A Kuwait author claims that the 2013 hit animated movie was lifted from 'The Snow Princess', a story from her book 'New Fairy Tales'.
- Apr 16, 2015
AceShowbiz - Disney is facing another copyright lawsuit over "Frozen (2013)". According to TheWrap, a Kuwait author named Muneefa Abdullah filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Michigan on Monday, April, 13, naming the studio and "Frozen" screenwriter Jennifer Lee as defendants.
Muneefa claimed that the plot of the animated movie featuring Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff and Josh Gad was lifted from "The Snow Princess", a story from her book "New Fairy Tales".
Muneefa said in her suit that "the key plot elements, characters, themes, events, setting, mood, pace and dialogue in 'Frozen' demonstrate substantial similarities to 'The Snow Princess', and that such similarities are of a sort that indicate copying rather than independent creation or coincidence."
According to the suit, "The Snow Princess" tells story about "a princess who possesses magical ice powers that give her the ability to turn people and objects into ice." The princess went into hiding after she accidentally awakened an evil dangerous witch with her powers.
The suit noted that "Frozen" character Elsa "also has the magical ability to turn people and objects into ice" and isolated herself from others after accidentally injuring her sister Anna with her powers.
The suit went on to cite other similarities like "a kingdom made of ice and surrounded by mountains, a sibling in search and rescue of the sibling possessing the magical ice powers, a journey up the mountain, snowy guards guarding an icy castle on the mountaintop, the idea that only love is capable of defeating evil, and the selfless sacrifice of oneself for the purpose of saving another from being struck by a sword."
Disney hasn't commented on the issue yet. The studio was previously hit with $250 million copyright suit by Isabella Tanikumi, a New Jersey author who accused the studio of ripping off her books "Living My Truth" and "Yearning of the Heart". In response to Isabella's suit, Disney's representative said at that time, "This is beyond ridiculous, she needs to let it go."