Last Updated on January 19, 2025
The Walt Disney Company is being sued by an animator who claims the media conglomerate plagiarized substantial parts of a script he wrote in the media conglomerate’s hit movies “Moana” and “Moana 2”.
According to the lawsuit filed January 10 in California federal court, writer Buck Woodall claims the Moana films exhibit “breathtaking” similarities to his script for the animated feature he created, “Bucky the Wave Warrior” or “Bucky.”
Both Woodall’s script and the “Moana” movies allegedly include a demigod with a giant hook and tattoos, a teenage protagonist on a “dangerous voyage across Polynesian waters” to rescue an “endangered” island, “ancient spirits manifested as animals which guide and guard the living.” Woodall claims that the feature film that Disney copied was inspired by his “unique exposure” to Polynesian culture.
Disney is accustomed to having allegations of lifted intellectual property leveled against the entertainment company.
Disney saw its most recent troubling incident with pilfered intellectual property issues last year, when an Oakland jury found that Disney infringed on a visual effecst company called Rearden’s intellectual property after the movie studio used copyrighted technology to animate characters in Beauty and the Beast.
In the Beauty and the Beast case, Disney could have had to pay out more than $100 million after the case based on allegations that the movie’s success in theaters was due to Rearden’s video effects work.
Moana’s take at the box office has been nothing short of astonishing.
The 2016 Disney film Moana grossed $687.2 million worldwide. The film made $248.7 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $438.4 million in other countries
Just two months after Moana 2 exploded into theaters, when it earned Disney the biggest Thanksgiving opening weekend in box office history, the sequel passed $1 billion at the global box office.
Problems with intellectual honesty aren’t the only problems Disney has.
In August of last year, police reported that a pedophile filmed children at Disney World in order to produce AI images depicting child abuse. (Read archived report here.)
Disney has a long track record of damaging child actors who go on to lead broken lives of debauchery, drug abuse, and deviancy, such as Lindsay Lohan, in addition to Disney stars Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez, and of course the most infamous victim to the Disney curse is ex-child star Britney Spears. 
For “Moana 2,”Woodall is seeking a jury trial and asking for “at least $10 billion” in damages and 2.5 percent of the gross revenue from “Moana 2” and related merchandise, which he estimates amounts to “at least $5 billion.”
“The lawsuit also requests “for an accounting of all revenues of any kind generated by the Defendants from each portion of the Moana franchise” following the release of the original movie,” People reports.
In addition to Disney, defendants named in the complaint include Mandeville Films and former Mandeville exec Jenny Marchick, who currently runs feature development for DreamWorks Animation,
Woodall claims in the lawsuit that he shared his ideas for “Bucky” with Marchik in 2003 at Mandeville Films, when the company had a “first look” deal with Disney. The company then allegedly “prodded” Woodall for more content related to “Bucky,” prompting him to provide an animated trailer, storyboards and a full script.
Disney raked in $221 million within five days of its domestic debut of Moana 2 in late November, setting the record for the biggest Thanksgiving weekend debut in box office history.
The media company is reportedly anticipating “Moana 2” will be awarded Best Animated Feature Oscar when the academy announces nominations, which have been postponed amid the Los Angeles wildfires, but Woodall’s claims may jeopardize its standing with the academy.
Woodall previously sued Disney over the “Moana” franchise but in November a judge dismissed the case.
