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Credit: DisneyA lawsuit filed against Disney is moving forward.
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Disney is now facing off against writer and creator Buck Woodall in court following a lawsuit claiming Disney stole materials to create its Moana franchise.
Buck Woodall filed a copyright lawsuit in January 2025, claiming Disney stole key ideas from his own screenplay that he says led to the creation of Disney’s incredibly popular and lucrative Moana franchise. In his lawsuit, Woodall argues that his animated film titled Bucky shares undeniable similarities with Disney’s Moana.
Both projects are set in a Polynesian village and feature teenage heroes who set out on an adventure to save their homes. Woodall claims that he showed the screenplay and a trailer for Bucky to former Mandeville Films director of development Jenny Marchik, saying Mandeville had a first-look deal with Disney at the time.
According to Woodall, Marchick asked him for more materials regarding his Bucky project, including character designs and story elements. The suit shows other similarities, such as the use of a symbolic necklace and even a demigod covered in tattoos.
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Disney released its first Moana film in 2016, managing to recapture the magic found in some of the company’s older animated films. Moana grossed over $600 million at the box office and ended up becoming one of the biggest hits on Disney+, all but ensuring a sequel would get made.
Sure enough, Moana 2 was released in theaters to an even bigger splash, nearly doubling the first film’s $600 million gross and ending its run with a little over $1 billion in box office revenue. The sequel, while not as praised by critics, still captured the magic of the previous Moana film and unsurprisingly proved to be a big hit among children.
Moana 2 started out as a Disney+ original series before being turned into its own feature-length film.
A live-action version of Moana is also in development and set to be released in 2026. Needless to say, Disney has clearly profited from Moana, which has become one of the company’s biggest franchises.
Woodall seeks to get a piece of this pie in his lawsuit, which is now moving forward in Los Angeles, California. Jury selection is now underway in the trial between Disney and Woodall, per MickeyBlog.
Disney has denied any wrongdoing, claiming that filmmakers had never heard of the plaintiff or his Bucky project.
“Moana incorporates the efforts of hundreds of people who devoted more than a million hours in the aggregate working on the movie over a five-year period. In short, Moana was not inspired by or based in any way on Woodall or Bucky.
Woodall is seeking damages equivalent to 2.5% of Moana‘s total gross revenue, or alternatively, at least $10 billion, as well as a court order barring further infringement of his intellectual property.
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