Disney accused of stealing idea for Inside Out in new lawsuit
An expert in child development claims the animated film bears a striking resemblance to a TV project she pitched to the company
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Your support makes all the difference.Though 2015's Inside Out may have won the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere, a new lawsuit claims that adoration belongs elsewhere.
A new lawsuit filed by an expert in child development claims that the concept for the film was stolen from a pitch for a TV project she presented to Disney and Pixar executives, reports Variety.
Denise Daniels claims that, in 2005, she brought together a creative team and produced a pilot for a show titled The Moodsters, which was intended to help children understand their emotions through representing them as five different characters: happiness, sadness, anger, love, and fear.
Inside Out imagines the world inside a child's brain, as controlled by five emotions: here joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust. Daniels claims she discussed her own idea with several executives for Disney and Pixar between 2005 and 2009, including a detailed phone conversation with Inside Out's eventual director Pete Docter.
The lawsuit alleges that Disney, therefore, breached an implied contract by not compensating her for her idea. She is seeking unspecified damages.
Doctor has stated in the past that the idea for Inside Out was derived from seeing his own daughter's emotional development, and how that changed over time, starting work on it in 2009.
He told an audience at the LA Film Festival in 2015, “She became a lot more reclusive and quiet. We didn’t literally get eye-rolls, because she knew that would get her in trouble, but she gave off that kind of feeling. And that got me wondering, ‘What’s going on in her head?’ That’s when I thought of emotions as characters. This could be exactly what animation does best. And that’s what led us on this five-year journey.”
A spokesperson for Disney has issued the following statement: "Inside Out was an original Pixar creation, and we look forward to vigorously defending against this lawsuit in court".
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