The creator of a popular engineering YouTube channel has received an apology from the director of Disney+ series Behind The Attraction for using their Tower of Terror artwork without permission. Disney+ released the 10-episode series in July, directed by Brian Volk-Weiss and executively produced by Dwayne Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions. The series is an inside look at some of Disney World and Disneyland's most iconic rides including The Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, It's A Small World, and more.
While Behind The Attraction was released in July, it caused an uproar on Twitter this week. YouTuber James St. Onge, who runs the Art of Engineering channel, pointed out a major blunder from Disney and the producers of the series. In a Twitter thread, Onge pointed out that Disney+ appeared to use some of his original art, which was featured in a 2019 video depicting the engineering on the Tower of Terror. The similarities are seen in several frames, which Onge stated was "kind of pathetic."
More recently, Onge took to Twitter to explain that Volk-Weiss reached out to him to personally apologize and take responsibility for the stolen artwork. Onge explained that Volk-Weiss provided "full transparency" about how his art was stolen in the first place. And he added that the episode will be re-edited to include Onge's name in the credits. He also let his Twitter followers know that Jeremy Samples, who is credited for graphic design on Behind The Attraction, was not responsible for the incident. Check out Onge's tweets below:
As Onge pointed out, it's disheartening to see such a giant media conglomerate like Disney get caught up in stealing from a small creator. But it's far from the first time Disney's been caught up in copyright infringement accusations. It's even worse when thinking about the lengths Disney has gone in an attempt to protect its own intellectual property.
However, it sounds like Volk-Weiss and the production company for Behind The Attraction did the right thing by acknowledging their mistake and giving credit where credit is due. However, if they were going to base art off of Onge's designs, they probably should have offered him to be a part of the production in the first place. His design talent is clearly outlined in his videos and is clearly good enough for the Disney series.
Source: James St. Onge