DreamWorks Animation being Sued for Stealing KUNG FU PANDA idea
DreamWorks Animation is currently being sued by an artist who claims that DreamWorks stole his film idea for their $632 million dollar hit, Kung Fu Panda. Most people that make claims like this don't really have much to back it up, and it's just a way to make a quick buck, but this guy has a good amount proof to back up his claim, and it sounds to me like DreamWorks might lose this one.
The artists name is Jayme Gordon and he filed a 28-page complaint in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, alleging that Dreamworks and distributor Paramount copied the film from Gordon's copyrighted works, collectively titled Kung Fu Panda Power. According to THR,
Gordon claims that the defendants took more than just the title of his work, but also featured animated characters that bore a striking similarity to the characters he drew in his own illustrations, which he says were registered with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2000.
You can see an example of this in the image above, and you definitley can't deny the resemblance.
...in the late 1980s or early 1990s, Gordon submitted multiple packages to The Walt Disney Co. containing original illustrations and stories, including components of the Kung Fu Panda Power work. Gordon then visited "Pleasure Island," a section of the Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida, where he met then-Disney chairman Michael Eisner and president Frank Wells. Gordon says he was invited to send his works to Disney, which he did. The complaint contains a photo of Gordon and Eisner together at a meeting.
At the time of the meeting, DreamWorks topper Jeffrey Katzenberg worked for Disney under Eisner. Katzenberg left Disney in 1994 and launched DreamWorks. Gordon says that in the late 1990's he sent his illustrations to DreamWorks, where they were rejected with an acknowledgement of receipt.
Then all of a sudden a Kung Fu Panda movie comes out. I honestly don't think this is a concidence. Somewhere along the way someone screwed up bad, even if it wasn't intentional. What do you think of all this? From what being reported does it look to you like someone at DreamWorks stole used Gordon's idea?