The AP reports that Disney could have some IP issues in a jurisdiction where, regrettably, I am not licensed to practice. Or to breathe:
Hamas militants have suspended a TV program that featured a Mickey Mouse lookalike urging Palestinian children to fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination, the Palestinian information minister said Wednesday. . . .
The character, named “Farfour,” or “butterfly,” but unmistakably a copy of the Disney character, preached against the U.S. and Israel each Friday on the show called “Tomorrow’s Pioneers.”
“You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists,” Farfour squeaked on a recent episode. “We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers.”
Children called in to the show, many singing Hamas anthems about fighting Israel.
This is far beyond any devotion Annette Funicello ever commanded, I think. The amazing thing about this is that Hamas did in fact pull it. What makes mass murderers and war criminals fear the Wrath of Wally?
Brand management, people. Brand management! Someone from INTA should have an award coming…
UPDATE: He’s baaack!
Complete with Islamic songs and calls for cities in Israel to return to Palestine, Friday’s episode apparently sought to prepare children for their end-of-year examinations — with Farfur being told that cheating is forbidden. Asked why by an Al-Aqsa television reporter, he looked left and right to see what his friends were writing and answered: “Because the Jews destroyed my home and I left my books and notes under the rubble.” “I’m calling on all children to read more and more to prepare for exams because the Jews don’t want us to learn,” Farfur then said after being told he had failed the test.
In other words, the apes and pigs “ate” your homework!
In a transparent real time world,these “people” will lose even useful idiot sympathy.
When I first read this story, I got this insane picture in my head — a horde of Disney copyright lawyers, armed to the teeth with Uzis, Glocks, and cease-and-desist orders, parachuting into Gaza to the tune of “It’s a Small World” rather than “Ride of the Valkyries” as briefs flutter down around them.
In any case, we now have proof that Hamas is more afraid of the Disney Copyright Squad than the Israeli army .
–|PW|–
Man, Palestine has to be the worst place in the world to be a kid.