Autobots shanzhai

China is no stranger to knockoff goods. Over the years, the country has taken the proverbial expression “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” to the next level, churning out scores of shanzhai, or counterfeit, items, including everything from fake Apple iPhones toHarry Potter books to Rolls-Royces and French luxury wines.

But many Chinese are expressing outrage over one of the country’s newest films, an animated children’s movie that came out in theaters nationwide on Friday called “The Autobots,” which many say bears a more-than-uncanny resemblance to Disney-Pixar’s hit franchise “Cars.”

Indeed, based on the many comments online, it is clear that many Chinese are not buying the flattery argument.

“This is the first time I’ve rated a film I didn’t see based solely by its poster, thank you very much,” wrote a user named Lancelot, one of more than 3,000 who gave the movie a one-star rating on the social networking website Douban.

Since “The Autobots” hit theaters, users have been circulating a side-by-side comparison of the posters for it and the 2011 sequel “Cars 2.” The similarities between the two posters are obvious, from the titles of the two films to the layout of the posters, down to the rendering of the “lead” cars that have the same blue eyes, goofy smiles and red paint job.

The comparison was so obvious, in fact, that some Chinese said online that they were under the mistaken impression that the original Pixar film was getting a rerelease in Chinese theaters.

“I thought the original ‘Cars’ was being rereleased on the mainland,” wrote a user who goes by the handle Dianying Fan.

That user, like many others, called out “The Autobots” poster for using an image of a tire to block one of the Chinese characters in the title, making the original title, “Qiche Ren Zongdongyuan,” appear to be “Qiche Zongdongyuan” — which also happens to be the exact title used for the Disney-Pixar films.

“If you’re going to copy the original film, can you at least do it well?” the user asked.

Reached by telephone, Zhuo Jianrong, the director of “The Autobots” and the chief executive of the film’s production company, Blue MTV, said that he had not seen the original Pixar film but that he believed the negative publicity would benefit future sequels of Disney-Pixar’s “Cars” franchise in China.

“Many Chinese already have a fixed attachment to Disney’s characters,” Mr. Zhuo said. “We hadn’t anticipated this.”

The Walt Disney Company, which owns Pixar Animation Studios, released a statement saying, “We share the same concerns as many netizens and movie fans in China, but have no further comment at this stage.”

According to Mr. Zhuo, the production company had earlier received a letter from Disney regarding the issue.

Mr. Zhuo said the company sent back a letter to Disney that said, “Our animated characters are all copyrighted in China, and we are operating within our legal parameters.”

But despite China’s reputation for shanzhai, some Chinese say that piggybacking on the publicity of big studio films is not just a Chinese phenomenon.

“To be honest, making coattail-riding counterfeits is not just a specialty of the Chinese film industry,” wrote the Chinese blogger Jiazhuang Zai Niu Yue, or Pretending to Be in New York. “The United States has also made a lot of crappy counterfeit films.”

Some of the examples he cited included American “mockbusters” like “Atlantic Rim,” a low-budget version of the 2013 science fiction film “Pacific Rim” and “Transmorphers,” inspired by the director Michael Bay’s “Transformers.”

Despite recent government efforts to promote the domestic animation industry, Chinese animated films have found only limited success at the box office. “The Autobots,” budgeted at 10 million renminbi (about $1.6 million), is struggling, pulling in only about 3.87 million renminbi since its release last week, according to ChinaBoxOffice.

“The Autobots” tells the story of a young engineering genius who creates three cars with an artificial intelligence system that allows driver and car to interact.

“The film aims to teach children how to think creatively and overcome difficulties,” Mr. Zhuo said.

Cecilia Li contributed research.

Follow Amy Qin on Twitter at @amyyqin.