Gary Goldman raced to see “Zootopia 2” as soon as it arrived in theaters last week. He loved the first installment, especially its exploration of whether a meritocracy is attainable. And the critters were cute.
But Mr. Goldman, 72, left the theater deeply unsettled — feeling that a major new character, a venomous pit viper named Gary De’Snake, had been based on him.
“It’s virtually impossible for me to interpret it any other way,” he said.
Even after spending his entire working life in Hollywood, Mr. Goldman has never met any of the people at Disney who made “Zootopia 2,” which has become a box office sensation. He realizes that he is not the only Gary in the world. He also knows that his assertion, at least at first glance, could come across as the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist. That’s certainly how Disney views Mr. Goldman. The company has won two “Zootopia”-related court battles with him over the years.
But Mr. Goldman thinks you should at least hear him out.
“I’m not the only one who sees a connection,” he said. Friends have been texting (“OMG”) and emailing to say the same thing, he said. Some people have pointed out that the snake’s expressive eyes bear similarities to his own.
Mr. Goldman has worked in Hollywood for more than 40 years. He got his start as a documentarian. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, he worked for the megaproducers Larry Gordon and Joel Silver. He then segued to screenwriting, working on “Big Trouble in Little China” and the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle “Total Recall.” He helped rewrite “Basic Instinct” and develop “Minority Report,” which was ultimately directed by Steven Spielberg.
In 2017, Mr. Goldman sued Disney for copyright infringement in federal court. It was over “Zootopia,” a billion-dollar hit for Disney the year before. An allegory about prejudice, the movie follows a bunny cop and a con artist fox as they navigate an animal metropolis called Zootopia.
Mr. Goldman claimed in the lawsuit that he had twice pitched, in 2000 and 2009, a “substantially similar” idea to people in Disney’s live-action movie division and gotten nowhere. Mr. Goldman had envisioned two films — one live-action and the other animated — that explored whether “societies can live up to utopian ideals and judge and credit others fairly as individuals, not as stereotypes,” according to the complaint.
Disney “copied Goldman’s themes, settings, plot, characters and dialogue — some virtually verbatim,” the lawsuit said, providing examples. “They copied Goldman’s title, ‘Zootopia.’ They even copied Goldman’s character designs and artwork.” Mr. Goldman was represented in the case by four lawyers from the powerhouse firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
A judge ultimately granted Disney’s motion to dismiss the case, writing in his ruling that the similarities “are few, random and superficial.” Mr. Goldman and his legal team, who were stunned, appealed and lost.
While appealing the original ruling, Mr. Goldman sued Disney in state court for breach of an “implied-in-fact” contract and unfair competition, among other things. A judge ruled against him, as did an appeals court.
Mr. Goldman and his wife, Judith, who joined him in the legal battle as a partner in their company, Esplanade Productions, were upset that they never got the chance to put the cases in front of juries. “We don’t agree with some of the legal conclusions, but we accepted the rulings,” Ms. Goldman said. “We thought it was all over, and we moved on with our lives.”
Then came “Zootopia 2.” (Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
The action in the sequel is driven by a dispute among Zootopia inhabitants over who originated the plans for the city — specifically who invented the high-tech “weather walls” that allow creatures from different climates to live together in the same metropolis. Gary De’Snake arrives in Zootopia out of nowhere (reptiles were not depicted in the first film) and makes a startling assertion: Credit for the system was stolen from his ancestors.
Almost from the beginning, “Zootopia 2” portrays Gary De’Snake as likable. Ultimately, he proves that his great-grandmother came up with the idea. Her patent was pinched, and reptiles were banished as part of a cover-up.
“Why did they make this character — a nice guy named Gary — right about having been ripped off, about having his family ripped off?” Mr. Goldman asked. “Is this meant as some kind of confession? An incredibly expensive Easter egg? How on earth did this ever get approved by the Disney corporation?”
Ms. Goldman said some of their friends in the Hollywood community were angry on Mr. Goldman’s behalf, viewing the “Zootopia 2” story line as Disney’s twisting a knife after winning the court cases. But she and her husband aren’t so sure about that.
“We actually are in this very strange spot of saying to our friends that this may not be what it looks like — it could be someone trying to do the right thing,” she said. After all, Gary De’Snake is portrayed as an honest, nice guy. Was this an olive branch after the acrimonious court proceedings?
Disney declined to comment.
Jared Bush, who wrote the “Zootopia 2” screenplay, also declined to comment. In an interview in October for a profile, however, Mr. Bush addressed the character’s name.
“He’s named Gary because I think Gary is a hilarious name,” Mr. Bush said. “I apologize to the Garys of the world. But multiple times over the years, when I’ve been writing a nice-guy character — it’s Gary. It’s sort of my go-to name for a nonconfrontational, sweet character.”
So now what?
Possibly nothing. “We don’t have much appetite for taking legal action,” Mr. Goldman said, adding that pursuing a “defamation by fiction” claim probably isn’t an option: Gary De’Snake is a sweetheart.
Ms. Goldman pointed out that Gary De’Snake has only one fang (at least for much of the film). “We were partially defanged by the outcome of the earlier lawsuits,” she said. “We have to live with those rulings. That’s another reason it would be difficult for us.”
Her husband offered a different viewpoint.
“But I do have one fang left,” Mr. Goldman said.
Brooks Barnes covers all things Hollywood. He joined The Times in 2007 and previously worked at The Wall Street Journal.
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