The Walt Disney Company may need to revisit ethics and standards with their Imagineer personnel. A piece of art featured in a new Disney Parks ride seems to be ripped-off fan art.
Shanghai’s newly-inaugurated Zootopia land is set to open its doors to the public on December 20th of 2023. However, previews and videos are already hitting the web… and there’s something a few eagle-eyed Redditors have caught that we think necessitates news coverage. An English-language Chinese newspaper recently provided the exclusive preview needed to catch such an offense, offering insights that can be found on their website. The coverage provides a glimpse into the highly-anticipated trackless dark ride, describing it as “an action-packed pursuit through Zootopia’s districts, featuring unique themed entertainment experiences and interactions with characters.” But it also revealed that Disney may have an ethics issue it needs to resolve.
According to Nick Cooper 71 of Reddit, a photo on a desk in the attraction is not a Disney original. Instead, it appears to have been taken from online fan art. The original artist in question is said to go by the online name of Einselm.
Closer look at Mrs. Wilde’s image in the “Zootopia: Hot Pursuit” attraction at Shanghai Disney Resort
byu/NickCooper71 inzootopia
An image capture of the ride video in which fan art can be seen framed. The image is of a fox depicted to be Nick Wilde’s mother.
Another commenter in the Reddit threat had the following to say:
It´s a lovely drawing of her, but if the Disney folks at China actually did take Einshelm´s fanart for that without permission then that´s no good..
— TenderPaw64
One of the most interesting parts of this is that Shanghai Disneyland is majority-owned by the Chinese government. So in this case, it’s difficult to say what sort of legal action someone could take if original artwork or other creative product were used without credit or citation by the resort. Perhaps one could claim that WDI designed the ride and is therefore culpable (and also a subsidiary of a western corporation)… but it’s not clear.
The newspaper has also shared an edited point-of-view (POV) video of the ride. While practical sets and animatronics enhance the experience, the storytelling primarily relies primarily on screen media. The piece of art in question is not screen media, however.
This isn’t the first time that Disney Parks have been alleged to steal products from independent artists and use it without credit or compensation. In fact, there’s now a pattern of this sort of thing. One of the most recent examples involves a tiki statue:
“About three weeks ago a friend of mine, through Instagram, was like, ‘Hey, Disney’s selling this music box. This looks a lot like your version.’ And he sent me an image of it. I’m like, ‘that does look a lot like mine,’ and then did a one-to-one comparison of mine just to make sure. And it’s 100 percent the one I did.” — Andrew Martin, 2018
@monstercaesarstudios Reply to @seansolo7 Give Rolly credit #disney #arttheft #3dartist #3dart ♬ original sound – Andrew Martin – Sculptor/VA
In the case of Mrs. Wilde’s photo, the original art that appears to have been used by Disney Imagineering can be seen here:
Photo Credit: Einselm
The image also happens to be hosted on a “furry” focused website. That may draw some interest into just how Disney employees found said image. It’s not as if this is something they were likely to run across accidentally.
Should a statement be made by The Walt Disney Company, or any alterations to the ride, we’ll cover it here fairly.
Thank you to a reader for bringing this to our attention!
For all the news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below!
Too steal an artist’s fan artwork is wrong but not uncommon. Even when using original work as the basis of further creations requires artist permission, recognition and financial compensation but the bigger the corporation the harder it will be to make a claim. We as the consumer maybe the best option for those artists short changed by Disney!