“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 jury on Monday cleared Disney of a copyright infringement claim involving 'Moana,' which was brought by the author of 'Bucky the Wave Warrior.' ...

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 ...

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. In Buck G. Woodall ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

A federal jury in Los Angeles on Monday took less than three hours to reject Buck Woodall's claims that Walt Disney Animation Studios had access to his copyrighted "Bucky" materials. Since the jury ...

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 ...

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 ...