Do You Wanna File a Lawsuit?
Disney’s 2013 animated film Frozen was a box office smash, earning $1.2 billion dollars in worldwide ticket sales. Little did we all know that the film was entirely based off of the life story of a woman living in New Jersey.
So claims Peruvian author Isabella Tanakumi, who wrote Living My Truth and Yearning of the Heart in 2010, both of which are autobiographical. She says Disney ripped off these two works in order to write the plot for Frozen. E! Online released the lawsuit that Tanakumi filed, which you can read in full right here.
Under the section entitled “Exhibit A,” one can read the pieces of evidence that Tanakumi provides against Disney, which consist of 18 similarities that she has drawn between the film and her autobiography.
Some of this evidence seems pretty sound and valid. Both stories, for example, take place at the foot of a snowy mountain. Both involve two sisters, the younger of who gets hurt. In a very eerie coincidence (or act of plagiarism), both stories involve two male love interests, named Hans and Kristoff (though the spelling in Tanakumi’s book is “Cristoff”). Both stories involve a female character obsessed with concealing something about herself.
Some of the other pieces of evidence seem like a bit more of a stretch, however. Both stories involve a romantic moonlit scene, but this is a pretty common occurrence in romantic writings. Another bit of evidence is that on the cover of the Frozen DVD, the character Elsa has her hand to the sky with “sprinkles,” while on the cover of one of Tanakumi’s books she is shown with her hand to the sky, also with “sprinkles.”
You can read the rest of Tanakumi’s lawsuit and decide for yourself whether she has a case. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
