‘Naughty Paddington’!

So.. I have reached the end of a legal road with the ‘Copycat Meanies’ at Studio Canal Productions. They are refusing to discuss this further and the only option would be to go to court and I have decided to spare myself the stress this would inevitably cause me.

Bear (no pun intended) in mind that they contacted me first, saying how much they loved my work and asking me to produce a Pop Up London Book for Paddington 2. I didn’t ‘get the gig’ and thought nothing more of it – until I saw the film.

But enough words from me. I think the pictures below speak for themselves, so I will just leave them here so you can make your own minds up….

 

 

Above, it is not only the mechanism which bears an uncanny resemblance to my book (pictured on the right), but also the artwork, which in my humble opinion is very similar, black line drawing with a background wash….

‘Paddington’s Pop Up London’ Book – Buckingham palace on the left.

‘Jennie Maizels’ Pop Up London’ Book – Buckingham palace on the right.

Below, Trafalgar square, can you tell which is which?

As you can see from below, when they said they liked my work, clearly it wasn’t just the London book they ‘liked’…

Pop Up London (Published by Walker Books 2012) 

Anyway, I had a WONDERFUL friend who is a deeply talented QC help me with this legal journey, so I have been very lucky. He wisely advised me to refrain from ‘going public’, but now we have reached a point where I can go no further. I feel VERY strongly that this blatant copying of artists’ work HAS TO STOP, so I have decided that now is the time to ‘put it out there’. It is all too common, I see copycat products around all the time. Please ask the artist to create the work for you. It’s their job and it’s THEIR work.

Thank you for reading and I hope nothing like this ever happens to you.

xxx

Jennie