An animator has sued Disney for allegedly copying the idea for hit franchise Moana from his decades-old screenplay without his consent.
Buck Woodall filed a suit in a California federal court on Friday claiming that Disney lifted many elements of a screenplay he had written for an animated film titled Bucky.
The original film, released in 2016, tells the story of an adventurous teenager named Moana, voiced by Auli’i Cravalho, who sets sail on a dangerous mission to save her people. Along her journey, she meets Maui, voiced by Dwayne Johnson, who becomes her guide. The film was a word-of-mouth success, grossing more than $680m (£535m) globally and streaming for over 1 billion hours on Disney+.
Moana 2, expected to receive an Academy Award nomination for best animated feature, sees the Polynesian teenager reunite with Maui for another ocean adventure after she receives an unexpected call from her wave finding ancestors. The film earned $57.5m on its opening day and has already grossed $989.8m worldwide.
Woodall initially sued Disney last year but a California court ruled in November that his filing had come too late and dismissed it. The release of Moana 2 allowed the animator to sue the production giant anew, on the same basis.
The suit alleges a “fraudulent enterprise that encompassed the theft, misappropriation and extensive exploitation of Woodall’s copyrighted materials” on part of former Mandeville Films development director Jenny Marchick, now head of development at DreamWorks Animation.
The suit states that Woodall gave Marchick a screenplay and trailer for Bucky in 2003 and was then asked for more materials over the next few years, including character designs, production plans, budgets, and storyboards. Woodall claims he delivered “extremely large quantities of intellectual property and trade secrets” for projects titled Bucky and Bucky the Wave Warrior and was told by Marchick she would get the film greenlit.
“Disney’s Moana was produced in the wake of Woodall’s delivery to the defendants of virtually all constituent parts necessary for its development and production after more than 17 years of inspiration and work on his animated film project,” the suit states.
It also points out alleged overlaps between Bucky and Moana 2.
Both are set in an ancient Polynesian village and follow teenagers who set out on a dangerous voyage to save their land, and meet ancient spirits who manifest as animals on their journey.
The suit specifically points out details like the rooster and pig companions, a meeting with the Kakamora warrior tribe, a whirlpool that leads to a portal as all being lifted from the screenplay of Bucky.
“Moana and her crew are sucked into a perilous whirlpool-like oceanic portal, another dramatic and unique device-imagery found in Plaintiffs materials that could not possibly have been developed by chance or without malicious intentions,” the suit states.
Woodall claimed he received copyright protection for his Bucky materials in 2004 and the copyright was updated in 2014.
He said that while Bucky never ended up in development, and accused Marchick of using legal loopholes to pass on his materials to Disney.
Woodall is seeking damages worth 2.5 per cent of the gross revenue of Moana, equivalent to $10bn (£8.2bn), and an order banning further infringement of his copyrights.
The Independent has reached out to Disney and Universal Pictures, which owns DreamWorks Animation, for comment.
In response to the first lawsuit brought by Woodall, Disney claimed that no one involved in Moana’s development had seen the animator’s materials.
“Moana was not inspired by or based in any way on [Woodall] or his Bucky project which I learned of for the first time after this lawsuit was filed,” director Ron Clements said in a court declaration.
Disney submitted documents to the court related to Moana, including story ideas, research, early screenplay drafts and scripts, travel journals, to support the claim that Moana was developed independent of Bucky.
