Disney didn't copy 'Moana' from man's story about surfer boy, jury rules

Yahoo

11-03-2025

The Brief
A jury rejected Buck Woodall's claim that Disney's "Moana" copied his story, "Bucky the Surfer Boy," ruling that Disney creators never had access to his work.
Woodall's lawyer argued that numerous similarities, such as demigods and shape-shifting characters, showed "Moana" was based on his script, but Disney's defense disagreed.
LOS ANGELES - A jury has rejected a man's claim that Disney's "Moana" was stolen from his story of a young surfer in Hawaii.
On Monday, the Los Angeles federal jury deliberated for only about 2 ½ hours before deciding that the creators of "Moana" never had access to writer and animator Buck Woodall's outlines and script for "Bucky the Surfer Boy."
What they're saying
Defense lawyer Moez Kaba said that the evidence showed overwhelmingly that "Moana" was clearly the creation and "crowning achievement" of the 40-year career of John Musker and Ron Clements, the writers and directors behind 1989's "The Little Mermaid," 1992's "Aladdin," 1997's "Hercules" and 2009's "The Princess and the Frog."
"They had no idea about Bucky," Kaba said in his closing early Monday. "They had never seen it, never heard of it."
The other side
In closing arguments, Woodall's attorney said that a long chain of circumstantial evidence and similarities, so numerous they couldn't be coincidences, made it clear that his story "Bucky the Surfer Boy" was the basis for the hit 2016 animated film.
"There was no 'Moana' without 'Bucky,'" Gustavo Lage, lawyer for plaintiff Buck Woodall, said during closing arguments in the courtroom.
The backstory
Woodall said he had shared his work with the stepsister of his brother's wife, who worked for a different company on the Disney lot, but the woman testified during the two-week trial that she never showed it to anyone at Disney.
This is not the first time Woodall has taken legal action against Disney. A similar case was dismissed in November due to the statute of limitations.
According to The Associated Press, both projects include Polynesian demigods as major characters, with the figures of Maui, Te Fiti and a fiery volcano goddess in "Moana" clearly counterparts of the divine characters in "Bucky."
Both also include shape-shifting characters who turn into, among other things, insects and sharks.
In addition, both include the main characters interacting with animals who act as spirit helpers.
"How many coincidences are too many?" the lawyer asked. "When does a coincidence stop being a coincidence?"
The relatively young jury of six women and two men watched "Moana" in its entirety in the courtroom.
Many others, including shape-shifting characters, appear throughout other films, including "The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," and "Hercules," which made Musker and Clements essential to the Disney renaissance of the 1990s and made Disney a global powerhouse.
Many others, including animal guides, go back to Disney movies as early as 1940's "Pinocchio" and appear in all of Musker and Clements' previous films.
"Moana" earned nearly $700 million in the global box office.
RELATED: Disney sued for allegedly copying the idea for Moana and its sequel
A judge previously ruled that Woodall's 2020 lawsuit came too late for him to claim a piece of those receipts, and that a lawsuit he filed earlier this year over "Moana 2" — which earned more than $1 billion — must be decided separately.
Why you should care
The lawsuit highlights ongoing debates in Hollywood over intellectual property and creative rights.
Going forward, the case could have implications for how studios handle submissions and develop culturally inspired films.