By Blake Brittain

May 27 (Reuters) - Disney DIS.N convinced a California federal judge to reject a lawsuit from a Hawaii-based artist who had accused the entertainment giant of copying his blue-eyed, ukulele-playing sea turtle for a character that appears at the company's Hawaii resort.

U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer on Friday granted Disney's request to dismiss the case, finding that Disney's turtle, 'Olu Mel, played the ukulele "months before Johnson Enos' blue-eyed cartoon turtle even picked up his ukulele for the first time."

Enos, his attorney; and attorneys and spokespeople for Disney did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

Enos said that he created his sea turtle Honu in 2006 as the star of what would become "Honu By The Sea," a children's stage musical that premiered in 2012 and has been performed in Hawaii, California, Australia, Japan and elsewhere.

Enos claimed in a 2023 lawsuit that he met with Disney employees in California in 2008 about collaborating, and that Disney executives attended performances of the show in Hawaii in 2012 and 2015.

Disney introduced 'Olu Mel at its Aulani Resort in Hawaii in 2018, the lawsuit said. Enos accused Disney of ripping off Honu for its "strikingly similar" sea turtle.

Fischer ruled on Friday that Disney created 'Olu Mel before Enos began depicting Honu with a ukulele, and that the characters were not similar enough to show copyright infringement otherwise.

Fischer said that Honu's blue eyes and affinity for music were the only two character elements that made him "distinct from stock turtles."

The case is Enos v. Walt Disney Co., U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:23-cv-05790.

For Enos: David Aaronson and Arthur Aaronson of Aaronson & Aaronson

For Disney: Bradley Mullins and Lucia Coyoca of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp

Read more:

Lawsuit says Disney stole Hawaiian artist's sea-turtle character

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)

((blake.brittain@tr.com; +1 (202) 938-5713))