Disney and Pixar is hit with another plagiarism lawsuit with regard to their successful animated film, Inside Out.
Directed by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen, who drew from their original story, the movie centered around the mind of young girl Riley Anderson and her five most prominent emotions - Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust - that affect her day-to-day language and actions. Inside Out was an instant hit for Disney and Pixar, with critics praising it for displaying the fresh storytelling the studio has been known for. But perhaps Inside Out wasn't as original as we thought.
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The Wrap reports that a Candian man named Damon Pourshian filed a lawsuit against Disney/Pixar earlier this week with regard to the company allegedly plagiarizing Inside Out. Apparently, the plaintiff wrote a script in 1999 with the same title, which was turned into a short film the following year. The connection with the House of Mouse, however, came in when the school where Pourshian wrote his story, Sheridan College, “sent large numbers of its graduates to work at Disney and Pixar and is considered a ‘feeder’ school for Disney and Pixar.” Citing "striking similarities" to his work, he decided to take legal action against the company. Read some excerpts from the lawsuit below;
“Indeed, he received unsolicited calls from old Sheridan classmates who were aware of Mr. Pourshian’s ‘Inside Out’ and immediately saw the striking similarities between the two works. After learning of the many connections between the screenings of his work on campus in 2000 and Disney/Pixar discussed below, Mr. Pourshian came to the conclusion that Disney/Pixar infringed his copyright in his work.”
“Even the titles of the two works are identical, stating concretely the theme of both works–the outside world of the protagonist and how that world is connected to the normally unseen inside world. Both works depict the details of how their protagonists’ inner worlds experience the outer world, and both do so by representing the driving forces of their protagonists’ behaviors as anthropomorphized, internal characters who are reacting to (and interacting with) the world outside.”
As for the reason why it took the complainant a few years to file copyright infringement charges, the lawsuit explained that Pourshian only "later learned of the many connections between his alma mater, Sheridan College, and both Disney and Pixar, including a number of students who were at Sheridan College at the time his short film was shown and went on to work on Disney/Pixar’s ‘Inside Out.'”
The new lawsuit against Disney and Pixar with regard to Inside Out follows two previous cases. The last one was filed by a Nevada-based author Carla J. Masterson, claiming that the company plagiarized her books “What’s on the Other Side of the Rainbow?” and “The Secret of the Golden Mirror.” Prior to that, a child psychologist from Minnesota named Denise Daniels, also filed a lawsuit against Disney and Pixar, but for for breach of contract. However, her case was dismissed last January as the judge ruled that since she had released materials related to the project publicly, there were actually no grounds for an implied contract between her and Disney.
Dinsey has yet to release a public statement about Pourshian's lawsuit. But the plaintiff is demanding that his name be included in Inside Out's credits on top of other unspecified damages.
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Source: The Wrap