Disney Wins Copyright Lawsuit Over ‘Moana’, but Fight Continues with the Sequel

A Los Angeles jury decided on March 10, 2025, that Disney did not steal the idea for its 2016 animated movie Moana. The decision came after a two-week trial where Buck Woodall, a writer and animator, claimed the film was based on his story Bucky the Surfer Boy.

The jury, made up of six women and two men, took less than three hours to rule that Disney creators John Musker and Ron Clements never saw Woodall’s work. This ended a five-year legal battle over the first Moana film, but Woodall has another case ongoing about the 2024 sequel, Moana 2.

Disney celebrated the victory. “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 Plaintiff’s works,” a company spokesperson said after the verdict in Judge Alka Sagar’s courtroom.

The trial showed that Musker and Clements, known for hits like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, built Moana from scratch, inspired by Polynesian culture, Herman Melville’s writings, and Paul Gauguin’s paintings. Disney’s lawyer, Moez Kaba, told the jury, “They had no idea about Bucky. They had never seen it, never heard of it.”

Woodall’s side was not happy. “We are obviously disappointed in the verdict,” his attorney Gustavo D. Lage said. “At the present time, we are weighing our options to determine the best path forward regarding the legal remedies available to our client.”

Woodall argued that his story—about a teen surfer in Hawaii who meets Polynesian demigods and goes on a quest—reached Disney through a relative, Jenny Marchick. She worked at Mandeville Films on the Disney lot in 2004 when Woodall gave her his Bucky materials, including storyboards and a 2011 script.

Marchick, now head of development at DreamWorks Animation, testified she never shared Woodall’s work with Disney. “I’m 100 per cent confident,” she said, according to court reports. She admitted to arranging a job interview for Woodall with a Disney Channel staffer, but it led nowhere.

Emails shown in court revealed she told Woodall she couldn’t help him further. Disney’s team argued there was no proof Marchick, who also worked at Sony and Fox, ever influenced Moana.

The first Moana made nearly $700 million worldwide. A judge had already ruled Woodall’s 2020 lawsuit came too late to claim any of that money. However, his new lawsuit, filed in January 2025, targets Moana 2, which earned over $1 billion.

In it, Woodall asks for $10 billion, saying Marchick and Disney conspired to steal his ideas. “This case arises from a two-decade-long scheme masterminded by Marchick but ultimately joined in with malice and for profit by all Defendants pursuant to the aforementioned conspiracy described in this Complaint,” the filing states.

“This theft resulted in what would eventually become one of the most unique and profitable animated film franchises in motion picture history revolving around Plaintiff’s Copyrighted Materials and directly resulting in the Disney franchise known as Moana.”

During the trial, Woodall’s lawyer pointed to similarities between Bucky and Moana. Both feature teens on ocean adventures, Polynesian demigods, shape-shifting characters, and animal helpers.

“There was no ‘Moana’ without ‘Bucky,’” Lage told the jury. Disney countered that these are common ideas in storytelling, seen in films like Pinocchio and Musker’s earlier works. They also showed thousands of pages of development notes proving Moana’s original creation, starting in 2011.

The jury watched Moana in court and reviewed Woodall’s Bucky outlines from 2003 and 2008, plus the 2011 script. They concluded Disney had no access to it. Judge Consuelo B. Marshall, who oversees the Moana 2 case too, agreed with the verdict. No trial date is set for the sequel lawsuit, but Disney is expected to push for its dismissal soon. Woodall may still appeal the first case, keeping the legal fight alive.