Disney allows Herriman homebuilder to construct 'Up' house

HERRIMAN — Cute is the Walt Disney Co.'s stock in trade, but there is nothing soft and cuddly about how it protects its intellectual property.

This is a company that once forced a Florida day care center to remove an unauthorized Minnie Mouse mural. More recently, Disney told a stonemason that carving Winnie the Pooh into a child's gravestone would violate its copyright.

So how is a homebuilder in this Salt Lake City suburb getting away with selling a near-identical copy of the floating house in the Disney-Pixar film "Up"?

The sherbet-colored structure sits at the intersection of Meadowside Drive and Herriman Rose Boulevard here, but you don't need directions to find it. Just look for the swarm of helium-filled balloons that the developer tied to the chimney of a house that has a gabled roof, scalloped siding and a garden hose neatly coiled next to the porch — all details taken from "Up," the 2009 hit about an old man and his flying abode.

The house is a product of the strange obsession of one man — in this case, the son of a former governor — his connections, the film's powerful director and a company that is trying to evaluate with more care the hundreds of requests it receives a month from people wanting to use its characters and imagery.

Bangerter Homes, which specializes in custom-built dwellings, is marketing the 2,800-square-foot reproduction as "The Disney/Pixar 'Up' House," using stills from the film and the official logos of Disney and its Pixar Animation Studios subsidiary. The listing price: $400,000.

So far, serious bidders are scarce. But over the past few weeks about 27,000 people paid $10 each for a peek inside, with most of the proceeds going to charity.

The man behind the design is Blair Bangerter, a son of Norman H. Bangerter, who served as governor of Utah from 1985 to 1993. The younger Bangerter first saw "Up" two years ago. A longtime animation buff, he said that he was thrilled that the film gave a starring role to his other passion — houses — and became preoccupied with replicating the colorful Victorian in real life.

"But I tried to put it out of my mind," he said. "I knew I needed to get approval, and everything I'd ever heard is that Disney never agrees to anything. Real tough customers, those folks."

Then one day Bangerter mentioned his fantasy construction project to a buddy, who responded that a lawyer with ties to Disney had just become a member of the Salt Lake Homebuilders Association. Maybe that guy could call in a favor?