Intellectual Property
Feb. 27, 2025
Jurors to watch 'Moana' as Disney copyright trial unfolds
In a high-stakes copyright trial, jurors will watch Disney's 2016 blockbuster Moana as part of a lawsuit claiming the film was copied from an independent animator's work. Plaintiff Buck Woodall alleges Disney used his unproduced screenplay, Bucky the Surfer Boy, without credit or compensation. Disney's defense maintains that Moana was an original creation developed internally. The jury must now decide whether the similarities are coincidence or infringement.
Disney hijacked an independent animator's life-long passion project about a teenage surfer who journeys the seas with mythical Polynesian beings to produce its hit film, "Moana," jurors were told on Wednesday.
The jury will be shown the film, "Moana," on Thursday. The trial is estimated to last 10 days.
"The question that you're going to have to ask yourself is: ... at what point does [the similarity] stop being a coincidence, and at what ...
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