A woman in Kuwait claims that the story for Disney’s animated mega-hit “Frozen” was lifted from her book, and she’s not about to let it go.
Author Muneefa Abdullah has filed a copyright infringement suit against Disney and “Frozen” screenwriter Jennifer Lee, claiming that the plot of the film was pinched from “The Snow Princess,” a story included in her book “New Fairy Tales.”
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Michigan on Monday, says that Muneefa “has never licensed or otherwise authorized Defendants to copy, distribute or publicly disseminate ‘New Fairy Tales’ or ‘The Snow Princess,’ or make derivative works based upon them.”
Abdullah alleges 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” revolves around “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 inadvertently awakening an evil dangerous witch with her powers.
“Frozen’s” Princess Elsa, the lawsuit notes, “also has the magical ability to turn people and objects into ice” and accidentally injured her sister with her powers, isolated herself from others as a result.
The suit goes on to cite other alleged similarities, including “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.”
A spokesperson for Disney has not yet responded to TheWrap‘s request for comment.
Alleging four counts of copyright infringement, Abdullah is seeking unspecified damages.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.