No one likes going to court, whether it’s for the mundane speeding ticket that you totally didn’t deserve or the stuff of nightmares for your bank account — lawsuits.
While some litigation generally serves the good purpose of righting wrongs in the form of monetary compensation when one party has acted out of line, such as a negligent company that poisons a local water supply, others are what experts like to call “frivolous,” which is a polite way of saying totally unnecessary.
Isabella Tanikumi’s pending litigation might just be the most frivolous of them all.
Tanikumi, a New Jersey resident, filed suit in federal court on Sept. 22 against the Walt Disney Company, citing 18 counts of plagiarism stolen directly from her memoirs as inspiration for Disney’s “Frozen.” The film, Disney’s highest-grossing animated feature of all time, earning more than $1 billion at the box office — is thought to be based on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen.”
In case you’ve been living under a rock for a year, or you don’t want your children to have joy in their lives, one of the two main characters in “Frozen” is a literal snow queen.
Tanikumi cites details of her life written in her memoirs that she saw used in “Frozen,” such as her sister having nearly opposite-colored hair than her, the tragic death of loved ones, and living at the base of snow-capped peaks — because it’s totally implausible that Norway would ever have snow on its mountains.
Tanikumi is asking for $250 million in compensation for allegedly having her life so cruelly set to a snappy soundtrack.
No, that wasn’t a typo.
The suit calls for a quarter of Disney’s earnings from the movie in recompense for a few alleged similarities to someone’s life story.
It’s the existence of lawsuits like this that allow defendants, who may very well be at fault, to defame plaintiffs for filing allegedly frivolous suits. Given enough sway in public opinion, juries can be more inclined to side with a defendant who they imagine was dragged into court on some pathetic excuse for a case. This undermines the entire purpose of civil court, which is meant to resolve legitimate disputes between parties.
Now, I could understand Tanikumi’s point if her life resembled “Frozen” in more ways than a few cherry-picked examples. I’ll even give her some credit. It’s rather suspect that the two characters acting as love interests in the movie — Hans and Kristoff — share names nearly identical to the men who act in the same capacity in Tanikumi’s memoirs — Hans and Christoff.
Besides, it sure as hell takes a good deal of fortitude to take on the corporate monolith that is Disney.
However, to say a film set in the 19th century on the other side of the planet that revolves around the use of ice magic, trolls and a sentient snowman merits a quarter billion dollar settlement over a few alleged odd similarities is a bit too far.
By that line of thinking, I should go ahead and file suit against Tom Clancy’s estate for naming his famed conservative protagonist John “Jack” Ryan. It seems I’m missing out on a big pile of cash.
Instead, Tanikumi should let it go and enjoy the momentary publicity. Who knows, maybe she’ll even see an increase in book sales for it.
Ryan McGehee is a 21-year-old political science, international studies and history senior from Zachary, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter
@JRyanMcGehee.
Opinion: ‘Frozen’ suit typifies frivolous litigation
September 30, 2014
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