Animator Buck Woodall has filed a lawsuit against Disney, claiming the popular Moana franchise closely resembles his unpublished screenplay, which he alleges was passed to Disney by former Mandeville Films executive Jenny Marchick without his consent. Woodall asserts that his work was used to create Moana and its sequel, Moana 2, and seeks significant compensation for the alleged infringement.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday and reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, accuses Marchick of stealing Woodall’s intellectual property. Woodall contends that Marchick, who is now Head of Development at DreamWorks Animation, secretly shared his confidential materials with Disney more than 20 years ago. At the time, Marchick was a director at Mandeville Films, a company with a first-look deal with Disney and offices located on the Burbank, California, Disney lot.
Woodall’s suit claims that the materials he provided to Marchick between 2003 and 2008 included a completed screenplay, character designs, storyboards, a concept trailer, and other content for a project called Bucky the Wave Warrior (later shortened to Bucky). Woodall says the project was never developed, but he registered his work for copyright protection in 2004, which was renewed in 2014.
According to the lawsuit, Disney adapted Woodall’s Bucky materials into Moana (2016) and continued to use elements from his work in Moana 2 (2024). Woodall points to several striking similarities between Bucky and both films. For example, Bucky and Moana both feature a young protagonist embarking on a journey across the ocean in a canoe to save their homeland. They also share themes of Polynesian ancestry, spiritual animal guides, a mystical necklace, and a lava goddess, among other key plot points.
The second film, Moana 2, allegedly includes additional elements from Bucky, such as a rooster and pig sidekick, a curse-breaking mission, an oceanic whirlpool portal, and the Kakamora warrior tribe.
In his suit, Woodall accuses Disney of engaging in a “fraudulent enterprise” to steal and exploit his work. He also claims that Disney took advantage of legal loopholes in its corporate structure to avoid accountability. While Woodall’s previous legal attempts to claim copyright infringement for the first Moana film were unsuccessful due to timing, his current lawsuit focuses primarily on Moana 2.
Woodall is seeking 2.5 percent of Moana’s gross revenue, which amounts to roughly $10 billion, along with a court ruling affirming his copyright and preventing further infringement. Disney has yet to comment on the lawsuit.
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