Animator Buck Woodall filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company earlier this month for copyright infringement, alleging that the films “Moana” and “Moana 2” copied material from his script.
Woodall claimed he wrote the script, called “Bucky the Brave Warrior,” after being “inspired” by his exposure to Polynesian culture. According to the animator, the script is “about a teenager who defies parental warnings and embarks on a dangerous voyage across Polynesian waters to save the endangered land of a Polynesian island.” The opening sequences of the film and Woodall’s script are also similar, he alleges.
The lawsuit describes twenty-one “duplications which could not possibly have been accidental or innocent in derivation.”
Production companies Mandeville Films and former Mandeville executive Jenny Marchick are also listed as defendants.
Woodhall’s lawsuit goes on to claim that Marchick “prodded” him to create an animated trailer for his “Bucky” script. The material is registered as copyright-protected material, the lawsuit asserts.
Marchick also had a “first look” deal with Disney, which is described as a “favored and highly sought-after relationship from the standpoint of an independent producer for the possible production and distribution of a theatrical feature product by a major studio.” She later “secretly provided the Copyrighted Materials” to Disney, the filing says. Marchick allegedly told Woodhall that she was unsure if the materials ever “made it beyond” her desk.
The animator is seeking “at least $10 billion” and the equivalent of 2.5% of all gross revenue earned by Disney from “Moana” and its related products.
