Caterpillar Inc., the maker of earthmoving machinery, has sued Disney and Buena Vista Pictures in federal court “hoping to block the Oct. 21 release of the direct-to-DVD movie ‘George of the Jungle 2.'” The movie’s plot, evidently a marvel of originality, pits a hero and his animal sidekicks against evil “industrialists seeking to ravage and destroy the jungle”. As the Peoria paper reports, it seems “the final battle pits George and the animals against an army of Caterpillar Wheel Loaders. It didn’t help, the suit goes on to state, that the movie’s narrator calls the machines ‘maniacal’, ‘deleterious dozers’ and “bulldozing bullies.” How better to dispel an image of bullyhood than by heading to court to demand that speech critical of one’s enterprise be silenced? (Andy Kravetz, “Cat doesn’t dig ‘bulldozing bullies'”, Peoria Journal-Star, Oct. 15; “George of the Jungle, Watch Out for That Lawsuit!”, Reuters/Washington Post, Oct. 15) More: Eugene Volokh comments (Oct. 17).

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