DVDizzy Forum

My husband, who is a frequent reader on Digg, alerted me of this last night. Apparently somewhere in China they've created an entire park like Disneyland and ripped off actual Disney characters, the castle, everything!

Digg had a link to the article posted at a Japanese blog website and they had a lot of pictures of the fake characters and portions of the park (that I saw). I planned on posting about this today, but it looks like that Japanese site is down. They might have been swamped and exceeded bandwidth after the story was posted at Digg and today, at Slashdot as well as other forums (thus a 404 error). I will provide links for what is left.... but the original post had LOTS of photos:

the same article is up at "the Standard" (originally posted 3 weeks ago) with only ONE photo:

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... r=20070411

Here's a snippet:

"With its slogan “Disneyland is too far,” Beijing’s Shijingshan Amusement Park features a replica of Cinderella’s Castle, with staff dressed like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and other Disney characters. None of this is authorized by Disney - but that has not stopped the state-owned park from creating its own counterfeit version of the Magic Kingdom in a brazen example of the sort of open and widespread copyright piracy that has Washington fuming. The United States announced Monday it would file a case at the World Trade Organization over rampant copyright piracy in China, a practice which US companies say deprives them of billions of dollars each year. But 31-year-old housewife Zhang Li betrays a typical Chinese attitude on the issue while chasing her young son around the park.
“I don’t understand why that is such a big problem. Shouldn’t others be able to use those characters besides [Disney]?” she asks."

Someone posted a long video news story (appears to be Japanese?) about the park with LOTs of video of the fake characters. Seems the characters can't even keep their "heads" on. See video of the Pooh and Mickey Mouse plushies hanging in the parks: <A href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u94PTC-G ... =">YouTube, "Disneyland In China" Video</a>

Posted at Digg: <A href="http://digg.com/offbeat_news/China_Rips ... land">Digg - China rips off Disneyland</a>

Original blog post with pics can be found here (the link isn't working now, see above): <A href="http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1678">Japanprobe.com</a>

Discussions about the article:

<A href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-new ... osts">Free Republic Forum</A>

<A href="http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh ... tos.net</A>

<A href="http://digg.com/offbeat_news/China_Rips ... d">Digg</A>

<A href="http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/02/fa ... l">Picture of the Castle at BoingBoing.net</a>

<A href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/04/keep ... eyland/">2 more pictures - the Dwarfs and Snow White Chinese cast member at Engadget</a>

<A href="http://blog.miragestudio7.com/">Picture of Fake Donald Duck</a>

Pluto Region1 wrote:“I don’t understand why that is such a big problem. Shouldn’t others be able to use those characters besides [Disney]?” she asks."

Wow. Hmm, I wonder who invented the characters???? Obviously no one else should use them. I don't understand that mindset?!!

Those costumes are craptacular. Wow...I'm going to have nightmares about the fake Dwarfs' eyes. Disney better sue these people and they better win.

This seems to be the website of this amusement park:
http://www.bs-amusement-park.com/ChinaIn/about-e.asp

And here's another YouTube video about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgYeurp7yp0 (it's pretty much the same thing as the one above)

There are so many things wrong in this park its hilarious!

I LOVE how the characters get to take their masks off in public. XD:::::

That is rediculous. I hope Disney is able to at least get it shut down. The Disney name is associated with a quality product. That place looks so cheap. It looks about 3 steps above a traveling carnival. I wish they youtube video would show clips from the ride. Thanks for posting.

OMG! And Disney has sued yet? All I can say is, OMG!

The park is totally an outrage because Disney (in good faith!) built a theme park there in Hong Kong and one would imagine they probably never expected to have to tell China "now don't you go building any fake parks..."

What are those cats/kitten characters you see walking around in the park along with the Disney ones: - are they "hello kitty"?

According to this article, Disney knew it would be an uphill battle to protect their trademarks in China:

<a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB ... ks">Disney Fires A Broadside At Pirates</a>

Snippet:

"Walt Disney Co.'s latest marketing campaign in China features a nervy gambit: getting consumers to help it weed out counterfeit products.... Fighting these counterfeits is crucial for Disney. Sales of consumer products -- such as stuffed toys and books -- make up the bulk of the company's business in mainland China. Piracy has wiped out most legitimate sales of DVDs, while government regulations bar much of the company's imported programming from being shown in theaters and on TV."


I might as well mention the Russian Winnie the Pooh rip-off cartoon while I'm at it. At first I didn't see the resemblance but when you get to about 2.15 mins and he's climbing a tree to get what sounds like to be a bee-hive and then he goes to talk to Rabbit.....

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuBzKV6XgvA">Vinni Puh at Youtube</a>

Good luck to Disney in getting this shut down. Piracy is a way of life in China and the government is usually backing these tasks. China manufactures things such as motors for lawnmowers and then replicates the entire thing including color and counts it as genuine product. The Chinese government will not do anything about this. A former company I worked for had and still has problems with this. They need to be careful about what information they give the chinese manufacturing sites. That women's response is very typical of the mindset of the vast majority of people in China. Under the communist government everything is given to everybody equally so there is no such thing as a trademark or copyright.

The United States and other large governments need to put pressure on the Chinese government and other sources such as the UN before anything will happen. Even then it will be hard to stop. The best thing you can do as a consumer is make sure you're not buying any of this fabricated garbage and that you don't help them make money off of their junk. It's bad enough Chinese consumers buy them but it will only spur them on if they can get others to buy from them.

I can't beleive this. That park is CRAP! It doesn't even deserve a name. Snow White looked like...ughhh!

That is HILARIOUS. It's like a whole bootleg-based theme park, the place where all those cheap knockoff plushes you win at fairs and the things in the dollar store come from!

What's the point? It's...creepy, in my opinion.

That woman's comments made me laught but that is a communist mindset at work. Everything belongs to everyone.

The original link for Japanprobe.com is working again. Whats more interesting are the comments being left. There's a pretty good argument about Disney's copyrights - are the characters copyrighted vs. trademarked? You know the ongoing argument people make about Disney unfairly manipulating the laws to keep the characters protected? The posts are pretty far down. But this is what I am wondering about:

Comment on
2007-05-03 13:02:01

Mickey Mouse and the other characters aren’t copyrighted they are trademarked - copyrights run out but trademarks do not..

from wikipedia: “copyrights will eventually expire into the public domain but trademarks do not. Unlike patents and copyrights, which in theory are granted for one-off fixed terms, trademarks remain valid as long as the owner actively uses and defends them and maintains their registrations with the applicable jurisdiction’s trademarks office.”

The point is they are using trademarked characters.


Comment on
2007-05-03 17:37:37

I gather that the issue/difference is that although stuff like Steamboat Willy will be free of copyright not too far in the future, the characters themselves, rather than the media they are in, are indeed trademarks and thus safe even if the early films creep into the public domain. Steamboat Willy may not be a big money-spinner, but what about the feature films? When they come out of copyright, anyone in the world can copy and sell them (trademark issues aside).


------------------------------------------------

So is it possible that at some point Disney looses their rights over their own films? This doesn't sound right to me....

I wonder if they sell high-quality Song of the South bootlegs in the theme park merchandise stores. Would be fitting, you know...

Escapay

UncleEd wrote:That woman's comments made me laught but that is a communist mindset at work. Everything belongs to everyone.

What woman?

Prudence, in Pluto Region1's first post (the 1st post in the thread), she gives a quote by a Chinese woman...

You can see in the videos posted that they also ripped off Dreamworks and Warner Bros. They have a Shrek statue in one of the lands and you can also see Bugs Bunny walking around the park.

Am I the only one that finds it weird that the characters remove their masks?

I mean, not even cheap, County Fair mascots remove their masks in public like that. Maybe the Chinese children don't have the same type of innocence that other children have? (Note: I am NOT judging the Chinese. What I am saying is that children grow up with different values and while some are well aware of life's realities others are still innocent in mind and soul).

Agreed. I'd be terrified is I saw this happen: Child-"Mom,let's go see Pooh!"
Mom-"Sorry,hun. Pooh has to go take his face of now."

PeterPanfan wrote:Agreed. I'd be terrified is I saw this happen: Child-"Mom,let's go see Pooh!"
Mom-"Sorry,hun. Pooh has to go take his face of now."

Haha. I've heard horror stories of children that have gone backstage and have seen the Disney characters "out of costume and character". Supposedly they have been traumatized for life...

In fear of derailing this thread, am I the only one that believes that childhood innocence should be kept intact till its time to "grow up"?

I bring this up because I've seen parents (and even some of my friends have said it) trying to convince children that "there's no magic in the world" and try to kill their innocence at an early age. What are they trying to accomplish? Children that while may be real and down to Earth but are bitter and frown upon imagination?

I do believe in the importance of telling children that certain aspects of life are not real and are parts of our imagination, but I'm not about to try and ruin their imagination in the process. I mean, even though I know Santa, the Easter Bunny and The Tooth Fairy don't exist I still have fun and "await" their arrival.

I think the same can be said about the Disney characters. They may not be real but to us, ESPECIALLY children, they are. Hence why I believe the Disney parks have strict character rules.

pap64 wrote:
Haha. I've heard horror stories of children that have gone backstage and have seen the Disney characters "out of costume and character". Supposedly they have been traumatized for life...

In fear of derailing this thread, am I the only one that believes that childhood innocence should be kept intact till its time to "grow up"?

I bring this up because I've seen parents (and even some of my friends have said it) trying to convince children that "there's no magic in the world" and try to kill their innocence at an early age. What are they trying to accomplish? Children that while may be real and down to Earth but are bitter and frown upon imagination?

I do believe in the importance of telling children that certain aspects of life are not real and are parts of our imagination, but I'm not about to try and ruin their imagination in the process. I mean, even though I know Santa, the Easter Bunny and The Tooth Fairy don't exist I still have fun and "await" their arrival.

I think the same can be said about the Disney characters. They may not be real but to us, ESPECIALLY children, they are. Hence why I believe the Disney parks have strict character rules.

I agree with that entirely. I mean, it breaks my heart to see a child who's lost their innocents (SP?) too soon. I grew up around stories of magical adventures, and kids today are growing around Spongebob. What a step backwards. When I have children of my own I plan to tell all the stories I can tell to them.

UmbrellaFish wrote:I agree with that entirely. I mean, it breaks my heart to see a child who's lost their innocents (SP?) too soon.

Like this?



Escapay