The authors of the original project Miguel Ángel Mejía and Carlos Hermo, registered the script and the drawings of the characters under the name “Aventuras en Doñana” in the intellectual property registry on February 11, 2003, although they were created in 2000 during courses at the Almonte animation school of which he was a member, Raúl García, who a decade later would direct the film in demand.

It is confirmed that characters and script existed, as reflected in the documentation provided in the process ten years before the Banderas production company took the idea to the cinema.

The expert report accompanying the claim is incontestable. The characters, the roles they play, the plot, the places where the story takes place and even some of the original names, are almost completely similar.

The authors of the original idea won an award in 2000 for which the Junta de Andalucía, in collaboration with Canal Sur, subsidized Miguel Ángel Romero, cartoonist and creative, and Carlos Hermo, scriptwriter, with 50,000 euros to develop the idea and translate it into an animated feature film.

The authors wanted to carry out the argument but lacked funding. The same Board suggested that they seek help from the Kandor Graphics production company and the Banderas production company.

The production company offered a pyrrhic agreement, €60,000 and that the authors work as salaried employees in the project but transferring the authorship.

They did not accept the offer, but within months they became aware, while seeking funding from other production companies, that the directors Raúl García Sanz and Manuel Sicilia had changed some minimal details of the characters and were finishing the production of “The Lost Lynx.”

The Junta de Andalucía had handed over the project to the Banderas producer and subsidized the company with almost two million euros in an operation that was investigated for alleged corruption.

Romero and Hermo asked for explanations both from those responsible for the Board and from the directors of the production company that was developing their idea, but did not receive a response. They witnessed their idea come to life.

The authors tried to paralyze the film’s showing requesting precautionary measures that the judge did not accept. A few months after the premiere, the film was awarded a Goya and screened in various countries and authors and producers congratulated each other on the success and collected huge profits while the original authors suffocated in legal proceedings.

The Mercantile Court number 1 of Seville admitted the lawsuit filed by the cartoonist Miguel Ángel Romero against the creators of “The lost lynx” for the alleged plagiarism of the animation project «Aventuras en Doñana» that belongs to Antonio Banderas and «Kandor Moon».

The defendants for infringement of intellectual property rights were the film’s directors, José Luis García and Manuel Sicilia, and the Kandor Graphics production companies and the film’s distributors. The plaintiffs claimed 300,000 euros for moral damages and 50 percent of the profits generated.

Tedious fight

In the first instance and after more than 10 years of tedious fight in the commercial courts, in 2019, Justice showed its darker face than before so much evidence and evidence. The directors of “The Lost Lynx” did not even register the drawings of the characters in the film.

Even in later statements they acknowledge that the characters and plots were suggested by those responsible for the Board. In a cumbersome letter from the judge he clarifies that he can not give the reason for “having failed to comply with the procedural deadlines, due to the inhuman accumulation of work in the Commercial Courts of Seville” in the judgment he appreciates “similarities between both works very general and could not consider it a plagiarism».

Death of the cartoonist

The cartoonist and plaintiff, Miguel Ángel Romero, died in 2011 a victim of cancer; his mother, Monserrat Romero Beltran, hired the services of the Sevillian lawyer Sergio Iglesias de la Rua for the appeal that was presented a few hours before the deadline expired.

Both the notifications and the documentation claimed have not been conspicuous for their transparency, making this unequal fight even more difficult.

The appeal has included a rigorous expert report with clear evidence of unquestionable similarities between one project and another that induce plagiarism.

However, the lawyer believes that the appeal may not succeed because the team of three judges that will review the case will not take into account the expert report by not admitting new evidence in this second instance but will visualize it.

The plaintiffs are willing to go to the Supreme Court or seek justice in the European court. The lawyer for the plaintiff believes that it will be difficult to collect compensation, even winning the lawsuit since the defendant producers declare insolvency but the moral victory would be enough for a family that has long claimed justice, in the same way that it would be a loss of prestige for Antonio Banderas and the politicians who accompanied him in the offensive promotional photo and who never wanted to resolve the case amicably.

Perhaps the legend of David against Goliath will be repeated.

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