Paddington ripped me off, says pop-up book creator
Makers of hit film copied my London landmarks book, says illustrator, which Studiocanal denies
A STOLEN pop-up book of London is at the heart of the plot of Paddington 2, which leads to all sorts of drama for the bear from Darkest Peru.
But the book is also causing trouble behind the scenes.
Jennie Maizels, an award-winning illustrator, claims the designs bear more than a little similarity to her own, and wants the film-makers to acknowledge that they copied her ideas.
Ms Maizels is the creator of Pop-up London, which features paper replicas of Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral and other London landmarks.
Notably, it includes a model of Tower Bridge that opens for a ship to pass through. The book was published in 2011 and became a bestseller.
The production company initially approached Ms Maizels asking if she would be interested in collaborating with them on the film, in which the book is discovered in an antiques shop by Paddington and coveted by the dastardly Phoenix Buchanan, played by Hugh Grant.
To purchase the book in Samuel Gruber’s antique shop for Aunt Lucy’s 100th birthday, Paddington performs several odd jobs and saves his wages, but the book is stolen.
When Ms Maizels costed up the project as £30,000, to be split between her and the paper engineer who brings her designs to life, the production company said they would work with an inhouse designer instead.
That was the last she heard of it, until she went to the cinema with her mother in the autumn and saw the Paddington 2 trailer.
It showed Paddington opening the book to reveal a pop-up Tower Bridge that opened to let a ship pass through.
“I thought, ‘Gosh, that’s my book’,” said Ms Maizels, based in Hampshire.
“I was so upset. It is a horrible, gutwrenching feeling, that they have taken the whole thing and done it without telling me.”
The film’s release in November was accompanied by Paddington Pop-up London, a tie-in book that included similar designs.
Ms Maizels has complained, claiming that the 3D Tower Bridge in the film is “an exact copy” of her mechanism.
And she also drew attention to other “striking similarities” in the illustrations.
She wrote to Studiocanal, the filmmaker, requesting an apology and a credit, but was rebuffed.
They told her firmly that there had been no copying whatsoever but that in any event ideas, concepts, style and methods are not copyright protectable elements.” They argued that the look and feel of the books is different, as the Paddington 2 version was supposedly created in the Twenties.
And they pointed to several differences in the illustration of Tower Bridge, such as different-coloured ironwork.
The pop-up is a wholly original creation, they added.
Ms Maizels cannot afford to take the case to court and said she felt “powerless” against the company.
Nevertheless, she has not lost her affection for Paddington Bear.
She said: “I have seen the film many times, because I had to go through it with the lawyers. And I loved it every time. It is such a lovely film and Paddington is such a gorgeous bear, and that’s the reason I didn’t want to shout about this in the beginning.”
‘I was so upset. It is a horrible feeling, that they have taken the whole thing and done it without telling me’