I never knew about this... (Lion King and Kimba?)

[Dan05]

I was searching up the lion king just now and found this...

http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm

did anyone know about this?

[RJKD23]

wow...

1.) how'd you find that?
2.) whoa...that's interesting. shocking, too! look at those similarities..

[Dan05]

I was just searching up the lion king on yahoo and came across that, I was shocked too it's so similar

[Siren]

The Kimba thing? Heard about it for years myself. I have some Kimba tapes and DVDs too.
There is a USA release of Kimba out on DVD now. Called Jungle Emperor Leo.

The thing is, years ago, Kimba was a Japanese kid's show that was brought over to the USA and dubbed. It was shown on Saturday mornings and did well. Then those crazy Japanese threw a wrench into the works, least by the USA producers standing, and had Kimba grow up. Apparently, the USA thought he was better off staying small. But they took the grown up Simba to the USA anyways. And they renamed him Leo, so he is suppost to be a totally different character that looks and acts the same, with the same animal friends, but has a different name.

One big difference between the 2 are the humans. In Kimba/Leo, humans are very much a part of the show. Good and bad. It was a very preachy show about the enviroment and cutting down trees and poaching animals. But it dealt with it pretty realistically. Not very sugar-coated.

[Ciaobelli]

its...the same. What's the deal here?

[Prince Eric]

I've slowly been researching this case over the years because I have faint memories of seeing Kimba as a child. (Would it have been on the air in the mid- to late-80's?) I do indeed feel that The Lion King story is all to closely connected to Kimba the White Lion. However, I don't see why the Japanese creators every filed suit. I mean, I've done searches on many archived entertainment magazines, and I never find articles of a big public suit. Even Entertainment Weekly, the most comprehensive entertainment periodical never ran an article on it. I guess Disney just got really fortunate.

[Zombi6422]

Why evenbother suing disney, they will win any lawsuit thrown at them.

[lolopimp]

Don't be fooled by the "similarities" in Kimba. The show is old as I can imagine, created by Osamu Tezuka. The original name of the main character is Leo not Kimba. It was changed when it was released in the USA for some odd reason. Many fans of the anime have been furious about the fact that TLK ripped off Kimba, which is untrue.
Go to this website for more info in it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357/board/nest/8398068

It has a lot of interesting comments on the movie being a "rip off", but Lion King fans always have something intersting to say to thos Japanes anime fan freaks. Trust me, they got no life; all they do is go to that board and bash the movi....sad':(

[Siren]

Lion King animators aren't stupid. They don't sit in their little holes and only watch Disney and USA flicks. These are people who have had a longtime love for animation, the likliehood ALL of them never heard of Kimba is so beyond remote that to believe they never heard of Kimba is to believe they never heard of Mickey Mouse.
And the same goes for the writers.

The story and characters are so similar it is beyond uncanny. Do I care? No. I am a MUCH bigger fan of Lion King them Kimba. The animation is FAR more superior. As is the storyline.

I think Disney is denying just to save their legal arse. They knew about Kimba, maybe it wasn't their intention to make it look THAT close to it, but they knew.

I think some of the nitpicking between the two goes to far though. For instance, both feature Mt. Kilimanjaro. COME ON! BOTH are set in Africa. Not showing Africa's biggest landmark is like filming a movie in New York and not showing the Statue of Liberty.
And even the whole Pride Rock thing. Again, Africa is just full of very big rocks. Only natural for their kingdom to have a "castle". And the best lion castle would be a large rock formation. It is natural looking, with natural shading, and a great centerpiece.

I do believe the nay-sayers just go way over the top on it and need to move on, but regardless, Disney was influenced by Kimba.

[orestes.]

A few years ago someone showed me the similarities and they tried to show me how "evil" Disney was for ripping-off Kimba. I couldn't get as enraged as he was but it did bother me a bit. Now I try not to think about it because situations where there is obvious copying just makes me mad and there is nothing I can do!

Another instance is the show Cold Case, which is a rip-off of the much better Cold Squad. When people ask, they deny it but you don't have to dig down to hard to see someone is lying.

[Luke]

Please try to use more descriptive thread titles.

This is still my favorite link on the subject:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a991224.html

[Little Red Henski]

The strange thing is that the Kimba manga was plublished in the Japanese Disneyland magazine. http://en.tezuka.co.jp/manga/sakuhin/m016/m016_01.html


Tezuka's family said that Tezuka would've been honored to know that the Disney studio was influenced by one of his works. The man was a huge fan of Max Fleischer & Walt Disney. Tezuka's Metropolis manga has Mickey Mouse clones in it.

[maxeythecat]

The Kimba thing? Heard about it for years myself. I have some Kimba tapes and DVDs too.
There is a USA release of Kimba out on DVD now. Called Jungle Emperor Leo.
"The thing is, years ago, Kimba was a Japanese kid's show that was brought over to the USA and dubbed. It was shown on Saturday mornings and did well. Then those crazy Japanese threw a wrench into the works, least by the USA producers standing, and had Kimba grow up. Apparently, the USA thought he was better off staying small."

Of COURSE they had "Kimba" grow up!
The original name of the series was "Janguru Taitei Leo", which translates into "Jungle Emperor Leo"...it was based on
an original Manga comic book created by the "Father of Manga" Osamu Tezuka and covered three generations of white lions... needless to say, it had quite a bit of ground to cover.Osamu Tezuka started the comic in 1950 and from what I understand finished it sometime round 1956...it proved so popular that it's never been out of print.

"But they took the grown up Simba to the USA anyways. And they renamed him Leo, so he is suppost to be a totally different character that looks and acts the same, with the same animal friends, but has a different name. "

Kimba's original name was Leo but Fred Ladd, the one responsible for importing Tezuka's "Astroboy" to the US thought the name was too much of a cliche' for American audiences ( he likened it to calling your dog Fido or Rover...it would'nt be very believable) so he toyed round with a few names that would be more appealing. At one point he settled on calling the character"Simba" as it was the Swahili word for "lion" but then thought better of it and decided on "Kimba" instead. In regards to having Kimba "grow up", Tezuka and NBC Films had a real difference of opinion...the American camp wanted to keep Kimba as a baby while Tezuka fought to keep the series true to his original vision by having his hero grow up, have his own family and eventually die in the end. The Yanks thought it was too dark for kids and stood by their decision, but when the series took off, Tezuka took his own money and produced 24 episodes of Kimba as an adult. Unfortunately, NBC declined on the sequel and they were never shown in the US until the mid 80s, so that's why most of us here in this country were unaware of it.

One big difference between the 2 are the humans. In Kimba/Leo, humans are very much a part of the show. Good and bad. It was a very preachy show about the enviroment and cutting down trees and poaching animals. But it dealt with it pretty realistically. Not very sugar-coated.

That was Tezuka's entire thing...he wanted to produce something that was imbibed with his love of nature and the impact of man's callousness to his fellow creature...he believed fully in the "Circle of Life" philosophy a full forty years before the House of Mouse ever even coined the phrase.
When the concept of "The Lion King" first came up, there was an interview with Roy Disney that mentions the project and that the story was gonna be their adaption of Tezuka's white lion hero...for Disney to now say that it knew nothing of Kimba is absolutely laughable. The only reason that Tezuka Productions never bothered to sue " Eisney" was because that their founder would've been absolutely delighted and flattered that they used the character from his masterpiece. Unfortunately, we'll never know what his direct opinion would be as he died in 1989. Hope this gives a little more backround.

[singerguy04]

wow the resemblances are remarkable, but i still love The Lion King!!!

[maxeythecat]

Don't get me wrong, so do I, but I really think that The House of Mouse should give credit where credit is due. I mean what's wrong with admitting that they "borrowed" Tezuka's story if they know full well that they're not gonna be sued for anything? It's just downright stupid on their part and typical of Eisner's heavy-handed micromanagement tactics...so much so that when a theatrical version of "Leo" came out in Japan, Disney effectively blocked it from it's release in the States because they were paranoid that people would start putting two and two together even despite the fact that the movie only covered the final part of the tale that WAS'NT ripped for "Lion King". BTW, you should check out the original series on DVD...despite the limited animation ( there was'nt much of a budget) it's surprisingly well made and beautifully rendered with a full orchestral score from music legend Isao Tomita that'll knock your socks off. It was the first full color animated show from Japan and really kicked open the doors to what we now call "anime"...if you like Simba, I guarantee you'll love Kimba!

[Little Red Henski]

Don't get me wrong, so do I, but I really think that The House of Mouse should give credit where credit is due. I mean what's wrong with admitting that they "borrowed" Tezuka's story if they know full well that they're not gonna be sued for anything? It's just downright stupid on their part and typical of Eisner's heavy-handed micromanagement tactics.

The Disney studio thought that the Tezuka family was going to sue. That is why they denied it.

[Sailor Eric]

I've also heard of that... I must admit that when I was much younger I did watch Kimba and I really like it. Being interested in anime, I feel like watching it again to understand the story.

[maxeythecat]

Well, "Eisney" thinks just about everybody's out to sue them whether they are or not...it's an affliction called "Paranoia". Completely unnecessary attitude, as it was already ON RECORD that Tezuka was probably the biggest "Walt" fan of all time ...hey, the guy saw "Bambi" over 45 times during its first release, had met Disney a number of times in the 60s and had no shame in professing that the Disney style animation was a huge influence on his work.... needless to say it's a no-brainer that a lawsuit was not gonna happen. Even his family came out and said as much after he died, but the micromanaging heavy-handedness just would'nt let things be.

[The Little Merman]

BAD DISNEY! BAD...copy cat...

[Dan05]

Japanese fans of the ever so dull KIMBA are just jealous that Disney went and made a much, much better film and animation, no one cares about Kimba and those japanese fans know it yup to them the truth hurts

just stating my opinion on this don't mean to be rude or anything