Woman angry with Disney sees suit dismissed
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals feels The Walt Disney Co. did not steal a child development expert’s idea for a show about color coding one’s feelings when it created the 2015 film “Inside Out,” according to a ruling issued Monday.
The court rejected the copyright lawsuit filed in 2017 by Denise Daniels that alleged the animation company had ripped off her idea for a TV show called “The Moodsters” and that she had assembled a creative team and produced a pilot for the show, in which color-coded characters represented each of five emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, love and fear, according to Variety Magazine.
Ms. Daniels alleged that she had pitched the idea to various Disney executives from 2005 to 2009. “Inside Out,” which Disney put into production in 2010, also features characters that represented five emotions similar to her creation: joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit wasn’t feeling it, as it affirmed a lower court’s ruling dismissing the complaint: “Developing a character as an anthropomorphized version of a specific emotion is not sufficient, in itself, to establish a copyrightable character,” one judge wrote.
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