'Moana' has her origins questioned at trial the place man says his surfer boy led to the Disney hit

Was “Moana” based mostly on a boy named Bucky?

Attorneys for a New Mexico author and animator will say at closing arguments at his federal trial in Los Angeles on Monday that his work was stolen to create the Walt Disney Co.’s 2016 hit a few questing Polynesian princess, whose sequel was among the many largest hits of final yr.

Buck Woodall wrote a script, whose numerous titles have included “Bucky the Surfer Boy,” about a youngster vacationing in Hawaii together with his dad and mom who befriends a gaggle of Native Hawaiian youth and goes on a quest that includes time journey to the traditional islands and interactions with demigods to avoid wasting a sacred a part of the islands from a developer.

Woodall stated he first gave the script to a distant relative by marriage who labored for an additional firm on the Disney lot in about 2004, and a dozen years later was shocked when he noticed so a lot of his concepts in “Moana.”

Listed here are among the many similarities his lawsuit alleges:

Each “tell the story about a teenager who defies parental warnings and embarks on a dangerous voyage across Polynesian waters to save the endangered land of a Polynesian island.”

Each “involve a main character who encounters a demigod with a giant hook and tattoos.”

Each “involve protagonists who learn about ancient Polynesian culture during a sea voyage” and “a recurring theme of the Polynesian belief in spiritual ancestors” who “manifested as animals which guide and guard the living.”

Protection attorneys and witnesses — together with the girl Woodall gave the script to — stated nobody at Disney noticed his work, and that “Moana” was developed via the identical cultural analysis and inner collaboration as its different movies.

A choose dominated that Woodall filed the 2020 lawsuit too late to have a declare on the practically $700 million world field workplace of “Moana.” What stays are the movie’s DVD and Blu-ray gross sales — value $31.4 million gross with a web revenue of $10.4 million. The one remaining defendant is Disney subsidiary Buena Vista Residence Leisure.

“Moana” was co-directed, together with two others, by John Musker and Ron Clements, a duo that was important to the Nineteen Nineties Disney animation renaissance that made the corporate a world powerhouse.

At instances with different collaborators, Musker and Clements co-wrote and co-directed 1989’s “The Little Mermaid,” 1992’s “Aladdin,” 1997’s “Hercules” and 2009’s “The Princess and the Frog.”

Musker testified that they’d by no means plagiarized, and he was angered by the accusation.

The comparatively younger jury of six ladies and two males watched “Moana” in its entirety whereas sitting within the courtroom and have been additionally proven scenes from “The Little Mermaid” and different Musker and Clements movies.

Musker testified that Moana’s relationship together with her chief father was very like the mermaid Ariel’s together with her father, King Triton.

A protection knowledgeable stated that the connection between Moana and the shapeshifting demigod Maui, voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, displays Aladdin and his shapeshifting Genie, voiced by Robin Williams.

“So many of the extrinsic elements of ‘Moana’ have been in previous Musker and Clements films, indeed in Disney films going back a century,” the knowledgeable, Jeffrey Rovin testified at trial.

Woodall’s attorneys should show the works had substantial similarity and that the defendants had entry to the copyrighted work.

Each choose and jury will determine on substantial similarity, with the choose utilizing the so-called “extrinsic test” of comparing individual elements and the jury using the “intrinsic test” of the “total concept and feel” of the 2 works.

Woodall in January filed a second lawsuit over “Moana 2,” which was a good larger hit that introduced in additional than $1 billion globally. However the choose declined to mix the lawsuits, and the newer one, in search of as a lot as $10 billion, will likely be handled individually.