Advertisement

Author chills Disney with Frozen lawsuit

Frozen. Picture: Disney

A Kuwaiti author has accused Disney bosses of breaching copyright, insisting they stole one of her stories for their mega hit Frozen.

Muneefa Abdullah filed documents in US District Court in Michigan on Monday, accusing studio executives and screenwriter Jennifer Lee of lifting the plot of the animated movie from her own story, The Snow Princess, which is featured in her 2007 book New Fairy Tales.

In court documents obtained by TheWrap.com, Abdullah claims “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.”

Abdullah says her story also features “a princess who possesses magical ice powers that give her the ability to turn people and objects into ice.”

Other similarities that the author has cited include, “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.”

Abdullah, who insists she never gave Disney bosses licence to use her story, has hit executives with four counts of copyright infringement and is seeking unspecified damages.

Frozen has grossed over $US1.2 billion ($A1.56 billion) at the worldwide box office.