Animator sues Disney for allegedly plagiarizing Olaf of ‘Frozen’

Independent animator Kelly Wilson sued Walt Disney Company and affiliates on grounds of copyright infringement in the United States Federal Court for allegedly plagiarizing “original elements” of her snowman character in the "Frozen" movie and trailers.

A report from Courthouse News Service said that most of Wilson's 23-page complaint involves a Frozen teaser trailer which she claims is substantially similar to her animated short film "The Snowman."
 

Her short film is about an “average Joe” snowman who tries to retrieve his carrot nose in the middle of a frozen lake in order to prevent a group of hungry rabbits from eating it.

In Frozen's teaser trailer released in June 2013, Olaf tries to retrieve his carrot nose, which also ends up in the middle of a frozen lake. The moose Sven tries to make a snack out of it.
 

Wilson claimed that Disney's trailer used the same plot but used a moose instead of rabbits. Wilson also said that Disney had plenty of opportunities to see her film before it released its own version. In fact, she claims, Disney animators saw her film and talked to her at a California film festival, the report said.

"Plaintiff won the award for 'Youth Work Honorable Mention' for 'The Snowman' at the 54th San Francisco International Film Festival in 2011, in a category where 'The Snowman' competed with a short film created by an employee of Pixar Animation Studios ('Pixar') - a subsidiary of Disney - and it was made known by Film Festival producers that Pixar employees were present for the screenings. In fact, at screenings of the short films in 2011, both plaintiff and the Pixar employees were invited on state together to discuss their respective films," according to the lawsuit.

Frozen recently earned more than more than $1 billion dollars at the box office worldwide, making it the highest grossing animated film of all time. Wilson wants a part of the profit, plus attorneys' fees. — Kim Luces/VC, GMA News