A jury has swiftly and unequivocally dismissed claims that Disney’s Moana was derived from a story about a young surfer in Hawaii.
On Monday, a federal jury in Los Angeles deliberated for just two and a half hours before concluding that the creators of Moana had no access to writer and animator Buck Woodall’s outlines and script for Bucky the Surfer Boy, reports UNB.
With this issue resolved, the jury of six women and two men did not need to examine the similarities between Bucky and Disney’s 2016 animated feature, which follows the journey of a Polynesian princess.
Woodall had shared his work with a distant relative who worked for a separate company on the Disney lot. However, during the two-week trial, she testified that she had never shown it to anyone at Disney.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” Woodall’s attorney, Gustavo Lage, said outside the courtroom. “We’re going to review our options and consider the best way forward.”
In closing arguments earlier that day, Woodall’s attorney asserted that an extensive chain of circumstantial evidence linked the two works inseparably.
“There was no Moana without Bucky,” Lage argued.
Defence lawyer Moez Kaba countered that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrated that Moana was the original work and the “crowning achievement” of John Musker and Ron Clements, the celebrated writers and directors behind The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), Hercules (1997), and The Princess and the Frog (2009).
“They had no idea about Bucky,” Kaba stated in his closing remarks. “They had never seen it, never heard of it.”
Moana went on to earn nearly $700 million worldwide.
A judge had previously ruled that Woodall’s 2020 lawsuit was filed too late for him to claim any share of the film’s revenue. Additionally, a separate lawsuit he filed earlier this year regarding Moana 2—which grossed over $1 billion—must be addressed separately. Though that case remains active, the jury’s decision does not bode well for its outcome. Judge Consuelo B. Marshall, who is also presiding over the sequel lawsuit, expressed agreement with the jury’s verdict regarding access.
“We are incredibly proud of the collective effort that went into making Moana and are pleased that the jury determined it had no connection to the plaintiff’s work,” Disney said in a statement.
Bd-pratidin English/ Afia
