A company called K&K Promotions has just filed a lawsuit against Disney, Pixar Animation Studios and their subsidiaries. The stunt driver "Duke Kabuki", who claims to have been voiced by Keanu Reeves in the movie Toy Story 4, is Disney's unauthorized theft of the identity and portrait of the legendary American motorcyclist "Yves Knivel".
What's more, the company claims that they own all the rights to Yves Kniveville's portrait, persona, and brand. Disney didn't get any approval to use Yves as a prototype for a character in their animation.
There's also the merchandise side – Disney's Toy Story 4 makes a lot of merchandise, including the Duke of Cabang's toys, and makes a lot of profits from them.
In the film, The Duke of Kabuki is a small plastic action character based on a fictional Canadian stuntman. He wears red and white clothes, decorated with maple leaf ornaments, and rides a matching motorcycle.
Keanu Reeves' voice makes this abandoned toy even more glamorous. He was abandoned by his owners in the 1970s because his stunts weren't as good as advertised.
Yves Knivell is an American stuntman. Over the course of his career, he has tried more than 75 ramps and motorcycle jumps between canyons. Some of the more famous activities include flying above the Caesars Palace fountain in Las Vegas and skipping the bus at Wembley Stadium in London. Yves became an international icon in the 1970s for his incredible motorcycle stunts and was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999
According to the lawsuit, it appears that critics and interviewees also believe that there are many similarities between the two. Anyone who has seen the film and knows Yves Knivell will immediately recognize the American icon of the 1970s. With such a thorough imitation, it's clear that the animators are quoting Yves Knivel.
However, this is not the first time Disney has been prosecuted. In January 2020, a visual artist sued Disney for plagiarizing her unicorn van in the movie "1/2 of magic." Now that K&K has taken Disney to court, let's wait and see how the incident turns out.