LOS ANGELES — An animator is suing the Walt Disney Company for $10 billion claiming the company stole the idea for “Moana” and the movie’s sequel, which was released in 2024.
Animator Buck Woodall filed a lawsuit Jan. 10 against the Walt Disney Company including its film, television and animation departments and Jenny Marchick, DreamWorks Animation’s head of development for feature films, according to People Magazine.
The lawsuit accuses Marchick and Disney of stealing elements of a screenplay he wrote for a Polynesian-inspired animated film titled “Bucky.”
In the lawsuit, Woodall says he first brought up the idea for the movie in 2003 and sent a final script to Marchick in 2011 and is seeking up to $10 billion in damages.
According to the lawsuit, Woodall’s “Bucky” and Disney’s “Moana” both follow “a teenager who defies parental warnings and embarks on a dangerous voyage.” The complaint also alleges that the films both utilize ancient Polynesian villages as a backdrop, the Polynesian belief in spiritual ancestors and the civilizations’ use of sea navigation by the stars, as well as a main character who encounters a demigod who wields a giant hook and tattoos, among other similarities.
Woodall filed his lawsuit Friday after a court ruled in November that Disney did not need to face an identical copyright lawsuit Woodall filed over Moana because he sued too late; Moana 2′s release in November 2024 enabled him to file current lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims Woodall “suffered substantial damages, including lost opportunities for financial gain, diminished value of his intellectual property, and profound reputational harm.”
In addition to $10 billion, Woodall also seeks at least 2.5 percent “of the gross revenues appertaining or relating to Moana in the sum of at least $5 billion.”
This post was originally published on here
