Vídeo Brinquedo

**Vídeo Brinquedo** (also known as **Toyland Video** and translated as **Toy Video**, and formerly known as **Spot Films**) was a Brazilian animation studio, located in São Paulo, widely notorious for producing animated films widely viewed as mockbusters of comparable films from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, 20th Century Fox, Blue Sky Studios, Hasbro Entertainment, Paramount Pictures and Lucasfilm. The company was founded in 1995 to distribute animation with the intention of distribution in its home market of Brazil, then expanded to North America with the falling costs of DVD duplication and packaging, and easier access to language translation services. Most of Brinquedo's films are still available on DVD and streaming services, though it is unclear who the ultimate owners of the studio's output currently are.

## History

### Early years

The earliest use of the Vídeo Brinquedo name goes back to 2004, meaning that the studio was probably founded in that year. They were a budget DVD distributor that did some collaborations with Spot Films, an American distributor from Los Angeles. While no real connection is clear, it's most likely that Vídeo Brinquedo started as a Brazilian subsidiary for Spot Films before becoming their own thing.

### Film production

While they started as a distributor of foreign series and films, they also delved into film production, with their earliest works being modern adaptations of fairytales such as *Pinocchio* or *Rapunzel*.

However they wouldn't see a lot of success until the summer of 2006 when they made their first mockbuster *Os Carrinhos em: A Grande Corrida*, loosely inspired by Pixar's at the time new film *Cars*. It soon became one of Vídeo Brinquedo's most sold films on DVD, eventually spawning merchandise, a videogame and a show. After this they started to use a similar strategy for most of their productions, with notorious examples such as *Ratatoing* and *Ursinho Da Pesada*. Most of their films were short, sometimes not even lasting 40 minutes.

They also made a few TV shows which were released on DVD as compilation movies, with the most famous example being the *Os Carrinhos* series.

### Rebranding

At some point after 2014, Vídeo Brinquedo had stopped DVD production and switched to solely making content on their YouTube channel, and presumably in 2016 they rebranded to Crianças Inteligentes, though their YouTube channel was still called Vídeo Brinquedo until 2021. While they don't make films anymore, most of their old material has been uploaded to their official YouTube channel and is also available to watch in streaming services such as Prime Video.

## Filmography

* *A Cigarra e a Formiga* (2005)
* *A Lebre e a Tartaruga* (2005)
* *O Patinho Feio* (2005)
* *The Little Cars in the Great Race* (2006)
* *The Little Cars 2: Rodopolis Adventures* (2007)
* *The Little Cars 3: Fast and Curious* (2007)
* *Little Princess School* (2007)
* *Ratatoing*
* *Little Bee* (2007)
* *Gladiformers* (2007)
* *Chapeuzinho Vermelho* (2007)
* *The Little Cars 4: New Genie Adventures* (2008)
* *The Little Cars 5: Big Adventures* (2008)
* *The Little Cars 6: Fast Lane Fury* (2008)
* *Little Bee 2: Beehive Party* (2008)
* *The Little Panda Fighter* (2008)
* *Tiny Robots* (2008)
* *Little Princess School 2: Bianca's Dragon* (2008)
* *Gladiformers 2* (2008)
* *BR Futebol: A Magia do Futebol* (2008)
* *The Little Cars 7: Revved Up and Ready to Go* (2009)
* *The Little Cars 8: Making a Mess* (2009)
* *Little Princess School 3: Playing with the Fairies* (2009)
* *Little and Big Monsters* (2009)
* *What's Up: Balloon to the Rescue* (2009)
* *The Frog Prince* (2009)
* *Cinderella* (2009)
* *O Soldadinho de Chumbo* (2009)
* *Little Bee 3: Radical Bees* (2010)
* *Abelhinhas 4: O Show De Talentos* (2010)
* *Little Princess School 4: The Mermaid Student* (2010)
* *Barquinhos* (2010)
* *Alice in Wonderland* (2010)
* *Chapeuzinho Vermelho* (2010)
* *Escola de Princesinhas 5: Cachinhos Dourados* (2014)

## 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 made by Video Treasures (now Anchor Bay Entertainment).Template:Cn 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 animated films have been heavily criticized for how they copy other mainstream animated films, as well as for their very poor animation, voice acting, and questionable writing alongside scenes which merely exist to fill the running time so the film in question can qualify as 'feature length'. 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.

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 (Brazil)|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". The company also seems to depict racism in their movies, such as in "What's Up: Balloon to the Rescue", where stereotypes of Chinese and French culture are seen.

Disney's legal department was contacted by a reporter through a spokesperson about a potential lawsuit, but Milani did not comment.

## In other media

Two of Vídeo Brinquedo's productions were parodied in an episode of *The Amazing World of Gumball* called "The Treasure", in which Gumball picks up a mockbuster DVD called *How to Ratatwang Your Panda*. The film is a cross between *The Little Panda Fighter* and *Ratatoing*, which themselves reference *Kung Fu Panda* and *Ratatouille*.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Estúdio brasileiro, 2007 (pt).
2. ↑ Empresa. Vídeo Brinquedo.
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20040714184157/http://www.videobrinquedo.com.br/
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20010719110227/https://spotfilms.com/
5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20181223123809/http://criancasinteligentes.com.br/
6. ↑ Quem Somos - Mão na Massinha.
7. ↑ The Brazilian Ratatouille Knock Off Ratatoing Lives Up To Its Reputation for Surreal Ineptitude - Nathan Rabin's Happy Place
8. ↑ "RIP, Pixar. Template:Webarchive", *The Portland Mercury*
9. ↑ "Vídeo Brinquedo faz sucesso com desenhos como “Os Carrinhos” e “Ratatoing” Template:Webarchive." *Folha de S. Paulo* at Ministry of Culture (Brazil)|Ministry of Culture (Brazil). 2 September 2007. Retrieved on 16 April 2011.
10. ↑ Most blatant movie rip-offs: The Little Cars (2006). Virgin Media Accessed from 23 September 2012.