Disney Cleared of Plagiarism in USD100 Million Copyright Lawsuit Over Moana

By Enrique Cheang, E.C.V. & Asociados

A federal jury in Los Angeles has unanimously thrown out animator Buck Woodall’s copyright infringement case against Disney’s Moana.

Woodall alleged he developed a screenplay titled Bucky the Surfer Boy in the early 2000s—a teenage surfer time-traveling to ancient Polynesia—and shared it with Jenny Marchick, an executive at Mandeville Films, which had ties to Disney.

He claimed Disney used his materials—screenplays, storyboards, character designs—as the foundation for Moana, seeking damages initially around USD100 million, later filing a separate USD10 billion lawsuit tied to Moana 2. 

Jury trial began late February; on March 10, after about two and a half hours of deliberation, the jury concluded Disney’s creators never had access to Woodall’s materials. Because access was disproven, the jury didn’t evaluate similarities between the two works.