Investigation Casts Doubt On Decades-Old Pixar Vs. Nintendo Lawsuit Rumor Over Uniracers

Years before developing the open-world crime series Grand Theft Auto, the Dundee-based studio DMA Design collaborated with Nintendo to create an offbeat racing game starring sentient unicycles. Titled Uniracers in the United States and Unirally in European territories, the game launched for the SNES in 1994. It remains an overlooked entry in the studio catalog and has never received a modern console rerelease.

In a 2010 interview, game designer Mike Dailly claimed the lack of rereleases and production limits were due to a lawsuit. According to Dailly, Pixar sued Nintendo after alleging that the unicycles in the game copied Pixar's 1987 animated short Red’s Dream. Dailly stated that a judge ruled in favor of Pixar, resulting in a settlement that restricted production to the original 300,000 manufactured copies. Over the years, this story spread widely across various websites and video platforms, often citing Dailly's original interview as the primary source.

An investigation involving public court records, news archives, and digital foundations found no evidence that a court case between Pixar and Nintendo ever took place. When contacted, Dailly stated he originally heard the story from DMA Design founder David Jones. Former Pixar layout artist Craig Good stated he had no recollection of the lawsuit. Ralph Guggenheim, Pixar's former vice president of feature animation and production coordinator on Red's Dream, also stated he had no memory of the event, though he noted he was heavily occupied with completing Toy Story at the time.

Contacts from Nintendo of America also reported no recollection of the dispute. Based on these findings, investigators proposed two theories. The first theory suggests the dispute occurred but Nintendo of America capitulated early without reaching a judge. The second theory suggests the lawsuit never happened at all and stemmed from a miscommunication between Nintendo of America and DMA Design.