A jury has determined that Moana creators knew nothing about a fellow Hawaii set & Polynesian demigods featuring idea & did ...

“There was no ‘Moana’ without ‘Bucky,’” Gustavo Lage, lawyer for plaintiff Buck Woodall, said during closing arguments in a Los Angeles courtroom. Defense lawyer Moez Kaba said that the evidence shows ...

A Los Angeles federal jury ruled on Monday that Disney did not steal the idea for its massive hit film “Moana” from animator Buck Woodall.

On March 10, 2025, a federal jury delivered a verdict in favor of Disney in a closely watched copyright infringement lawsuit.

Animator Buck Woodall continues to pursue a copyright trial over the sequel to the 2016 hit, though the jury's decision in this case may indicate he faces an uphill battle. By Winston Cho A Los ...

“We are obviously disappointed. We are going to review our options and think about the best path forward,” Woodall’s attorney Gustavo Lage said. A Disney spokesperson said they were ...

The plaintiff, Buck Woodall, filed suit in 2020, alleging that “Moana” was based on his work entitled “Bucky the Wave Warrior.” After a two-week trial in federal court in Los Angeles ...

Plaintiff Buck Woodall contended he'd passed his materials to a contact who worked on a Disney lot. Disney creators John Musker and Ron Clements say they never saw Woodall's materials. A separate ...

Buck Woodall wrote a script, whose various titles have included “Bucky the Surfer Boy," about a teenager vacationing in Hawaii with his parents who befriends a group of Native Hawaiian youth and ...

Buck Woodall’s five-year battle with Disney over who really created Moana looks to have come to an end, with a Los Angeles jury on Monday finding for the House of Mouse in the animated franchise ...

The Los Angeles federal jury deliberated for only about 2 ½ hours before deciding that the creators of “Moana” never had access to writer and animator Buck Woodall’s outlines and script for ...

A jury rejected Buck Woodall’s claim that Disney's "Moana" copied his story, "Bucky the Surfer Boy," ruling that Disney creators never had access to his work. Woodall’s lawyer argued that ...