A jury in Los Angeles has determined that an animator’s claim accusing Disney of stealing the idea for Moana is unfounded.
On Monday, March 10, multiple outlets reported that a federal jury in L.A. deliberated for just two and a half hours before reaching a unanimous verdict that the creators of Disney’s 2016 animated hit Moana “never had access to” the outlines and scripts for a story titled Bucky. Animator Buck Woodall had previously alleged that his work was stolen.
Woodall claimed that Jenny Marchick, DreamWorks Animation’s head of development for feature films—who had previously worked with Disney-affiliated Mandeville Films in Burbank, Calif., during the 2000s—shared his project materials with Disney.
However, the eight-member jury unanimously concluded that Disney never had access to Woodall’s 2011 screenplay or earlier treatments of the film. Marchick testified during the trial that she never showed Woodall’s work to anyone at Disney.
Messages presented by Disney’s defense team further showed that she ignored Woodall’s outreach regarding Bucky over the years.
Jurors did not need to assess whether Moana and Bucky shared similarities because they determined that Moana’s filmmakers had no access to Bucky’s script.
John Musker, one of the directors of Moana, testified that he and collaborator Ron Clements drew inspiration from past Disney projects they worked on, including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules.
Jurors were shown scenes from those films as Disney’s legal team argued that the concepts Woodall claimed were stolen “can be found in most works from Musker and Clements.”
Following the verdict, Woodall’s attorney, Gustavo Lage, expressed disappointment, telling reporters, “Obviously we’re disappointed. We’re going to review our options and think about the best path forward”.
“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 the Plaintiff’s works,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement to multiple outlets.
Woodall initially filed his lawsuit on January 10 after a separate court ruled in November 2024 that Disney was not required to face another copyright lawsuit he had filed regarding Moana, as he had waited too long after the film’s release to take legal action.
However, the release of Moana 2 in November 2024 provided him with grounds to file a new lawsuit in January, in which he alleged that the sequel further incorporated elements from his screenplay. Per Variety, Woodall’s lawsuit concerning Moana 2 is still pending.
