Disney’s global hit “Frozen” might be about a queen with magical icy powers who accidentally freezes her kingdom, but one woman is convinced that the storyline is a rip-off of her own life.
Latin American author Isabella Tanikumi is sueing Disney for plagiarism in a $250m lawsuit, claiming that the plot is based on her 2010 autobiography and not Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, “The Snow Queen.”
Tanikumi’s self-published book, “Yearnings of the Heart,” details her experiences of growing up in the Peruvian Andes but surprisingly, no chattering snowmen, talking trolls or secret ice palaces feature. Nevertheless, Tanikumi’s three page complaint insists that Frozen stole the story, characters and general feeling from her work and demands a jury trial. She lists 18 examples of what she claims to be plagiarism from characters’ names to the animated film’s central sisterly relationship.
