If you haven’t seen or at least heard about Disney’s Frozen, then this article will make no sense to you whatsoever, so all three people, who’ve managed to escape it – go wikipedia that now. All up to speed? Good. So, the popular consensus is that the story about two princesses rediscovering the meaning of friendship, sisterhood and independence was based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen. But one woman begs to differ. New Jersey-based author Isabella Tanikumi has launched a lawsuit against Disney, on grounds that the plot of Frozen was lifted from her books Living My Truth and Yearning of the Heart and indirectly, from her life story.

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Frozen became one of Disney's biggest hits, but was all that success based on plagiarism?

So is Tanikumi heir to the throne of a small Nordic country, who discovered at a young age that her powers of cryokinesis (it’s a real word, google it.) Not quite. But her lawsuit does cite 18 instances of similar material, including including details on the village, the sisters, the older sister accidentally hurting the younger sister, the younger sister losing her memory, and even two male characters that Tanikumi had named Hans and Christoff. In the film, the male characters are Hans and Kristoff.

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Tanikumi also points to the DVD cover, which she sees as a direct ripoff of her own book cover, since both feature “hands in the sky with sprinkles.” The scorned author is demanding a trial by jury, as well as a restraining order for Disney to “cease and desist from any and all sales, distribution and marketing of Frozen in any media front, as well as money damages in the amount of $250,000,000.00, together with costs of suit, and such other relief as the court may deem appropriate,” according to Entertainment Weekly.

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Tanikumi claims that Disney lifted characters, plot points and visuals from her books.