Project Notes

Since this is getting dangerously close to front paged, I might as well get something through to you guys:
I hate Simba. Simba the white lion.


Did the Disney studio steal Kimba The White Lion and rework it as their "original story", The Lion King? They certainly give that impression with their corporate stance ("we never heard of Tezuka nor Kimba until after The Lion King was released"). And why would they have filed suit to try to prevent the showing of Tezuka Productions' 1997 Jungle Emperor Leo movie at the 1998 Toronto FantAsia Film Festival? (Jungle Emperor was the original title for Kimba The White Lion.) It seems quite simple; Kimba had been kept out of sight in North America for 20 years by that time. And once you can see the two together...
I'm sure you've heard how every character in The Lion King has a matching character in Kimba, all the way down to the level of both having a sage mandrill mis-identified as a baboon.
The shame of the matter is that the Disney company is sticking to their official line --that their people never heard of Kimba before The Lion King was released-- even in the face of logic and evidence. if we were to take their statement at face value, it actually means they were stupid and irresponsible. But more than that, many examples say just the opposite of the Disney statement.
During planning sessions for The Lion King, Simba started out as a white lion until one of the animators spoke up: "Not even OUR lawyers are THAT good!" Maybe so, but notice how both characters have a tuft of hair in the middle of their foreheads, and the very unusual dark ear rim. That alone shows how Kimba is the direct predecessor of Simba.


It is my opinion that the creative people at Disney most definitely knew of Kimba as they were making The Lion King-- but somehow, before the movie could be released, it was decided that the tie must be denied. Even if that means a slap in the face for Osamu Tezuka, the "Walt Disney of Japan".


More similarities:


Both title characters turn to eating bugs to save their herbivore friends. In The Lion King, they blow past this idea in under a minute, but it was a major plot element in Kimba; the meat eaters tried eating plants until they hit on the idea of eating bugs.
And more... the patch of thorns... (This scene called the matching scene from Kimba immediately to my mind. I couldn't believe how much alike they were.)
...dangling from a cliff with the villain above...
(FYI: The antagonist lion in Kimba was introduced as his "aunt", while Scar was Simba's uncle.)
... and the stampede.
And there is of course the opening sequence of Jungle Emperor (the Japanese version of Kimba) and the parallel opening sequence of The Lion King. The most famous comparison of the two is the image of the lion on the jutting rock.
In the episode "Dangerous Journey", Kimba is faced with the need to undertake a, well, dangerous journey in order to save an important member of their community. He doesn't think he is capable of doing it, but that night his father appears to him in the moon, and convinces him that this is something he has to do.
In the Lion King, Simba is faced with the need to save his entire community, a task he doesn't think he is capable of doing until his father appears to him in the moon/clouds and convinces him that he can.


Anyone still want to try to convince me it's all a coincidence? Peter and Rochelle Schweizer interviewed Disney animators and report that while working on the Lion King the animators held up stills from Kimba for comparison to their own work.


Kimba is one of the landmarks of animation. The Disney company has earned over 1.5 billion dollars from The Lion King but has not given either any sort of compensation to Tezuka Productions nor credit to Osamu Tezuka. I know their creative people know better. In and of itself, it's not a crime that they did take elements from Tezuka's work--there are also elements in The Lion King that would seem to come from Kipling's Jungle Books (not the Disney version) and from a famous pre-WWII Nazi propaganda film (Triumph of the Will). Cultural references are to be expected. But when a work derives so much from another, denying the source is wrong. To deny the source does an injustice to Osamu Tezuka, the original creator, and to Disney's own people who love Tezuka's works.


Why must the Disney company take such a stance about their main source of inspiration for this film? Could it be that The Lion King started out originally to be a remake of Kimba The White Lion?