Industry CGI animation Website videobrinquedo.com.br | Fate Bankruptcy Parent Rexmore Widea Founded 1994 | |
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Key people Maurício MilaniMichele Gabriel Defunct 1999 as VBF Produções; 2006 as Spot Films; 2012 as Vídeo Brinquedo Founders Ale McHaddo, Fernando Francielli Profiles | ||
Vídeo Brinquedo (also known as Toyland Video) was a Brazilian animation studio, located in São Paulo, that produced low-budget, direct-to-video animated films widely viewed as mockbusters of comparable films from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, 20th Century Fox, Blue Sky Studios and Hasbro. The company was founded in 1994 to distribute children's animation with the intention of distribution in its home market of Brazil, as well as to other global markets.
Contents
Background
For the first seven years, Vídeo Brinquedo distributed 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 United Submarine; this title sold only a few copies until the release of the 2003 Pixar film Finding Nemo. United Submarine 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, 2D-styled, based on fairy tales and classics such as Pinocchio and 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, over 3,000 copies were sold in more than 12 countries.
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 evidence".
Originally released with a Brazilian Portuguese soundtrack, many of Vídeo Brinquedo's titles were co-produced with Rexmore Company do Brasil, and distributed in North America by Branscome International, with English and Spanish soundtracks.
The Little Cars
The Little Cars (Portuguese: Os Carrinhos) is a series of eight films that bears a close resemblance to the 2006 Pixar film Cars.
Five films have been translated into English while five more remain available exclusively in Portuguese.
Characters
Ratatoing
Ratatoing (/rætæˈtɔɪŋ/) is a film which bears a close resemblance to the 2007 Pixar film Ratatouille. The 44 minute-long film, tells the story of Marcell Toing, a mouse who is the most gifted chef in Rio de Janeiro. He owns the famed restaurant "Ratatoing" along with his crew, consisting of fellow mice Carol and Greg. They plan out weekly raids on human kitchens to acquire fresh ingredients for use in their dishes. However, rival restaurant owners are desperate to discover Marcell's secrets and are willing to risk putting their own restaurants out of business to unearth them.
Cast
Little Bee
Known as Abelhinhas in Brazil and bears a close resemblance to the 2007 DreamWorks film Bee Movie.
Cast
The Little Panda Fighter
Known as Ursinho da Pesada in Brazil, previously known as Heavy's Little Bear, it bears a close resemblance to the 2008 DreamWorks film Kung Fu Panda.
Cast
Tiny Robots
Known as Robozinhos in Brazil and bears a resemblance to Robots and WALL-E.
Cast
Little Princess School
Known as Escola de Princesinhas in Brazil and bears a close resemblance to the Disney Princess franchise.
Cast
Other films
Film distribution
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. However, one of its most controversial distributions 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.
Criticism
Vídeo Brinquedo's films have been globally panned by critics and audiences. 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.
In his review of Ratatoing, a reviewer on ToonZone said: "If you ate a copy of the worst cartoon you could think of, you'd still probably crap something better than Ratatoing", and went on to bemoan the incredibly poor animation, calling the movie as a whole "a senseless waste of raw materials" and "a waste of time, energy and effort for all parties concerned".
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 the ocean-floor-scraping standards of Vídeo Brinquedo, it's a shameless knock-off". Milani defended himself from charges of plagiarism, stating "The story is that we create. Themes are just the same".
Disney's legal department was contacted by a reporter through a spokesperson about a potential lawsuit, but Milani did not comment.
In China, a 2008 study in Beijing found that the Chinese DVD copy of Ratatoing contained a high amount of piracy.
Two of Vídeo Brinquedo's productions were parodied in an episode of The Amazing World of Gumball named The Treasure, in which Gumball picks up a mockbuster DVD called How to Ratatwang Your Panda.