Less than a week after opening its first theme park in China, US multinational Disney has sued three Chinese companies in a Shanghai court, accusing them of plagiarizing its animated film ‘Cars’.

According to a report in the official newspaper Shanghai Daily Wednesday, Disney is demanding the three firms behind the Chinese animation film, The Autobots which premiered in July 2015 stall distribution of the movie and cough up compensation to the tune of $600,000.

The People’s Court of Pudong New Area (the Shanghai district that houses Disney’s headquarters in the city, and the outskirts of which contain its theme park), has confirmed the complaint.

The defendants are the Xiamenbased film production house Lanhuoyan, Beijingbased media management company GPoint, and the online audiovisual content distribution portal PPLive, the only one among the three not sued for economic compensation by Disney.

‘Cars’ was a 2006 children’s film by the Disneycontrolled Pixar Studios, whose sequel, ‘Cars 2’, was launched in 2011.

The complaint says the two protagonists of ‘The Autobots’, named K1 and K2, are humanized cars, who appear to be inspired by the fourwheeled characters from the Pixar venture, Lightning McQueen and Francesco Bernouilli.

Disney says the promotional poster of ‘The Autobots’ is very similar to the one used for ‘Cars 2’, and points out that the Chinese titles of both films are confusingly similar with just a couple of letters setting them apart.

Lanhuoyan has denied the charges and claimed its creators developed the film independently, as it highlighted the differences between the two movies, such as personalities and appearances of the main car characters.

The lawsuit comes nearly a year after the debut of the Chinese animation film.

It has been speculated that Disney wanted to avoid delaying further the inauguration of the Shanghai Disneyland, which opened last week.

Source: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2016/06/22/disney-sues-three-chinese-firms-for-copying-cars/