unauthorised adaptations of popular Western films. The popularity of the Batman films, most especially the 1966 TV series , has led to numerous unauthorised remakes and pastiches, such as James Batman starring comedian Dolphy , Batman Fights Dracula , and Alyas Batman en Robin . Dolphy also played leading roles in other mockbusters, including Wanted: Perfect Father ,

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3424-700: The 1990s (such as those made by Golden Films ); because Disney was creating its films based on public domain folk tales and historical stories, GoodTimes' actions were legal and survived Disney's legal challenge against it. Similarly, Vídeo Brinquedo is a Brazilian CGI animation studio that, in 2006, began to produce low-budget direct-to-video films that are for the most part knockoffs of films from Pixar , Disney , and DreamWorks . Their films include Little & Big Monsters (DreamWorks' Monsters vs. Aliens ), The Little Cars series of cartoons (Pixar's Cars series), Ratatoing (Pixar's Ratatouille ), Tiny Robots (Pixar's WALL-E ), What's Up?: Balloon to

3531-600: The Chaos Emeralds in order to go home, the group battle against Eggman as he re-establishes himself on the planet in order to conquer it—aided by his bumbling robotic assistants Becoe and Decoe, and his robotic courier Bokkun—with Rouge joining forces with the local government as a spy in order to help them defend against his attacks. In the course of battling Eggman, Sonic and the others befriend Chris' friends Danny, Francis and Helen, while slowly becoming celebrities thanks to their exploits, eventually being accepted amongst

3638-621: The Chaotix Detective Agency also journeying into space and providing assistance where they can. The series reaches its conclusion with the group learning of the Metarex's origins, and both groups battling them to prevent them taking full control of the galaxy, culminating in Cosmos and Shadow sacrificing themselves to achieve this. The show was created by TMS Entertainment , the animation subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings . It

3745-499: The English-dubbed Season 3 (episodes 53–78) on December 6, 2016. On May 28, 2019, Discotek Media released a 2-disc Blu-ray set of the English dub of the series with all three seasons and seventy-eight episodes. Despite the upgraded format, the series is based on the original 4Kids beta tape, retaining a 480p resolution as opposed to the standard 1080p resolution on most Blu-rays. On April 25, 2023, Discotek released

3852-582: The Fat Honey Bear and Spaghetti Dogs . The cult television shows Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the German similar show SchleFaZ have featured mockbusters of other films (eg. Atlantic Rim , Pod People ). Two of Vídeo Brinquedo 's productions were parodied in an episode of The Amazing World of Gumball called "The Treasure", in which Gumball picks up a mockbuster DVD called How to Ratatwang Your Panda . The fictional production

3959-540: The Frog , and Cars , respectively. Warner Bros. similarly sued The Asylum over their release of Age of the Hobbits . The judge ruled in favor of Warner Bros., writing that "There is substantial likelihood that consumers will be confused by Age Of Hobbits and mistakenly purchase the film intending to purchase The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ." Most mockbusters follow the trend of releasing their films close to

4066-536: The Hedgehog comics until 2017, started a Sonic X series in 2005. It was originally set to run for only four issues, but was extended to 40 issues due to high demand. The last issue was released on January 1, 2009, and led into the first arc of the Sonic Universe series. The comics were written by Ian Flynn , who also authored the main comic series. Some issues were published in Jetix Magazine in

4173-498: The Hobbits infringed the registered trademarks held by SZC in the designation "Hobbit". Unlike fairy tales, which are in the public domain, the J. R. R. Tolkien novels have been exclusively licensed to Warner Bros. and SZC for production and film adaptation. The court described Global Asylum (the defendant in this case) as a low-budget company that makes "mockbusters" of popular films with similar titling. Warner Bros. and SZC submitted evidence to prove that consumers would be confused by

4280-722: The Lost Ark , to the point that the film is popularly known in English-speaking realms as "Turkish Star Wars", where it typifies the concept of so bad, it's good . Three Giant Men involved a battle between Marvel Comics characters Spider-Man and Captain America , both unauthorized and dressed in cheap costumes, decades before Captain America: Civil War covered the same concept to greater success. Mockbusters based on popular animated films are known as

4387-601: The Middle East from 2005 to 2006. The American localization and broadcasting were handled by 4Kids Entertainment , which edited it and created new music. The series follows a group of anthropomorphic animals that accidentally teleport from their home planet to Earth after attempting to save one of their friends from their enemy Doctor Eggman . Separated, Sonic the Hedgehog is saved by a human boy named Chris Thorndyke, who helps him find his friends while repeatedly scuffling with Doctor Eggman and his robots over control of

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4494-692: The Rabbit and her pet Chao Cheese , Knuckles the Echidna , and Rouge the Bat , to be transported into a parallel universe containing Earth. Sonic and his friends find themselves landing in the city of Station Square, where they befriend twelve-year-old Christopher "Chris" Thorndyke—a lonely young boy, who parents, movie-star mother Lindsey, and corporate executive father Nelson, tend to be absent with work, leaving him to be looked after by his grandfather Chuck, maid and chef Ella, and butler Mr. Tanaka. Seeking to find

4601-1153: The Rescue! (Pixar's Up ), and The Frog Prince (Disney's The Princess and the Frog ). In every case, Vídeo Brinquedo's knockoff has been released close to the release date of the more professional, higher-budgeted film that inspired it. Dingo Pictures was a German animation company founded in 1992 by Ludwig Ickert and Roswitha Haas, and based in Friedrichsdorf . They created traditionally-animated films based on fairy tales and concepts similar to those used by Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks. These cartoons are characterized by low-budget animation, small voice casts, and character designs that are very similar to equivalent characters in more high-profile films. The films have been dubbed into Scandinavian languages, notably Swedish , and also into Romance languages, notably Italian . All of them have been released direct-to-video in Germany in their original languages. European game publishers Phoenix Games and Midas Games released some of them in

4708-580: The United Kingdom, Italy and Poland. While the comics are set during the Sonic X timeline, their plot is original. Eggman imprisons humans inside robots and tries to use them to kill the animals, but the animals destroy the robots. Eggman uses malicious Chao to destroy Station Square, but Tikal and Chaos arrive from the past, return the Chao to normal, and bring them back to the past. Soon, Sonic finds

4815-400: The United States, 4Kids Home Video and their exclusive distributor FUNimation Entertainment released VHS tapes (until 2005) and DVDs of the series in single-release volumes and later multi-disc boxsets. The first two to be released were "A Super Sonic Hero" and "The Chaos Factor," released on June 1, 2004. Another such volume released was "Project Shadow," released on November 15, 2005. It

4922-518: The Worlds during the theatrical opening week of Steven Spielberg 's film based on the same novel starring Tom Cruise . Most mockbusters capitalize on the popularity of theatrically released films, but some are derivative of a TV series. The 1979 film Angels Revenge bore many superficial similarities to the popular TV series Charlie's Angels ; its promotional materials even resembled Charlie's Angels' graphic style. In reverse, Glen A. Larson

5029-468: The animals take on Eggman in his various schemes—including becoming a wrestler and creating a circus—to keep the Emeralds from him. In the final issue, a crossover with the continuity of the main comic series , that continuity's Metal Sonic appears and allies with Eggman to defeat Sonic, but that continuity's version of Shadow steps in and warps himself and Metal Sonic to another dimension, leading into

5136-476: The anime. Chris' voice actress Sanae Kobayashi was not sure she would be able to effectively communicate Chris' growth as a person owing to Sonic's presence, but found that a worthwhile goal. Chikao Ōtsuka , who voiced Eggman, found him a difficult character to play due to the tension in his voice and the desire to have children who watched the show recognize the character as a villain but not hate him. Iizuka believed that Sonic X and its merchandise, along with

5243-608: The character development that built on the stories of the original games, especially Sonic and Amy's relationship and the Chaotix's newfound viability as comedy devices. Concurrently, he found the show "surprisingly touching," particularly in its "emotional" final climax, and favorably compared the space exploration of season three to Star Trek . Famitsu ' s first preview called the story profound ( 重厚 , jūkō ) . Common Sense Media gave it three stars out of five and, while not commenting further on its quality, stated that it

5350-547: The city Station Square (sequencing, counting in increments); Angel Island, the home of the Master Emerald (addition), and Eggman's base (subtraction). There are also math-based minigames unrelated to the levels to supplement these skills. Score Entertainment created a Sonic X collectible card game for two players released in 2005. Players battle for Chaos Emeralds, whoever gets three first wins. Each turn, both players lay out five cards face-down and flip over one at

5457-434: The company renamed the film to Frozen Land to cash in on Disney's 2013 film, Frozen , complete with a logo that was made to look similar to the official logo to the film. In another case, a collection of animated shorts from the 1990s animated series, Britannica's Tales Around the World , was rereleased under the name Tangled Up by Brightspark to cash in on Disney's 2010 film, Tangled . Brightspark also rereleased

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5564-460: The continued distribution of the Canadian film The Legend of Sarila , retitled Frozen Land . In their suit, Disney alleges: "To enhance the commercial success of Sarila, the defendant redesigned the artwork, packaging, logo, and other promotional materials for its newly (and intentionally misleadingly) retitled film to mimic those used by Disney for Frozen and related merchandise." The suit

5671-428: The cost of $ 130 million. The mockbuster, with nearly exactly the same name was made by 12 people, in six months, for less than $ 1 million. For these large production houses, it wasn't just a question of free riding on the marketing success of these more popular films; mockbusters have become a source of bad publicity. Customers who had accidentally bought the mockbuster Puss in Boots: A Furry Tale but did not know that it

5778-480: The dialogue when lines "[didn't] work for some reason." He recalled being given only short samples of Eggman's voice from the games—he was not told specifically which game—and brief descriptions of his characters' roles. The rest of the cast assumed their characters' voice roles after their auditions. Beginning with Shadow the Hedgehog , the cast of Sonic X would assume their respective voice roles in all Sonic games released between 2005 and 2010, at which point all

5885-408: The early 2000s on home video consoles PlayStation and PlayStation 2 . These releases were developed by The Code Monkeys and included the film, as well as a small collection of mini games. Phoenix Games B.V. declared bankruptcy on 3 August 2010. On 27 March 2012, the bankruptcy was suspended due to a lack of income. On 26 May 2021, the independent label Vier Sterne Deluxe Records announced that it

5992-627: The end of the show's American production, Haigney stated in an interview that he had never played a Sonic game, read the comics , or watched any of the previous Sonic animated series. 4Kids found new voice actors rather than using those from the games. 4Kids president Norman J. Grossfeld invited Jason Griffith and Mike Pollock to audition for Sonic and Eggman, having known them from their work on Ultimate Muscle and Kirby: Right Back at Ya! and chose him for his yelling and pitch-wavering talents; Pollock and Griffith also voiced Ella and Shadow. 4Kids allowed Pollock to make minor alterations to

6099-453: The events of the first issue of Sonic Universe . In 2003, McDonald's packaged five different single-button dedicated console games, mostly based on various sports, with Happy Meals to promote Sonic X : two featuring Sonic and one each for Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow. Another Happy Meal game based on Big the Cat fishing arrived the following year. In 2007, LeapFrog Enterprises released

6206-492: The film The Adventures of Scamper the Penguin under the name " Tappy Feet: The Adventures of Scamper " to cash in on Happy Feet . The Asylum CEO David Michael Latt responds to criticisms about loose plot lines by stating that "We don't have spies at the studios. We have a general sense of what the film is and we make our movie completely original, just based on that concept". Mockbusters are low budget, and their revenue

6313-580: The film was about a prehistoric group of people who lived in Indonesia. The court rejected all of The Asylum's defenses: (i) that it was permitted to use "Hobbits" in the title of its film pursuant to the free speech test of the Second Circuit's decision in Rogers v. Grimaldi , (ii) that its use of the mark constituted nominative fair use to indicate plaintiffs' films and (iii) that the "Hobbits" mark

6420-428: The films Black Shampoo (1976, after Shampoo ), Black Lolita (1975, after Lolita ) and The Black Godfather (1974, after The Godfather ). This would arguably also include blaxploitation renditions of classic horror stories, such as Blacula (1974) and Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976). GoodTimes Entertainment was notorious for distributing animated "mockbuster" counterparts to popular Disney films in

6527-809: The films' runtime can qualify as " feature length ". Erik Henriksen, a reporter from The Portland Mercury , criticized Vídeo Brinquedo as being "the laziest/cheapest movie studio of all time," due to similarities between its releases and the films of other animation studios, such as Pixar. Marco Aurélio Canônico of Folha de S. Paulo , who criticized the Little Cars series as a copy of the Pixar film Cars , and likewise Ratatoing and Ratatouille , discussed whether lawsuits from Pixar would appear. The Brazilian Ministry of Culture posted Marco Aurélio Canônico's article on its website. Virgin Media also stated, "even by

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6634-609: The first two Seasons. 4Kids musicians John Angier, Craig Marks, Joel Douek, Louis Cortelezzi, Manny Corallo, Matt McGuire, and Ralph Schuckett, known for their work on the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, composed a new background score for the North American release "for both artistic and commercial reasons." The North American opening and closing theme (also used as the closing theme in the European version), titled "Gotta Go Fast,"

6741-500: The four larger networks ( Aomori Asahi Broadcasting (ANN), Nagasaki International Television ), SBS (JNN) and Sendai Broadcasting (FNN)). In Japan, the third season was never aired on TV until 2020 or released on DVD, but was available through rental streaming services. 4Kids licensed the series in North America from the beginning, ShoPro Entertainment was also made a license holder in November 2003. It aired in North America on

6848-726: The game Sonic Heroes , had helped expose the Sonic franchise to a new generation of potential gamers in 2003, and he dubbed it a "Sonic Year" as a result. More boldly, Naka hoped that Sonic X alone would cause the popularity of the Sonic series to skyrocket, as that of the Pokémon series did after its anime adaptation was first released. 4Kids Entertainment handled the show's American localization. The episodes were heavily edited for content and length ; 4Kids has been described by Destructoid as being "infamous" among anime fans for this type of overzealous editing. 4Kids removed alcohol consumption, coarse language, instances of breaking

6955-511: The government works to establish better defences in anticipation of another attack by Eggman, including the creation of a robotic army to counter the evil scientist's own creations. Much of the first half of this season is focused on adaptations of both Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 . After Station Square is rebuilt following the attack by Chaos , and Sonic and Shadow prevent Space Colony ARK from crashing into Earth, another Chaos Control event brings several inhabitants of Sonic's world to

7062-419: The group explore the galaxy for the Chaos Emeralds, after Sonic had to disperse them to avoid them being used by the Metarex. Alongside the group, Eggman also pursues after the Emeralds, accompanied by Rouge, and aided by Shadow, whom he had recovered following his supposed demise. Much of the journey sees Tails and Cosmos bonding, while Eggman secretly sides with the Metarex in order to uncover their plans, with

7169-426: The human population, despite reservations of what might happen when the seven Chaos Emeralds are found. Six months after the Chaos Emeralds are found and used by Sonic in his Super Sonic form, Chaos Control causes parts of their world to appear on Earth, including Angel Island and the Master Emerald, along with the arrival of Big the Cat and his pet Froggy. Whilst the group adapt to this and carry on with their lives,

7276-410: The identical title and that they would lose not only ticket sales but also DVD revenue. The evidence included a survey showing that 48 percent of 400 surveyed respondents associated the term "Hobbit" with SZC, d/b/a "Tolkien Enterprises" and Tolkien properties. A separate survey conducted by Nielsen National Research Group showed that approximately 16 to 24 percent of survey respondents were confused about

7383-408: The intergalactic battle between a quarrelsome alien race and shape-shifting extraterrestrials, while six college friends find themselves in the middle of the interstellar war. A 1993 science fiction horror film titled Carnosaur , produced by Roger Corman and starring Diane Ladd as a mad scientist who plans to recreate dinosaurs and destroy humanity, is loosely based on the 1984 novel of

7490-463: The king responded that he could not approve the change because Christer was not eighteen years old. Extending over a decade past the show's initial release, the show has spawned internet memes and the phrase "gotta go fast", the title of the song that plays in the opening and closing sequence, has been used in the titles of video game periodical articles to represent the Sonic series and other fast-paced video games. Sonic X: Original Soundtrack

7597-455: The latter were sold out, leaving a parent to rent it to avoid disappointment from their children. Besides producing its own animated movies, Vídeo Brinquedo has also distributed DVDs of foreign cartoons like Sonic X , The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 , Little Lulu , Batfink , and a number of lesser-known fairy tale films made by Video Treasures (now Anchor Bay Entertainment ). However, one of its most controversial distributions

7704-640: The minimum required to qualify as a feature film and awards qualification. Their films' English-dubbed casts (such as The Little Panda Fighter ) also featured notable voice actors from 4Kids Entertainment and several Sonic the Hedgehog video games (in the 2000's). Originally released with a Brazilian Portuguese soundtrack, many of Vídeo Brinquedo's titles were co-produced with Rexmore Company in Brazil, and distributed in North America by Branscome International, MorningStar Entertainment with English and Spanish soundtracks, Brightspark Productions in

7811-513: The mockbuster to the original Battle: Los Angeles . His friend was in the original and they began promoting both films together. Kel has since then became a fan of the studio's formula: "I laugh out loud when I see that a film is coming out; I wonder what The Asylum is going to do with it. They're going to remix that name and put it out." In December 2013, The Walt Disney Company filed in California federal court to get an injunction against

7918-478: The ocean-floor-scraping standards of Vídeo Brinquedo, it's a shameless knock-off". Disney's legal department was contacted by a reporter through a spokesperson about a potential lawsuit, but did not comment. Vídeo Brinquedo's infamous 2009 film What's Up: Balloon to the Rescue! (a mockbuster based on Pixar's Up ) was voted the worst animated movie of the 2000s by users on Letterboxd . The film has been criticised for its inclusion of racial stereotypes aimed at

8025-487: The original broadcasts of episodes 26 and 52; these were replaced in subsequent broadcasts and home releases. Tracks from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 were used infrequently during some episodes, including Sonic Adventure 2 theme "Live and Learn" by Crush 40 in episode 38. A soundtrack titled Sonic X ~Original Sound Tracks~ was released in Japan on March 8, 2004, it consisted of 40 tracks of original music from

8132-414: The original films' countries. Low-budget studios in foreign countries may produce illegitimate sequels to preexisting higher budgeted films series that began in other countries. These sequels are unofficial, and often even unknown to the creators and producers of the original films. These unofficial sequels are rarely, or never, released in the original country, usually due to licensing issues. In other cases,

8239-686: The planet, including the Chaotix Detective Agency — Vector the Crocodile , Espio the Chameleon , and Charmy Bee —Vanilla, Cream's mother. Eggman launches further scehems following the ARK incident, even when briefly captured by the government, whilst Sonic and his friends provide shelter for a robot named Emerl, who later goes on the rampage after coming into possession of a Chaos Emerald and forcing Cream to stop it (the story arc being

8346-484: The popularity of a recent release by adopting similar genre or storytelling elements, mockbusters are generally produced concurrently with upcoming films and released direct-to-video around the time the film they are inspired by is released. A mockbuster may be similar enough in title or packaging that consumers confuse it with the actual film it mimics, but their producers maintain that they are simply offering additional products for consumers who want to watch more films in

8453-430: The powerful Chaos Emeralds , and becoming celebrities. The final story arc sees Sonic and his friends return with Chris to their world, where they enter outer space with a newfound plant-like creature named Cosmo and fight an army of aliens called the Metarex. Sonic X received mixed reviews. Generally, reviewers criticized its American localization and the human characters, but praised its story and animation. The series

8560-414: The presence of Amy and Big, but took particular issue to the show's portrayal of Sonic, which he summarized as: " 'I'm gonna run around downtown until something exciting happens and use a stinking Ring to defeat my enemies ' ". GamesRadar bemoaned both the "piss-poor Adventure characters" and the original human ones. In contrast, writer Gaz Plant of NintendoLife opined that "one of the key successes" of

8667-456: The publicity of major blockbusters. Until the Hobbit case, mockbuster production houses have been able to achieve soundalike titling to such an extent that even actors in the films have been confused about which film they are starring in. Some actors starring in the original have gone on to become fans of the mockbuster model. Kel Mitchell was the star in the mockbuster Battle of Los Angeles ,

8774-424: The recent Sonic games use these untalented actors/actresses in their dubs, because they make the original English voices sound like award-winning performers." Other comments on the show's aesthetics were mostly positive. Staff of GamesRadar admitted, "At least the song fits. Can't imagine Sonic listening to Underground ' s wailing Meat Loaf light rock , but he'd definitely jam to Sonic X ." Jones praised

8881-415: The release dates of the original: The Asylum defend this practice, stating their intention is not to dupe customers. The Asylum cites reports from both Blockbuster LLC and Hollywood Video that show that less than 1% of customers who rent one of their films ask for a refund. That the low return rate of their films has been used to argue that consumers are renting The Asylum's films deliberately. "There's

8988-566: The roles were recast with the exception of Mike Pollock as Eggman. Sonic X aired in Japan on TV Tokyo 's 8:30 a.m. time slot from April 6, 2003 to March 28, 2004. It consisted of three seasons, each of them 26 half-hour episodes long. The first two seasons were also syndicated by delay to a handful of stations outside of the reach of the TX Network : four JAITS member stations ( Television Wakayama , Biwako Broadcasting , Nara Television and Gifu Broadcasting ) and one station each of

9095-583: The same name by John Brosnan , but the two have little in common. It was released by New Horizons Picture Corp two weeks before the blockbuster Jurassic Park . Carnosaur may be considered a mockbuster. (Diane Ladd's daughter Laura Dern starred in Jurassic Park) In some cases, the knockoff film may bear little or no resemblance to the original. In 2012, Super K – The Movie , an Indian fantasy/science-fiction animated film about an artificially created boy named "Super Kloud" with superpowers,

9202-624: The same subgenres. Mockbusters have a long history in Hollywood and elsewhere. For example, the 1959 Vanwick film The Monster of Piedras Blancas was a clear derivative of Creature from the Black Lagoon , complete with a creature suit by the same designer, Jack Kevan. Attack of the 50 Foot Woman spawned Village of the Giants , and The Land That Time Forgot spawned Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds . Such films fit

9309-468: The second season is mostly based on the plots of Sonic Adventure , Sonic Adventure 2 , and Sonic Battle . While traditionally animated, it includes non-outlined CGI elements for things such as Sonic's homing attack. Two trailers for the series were produced. The first was developed before Cheese had been given a name in Sonic Advance 2 (2002); it referred to Cheese simply as "Chao". It

9416-684: The series in Pan-European, MENA, and Latin American territories. For the 60th anniversary of TMS Entertainment, the company streamed a select number of episodes on its YouTube channel, available with the original Japanese audio with English subtitles, from August 5–9 and 12–16, 2024. TMS Entertainment handled rights to the series in Asian territories. The series was released on DVD , in Japan, only seasons one and two were released, and their 52 episodes spanned 13 discs. From 2003 to 2009 in

9523-420: The series to continue to grow more interesting. Plant stated that "where Sonic X truly succeeded was in its retelling of iconic stories." Independent of the characters involved, GamesRadar appreciated the idea of following "Sonic's core concept." The original storylines were also praised. Amidst his criticism of most of the show, Jones praised the first episode in general, especially its humor. Plant acclaimed

9630-476: The series was its incorporation of numerous characters from the games, including lesser-used ones like Big and the Chaotix. Fans were divided on the merit of the Thorndykes. The show was praised for its faithfulness to the games. Famitsu offered a uniformly positive review before the first episode broadcast in 2003, commending the skillful transition of the games' speed and style to animation, and expected

9737-476: The small, peace-loving Hobbits are enslaved by the Java Men , a race of flesh-eating dragon-riders. The young Hobbit Goben must join forces with their neighbor giants, the humans, to free his people and vanquish their enemies." The Federal Court found that Warner Bros. had a valid trademark on the word "Hobbit". The court rejected The Asylum's scientific fair-use claims since there was no evidence to suggest that

9844-553: The source of Age of the Hobbits . The Asylum claimed that they were justified in using the word " Hobbit " as a fair use of scientific terminology after some scientists borrowed the term from the Hobbit stories a few years prior to describe a human species in Indonesia . The Asylum argued that it provided warnings stating that this was not the Tolkien creature. The films also featured major plot differences: "In an ancient age,

9951-582: The wrong film through intentionally deceptive marketing. In one such lawsuit, Walt Disney Pictures sued the UK-based studio Brightspark, complaining that the studio was "misleading consumers with numerous releases that confuse and undermine the trust those consumers have in Disney". Among Brightspark's films mentioned in the lawsuit were Braver , Tangled Up , The Frog Prince , and Little Cars , which resemble Disney's Brave , Tangled , The Princess and

10058-471: Was TMS' best-selling anime in the non-Japanese market, despite that the third season did not air in Japan until 2020, and it inspired TMS to focus on properties that would sell well outside Japan. In April 2009, a six-year-old Norwegian boy named Christer pressed his parents to send a letter to King Harald V of Norway to approve his name being changed to "Sonic X". They allowed Christer to write it himself but did not send it until he badgered them further, and

10165-605: Was a generic name. The court decided that The Asylum had failed to prove its defenses and on December 10, 2012, found in favor of the plaintiffs and entered a temporary restraining order. This restraining order prevented the use by Global Asylum of the title Age of the Hobbits . The Ninth Circuit court of appeals affirmed in 2013. The film was then released under the name Clash of the Empires . The 2022 adaptation of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers spoofed animated mockbusters with "bootlegged" titles like Flying Bedroom Boy , Pooj

10272-438: Was a mockbuster gave the original film negative reviews. Mockbuster producers have had no legal troubles with drafting off as a result of Disney losing a case against GoodTimes Entertainment, which had used similar packaging for their own version of Aladdin . Mockbusters have also had legal complications with false advertising. They supposedly tweak the plot lines and the titles just enough to skirt legal trouble and yet ride on

10379-625: Was accused of producing mockbusters at the height of his career, with his television series plagiarizing popular films of the time ( Battlestar Galactica , for example, capitalized on the popularity of Star Wars , while Alias Smith and Jones was a take on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ). In blaxploitation filmmaking, it was a common practice to title blaxploitation films after previously successful films starring predominantly white casts, and produce similarly titled films starring predominantly African American casts, as observed in

10486-409: Was appropriate for grade-school children but that some violent scenes were inadvisable for younger viewers. A second Famitsu review from later in 2003 called the anime an outstanding success and encouraged readers to tune in. The show was quite popular in the United States, France, Indonesia and Malaysia, consistently reaching the number-one position in its timeslot in those countries. By 2007, it

10593-811: Was composed by Grossfeld and Russell Velazquez. Sonic X was extensively merchandised in various forms of media and other products. Two Game Boy Advance Videos of episodes from the first season of Sonic X were released in May 2004. In October 2004, ShoPro licensed four manufacturers to create Sonic X merchandise, they variously produced items such as toys, bedding, beach towels, backpacks, stationery, and pajamas. Six Sonic X novels were published between 2005 and 2007: Aqua Planet, Dr. Eggman Goes to War , Battle at Ice Palace, and Desperately Seeking Sonic by Charlotte Fullerton , Meteor Shower Messenger by Paul Ruditis , and Spaceship Blue Typhoon by Diana G. Gallagher . Archie Comics , which published Sonic

10700-440: Was filed against distributor Phase 4 Films . Phase 4 and Disney settled out of court with Phase 4 paying US$ 100.000, changing the name of the movie back to The Legend of Sarila and also changing the logos and other promoting material that resembled Disney's. Because mockbusters are deliberately similar to more famous films, some film studios have sued mockbuster studios for allegedly tricking consumers into renting or purchasing

10807-490: Was founded in 1995 as a Brazilian subsidiary of American distributor Spot Films, to distribute animation with the intention of distribution in its home market of Brazil , then seemingly split up and became Vídeo Brinquedo in 2004; later on, in 2006, they expanded to North America with the falling costs of DVD duplication and packaging, and easier access to language translation services. Most of Vídeo Brinquedo's films are still available on DVD and streaming services, though it

10914-582: Was given the AVOD rights to 38 TMS Entertainment titles including Sonic X for US and Canada. Outside North America and Asia, Jetix Europe (previously Fox Kids Europe) held the rights to the series, which the company acquired in August 2003. Buena Vista International Television handled distribution services while Jetix Europe handled all other television rights. The company's Jetix Consumer Products (JCP) subsidiary held consumer product and home media rights to

11021-483: Was made up largely of footage that would later appear in the series' intro, but also of unused scenes featuring unique anthropomorphic people. Sega showed off the second, which was narrated in Japanese, at its booth at the World Hobby Fair video gaming event on February 19, 2003. It consisted mostly of scenes from the first few episodes, followed by introductions to the main characters. However, it also showed

11128-601: Was popular in the United States and France, though less so in its native Japan. The show's merchandise included an edutainment video game for the Leapster , a trading card game , a comic book series featuring an original storyline, and various toys and other items. Following a battle between Sonic the Hedgehog and Doctor Eggman , a freak accident involving the seven Chaos Emeralds causes them to create "Chaos Control"—a powerful space-time force that transports both of them, along with Miles "Tails" Prower , Amy Rose , Cream

11235-460: Was primarily influenced by other anime rather than work from the West, and was created for a Japanese audience. Yuji Naka , then the head of Sonic Team , filled in as executive producer, and Satoshi Hirayama designed all of the original characters, basing the designs on Yuji Uekawa 's original concept. Most of the series consists of original content featuring new as well as established characters, but

11342-499: Was released direct-to-video in the United States as Kiara the Brave . Its title and cover art focused on an incidental female character with red hair, in an attempt to evoke the design of Brave ' s protagonist Merida . In other cases, the knockoff film simply renames an already existing film into a name that is similar to a popular film. For example, when Phase 4 Films acquired the US distribution rights to The Legend of Sarila ,

11449-479: Was released to tie in with the release of the game Shadow the Hedgehog , and covered the first arc that focused on Shadow (episodes 33–38). Discotek Media released the 8-disc DVD set, "Sonic X Collection 1" in North America, which includes the English-dubbed seasons 1 and 2 (episodes 1–52) on November 22, 2016. They later released the 4-disc DVD set, "Sonic X Collection 2" in North America, which includes

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