That's so strange. He lost the court case but still they've not printed any Kadabra since that time... What are they afraid of?
Hello, my name is Pikacho, and I have a problem with this Pikachu guy giving me a bad name. Shootin' people with lightning an' such. One hundred million dollars, please.
In November 2000, Geller sued video game company Nintendo for £60 million (the equivalent of US $100 million) over the Pokémon character "Yungerer," localized in English as "Kadabra," which he claimed was an unauthorised appropriation of his identity. The Pokémon in question has psychic abilities and carries bent spoons. Geller also claimed that the star on Kadabra's forehead and the lightning patterns on its abdomen are symbolisms popular with the Waffen SS of Nazi Germany. The katakana for the character's name, ユンゲラー, is visually similar to the transliteration of Geller's own name into Japanese (ユリゲラー). He is quoted as saying: "Nintendo turned me into an evil, occult Pokémon character. Nintendo stole my identity by using my name and my signature image."
The lawsuit was thrown out of court. Despite this, there has not been a Kadabra card in the Trading Card Game since Skyridge in 2003.
It's not exactly the same thing.
Kadabra (and Alakazam) hold spoons specifically because Geller bends spoons in his act.
The character is named after him (in Japan).
They made an "evil" version.
I can understand his position.
i find that the guy was money/fame hungry after not being able to do much after the 70's. being able to bend spoons with your mind is just a stage trick and hasn't been proven to be done in actuality. He does stage tricks, however, in pokemon they can do it irl(well their fictional real world).
Also, Geller wasn't the only one to do spoon bending as an act there were several other "magicians" who did this stunt and we don't see any of them trying to pull a fast one. If they were such a trademark thing, why wasn't there anything like this when the Matrix came out? Don't say it's because it was giving him a bad name. He doesn't really have one to begin with. The generation the name was being used on was way after his time and hadn't a clue of his existence on this earth let alone it giving him a bad name. This guy was going in with shenanigans and lost cause. If that's the case, just about every famous celebrity has the right to sue all and every show that has ever spoofed/parodied/mocked such as South Park or Family Guy, etc...
The fact that Nintendo is avoiding Kadabra prints because of this lame guy is beyond me, Kadabra is a copyrighted Character of Nintendo therefore proving of its originality, they shouldn't have anything to be afraid of...
Did you miss that Kadabra's Japanese name is almost exactly the same as Geller's?
yungerer... oh wait... forgot that the japanese pronounce R's like L's... so really it's yun-geller? ok makes more sense... but who told him the japanese name of Kadabra?