Legal Troubles For Disney Over 'Moana 2'
Image Source: Flickreel
Like its predecessor, Disney’s Moana 2 was a success. While it didn’t get as good of a critical reception as the first film, it still made 964 million at the box office and has been nominated for several awards. It was expected to receive a few of the typical animated Oscar nominations, such as song and animated feature. However, there might be some issues with that.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, animator Buck Woodall is suing Disney, claiming that they infringed upon a copyrighted screenplay of his for a movie called Bucky. He initially attempted to sue upon the release of the first film, but the suit wasn’t filed in time. Now that the second film has come out, he’s giving it another go, suing for ten million dollars.
The similarities are:
The setting of an ancient Polynesian village
A teenager goes on an ocean adventure that involves the spirits of ancestors manifesting as animals.
Said adventure begins because of a turtle.
A symbolic necklace is important to the story.
A supporting character is a hook-wielding demigod with tattoos.
A large creature is hidden in a mountain.
The crew is sucked into a whirlpool portal.
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Now, this certainly doesn’t mean that Disney ripped off Bucky. After all, we’ve all seen videos where people say The Lego Movie and The Matrix, for example, are the same film. Co-director of Moana 2, Ron Clements, denies that Disney took anything from Bucky, stating:
“Disney’s Moana was produced in the wake of Woodall’s delivery to the Defendants of virtually all constituent parts necessary for its development and production after more than 17 years of inspiration and work on his animated film project... Moana and her crew are sucked into a perilous whirlpool-like oceanic portal, another dramatic and unique device-imagery found in Plaintiff's materials that could not possibly have been developed by chance or without malicious intentions.”
Now, lawsuits of this nature aren’t a new thing, but where Disney is concerned, the timing on this couldn’t be worse. The Oscar voting ends soon, and Moana 2 might miss out on any nominations, as the Academy might want to avoid the drama.
It remains to be seen how long it takes for this to sort out, but it may be a while. In cases like these, the devil is in the details.
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Source: ScreenRant
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