This Avatar Rip-Off Starring Blue Alien Ducks Is Quackers (But You Gotta See It)
For years, many people claimed 2009's "Avatar" failed to create a lasting cultural impact. Well, now that it has a parody film starring blue alien ducks, those people probably look pretty silly right now.
"Anatar" came out in 2023 as an Italian production. You can find the trailer online, and the plot is basically the inverse of "Avatar." Instead of humans acquiring avatar bodies to try to colonize a planet filled with blue aliens, the blue aliens in "Anatar" are the ones who take on avatar bodies to assimilate into the new world, Pandoro. As a result, the blue duck aliens transform into humans, but they still retain many of their animalistic instincts.
Matthew Ables' TikTok channel posted about the film and included clips, such as the now-human duck woman trying to eat by lowering her head into the bowl like a duck. Things get even weirder, considering how some alien ducks speak normally, but others communicate only with quacks. Grossing under $4,000 at the box office, "Anatar" wasn't exactly a hit, but perhaps it could become the next great cult film.
The director obviously didn't think much of Anatar
It's safe to say "Anatar" wasn't trying to be the next "Citizen Kane." But at the very least, viewers may hope for some kind of weird, humorous romp that would be fun to watch with friends while doing "MST3K"-style commentary. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear even to achieve that, as the review from Wise Cafe reads, "I'm kinda impressed by how shockingly ATROCIOUS it is, like, you expect terrible but to actually watch it all the way through it's utterly masochistic, so profoundly unfunny and embarassing that will make most people absolutely speechless, because it does try. And fails."
They're not the only ones to think so. The director for the movie is credited as "Alan Smithee," which is the famous pseudonym filmmakers use when they don't want to be associated with their films. With this reception and a paltry box office gross, audiences shouldn't expect a sequel to "Anatar" to come out 13 years from now.
Anyone with a morbid sense of curiosity who wants to check out "Anatar" may be disappointed. It's difficult to track down, not even being available to rent on Amazon Prime Video. But perhaps simply knowing this film is out there and that people spent time in blue duck alien costumes to make it is enough for some.