Nihao! This is PhantomStrider.
Let's face it: for all the culture, discipline, history, and kind locals
the Chinese have given us, they're very good at knock-offs.
And while I think cheap knockoffs are great for consumer items like plastic cups,
I don't think this translates very well to animation.
So let's take a look at the Top Three Chinese Cartoon Knock-offs.
Also, don't get me wrong.
Chinese has brought us a lot of sophisticated animation.
I just find it more fun to look at the knock-offs.
Anyway, on to this short countdown.
"What you are doing... is straight up criminal."
For the third Chinese knockoff... ("So just...)
try and be original."
"♪ Be your own you ♪"
Miracle Star, AKA Chinese Gumball.
They just... didn't even bother trying to hide it with this one.
It's so clearly Gumball, I can feel my teeth rotting from candy.
Hell, some scenes are copied line for line.
Since "The DVD" remains one of the most well known Gumball episodes,
I imagine that's probably why they tried to copy this episode word-for-word.
But this one, it just feels like they... directly copy-pasted Gumball and Darwin's eyes and proportions.
I mean, that's obviously Richard,
that's obviously Nicole... it's also got random strange product placements.
The animation is cheap enough to be mistaken for Youtube Poop, and the jokes are as flat as a steamrolled pancake,
trampled by an elephant parade.
They do have live-action backgrounds, but they don't actually feel clever like in Gumball,
because they don't seamlessly connect with the cartoon animation.
They're just kind of... green-screen stills, only slightly better quality than this... shameless thing behind me.
There are certain parts I actually like, though. Like, I feel, like this one has a nice Chinese
cultural twist. It's like watching an American dub of a
Japanese anime. It's interesting to see the cultural twists and changes
we make between each country, and I actually like the Richard from this better than the Gumball Richard.
He's a bit more self driven, and not quite so... pants-on-head stupid.
He's more just charmingly himself than stupid, and I like that.
Overall, I think Miracle Star's an... okay Chinese ripoff.
And for number two...
Lucky Pie.
What I don't get is why is it all so clearly plagiarizing Gumby?
I mean, that is clearly Pokey.
They didn't even bother changing his proportions or his color.
That is... just Pokey. Were they, like, trying to distract one plagiarization with another plagiarization?
"They'll never tell we're trying to copy Adventure Time, because they'll think we're copying Gumby!"
It's just... confusing. But anyway, it is what it is.
Anyway, Pokey the... horse apparently tries to help Finn the... carrot. I mean, he's, he's not a "Finn the human",
that's clearly "Finn the carrot". But honestly, I actually like this one.
It's just Chinese Finn and Chinese Jake just trying to solve problems and help people,
like they would in vanilla Adventure Time.
And it's still got that warm feel to it, with its own Chinese twist.
It feels almost like it's paying (an) affectionate homage to Adventure Time, and, uh...
Gumby, for some reason.
♪ Pokey the horse and Finn the carrot,
the fun will last as long as the Chinese government allows, it's Lucky Pie! ♪
And the number one Chinese cartoon knock-off is...
Dinosaur King.
Is it a ripoff of Pokemon, or Digimon? You decide.
I mean, that's definitely a Digimon.
So the story, that is definitely not Pokemon,
is these kids summon small dinosaurs that are... certainly not Pokemon,
from tiny cards they keep that are... certainly not Pokeballs...
We've got an Ash, a Misty, a Brock, and... VERY bad CG.
I mean, seriously. I don't exaggerate when I say these dinosaurs are EYESORES,
to go down in Chinese animation history.
And why do they... move, like... they're lagging?
Maybe we're spoiled by American and Japanese animation...
But these dinosaurs truly are one of the most ugly, sad sights
I've ever seen in animation.
So the story is: this young man wants to be the very best... of the dinosaurs... that no one ever was...
...of the dinosaurs.
The best part of it, though? This got a 4kids English dub, and they just didn't care with this one!
"He's right, you can get there underground! Wait a minute, did I actually just say something that was helpful and cooperative?"
They don't even try to hide that it's a ripoff! They even use Ash Ketchum's English voice actor as the main character!
"We're going in! You handle the black T-rex!" "Be careful!"
This one, I think, is the worst of the Chinese cartoon ripoffs.
The English crew obviously had fun, but this replication had no effort put into it.
It truly was a cheap Chinese knock-off.
*noisy market sounds* Wonder if they sell orange shirts...?