As reported in an new article by Variety, Disney has officially won the “Moana” copyright infringement lawsuit against a screenwriter.
Disney Wins ‘Moana’ Lawsuit
As we previously reported in January 2025, Disney was sued by screenwriter Buck Woodall for potential copyright infringement. Woodall originally filed his suit in 2020, claiming the original “Moana” film stole elements of his work “Bucky the Wave Warrior.”
In November 2024, the court originally ruled that it was too late for Woodall to file the copyright lawsuit for the original “Moana” from 2016. However, one of Woodall’s claims was able to survive against Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney’s home video subsidiary, because the DVD of the film was not released until 2017.
The trial took place in Los Angeles, California, and lasted approximately two weeks. The eight-member jury only deliberated for a few hours before unanimously deciding that Disney did not have access to Woodall’s 2011 screenplay, meaning they did not need to further address whether the two works shared any similarities.
Woodall claimed in the original suit that he pitched his “Bucky the Wave Warrior” screenplay to a woman working as an assistant at a production company located on Disney property. As a result, Woodall believed Disney has the ability to view his work and may have based elements of “Moana” on his ideas. Some of the alleged similarities between “Moana” and his screenplay included teenagers defying their parents to go on a voyage and characters being guided by spirits manifesting as animals. Woodall argued both main characters go on a quest to save a Polynesian island, meet a demigod with tattoos and a hook, have a necklace serving as a plot device, and navigate using the stars.
Disney, meanwhile, argued that while the two stories share some basic similarities based on Polynesian culture, several main elements are fundamentally different:
Bucky is white; Moana is Oceanian. Bucky is from the mainland U.S.; Moana is indigenous to the fictional island of Motunui. Bucky lives in the modern day; Moana lives millennia in the past. Bucky is an ordinary teen; Moana is the future chief of her people. Bucky wants to learn to surf, while Moana wants to continue her people’s proud history as the greatest ocean voyagers the world has ever known.
From Variety
Woodall already filed a separate suit in January against Disney for “Moana 2,” which he also claims infringed on his same copyrighted screenplay. This win for Disney only involved the first “Moana” film, so that second suit is still ongoing.
Despite being still embroiled in a lawsuit, “Moana 2” made over $1 Billion in global box office revenue and helped to make Disney the only studio to top $5B in the global box office for 2024. Disney has already announced the release of a live-action Moana film, which is set to be released in theaters on July 10, 2026.
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