Walt Disney Co. has filed a lawsuit against three Chinese companies after it concluded that the local animated film "The Autobots" copied the 2006 film, "Cars."
Disney and subsidiary Pixar, who hold the rights to "Cars" and its sequel "Cars 2," filed legal papers against G-Point in Beijing, PPTV in Shanghai and Bluemtv in Xiamen, accusing them of copyright infringement and unfair competition after seeing pictures and posters of the Chinese film.
The suit, filed in Shanghai on Tuesday, alleges that "The Autobots" copied elements of "Cars" such as the characters "K1" and "K2," which closely resemble "Lightening McQueen" and "Francesco Bernoulli" from "Cars" and "Cars 2." Disney is seeking a compensation of 4 million yuan ($2.4 million) to cover economic losses and costs associated with the lawsuit.
"The Autobots," which opened in theaters in July 2015, was produced by Bluemtv, released by G-Point and shown on the website of PPTV, according to a local news outlet.
The film has also faced criticisms from Chinese viewers who drew attention to its similarities to the Disney movie. The third installment in the series of the franchise, "Cars 3," is slated to hit theaters in 2017.
"Autobots" director Zuo Jianlong told Reuters on Wednesday that he was not too worried about Disney's plagiarism claims.
"Lots of people online have talked about plagiarism, but it seems from the legal side that the matter is quite clear - at root, there is no plagiaristic behavior," he said. "If you put the two films side-by-side to compare them, then you will know they are completely different."