List of repurposed movies
The following is a chronological list of films that were not made with the intent of being mockbusters but that eventually got rereleased under different titles to capitalize on popular trends or movies. Please don't make articles on any of these films due to the fact that they don't count as traditional rip-offs.
1980s
1987
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a 1959 Mexican film directed by René Cardona. The film got an English dub a year later and was released on home media several times, a particular release was published in the late 1980s to capitalize on the 1985 film Santa Claus: The Movie. Some versions run for only 63 minutes due to the removal of all "seemingly objectionable material", which consists of all the scenes including the devil Pitch although some versions run for 93. The VHS cover refers to the movie as Santa Claus: The Motion Picture.
2000s
2004?
Aladin et la lampe merveilleuse
Aladin et la lampe merveilleuse is a French animated film based on the classic Arabian Nights story Aladdin and the magic lamp. The movie was directed by Jean Image and released in 1970. Sometime later in the early 2000s, the distributor East West Entertainment had released a DVD of this film which had cover art that was reminiscent of Walt Disney's more popular adaption of the story that was released in 1992. Apart from being a very low quality VHS rip, the version included on this DVD is much shorter than the original one.
2010s
2010
Britannica's Tales Around the World
Britannica's Tales Around the World was a direct-to-video miniseries produced by Encyclopedia Britannica. Hosted by Pat Morita, each episode would tell a familiar fairy tale from around the world, followed by two lesser-known stories that share a similar theme.
In 2010, several episodes were released on DVD in the United Kingdom by Brightspark Productions, one particular DVD had the title of Tangled Up, which striked a great resemblance to the Disney film Tangled. The Walt Disney Company accused the company for "misleading consumers with numerous releases that confuse and undermine the trust those consumers have in Disney" due to this, although no legal action was taken after that.
2011
Scamper the Penguin
The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin, known as Scamper the Penguin in the West, is a Soviet-Japanese animated film from 1986, originally released as a three-part serial film. In 2011 the film was released on DVD under the title of Tappy Feet: The Adventures of Scamper, although only in the United Kingdom. This was an attempt from the distributor, Brightspark Productions, to capitalize on Happy Feet Two.
2012
A Fairytale Christmas
A Fairytale Christmas is a Canadian Christmas special released in 2005. 8 years later, the film was released on DVD by Brightspark Productions in the UK. The DVD was called Braver and had a very Brave-like cover. In a similar scenario to Tangled Up, Disney sent a cease and desist letter to Brightspark for copyright infringement, due to the cover of Braver causing confusion amongst customers because of its resemblance to Pixar's Brave.
All that Brightspark had to say was:
| “ | All we've tried to do is give parents something their children will hopefully find entertaining. We came up with our title around 18 months ago and if we thought consumers would mistake our film for Brave, we would have renamed it. | ” |
Super K
Super K is an Indian animated film released in 2011 by Shemaroo Entertainment. A year later, the film was released straight to DVD by Phase 4 Films in the US under the title of Kiara the Brave, with the cover of the film featuring Kiara, a secondary character that didn't have a great role in the story. This was done on purpose to capitalize on the release of Pixar's Brave, which featured a red-headed protagonist with a similar appearance.
2013
The Legend of Sarila
The Legend of Sarila it's a Canadian animated film from 2013. After bombing in the box office, the movie was released on DVD under the title of Frozen Land in an obvious attempt to cash in on Walt Disney's much more popular Frozen. This caused legal troubles with The Walt Disney Company, who filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the film's American distributor, Phase 4 Films in December of 2013.
By late January 2014, the two companies had settled the case; the settlement stated that the distribution and promotion of The Legend of Sarila and related merchandise must use its original title and Phase 4 must not use trademarks, logos or other designs confusingly similar to Disney's animated release. Phase 4 was also required to pay Disney $100,000 before 27 January 2014, and make "all practicable efforts" to remove copies of Frozen Land from stores and online distributors before 3 March 2014.
2015
Brujerías
Brujerías is a Spanish computer-animated fantasy film directed by Virginia Curiá and released on 11 July 2014. One year later, on 15 November 2015 the film was released in the United States under the title of Caroline and the Magic Potion, being marketed as a mockbuster of the stop-motion animated film Coraline from 2009.
External links
- Santa Claus on IMDb
- Aladin et la lampe merveilleuse on IMDb
- Britannica's Tales Around the World on IMDb
- Scamper the Penguin on IMDb
- A Fairytale Christmas on IMDb
- Super K on IMDb
- The Legend of Sarila on IMDb
- Brujerías on IMDb