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Moana 2, the already beloved sequel to the unique starring Auli’i Carvalho and Dwayne Johnson, is dealing with a authorized battle. In line with The Hollywood Reporter, a brand new copyright lawsuit was filed in California federal court docket over the weekend, alleging sure facets of the movie had been merely taken from an analogous story.
Right here’s every little thing it is advisable to know concerning the allegations and the lawsuit.
When Was the ‘Moana 2’ Copyright Lawsuit Filed?
In line with THR, the motion was filed Friday, January 10, 2025 in California federal court docket. The extremely anticipated animated movie debuted to large recognition on November 27, 2024.
Who Filed the ‘Moana 2’ Copyright Lawsuit?
Per THR, Buck Woodall, an animation screenwriter, claims he wrote an animated movie of his personal entitled “Bucky,” written again in 2003. In line with the lawsuit, “Moana and her crew are sucked into a deadly whirlpool-like oceanic portal, one other dramatic and distinctive device-imagery present in Plaintiffs supplies that might not presumably have been developed by probability or with out malicious intentions.” Amongst different alleged similarities are a hero in search of to interrupt a curse and a deadly journey to find and save an historic island.
Moreover, the criticism ranges claims that the defendants had obtained story parts for the unique Moana from Woodall himself. “Disney’s Moana was produced within the wake of Woodall’s supply to the Defendants of nearly all constituent components mandatory for its growth and manufacturing after greater than 17 years of inspiration and work on his animated movie undertaking,” states the criticism.
Defendants embody Dreamworks Animation’s head of growth Jenny Marchick, who on the time was a director of growth for Mandeville Movies, who had a “first look” cope with the animation big.
Disney denies the allegations, stating that no person on the Disney initiatives had seen Woodall’s inventive work. “Moana was not impressed by or primarily based in any manner on [Woodall] or his ‘Bucky’ undertaking, which I realized of for the primary time after this lawsuit was filed,” director Ron Clements, one of many administrators of the primary Moana, wrote in his court docket declaration, per the outlet. Disney additionally reportedly included supporting paperwork exhibiting the analysis, growth, story concepts, and even journey journals for Moana, to the court docket.
In line with THR, a decide dominated in November 2024 that the primary lawsuit for Moana wouldn’t go ahead as a result of Woodall introduced the motion “too late.” With the discharge of the sequel got here a chance to deliver the swimsuit once more.
How A lot Has ‘Moana 2’ Earned on the Field Workplace So Far?
Deadline reported on December 24, 2024, that Moana 2 had raked in a big sum in extra of $800 million. By January 5, per Selection, the movie was nicely on its solution to a billion in income, surpassing $950 million. It debuted at over $220 million in November. Woodall is in search of $10 billion in damages, or 2.5 p.c of gross income. In line with THR, he’s additionally requesting a court docket order that may limit any additional alleged infringement of his copyrights.