Spark Plug Entertainment is a New York-based computer animation company founded by Michael Schelp in 2006. The American equivalent of Vídeo Brinquedo, it specializes in Direct to Video Mockbuster computer-animated features. Its first film was Bug Bites: An Ant's Life, first released in 1998 and later re-released in 2006 as the company was founded. Spark Plug has released 12 titles.
Notable movies include:
- Bug Bites: An Ant's Life (later known as simply An Ant's Life)
- A Car's Life: Sparky's Big Adventure
- Plan Bee
- Piper Penguin and His Fantastic Flying Machines (formerly Penguins: Waddle On)
- Spider's Web: A Pig's Tale
- Cars Life 2 (no byline)
- The Adventures of Scooter the Penguin
- Car's Life 3: The Royal Heist
- Car's Life 4: Junkyard Blues
Tropes in these movies include:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: The names of the penguins in Piper Penguin which all begin with P.
- Bland-Name Product: Krill Cola (Coca-Cola) and PNN (CNN) in Piper Penguin.
- Broken Aesop: Plan Bee teaches the value of democracy, and yet the heroes fight to restore the old monarch.
- Covers Always Lie: The DVD front covers (at least the Italian ones) always have a line talking about some of the characters being special guest stars. Because you know, Sal Caterpillar is a very famous cartoon character and his appearance in ''An Ant's Life'' was very shocking for everyone.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The conversation between Rose and Didi about the geckos from Malaysia sounds vaguely reminiscent of people complaining about immigration.
- Filler: An Ant's Life is only 25 minutes long, so to fill time, four classic cartoons from MGM, Famous Studios, and Warner Bros. were added to the DVD.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Diesel in A Car's Life, who is always seen holding a cigarette with her antenna, and is always pointed out as being bad.
- In Name Only: These cartoons only loosely follow the plot of what they're trying to rip off.
- Insect Gender-Bender: Played straight in Plan Bee, which features a male worker bee as its protagonist. Averted in An Ant's Life, where all the worker ants are depicted as female.
- Kent Brockman News: Piper Penguin has the PNN reporter Peraldo Penguin, who has the audacity to insult Piper as his flying machine fails the first time around.
- Mickey Mousing: Piper slamming his head against his locker while opening it up in Piper Penguin.
- No Budget: There's a reason they've been compared to Dingo Pictures and Vídeo Brinquedo.
- No Export for You: Piper Penguin never saw a region 1 release until 2011.
- Shown Their Work: An Ant's Life has a lot of bug facts clumsily woven into the script.
- This Is a Drill: At one point, the bees in Plan Bee drill into the flowers to collect nectar, complete with the sound of a dentist's drill.
- Ur-Example: An Ant's Life happens to be the first 3D animated Mockbuster ever made, as it rips off both the second and third feature length 3D films ever made, both centering around an ant colony.
