Plagiarism the bane of animation industry

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".