Two posters comparing Zhuo Jianrong's "The Autobots" (2015) （left） and Pixar's "Cars 2" (2011), which are almost identical.
The filmmaker suspected of the plagiarism of Disney/Pixar's animated feature "Cars" has now incited another round of controversy as he announced yesterday that he would create a sequel to his copycat production.
The Chinese animation "The Autobots" by Zhuo Jianrong previously came under fire in 2015 as critics dismissed the film as a copycat of the Hollywood-hit "Cars" with similar cartoon character designs, movie title (in Chinese), and promotion posters. Even the English title of the film has been copied from another Hollywood blockbuster franchise "Transformers."
Zhuo fought the accusations raised and insisted he has never seen the movie "Cars." He said his movie was independently produced and the story is completely different. After the first film was released, several theaters canceled the screenings because "the quality was too low. And there was a copycat scandal," one theater executive said.
At the 12th China International Cartoon & Animation Festival, which runs from April 27 to May 2 in Hangzhou, Zhuo unveiled a sequel to his animation, "The Autobots 2." The new installment is 3D and 85 minutes long, and will have a budget of 30 million yuan (US$4.62 million), hitting Chinese screens next year. The director also said he wished to invite the popular teen group TFBoys to contribute their voices to the film.
Zhuo confessed at the press conference that the first installment made money for investors, so he has financial support to do the next installment. He said he didn't mind too much what internet users were saying, "It is not important how others look at this, it is important how I look at it."
The Walt Disney Company, which owns Pixar, has expressed concern over the potential copyright infrigement of Zhuo's first installment, saying "we share the same concerns as many web users and movie fans in China, but have no further comment at this stage." Apparently Disney hasn't taken substantial actions against Zhuo.
The news of the sequel ignited another round of dispute among movie fans on the internet. Zhuo, who said he didn't mind others' opinions though, had to go online and respond to the criticism.
"Why can't I make a second film? You might dislike it, but I can prove I will do better with the second film," he said, responding to a comment from a web user on his Weibo microblog account, adding he will do a third, fourth and more installments in the future.
He later released a long statement saying he redesigned the characters images in the new installment which will be totally different from the first one, "Teachers always said, 'Understand your mistake and correct it, you are still a good kid.' Now, I've corrected my mistake and I will be a good kid," he wrote, "I just want to prove that my team can make a better cartoon film, prove it's not the Americans' exclusive. Someday Chinese people will make a better car cartoon than Americans. We will always try our best!"
At last he begged critics to give him more time, tolerance and support.
Disney hasn't responded to the story.
