This story appeared on the Hollywood Reporter website.
11:32 AM 2/17/2011 by Eriq Gardner
DreamWorks Animation might need to brush up on its martial arts skills to fight the litigation surrounding its Kung Fu Panda franchise. The studio is being sued again, this time by a man who claims to have created the inspiration behind its animated hit, which grossed $632 million worldwide.
Represented by two high-caliber IP firms in Fish & Richardson and Duane Morris, an artist named Jayme Gordon yesterday filed a colorfully illustrated 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."
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.
The lawsuit comes as Dreamworks is battling another writer, Terence Dunn, who also claims to have pitched the story of a "spiritual kung-fu fighting panda bear" to DWA execs during a series of phone conversations in Nov. 2001. Recently, Dunn won a small victory by getting his lawsuit to the discovery phase, where Dunn will attempt to gather internal DWA documents about boxoffice gross, DVD and merchandise revenue to help support the claims that the studio made millions from his ideas.
Now comes Gordon's lawsuit. According to the complaint, 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.
Asserting copyright infringement, Gordon demands unspecified profits, statutory damages, and an acknowledgment of authorship on both Kung Fu Panda and its forthchoming sequel, scheduled for release in May.
DreamWorks declined to comment on the suit.
I came across this video while looking for another on a Chinese website, tudou.com. It is all in Chinese but because of its historical significance I decided to post it because many of you have only heard about the famed Wolong panda base.
Due to the massive earthquake that shook this region in 2008, many of the buildings and enclosures for the pandas were destroyed. Massive landslides continued long afterwards, endangering the staff and the pandas, so it was decided everyone including the pandas would need to be moved off the base and relocated to different locations across China.
The Bifengxia Base which is not too far away from Wolong, near the city of Ya'an, has taken over as their primary base of operations until another base can be built.
The Wolong base sat among prime giant panda habitat in the Sichuan Province. There is some beautiful footage showing the base nestled among the mountains with the Pitao River running beside it.
The video is titled The Wolong panda base for six months and it begins showing a video shoot of all of the cubs (17) that were born that year, a tradition that probably goes back to 1983 when they first began operations at the base. Then they take us back in time showing the work required to have been able to reach this milestone. I am sorry I cannot give the date of the video but I think it is somewhere around 2006. If you can read Chinese and can provide any information about this video please to so in the comments.
There is also some rare footage of the release of Xiang Xiang the male panda that was reintroduced back into the wild and how they followed his movements with a GPS collar. Sadly, Xiang did not survive. You can read more about Xiang Xiang and his death here.
You will need some time to watch this it runs, 48 minutes, but you will never have a chance to see something so special and unforgettable.
It is because of these dedicated people and others like them at other panda bases and zoos that we have been able to reach the count of 300 captive pandas which has significance to the survival of the giant panda. To learn more about this, see the post 300 pandas, gives us a sigh of relief.
Thank You to each and everyone of them.
Be patient in loading the video because of its length. I hope you are able to view it.
Well today is the day Su Lin and Zhen Zhen should be leaving for their new homes in China. Although the San Diego Zoo has not commented on the date of their leaving, there have been several reports in the Chinese media and this one from the Wolong Panda site.
"Wolong Giant Panda "returnees and sisters" will go hand in hand to return ready to meet the giant panda research center, "Su Lin and "chen-chen" home.
August is a fruitful season in the Wolong China Giant Panda Research Center were panda babies are rushing to the occasion. Two giant pandas born in another hemisphere, "Su Lin" and Chen-chen" is also about to identify ancestors go were returned to the Wolong China Giant Panda Research Center life.
According to the schedule, giant panda, "Su Lin" and "Chen-chen", will depart on August 23, 2010 from San Diego, at 24, into customs and transit from Shanghai back to their hometown in Sichuan.
The research center is fully prepared with new homes and specialized feeding management. "Su Li" and Chen-chen", new home will be Ya'an Bifengxia base and will complete a month of quarantine and then stay home and start a new life." You can read the complete article here. Wolong Giant Pandas "returnees and sisters" go hand in hand to return.
Thank You bob2cleo for sharing these wonderful photos of the two sisters. We will miss both of you and wish you the very best. Safe travels dear Su and Zhen, we will look for any videos or articles that show their safe arrivals here when they appear.
Today also marks several birthdays!
This photo shows, 3 year old Fu Long at the Bifengxia Panda base last year. He arrived at the base on November 18, 2009. He was born through natural mating in 2007 at Schönbrunner Tiergarten/Zoo Vienna. His parents who still live at Zoo Vienna are mother Yang Yang and father, Long Hui.
Fu has a distinctive white tip on his right rear paw that helps to tell him apart from other pandas.
Here is a great video tribute that lupoforme of YouTube put together of Fu Long during his time at Zoo Vienna.
Our other birthday panda is Funi who lives at the Adelaide Zoo in Australia. She was born at the Wolong Panda base in 2006 and has a twin brother named FuWa, so we also want to wish him a Happy Birthday also.
Funi arrived with her partner Wang Wang at the Adelaide zoo on November 28, 2009 and there are hopes that they will mate and have cubs together.
They have a very active website with new videos about Funi and Wang Wang along with a panda blog and live webcams so be sure to visit them.
Hugwildlife of YouTube who lives in Australia brought back this video of Funi during their visit so see the panda pair back in February. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Here are some photos and a cute video of Funi enjoying her birthday celebrations. The video was recorded by Adelaide Now and the photos come from Daily Mail
