Disney Allegedly Rips Off Sculpture Almost Exactly For 50th-Anniversary Souvenir
Photo 12175498 © Tom Dowd | Dreamstime.com
It’s a small world, after all—to the point of Disney releasing merchandise almost identical to the work of a Canadian sculptor.
Andrew Martin, a self-proclaimed Disney fan, designed a model of a Tiki drummer inspired by the ones at the Enchanted Tiki Room attraction. He had envisioned the one-off piece to serve as a tip bucket at a local bar, but ended up sharing the design online so others could 3D-print it for themselves. The entire construction was live-streamed for seven hours in 2018, Mashable reports.
It was only recently that a friend spotted an extremely familiar US$125 music box that Disney began to sell to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World, and reached out to the artist about the lookalike art.
And now, Disney is, ahem, drumming up attention—not in a good way—as Martin has posted a series of videos on TikTok and Instagram pinpointing why he firmly believes the music box is a replica of his sculpture. Those clips have amassed millions of views.
“It did look like mine because… it is mine,” the artist declared, emphasizing on the identical “two circles here… [and] these three cut marks [on the drum]” upon overlaying images of both artworks on top of each other.
The music box is no longer listed on Disney’s online store, and it’s unclear if it had been taken down due to the criticism or if the item has already sold out.
According to Martin, the commissioned product designer claiming the project as their own has removed their social media accounts in light of the discovery.
To avenge the drummer, Martin has launched a ‘Work Worth Stealing’ brand flashing the line’s name with the Disney font on T-shirts.
@monstercaesarstudios @disneyparks #arttheft #disney #3dartist #3dart #artistsoftiktok
♬ original sound - Andrew Martin - Sculptor
