Disney has been sued for copyright infringement for the films Moana 2. The lawsuit comes from animator Buck Woodhall, who claims he created a full screenplay for a story eerily similar to that of Moana and gave his work to ex-Mandeville Films director, Jenny Marchick. He continues to claim that Marchick passed his work to Disney without his consent, and that Disney has allegedly created the Moana franchise based on his screenplay work.
Woodhall claims that his screenplay included ‘extremely large quantities of intellectual property and trade secrets’ in relation to his work titled ‘Bucky’ and ‘Bucky the Wave Warrior’, which were created between 2003 and 2008. The workings of which included storyboards, character illustrations, budgets, a completed screenplay, a fully animated concept trailer, background image references and more, for which Woodhall also claims he received copyright for in 2014.
He states in the lawsuit that the actions equate to a ‘fraudulent enterprise that encompassed the theft, misappropriate, and extensive exploitation of Woodhall’s copyrighted materials’.
This is not the first time Woodhall has attempted to bring a suit against Disney for the Bucky vs Moana problem. In November 2024, the courts ruled that Woodhall was prevented from bringing an identical suit against the 2016 original Moana movie as the limitations meant the filing would have been launched too late. This time, however, Woodhall has put the focus of this lawsuit against the sequel; Moana 2, and has instead included notes as to how his work was used in creating Moana 1, and, thus, was the story behind Moana 2.
The filing compares the similarities between Bucky and Moana 1. This includes following the journey of a teenager on a voyage in a canoe across Polynesian waters to save Polynesian land. It continues to also both include the Polynesian belief in ancestors who manifest in animal guides, the inclusion of a symbolic necklace, star navigation on their journey, a large creature disguised as a mountainous island, and a lava goddess. It continues to highlight the similarities between Bucky and Moana 2 in the inclusion of a rooster and a pig as the teenager’s companions, a whirlpool that leads to an oceanic portal, a journey to break a curse, as well as a visit with the Kakamora warrior tribe. The suit specifically states that ‘the Plaintiffs materials that could not possibly have been developed by chance or without malicious intentions’.
The animator is seeking $10 billion in damages as this equates to 2.5% of Moana’s gross revenue, as well as a court order that affirms his copyright ownership, and to prevent further infringement of his work.
The director, Ron Clements, of the franchise has commented on the lawsuit by making a court declaration which stated ‘Moana was not inspired by or based in any way on [Woodall] or his Bucky project which I learned of for the first time after this lawsuit was filed.’
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