''The Autobots'' () is a 2015 Chinese computer-animated motorsports

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

film directed by Zhuo Jianrong. It was released on July 4, 2015. The film received heavy criticism for its plot, animation quality, characters, and being a direct plagiarism and knockoff of

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

’s '' Cars 2''.

Production

The production company and filmmaker stated that it was an independently produced film, while several critics and people who watched the film accused it of being copied from

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and

's ''

Cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...

'' franchise (with the characters looking like those from ''Cars''). Shen Lu, Katie Hunt, and Anna Hsieh of

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stated that the Chinese title of the film was similar to the mainland Chinese title of ''Cars'' ().

Copyright infringement lawsuit

In July 2016,

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

filed a copyright case through the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court and on December 29, 2016, the court ruled in favor of Disney, fining Bluemtv and G-Point $190,000 and ordering them to cease

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

Cancelled sequel

A sequel for the film, ''The Autobots 2'', was scheduled for release in summer 2017. However, the sequel was canceled due to The Walt Disney Company winning a copyright case. The latest information about the sequel announcement is from 2016.

References

External links

* 2015 animated films 2015 films 2015 computer-animated films Chinese animated films Chinese auto racing films Animated films about auto racing Animated films about automobiles Films involved in plagiarism controversies Cars (franchise) 2010s American films {{animation-film-stub