Did Disney Use Stolen Technology to Create 2017’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’?
While Disney live-action remakes have been fodder for derision in recent years, there was a time when they were almost a sure-fire hit.
In March of 2017, for example, Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast opened to a massive $357 million first weekend on its way to grossing $1.27 billion at the box office.


Photo: Disney +
Ahead of the film’s release, Disney proudly and publically touted the film’s special effects, including the CG rendering of Dan Stevens’ Beast.
Introducing MOVA
The massive step forward in visual effects was accomplished through a new VFX technology called MOVA Contour Reality Capture.
“When you see Beast on screen, there is something so human about him,” said Emma Watson, who starred in the film as Belle.


Photo: Disney
The technology “really captures the subtlety of Dan’s facial expression.” She explained, “I don’t think the world has seen anything like it before.”
Based on the critical and commercial success of the Beauty and the Beast remake, Disney began an Oscar campaign for the film. Part of their strategy involved highlighting the VFX-created Beast.


Photo: IMDB
According to Director Bill Condon, the MOVA “actually captured every pore of Dan’s skin and that’s why so much of him — this great performance — comes through.”
Using “Pilfered” Technology
As it turned out, however, DD3, the company that Disney teamed up with on the MOVA technology, may not have actually owned the tech that many attributed the movie’s success to.


Photo: Animation Magazine
Five months after Beauty and the Beast hit theaters, Disney was sued for improperly using Mova in three movies. In addition to Beauty and the Beast, the technology had also been utilized in Guardians of the Galaxy and multiple Avengers films. The suit demanded an injunction barring distribution of the films, a rejected stipulation.


Photo: MARVEL
Behind a complicated chain of titles that involved bankruptcy and fraudulent sales came the revelation that MOVA was pilfered from Rearden, a firm created by inventor-entrepreneur Steve Perlman.
The Controversy Begins
The MOVA technology first entered the spotlight when it was used in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to reverse-age Brad Pitt.
The technology was subsequently used in a wide array of movies, including Transformers: Dark of the Moon, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.


Steve Perlman. Photo: Columbia Entrepreneurship
Controversy began to arise, however, in 2015 when MOVA was recognized by AMPAS with a technological achievement award. The award was given to Greg LaSalle, a former employee and longtime friend of Perlman’s, who was using the technology at the VFX house Digital Domain.
“It is horrifying to see a decade of my life’s work credited to someone who was no more than a trainee of the end result,” Perlman wrote in a letter to the Academy.
LaSalle Had No Right To Sell The Technology
At this point, a twisting and turning legal saga began between Perlman and Digital Domain.
A federal judge froze Digital Domain’s licensures of MOVA in a preliminary injunction targeting Virtual Global Holdings, a British Virgin Islands-based firm that thought it owned MOVA. That company had licensed the technology to DD3.


Photo: Animation Magazine
Judge Jon Tigar found that the companies had behaved “fraudulently.” As it turned out, LaSalle had signed a deal with SHST, which offered him indemnity against further legal action, selling the MOVA rights to the company for $25,000. SHST then licensed the software to Digital Domain and hired LaSalle to run the business.
In his ruling, Tigar concluded that LaSalle never owned MOVA or possessed the authority to sell it. This ruling allowed Rearden to sue various studios that had used the technology — including Disney.
The Disney-Reardon Trial Begins
On Wednesday, opening statements began in an Oakland federal courthouse, where a jury will determine if Disney should be held liable for DD3’s alleged infringement of MOVA.
The jurors in the Disney-Reardon trial have been informed that the company wasn’t a party to the previous ruling and is thus not bound by that judgment.


Credit: Disney
Disney had previously urged the court to inform the jurors that Disney did not know that DD3 was infringing on Reardern’s intellectual property when the movie was being made.
Additionally, Disney plans to present evidence that LaSalle was taking steps to legally acquire MOVA. Finally, Disney will argue that MOVA was just one piece of a larger VFX puzzle. Still, if the jury finds that 8-11% of Beauty and the Beasts’ profits were due to the MOVA tech, Rearden could get a $100 million payout.


Photo: Disney
While the trial is expected to last only a week, with each side getting 16 hours to present their case, this may be the first of many court battles. The current court case only covers Beauty and the Beast; further suits surrounding Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame may still be coming.