French Author Claims 'Finding Nemo' Plagiarism By Disney

Reuters ^ | December 30, 2003 | Shiraz Sidhva

[Shermy]

PARIS (Hollywood Reporter) - A French children's author has sued Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios, claiming the cartoon fish they catapulted to fame in the worldwide blockbuster "Finding Nemo" was plagiarized from his 1995 creation Pierrot Le Poisson Clown.

Pascal Kamina, a copyrights lawyer representing the author, Franck Le Calvez, confirmed in a telephone interview Monday that the case -- claiming damages for breach of copyright and trademark and demanding that they withdraw "Nemo" books and merchandise from French shops -- will come up for hearing in a French court Feb. 17.

Disney denied the claims.

"We consider the case filed in France to be totally without merit because 'Finding Nemo,' which is owned by Pixar and Disney, was independently developed and does not infringe anyone's copyrights or trademarks," according to a statement that Disney released Monday.

Le Calvez, a 33-year-old aquarium buff, said in an interview Monday that he registered Pierrot as a trademark with France's industrial protection and copyrights body in 1995. An aspiring filmmaker, Le Calvez said he then did the rounds of French production companies and animation studios, hoping they would fall for the lovable tropical fish with white stripes and large orange bulging eyes. But he was turned down, and the little fish languished in a folder until 2000, when Le Calvez decided to make Pierrot the hero of an illustrated children's book.

Registering the screenplay with the French Society of Authors in June 2002, Le Calvez paid nearly $71,000 to publish 2,000 copies of the book in November 2002. Illustrated by Robin Delpuech and Thierry Jagodzinski, "Pierrot Le Poisson Clown" was published by France's Editions Flaven Scene, and the entire print run was sold in a month.

Agreeing that the uncanny resemblance between Pierrot and Nemo could be coincidental (clown fish, Amphiprion ocellaris, do look alike in nature), Le Calvez said he realized something was fishy only after French bookstore chain FNAC removed copies of his book from their shelves, claiming that it was too similar to Disney's version.

"What's really upsetting is that quite a few bookstores won't sell my book because they think that I have plagiarized 'Nemo,"' the author said in an interview Monday. "The two fish look very similar, but it doesn't end there."

Like Nemo, Pierrot lives in a pink sea anemone and starts life half-orphaned because one parent was swallowed up by Liona, the scorpion fish. "The beginning of the story is the same, even if the scenarios then become different," Le Calvez said.

Kamina, who admitted that the film was finished by the time Le Calvez's first book came out (a second has been written since), said he is worried that his client's success will be swallowed up by the American fish. He said the "Nemo" idea probably found its way to the United States through one of the French studios that Le Calvez approached in 1995.

"That would be the only explanation," he said. "It's not just the resemblance of the clown fish, smiling with a raised fin. We have also found the same supporting characters in the film -- such as a surgeon fish and cleaner shrimp -- and gentle fish folk who help the little troubled hero. The similarities are sufficiently troubling for us to ask for an explanation from Disney."

The lawyer said his client is still waiting for an answer from Disney and that if they don't hear from the company, Le Calvez will press ahead with his lawsuit in France.

"I want my fish to live," Le Calvez said.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

[L.N. Smithee]

Hey, Terry...I see you I both commented on IMDb about Windy City Heat.

Comedy Central didn't rerun it as scheduled back in November. Do you think there's anything to the posted rumor that Perry Caravello is suing, and CC dares not show it again?

[pogo101]

Congrats on having been in DAZED. I saw it during its opening theatrical run, at the Crest in Westwood (LA).

[Andyman]

You are dead on about Kimba and Lion King. I used to watch Kimba when I was a kid. But LK was a Disney project from beginning to end. Disney is rather adept at "borrowing" material. Thematically and stylistically, Atlantis borrowed heavily from Laputa, and the Firebird sequence from Fantasia 2000 was a near direct steal from Princess Mononoke.

Bugs Life began development before Antz. Dreamworks rushed production on Antz so it would beat Bugs Life to the screen. These films can be in development for 3 years before they are released.

You are also absolutely correct about Pixar having an unprecedented run of success. One reason is they have such a strong emphasis on story. I hope The Incredibles is good too. I hear Pixar is ramping up staff so they can release movies more often.

You may not be in the film industry (neither am I) but you sure know enough about it to have a moniker near and dear to a lot of writer’s hearts.

[agrace]

LOL!

[Terry Mross]

I think that's all part of the "con". You can't tell me that guy was being "fooled". I think it was hilarious but I'll never believe that he was that stupid. Again, that's all part of the con. The viewer is supposed to be the dummy.

[Terry Mross]

That movie is bigger today than it was in 93. That part just recently landed me several new roles plus a script re-write job on another film we'll make this year. Guess timing really is everything. I was "Coach Conrad", by the way.

[Elliott Jackalope]

You might also find this link interesting:

http://www.oldcrows.net/Atlantis/

Good ol' Disney. Such wonderful people.

[Elliott Jackalope]

Copyrights never expire anymore. They go on forever. There is no such thing as "public domain" any longer.

[sonserae]

Hahaha...That's great....I worked on Atlantis for 3 1/2 years as a painter. I saw that website a few years ago. I just have to shake my head in embarrassment.

[pogo101]

So you were. Nice head shot on IMDB; I sure wish I had your head of hair.

[Johnny_Cipher]

No way. If "Finding Nemo" had REALLY been based on a French work, Marlin would have swam into the shark's mouth with his fins up in the first reel.

[Richard Kimball]

Disney only distributes the film. Pixar created the show. However, being ripped off is very common. I produced a set of bookcovers, of which about 50,000 were printed (the kind you put on your schoolbooks to protect them). They were fire safety bookcovers, with a cutaway of a house and humorous images. I ripped the open house idea off from Matt Groenig's "Life in Hell" series. Anyway, the next year, the salesman from the company came back and tried to get me to buy my own bookcover back (his wife had redrawn it, and they were distributing it as theirs). I also developed a motto for our fire department (your safety is our business), which was ripped off by so many other departments we quit using it.

If you look at Calving an Hobbes, which many people believe is an incredibly original comic strip, what you'll find is a composite of the old "Little Nemo in Slumberland" comics, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", early Dennis the Menace, Chuck Jones cartoons (he did a series of little boy daydreaming during the day cartoons, and even used many of the situations Watterston later incorporated into his strip). Hobbes is a composite of Snoopy and Garfield.

Does this mean Watterston should be sued? Nah.

On this one, though, I think the guy is just playing Wheel of Fortune to see if he can get some bucks. French guy suing an American Corporation in a French Court? Got a pretty good chance of getting nuisance money, although I don't think you can copyright an animal species.

[Richard Kimball]

Yeah. This is really sad, too. I read where Eisner pushed a lot of dollars to Congress to get copyright time extended specifically to keep Disney characters developed early on from going public domain.

[Elliott Jackalope]

I got to learn about all of this earlier this year, when I was seriously thinking about getting into the business of converting old movies to DVD and selling them through magazines like "Filmfax". Then I learned about the current state of copyright laws. Good Grief! It's un-freakin' believable! If patent law were like copyright law, the descendants of the Wright brothers would be the only airplane company in existence!

What is really sad is how many movies are going to end up being lost because of the demise of public domain. Seen "Carolina Cannonball" or "Hand of Death" or "Valley of the Eagles" lately? No? Don't worry, you never will. People like me who would be interested in converting those movies to DVD and distributing them have been forced out of the marketplace by these absurd copyright laws.

You'd think that thirty or forty years would be enough time for the original owners to make their money off of their movies, right? No, not enough. Now they have to own them for a friggin' hundred years or more. It just stinks on ice, and it makes me deeply resent the Disney corporation and our so-called "Congress". They should just rename the whole of Congress to "The hall of Boot-licking corporate butt-boys and servicers of corporate lobbyists."

[Interesting Times]

Hobbes is a composite of Snoopy and Garfield.

Surely you jest.

[Elliott Jackalope]

No kidding. Everyone knows that Hobbes was a composite of "Snuffy Smith" and "Andy Capp". Sheesh....

[Richard Kimball]

Yeah, this is exactly what scares me. Lots more work will be lost, because the copyright owners won't spend the money to protect it (remember NBC trashing about 2/3rds of the Johnny Carson Tonight Shows?), but if anyone makes the investment to restore them, there will be a lawyer on their doorstep.

Unfortunately, most Congresspeople are far more interested in gathering cash from people in exchange for favorable legislation than making the country work. I believe this is why Congress has completely abandoned it's charge to uphold the Constitution.

[Richard Kimball]

Surely I don't jest. I'm not saying he's a carbon copy, but every so often there is something original, and creates a new genre. Snoopy created a genre. Garfield was an offshoot of Snoopy, and Hobbes was also.

[wtc911]

Don't count on it. Art Buchwald won a mid six figure settlement from one of the studios based on a one paragraph pitch. He claimed that the studio made COMING TO AMERICA with Eddie Murphy years after he submitted the pitch. I saw the pitch document. The one and only thing it had in common with the film was the very generic concept of an African prince travelling to the States. The rest was not even close.

Spielburg was also successfully sued by an obscure Hawaiian writer who claimed that she created ET in a one act play. She could not connect the dots to show how her idea ended up in his hands, but there was one line in her play "Alien, call home" (I think that's accurate) that won it for her.

[Interesting Times]

You're sure Hobbes derived from the Snoopy / Garfield line, and not, say, the Pogo / Mr. Peabody branch, right?

Other than the coincidence of both being cartoon animals, it's difficult to see much similarity between Garfield and Hobbes. Their styles, humor and use of language are quite different, just for starters. Snoopy might be a bit closer, but to baldly assert that Hobbes is derivitive of Snoopy (and by way of Garfield, no less) is just silly.

I do grant you that they each have fur.