Vídeo Brinquedo

**Vídeo Brinquedo** is an animation studio and toy manufacturer located in São Paulo. They gained infamy for producing low-budget mockbusters of films by mostly Walt Disney Pictures and DreamWorks Animation, though they switched to making YouTube content during the early to mid 2010s.

## 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.

## 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 as "filler" so the films' runtime 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 *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 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".

## Parodies

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*, a poorly rendered CGI film where a panda farts in front of several rats. The film parodies both *The Little Panda Fighter* and *Ratatoing*, which themselves are spoofed off of *Kung Fu Panda* and *Ratatouille*, albeit with no spoken dialogue.

## Filmography

### Mockbusters

* *Os Carrinhos em: A Grande Corrida* (2006)
* *Ratatoing* (2007)
* *Gladiformers* (2007)
* *Abelhinhas* (2007)
* *Gladiformers 2* (2008)
* *Robozinhos* (2008)
* *Ursinho da Pesada* (2008)
* *Monstros e Monstrinhos* (2009)
* *Voando Em Busca de Aventuras!* (2009)
* *A princesa e o sapo* (2009)
* *Alice no País das Maravilhas* (2011)

### Fairy tale adaptations

* *Pinocchio* (2004)
* *Rapunzel* (2005)
* *Chapeuzinho Vermelho* (2007)
* *Os 3 Porquinhos* (2008)
* *Cinderella* (2009)
* *A princesa e o sapo* (2009)
* *Alice no País das Maravilhas* (2011)

### Aesop's Fables adaptations

* *A Cigarra e a Formiga* (2005)
* *A Lebre e a Tartaruga* (2005)
* *O Lobo e o Cordeiro e outras fábulas de La Fontaine* (2006)

### Compilation movies

* *Os Carrinhos 2: Aventuras em Rodópolis* (2007)
* *Os Carrinhos 3: Velozes e Curiosos* (2007)
* *Escola de Princesinhas* (2007)
* *Os Carrinhos 4: Novas Histórias Geniais* (2007)
* *Os Carrinhos da Páscoa* (2008)
* *Os Carrinhos 5: Fórmula Única* (2008)
* *Escola de Princesinhas 2: O Dragão de Bianca* (2008)
* *Abelhinhas 2: Festa na Colméia* (2008)
* *Escola de Princesinhas 3: Brincando Com As Fadas* (2009)
* *Os Carrinhos 6: Um Rally Maluco* (2010)
* *Abelhinhas 3: Abelhas Radicais* (2010)
* *Abelhinhas 4: O Show de Talentos* (2010)
* *Escola de Princesinhas 4: A Aluna Sereia* (2010)
* *Os Carrinhos 7: Pintando o Sete* (2010)
* *Os Carrinhos Edição de Colecionador* (2012)
* *Escola de Princesinhas 5: Caixinhos Dourados* (2014)

### Other

* *BR Futebol: A Magia Do Futebol Brasileiro* (2010)
* *Barquinhos* (2011)
* *Os Carrinhos ao Vivo* (2012)

## External links

* BlogSpot page
* YouTube channel
* Crianças Inteligentes website
* Abandoned website (requires Flash)

## References

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20040714184157/http://www.videobrinquedo.com.br/
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20010719110227/https://spotfilms.com/
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20181223123809/http://criancasinteligentes.com.br/
4. ↑ The Brazilian Ratatouille Knock Off Ratatoing Lives Up To Its Reputation for Surreal Ineptitude - Nathan Rabin's Happy Place
5. ↑ "RIP, Pixar. Template:Webarchive", *The Portland Mercury*
6. ↑ "Vídeo Brinquedo faz sucesso com desenhos como “A Vida De Um Carro” e “Ratatoing” Template:Webarchive." *Folha de S. Paulo* at Ministry of Culture. 2 September 2007. Retrieved on 16 April 2011.
7. ↑ Most blatant movie rip-offs.