A Los Angeles jury sided with Disney on Monday in a copyright lawsuit concerning the animated film Moana, clearing the company of allegations that it had copied the work of a screenwriter.
The plaintiff, Buck Woodall, filed the lawsuit in 2020, claiming that Moana was based on his 2011 screenplay, Bucky the Wave Warrior. After a two-week trial in federal court, the eight-member jury unanimously concluded that Disney had not accessed Woodall’s screenplay or any earlier drafts. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before reaching its decision.
“We are incredibly proud of the collective work that went into the making of Moana and are pleased that the jury found it had nothing to do with Plaintiff’s works,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement.
Because the jury determined that the filmmakers did not have access to Woodall’s script, they did not address the issue of whether the two works shared similarities. However, Woodall, a New Mexico-based writer, had previously argued that both his screenplay and Moana featured a series of common elements, such as a teenager embarking on a dangerous journey to save a Polynesian island, navigating by stars, encountering a demigod with tattoos, and surviving a storm at sea.
Woodall further claimed that in 2004, he pitched his project to a relative working as an assistant at a live-action production company at Disney. The relative allegedly asked if Disney would accept a submission and was told no, according to court filings.
In its defense, Disney argued that Moana was independently developed years later, with no evidence that any of the filmmakers had seen Woodall’s work. The company’s attorneys also pointed to several key differences between the two projects, including the fact that Woodall’s protagonist, Bucky, is a white teenager from the U.S., whereas Moana is an Oceanian teen and the future chief of her island community.
“Bucky wants to learn to surf, while Moana wants to continue her people’s proud history as the greatest ocean voyagers the world has ever known,” Disney’s lawyers wrote in a motion.
Although most of Woodall’s claims were dismissed by a judge in November due to the statute of limitations—since Moana was released in 2016—his claim against Disney’s home video subsidiary, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, survived because the film’s DVD release occurred in 2017.
After the trial, Disney’s legal team declined to comment. Woodall’s lawyer expressed disappointment, stating that his client would evaluate his options moving forward.
Additionally, Woodall filed a separate lawsuit in January, alleging that Moana 2 also infringed upon his screenplay. That case is still ongoing.
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