Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars

Plagiarism controversies
Zootopia: On March 21, 2017, a
copyright infringement lawsuit was
filed against Disney by Esplanade
Productions, a company owned by
…

---

Gary L. Goldman, co-screenwriter of
Total Recall. The lawsuit claims that
Goldman (in 2000 and 2009) pitched a
concept to Disney for a live-action film
titled Looney, which was about a
socially awkward animator who
creates a self-inspired TV cartoon
called Zootopia. Disney twice rejected
the pitch, but Goldman accused the
company of copying the name,
themes, settings and character tropes.
Filed with the lawsuit was a graphic of
early concept artwork of characters
that are claimed to appear similar to
major characters from the film,
including Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps,
Flash and Chief Bogo. A Disney

---

spokesperson described the lawsuit as
being "ridden with patently false
allegations."
[120]
 U.S. District Judge
Michael W. Fitzgerald dismissed the
infringement claims on November 8,
2017.
The Shape of Water: In February 2018,
the estate of Paul Zindel initiated a
lawsuit in United States District Court
for the Central District of California
against director Guillermo del Toro and
associate producer Daniel Kraus,
alleging that The Shape of Water
"brazenly copies the story, elements,
characters, and themes" of Zindel's
1969 work Let Me Hear You Whisper,
which depicts a cleaning lady bonding

---

with a dolphin and attempting to
rescue it from a secret research
laboratory's nefarious uses. In July
2018, Judge Percy Anderson
dismissed the suit.
Parasite: On February 6, 2020, Indian
film producer P. L. Thenappan
threatened to take legal action against
the makers of Parasite for "story theft"
against his 1999 Tamil film Minsara
Kanna. Thenappan and his lawyer had
sent a letter seeking an explanation to
Bong Joon-ho and the production
company that made Parasite. Easwar
Kuppusamy, a Madras High Court
advocate who is appearing for
Thenappan, said, "They can't deny that

---

they have lifted the basic plot [of
Minsara Kanna]. There are several films
which have similar ideas, but an entire
family going to a rich family's house
and deceiving them is Minsara Kanna's
plot. The only difference is that
Parasite doesn't belong to the romantic
genre." Some Tamil netizens agreed
that the plot of the film is similar to
Minsara Kanna.
[121]