Memeing Classic Movies: The Worst Animated 'Mockbusters' For Memes

Almost every blockbuster movie has a "mockbuster" counterpart. In most cases, we don’t hear of them and can happily continue with our lives as if these do not exist, and there isn’t an Atlantic Rim or Chop Kick Panda casting a shadow over modern entertainment. But sometimes, the movies are just too bad to ignore, especially when it comes to animated knock-offs of beloved children’s films, an industry that relies on confused parents renting the wrong movie. Here are three of the worst animated mockbusters that make great memes.

Ratatoing (2007)

If it’s not obvious enough from the name, Ratatoing is a shameless rip-off of Ratatoullie. The people behind Ratatoing clearly did not have any understanding of what a rat, restaurant or chef actually is, as well as grossly confusing the definition of "movie." In this way, watching Ratatoing is like staring at one of those renaissance-era paintings of a cat with a human face. It consists mostly of repeated montages of rats with spy gear and some scenes of the chef rat stirring random food items together in the same giant bowl to serve as meals to fellow restaurant owners in fake mustaches.

Ratatoing is nothing like the original, but somehow, it’s almost as famous. Ratatoing has gained notoriety for its bland plot (a fellow restaurant tries to run Chef Toing out of business). The animation also looks like taxidermy rats forced to spit out lines from mouths that barely move, giving off the same vibe as the baby from Eraserhead. There’s a lot to make fun of here, and the movie’s really just asking for it, so there are a number of memes out there already about the sheer pointlessness of this movie, from the nonsensical quotes of the characters to the unnerving feeling you’re left with after watching it.

Plan Bee (2007)

In 2007, Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie was released, and it later went on to become a famous viral meme. This is not Bee Movie, and one can only hope no one confused it with the real film and gave it to their children, thus leading to a lifetime of night terrors. Plan Bee was released to challenge Bee Movie, but instead of a bee falling in love with a woman and suing the human race, it is basically just a 40-minute animation of bees flying around and eventually overthrowing a bee dictator.

Plan Bee is difficult to watch, but if you’re really committed to finding disturbing scenes and animation, it’s absolutely worth it. Plan Bee images began to circulate online after a Tumblr screenshot went viral, with the user naming the movie and claiming that they no longer fear death because of its existence. From then on, others have found this movie is amazing for memes. It fits into any stale Bee Movie format and adds a unique unwholesome twist, therefore appeasing the internet’s sense of humor.

A Car’s Life: Sparky’s Big Adventure (2006)

Pixar’s Cars wasn’t even that memorable of a movie to begin with, though it did make everyone question where exactly baby cars came from, so it left a legacy behind nonetheless. A Car’s Life failed to do even this. The 41-minute movie involves a young car named Sparky driving around pointlessly, meeting some bad influences and getting his gas stolen by "leeches." It’s not really a "big adventure," and it also didn’t warrant a sequel, but the infamous mockbuster studio Spark Plug Entertainment decided they hadn’t inflicted enough punishment on the world and released three follow-up films about Sparky and his poorly animated friends.

Cars led to many memes, so it’s predictable that A Car’s Life would too. In fact, it already has, especially given the resemblance between Sparky and Lighting McQueen. Since it features an identical, yet horribly deformed desert landscape and gas station to the film it ripped off, this one is particularly great for copying scenes for use in memes. Enlightening the online community to this movie’s existence will earn you adoration, and it’ll also further punish the creators who had hoped everyone forgot A Car’s Life (or any of these movies) existed.

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