Last week, I wrote a column about the strange and sad saga of a 34-year-old American woman who pretended to be a high school student and travelled around the U.S. living with different families who were kind enough to take her in.
This week, I have another one to file under Wacky Things People Do.
A woman from Peru is suing Disney for $250 million over the 2013 movie Frozen, claiming it’s based on her life story.
Yes, the Disney computer-animated movie about a girl who sets off with a talking snowman, among others, to find her magical ice princess sister who left them in a permanent winter wonderland is allegedly ripped off of Isabella Tanikumi’s autobiography about her experiences growing up in the Peruvian Andes.
To be fair, Tanikumi doesn’t allege the multi-billion-dollar company lifted the talking snowman, adventurous pet reindeer or troll king from her book, but she lists 18 similarities she alleges are plagiarism.
One of the claims is that the movie starts off in a village at the foot of some snow-capped mountains, as does Tanikumi’s life story, where both she and the main character is Frozen live with two parents and a sister.
Another claim is the bond she has with her sister plays a big role in her life story, as it does in Frozen.
In the movie, the older sister (the one with magic powers) accidentally hurts the younger one, but a troll king erases that memory for the injured younger one.
In the lawsuit, Tanikumi alleges her sister accidentally burnt her face with hot custard but she, Tanikumi, doesn’t remember it.
Frozen is widely recognized for being based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen, which is public domain.
Frankly, if you squint enough, you can see that fuzzy lines run parallel between many life stories and movies, and it doesn’t necessarily mean the movie plagiarized the book.
Frozen has also been at the centre of another infringement suit, which was filed by an animator who says a trailer for the feature length film is ripped off of her short film.
Both the trailer and short film feature a snowman battling the slippery surface of a frozen lake to reach a carrot before it can be snapped up by forest animals (a moose in the Frozen trailer, a couple of rabbits in the short film).
Above any given similarities — that ice is slippery, that a story needs a protagonist/antagonist, etc. — both the short film and the trailer follow the same sequence of events and have the same ending.
That suit may have more traction, but Tanikumi’s seems a little slippery.
Frozen is the most successful animated film of all time, and has grossed well over a billion dollars at the box office worldwide.
In the end, I think Tanikumi’s lawsuit is just a long-winded, roundabout way to advertise her autobiography and maybe even earn some cash if Disney doesn’t even want to bother with it and just wants to pay her to let it go. (Pun intended. Sorry.)
If she wins, though, I’m taking on Disney for stealing my life story and turning into Brave. That is, after all, about a redhead. Who can read and write, and presumably lives off of food and water.
And, like Merida in Brave, I also accidentally cast a spell on my mother which turned her into a bear. (Just kidding. I turned my mom into a lemur.)
What Disney movie would you choose as grounds for a lawsuit alleging it’s a loosely based rip-off of your life?
Here’s a handy guide for you.
If your job is to scare children, take on Monsters, Inc.
If you are a talking car with a team of misfit mechanical buddies, Cars or Cars 2 or Planes.
Did your house float away under a bundle of helium balloons? Take on Up.
Is your family super? The Incredibles!
Living under an oppressive regime of grasshoppers? It’s A Bug’s Life for you.
Got long hair? Take a turn at Tangled.
Disney will just continue to laugh all the way to the bank.
