Animator Sues Disney for $10 Billion Claiming Company Stole Idea forMoanaand Its Sequel

Mar. 15, 2025

Maui and Moana in 2024’sMoana 2.Photo:Disney

Disney

Disney is being sued over theMoanafranchise.

On Friday, Jan. 10, animator Buck Woodall filed alawsuitagainst the Walt Disney Company, its various film, television and animation departments and Jenny Marchick, DreamWorks Animation’s head of development for feature films, alleging that Marchick and Disney stole elements of a screenplay he wrote for a Polynesian-inspired animated film titledBuckyfor its wildly successful 2016 hitMoanaand its 2024 sequelMoana 2.

The animator alleges he brought the idea for his screenplayBuckyto Marchick and then-employer Mandeville Films in 2003. He further claims that at the time, Mandeville had a first look deal with Disney and held offices on Disney’s property in Burbank, Calif., and that Marchick later shared Woodall’s copyrighted materials for the project with Disney.

Representatives for Disney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Simea and Moana in 2024’s Moana 2.Disney

The lawsuit claims that Woodall sent Marchick a copy of his final draft scrip in 2011 while she was working as a “consultant, original movies” at Disney, which the complaint described as “virtually the final cog in the Defendants' conspiratorial machinery of stealingBuckyand developingMoana.”

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According toTHR, Woodall filed Friday’s lawsuit after a court ruled in November that Disney did not need to face an identical copyright lawsuit Woodall filed overMoanabecause he sued too late;Moana 2’s release in November 2024 enabled him to file the Jan. 10 lawsuit.

Moana in 2016’s Moana.Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock

Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock

The lawsuit claims Woodall “has suffered substantial damages, including lost opportunities for financial gain, diminished value of his intellectual property, and profound reputational harm as a result of Defendants' actions.”

source: people.com