Disney has been cleared of any wrongdoing in a copyright infringement case over its 2016 animated hit Moana, after a federal jury in Los Angeles unanimously sided with the company on Monday.
The eight-member jury took just 2½ hours to decide that Disney did not steal or copy the idea from screenwriter Buck Woodall, who had alleged the film was based on his earlier project, Bucky the Wave Warrior.
“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 following the verdict.
This was reported by Euronews.
The Lawsuit
Woodall filed the lawsuit in 2020, claiming that Disney’s story of a Polynesian girl guided by a demigod was heavily inspired by Bucky the Wave Warrior, a story he developed more than a decade earlier.
His screenplay featured a young surfer in Hawaii, a tattooed demigod wielding a giant hook, and a mountain-concealed creature—elements he argued were later mirrored in Moana.
Woodall said he began sharing his concept in 2003 with Jenny Marchick, then a development executive at Mandeville Films and now head of development at DreamWorks Animation.
He claimed she asked for character designs, production plans, and storyboards, and suggested she could help get the film made — but allegedly passed his materials to Disney without credit.
His attorney, Gustavo Lage, called Disney’s actions a “fraudulent enterprise” in court and insisted Moana could not have existed without Woodall’s work: “There was no ‘Moana’ without ‘Bucky,’” he said in closing arguments.
Jury Didn’t See a Connection
But the jury disagreed, unanimously finding that Disney’s filmmakers had no access to Woodall’s screenplay or concept art, and that Moana was independently developed.
Defense attorney Moez Kaba argued that Moana was the result of decades of storytelling experience by John Musker and Ron Clements, the veteran Disney duo behind classics like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and The Princess and the Frog.
“They had no idea about Bucky,” Kaba said. “They had never seen it, never heard of it.”
A Record-Breaking Hit
Since its release in 2016, Moana has become one of Disney’s most beloved and successful films. It was recently reported as the most-streamed movie of the past five years, with viewers having watched the film for over 1 billion hours in total.
To put that into perspective: that’s the equivalent of someone watching Moana nonstop for 150,000 years, as The Wall Street Journal put it.
Despite the ruling, Woodall’s team has not ruled out future legal action. “Obviously we’re disappointed,” Lage said outside the courthouse. “We’re going to review our options and think about the best path forward.”
For now, Disney walks away from the lawsuit unscathed — and Moana continues its legacy as a global phenomenon.
