Plagiarism the bane of animation industry

The Chinese poster for "The Autobots'[Photo/IC]

After premiering early this month, The Autobots, a made-in-China animation claiming in its trailer to be the cartoon version of The Fast and the Furious, has been widely criticized on social media. Netizens allege it has plagiarized Disney's Cars, with some saying it is just a re-edited version of the Chinese team's 20-episode production K Times which was released in 2013. But instead of citing facts to prove the allegations wrong, director Zhuo Jianrong has used indecent language to counter the netizens.

The copycat animation and the verbal personal attacks are likely to fade from public memory after films of higher quality hit the screens. But the blind pursuit of quick money, the lack of motivation to make quality films and disregard for intellectual property rights will raise serious questions.

For long, a number of animations made in China have been accused of plagiarism. In a survey conducted by China Youth Daily in 2011, 70.8 percent of the respondents said they disliked Chinese animations because they were "plagiarized and lacked creativity".

Innovativeness is the soul of animations and other artistic creations. There is indeed a wide gap in the development and creativity of the animation industries of China and that of industry leaders like the United States and Japan. But the problem is that, some Chinese animation teams can't distinguish between learning from cutting-edge foreign productions and copying them or their ideas, which is similar to plagiarism.

We can wait for the developing domestic animation industry to prosper by learning from advanced countries' productions, and we know Chinese animators cannot become experts overnight and regale audiences with masterpieces that can rival animations like Kung Fu Panda. But how can we tolerate the fact that some animators don't have even the slightest idea of originality and copy the posters and characters from technically sound and successful Hollywood productions?