During a specific scene in Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers, a wall of evidence is shown. Dozens of plastic bags are attached to the wall, each holding an item related to various cartoon characters. For example, Detective Pikachu’s tail, Jimmy Neutron’s hair, Yosemite Sam’s mustache, and the Pink Panther’s snoot are shown. Viewers have spent a good amount of time sorting through this evidence wall figuring out each reference, but one set of hair labeled “192 C” had fans stumped.
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To be clear, many fans did make a connection between the hair and Sora from Kingdom Hearts fairly quickly. However, the hair didn’t look exactly like any official art from Kingdom Hearts. It was 2D, after all, and not as large as Sora’s aggressively anime hairdo. The connection has now been made, however. Twitter user CableTown art was able to connect the Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers reference to a piece of Kingdom Arts fan art done by Dutch artist Kimbolie12.
Further, the art shown in Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers looks nearly identical to Kimbolie12’s art, potentially cropped from the art itself before being digitally touched over for the scene’s lighting. And to be clear, there’s no apparent acknowledgment of Kimbolie12 in the film or its credits. Disney’s being accused of swiping the art without permission.
It isn’t clear how this may have happened. Disney clearly has the resources to access a diverse range of Kingdom Hearts art from any of the games or associated media. That likely means that the hair was used by accident, with an artist either mistakenly believing Kimbolie12’s art to be official or not caring one way or another.
How it happened at this point matters less than that it likely did happen, though. A major film produced and distributed by Disney, an incredibly wealthy company, appears to have used a fan’s art. What constitutes an appropriate recourse is unclear, though compensation would seem to be appropriate. The ball is in Disney’s court.
Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers is available to watch now on Disney Plus.
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