7 Disney Movies That Were Accused Of Stealing Ideas

7. The Snowman - Frozen

Frozen becoming the highest grossing animated film of all time was hardly a surprise; the film is an absolute joy, with quirky characters and a female independence bent even stronger than the studio's films of the nineties. Return to form for Disney and all that. Of course, it couldn't be a Disney film without the usual controversies. We all heard the claims that Let It Go is a coming-out song, but what was less covered was a heinous example of them stealing ideas. It transpires that the first trailer for Frozen (which bears little relation to the film proper) is directly lifted from 2009 short The Snowman. The quirkily animated piece sees a snowman chased by rabbits and drop its nose in the middle of a frozen over lake. What follows is a series of farcical attempts between him and the bunnies to get the carrot first, ending with the rabbits opting to kindly give it back. Not only is the plot the same in Frozen's teaser, but the shots are damn near identical (see above). The animation's creator, Kelly Wilson, took legal action, but the story didn't gain much traction. Some claimed the short was also the total inspiration for Olaf, which certainly weakens the strong argument. Was it plagiarism? Well obviously the trailer was a shameless copy, but a living snowman ain't a new idea, so we can't say Olaf wasn't totally inspired by The Snowman.