Disney Gets Accused Of Stealing The Idea For ‘Lion King’ From ‘Kimba The White Lion’ And Some Frame-By-Frame Comparisons Are Convincing
YouTuber Alli Kat released a video with side by side comparisons between Disney’s The Lion King and Osamu Tezuka’s Kimba the White Lion, and it’s a perfect introduction to the 25-year-old controversy. Kimba was created in 1950 and animated in 1965. The Lion King, on the other hand, came out in 1994. However, immediately after Disney’s animated movie hit the screens, people accused the company of stealing the Japanese story.
Following The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast, (1991) and Aladdin (1992), The Lion King was presented as Disney’s first big animated feature that wasn’t a retelling of a fairytale or previous story. And while the popular Disney movie took a lot of inspiration from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, most critics and audiences still praised its originality. But not everyone.
Kimba the White Lion (Jungle Emperor) is a Japanese series created by Osamu Tezuka which was published in the Manga Shōnen magazine from November 1950 to April 1954. An anime based on the manga was broadcasted on TV from 1965 to 1967.
Although the two similar movies follow different screenplays, they share quite a few artistic similarities, and The Lion King contains numerous sequences that closely match Kimba‘s. Other similarities are thematically deeper and more pronounced, for example, both stories feature the theme of the circle of life.
“I can say there is absolutely no inspiration from Kimba,” animator Tom Sito told HuffPost Entertainment. Over the years, Sito has worked on such animated Disney movies as the before-mentioned Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and, of course, The Lion King. “I mean, the artists working on the film, if they grew up in the ’60s, they probably saw Kimba. I mean, I watched Kimba when I was a kid in the ’60s, and I think in the recesses of my memory, we’re aware of it but I don’t think anybody consciously thought, ‘Let’s rip off Kimba.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, The Lion King co-director Rob Minkoff said, “Frankly, I’m not familiar with [the TV series],” in reference to the controversy. He also stated that he and co-director Roger Allers first learned about the debate on a trip to Japan to promote the movie.
But that sounds a bit fishy, considering that Allers had previously lived in Tokyo and worked in animation there during the 1980s, the time when Tezuka had already become known as ‘Japan’s Walt Disney’ and a remake of Kimba was airing on prime time television.
Eventually, the studio’s denial of Kimba‘s inspiration only deepened suspicions among Tezuka’s supporters.
And that’s precisely why people are angry with Disney. Not the fact that The Lion King drew inspiration from other productions, rather, it’s that Disney has asserted that it was the studio’s first original animated film.
Georgetown law professor Madhavi Sunder said that the number of closely matching scenes comprises the “highest level of evidence of copying” and that if Tezuka productions had pursued legal action against Disney, the case would have been “very strong.”
Check out the video below to watch the similarities between the movies side-by-side
Image credits: Alli Kat
Even The Simpsons made fun of the whole situation
Image credits: The Simpsons
Here’s what people said about it
This is obviously a copy of the original, I absolutely loved Lion King as a child but the fact that I loved it doesn't prevent me from being objective. It's a copy.
I watched both movies. Kimba, being an older movie doesn't look as good as Lion King, but it's definitely the original. I was so confused when I watched it at first. I didn't even know its name until years later this debate arose. Lion King could easily be just an improved version.
Load More Replies...So we're doing this again? I mean this was widely known in industry even at the time - Disney wanted to do a remake of Kimba but for some reason they were denied the rights. Problem was they were so confident they'd already started work. Opps. So instead they filed off the serial numbers, changed the initial of the name and the colour of the main character, changed the story and released it as "original work". And now that they own 90% of everything, they keep trying to impose their version of reality, because "of course" they'd never even heard of it, besides entire scenes being exactly the same.
Maybe it was widely known in industry, but it's the first I'm hearing of it. Maybe I was too young when Lion King came out. Either way, it doesn't hurt to inform a new generation of the facts.
Load More Replies...Renard, Kimba the White Lion has many many movie adaptations made of it before LK and wether it is a movie or a series, blatant plagarism is blatant plagarism
Load More Replies...I totally believe Disney when they say they have no knowledge of Kimba. Anyway, I have this brilliant idea about a centaur girl with a beautiful singing voice who sells that voice to the forest witch so she can get human legs and marry the CEO of a company who's life she saved during a forest fire.
Heh good joke. And this twist on the original would probably be a lot better that the live action recycled version coming up.
Load More Replies...Kimba the white lion was one of my most favorite cartoons that I watched growing up as a kid of the 70s. When I saw the Lion King, there was no doubt in my mind that it was a direct copy of my beloved cartoon. Shame on Disney for promoting themselves as something they're not. What was the point of it anyways?
It was mine too. I was around 5 when they took it off the air, and I was DEVASTATED. I cried for 2 weeks (my poor mom LOL not like running out to get the video was an option back then). And I was furious when I saw Lion King; didn't need to read any articles to know they stole the story from Kimba (I was crushed when I saw they even plagiarized dear departed daddy in the clouds).
Load More Replies..."Someone Makes A Comparison Video That Accuses Disney Of Stealing Lion King’s Story From A 1965 Japanese Animation" With all respect, this title is actually ridiculous, as this is not something that "someone just came up with", it's a well known fact within the world of fandoms and culture of filmography (especially for the animated film part), as well as for anyone who deeply studies Japanese animation alone. My suggestion is something along those lines of "Kimba the White Lion Is the Real Lion King" or "Kimba vs. Simba, copy-cat or inspiration?" This way you balance out the feelings of the audiences that knew and those that didn't.
Well to be fair at least Disney made it culturally inclusive
Load More Replies...I thought everyone knew most of Disney's works are stolen. They've always been thieves, but they do such a good job, no one seems to care.
Yes. But Disney never claim that their other stories are originals, not like with Lion King where they said that "this (Lion King) is an original story which haven't been done before". While in truth, it has been done (Kimba The White Lion) and copyrighted.
Load More Replies...What a co-winkie-d**k! Don't get me wrong I love the movie, but for Disney to not be grateful and pay credit where credits due and go as far as to deny allegations even when all the similarities are laid out is low...there's only a one letter difference between the lead characters' name for crying out loud!
They also bought the distribution rights and prevent every screening in the US.
Never heard of Kimba before, but you cannot deny the copying of original from the examples above. WTF Disney!
When the lion king came out, I read a story saying they wanted the rights to make a remake of Kimba the White Lion and asked to buy them but Tezuka refused so they just copied it. I don't know if it's true but I wouldn't be surprised.
are we really talking about if simba is a remake of kimba? come on you gotta be kidding me if you still think that walt disney did not steal from kimba
It is kind of technically impossible Disney didn't know about it since the white lion series has been on tv in loads of countries all over the world since the 70's at least from the top of my head. I remember watching some of it from when I was a toddler.
Load More Replies...this was done a lot back in the day. you have to remember that most people did not have the tech or the ability to know if something was a copy from someone or somewhere else.
Would not surprise me, Disney released a cartoon called Treasure Planet in the early 2000's the story was based on Treasure Island as you would expect but just about everything else was ripped off from a Japanese RPG called Sykies of Acadia, Flying Sailboats, Check. Magic Goo, Check. Captain with steam punk cyber arm Check the list goes on.
In fact, I think almost every Hollywood film has an older Japanese counterpart. Kimba The White Lion → Lion King; Paprika → Inception; Battle Royale → The Hunger Games etc. Also, Matrix took the whole green letters rain aesthetics from Ghost in the Shell. Japanese entertainment has been "inspiring" Hollywood for decades.
Load More Replies...From what I've read originally disney wanted to cooperate with osamu tezuka to make a kimba movie. But he died during the early negotiations. Somehow disney still managed to make the movie with just enough differences to call it their "original". When people in japan immediately notices their similarities, disney even had the audacity to sue tezuka's family for plagiarism. The family replied "You have clearly stolen his work and now you're trying to sue us?" Then disney cancelled their case. The rest of the world is oblivious about this thing because tezuka's family or studio won't press any charges (its impossible to win against disney), but every older generations from japan all know this.
It's well known Disney stole it. But they had the money for the lawyers to bankrupt the real owner and he died fighting in court, broke.
Ok, yes, but this is OLD news. Pretty much anyone who's aware of the internet already knows about this, especially if they're into anime or movies.
Other than the multiple people, on this thread alone, who are currently on the internet, and states they have not heard of it....
Load More Replies...1/2 This is not faithful to the plot, infact Kimba is the name used in the English version, the cub's name in the original series was Leo. Here's what the Wikipedia says about the plot: In Africa during the mid-20th century, as mankind encroaches, the white lion Panja (Caesar in the English dub) gives the jungle's wild animals a safe haven. However, he angers nearby villagers by stealing their cattle and their food to feed the jungle carnivores (in the English dub he merely frees the cattle). A professional hunter, Ham Egg (Viper Snakely in the English dub), is called in to stop these raids. He avoids directly attacking Panja. Instead, he records the sounds of Panja and uses them to trap his pregnant mate, Eliza, who then becomes bait in a trap for Panja. Panja is killed for his hide (but not before asking Eliza to name their child Leo), and Eliza is put on a ship, destined for a zoo.
2/2 Leo (Kimba in the English dub[a]) is born on the ship. Eliza teaches him his father's ideals. As a huge tropical storm nears, she urges her cub out through the bars of her cage. The storm wrecks the ship, killing all the humans and animals on board (including his mother) and Leo starts to drown in the ocean. The fish help him learn to swim. As he begins to despair, the stars in the sky form the face of his mother, who encourages him. Guided by butterflies, he makes it to land. Leo lands far from his ancestral home and is found and cared for by some people. He learns the advantages of human culture, and decides that when he returns to his wild home he will bring culture to the jungle and stand for peace like his father. The show follows Leo's life after he returns to the wild, still a young cub, and how he learns and grows in the next year. Leo soon learns that only communication and mutual understanding between animals and humans will bring true peace.
This is stupid, most of the images of this post are from 1996-7 Kimba movie (after TLK), and the other shots are nitpicked frames from the countless hours worth of KTWL. The villain "Claw" is the only big similarity, but it's just similar in appearance, their personalities are completely different. The "character falling off cliff" thing is exploited in multiple episodes, and the "lion in the clouds" thing is used in completely different contexts. The parrot character and Zazu also have completely different personalities. I doubt you even watched the show, all you did was watch that video and make assumptions
I'm not siding with Disney but am looking at the different side of the stories. Disney has worked with Japanese Manga/Anime artists/filmmakers before Like Spirited Away's creator Hayao Miyazaki. So as for Kimba, we don't know if it was copied or if Disney did get permission from the original artist or family members of Kimba's creator to use parts of his creation. So I find this debate inconclusive.
I grew up watching Kimba during the 70's. When Lion King first came out, I thought it was paying homage to Kimba. Then I realized the story was HAMLET using lions and scenes from Kimba. Yeah, folks at Disney can deny all they want. The copying of KIMBA is all to painfully obvious.
I grew up with the Kimba movie and series in Germany. Yes, it was a whole series. I always knew The Lion King copied Kimba. *starts singing* "Kleiner weisser Loewe, wir sind stolz auf dich, stolz auf dich..."
When I read this, I remembered a BP post about a young kid who wishes his headstone to have Spiderman on it and Disney prohibited the parents from doing so. The injustice feeling is real.... https://www.boredpanda.com/disney-refused-grieving-dad-spider-man-picture-sons-ollie-jones-headstone-permission/
Good observation. However, guess this family better ask Sony, at this point...
Load More Replies...Why is this not a thing? This is just shameful stealing. Disney should be making reparations to Tezuka Productions for the wholesale plagiarism of Tezuka's property. It's f*****g ironic that Tezuka literally WORSHIPED early Disney animation, which was his greatest early influence. If the folks at Disney had the balls, they would admit that everyone who worked on "Lion King" thought it was going to be a homage to Tezuka. (Many of those animators were introduced to Kimba and Japanese anime through the ground-breaking Cartoon/Fantasy Organization that I helped start.) It must be some colossal joke on the part of Disney's creative staff to literally lift the Kimba story characters frame by frame from the original, just to see if they could get away with it!
landscapes - 1 point for Kimba characters - 1point for Simba originality - 1 point for the dead guy
I just had the greatest idea ever, what If I put together tomato sauce and mozzarella? I'll call It " peeza".
The use of a Yellow, or Chinese Lion, is meant to reflect today's Africa, whilst the White Lion of the 50's is meant to reflect European colonialism in Africa. Two completely different things eh? Very sad - a Disney denial of derivation, how ... Trumpian.
GUYS, there are some visual overlaps—some obviously so. But the stories are different, the characters are different, and the overlaps last for a single cut, not for full scenes. That’s generally legal. Copyright infringement needs to be EXACT copying of art, dialogue, characters, and other protected elements. Not “there are zebras in this scene” and “to speak to a gathering of animals, you stand on a jutting rock”. Yes, this is some pretty heavy usage of Kimba’s imagery. Yes, Disney was a d**k for sending that "cease and desist" letter after Jungle Emperor Leo was released. But Disney did not infringe on specific art. The distinction is important. Lastly, there are 52 episodes of Kimba, 22 minutes each. That’s 19 hours of Kimba footage. The Lion King is not even 90 minutes long. Going to be pretty hard in a story about animals in Africa who talk not having visual overlap with other movies in Africa who talk.
I just like the fact when 'creators' deny the obvious. Iconical costume and incubator scene of The Fifth Elements was just 100% copied by Luc Besson. The original creator was a Hungarian artist, the scene was part of a schockingly modern physical theater performance from the 60's. A small, Central-European production wouldn't have any chance at the court. Meanwhile in France: "The French ad agency Publicis Conseil was fined a total of €2.75 million following claims of plagiarism by filmmaker Luc Besson and his production company Gaumont." as working with Mila Jovovich and using her movie character as inspiration for an advertisement. Beyoncé copy pasted one of the dance performances by Anne Theresa de Keersmaeker and her Belgian company, Rosas. The official feedback by Beyoncé's team was a denial. They just know that they can do/afford that. So don't mess with the big guys, kids!
I remember soon as I saw the lion king in theaters back in the 90s my mother paused half way through and said "Kimba?" She was a huge fan of Kimba when she was a child. Many people knew disney stole the idea, too bad the company never sued them
Picked this when the first Lion King came out. Good to see that the world has caught up.
For people who are wondering why Disney won't step up and admit it, I believe it's largely a money thing. I don't know for sure, but I think if they admit it then there's more legal grounds for them to actually have to give money to the Kimba creators. Not sure this far on, but if they said they stole it, everyone would want Disney to share their profit.
Kimba was my FAVORITE cartoon as a child - I miss it now! I never found similarities as it touched me in a way The Lion King never did but this does shed some interesting similarities. I challenge anyone to not sob like a baby when little Kimba's mother drowns in a cage after the ship of their captors sinks. I still remember being 5 years old and weeping at my mother's side...
Most of the pictures used to say that the lion king ripped off kimba the white lion are actually from the 1997 jungle emperor Leo film, which came out 3 years after The Lion King.
The picture at the top is not from 1965 or 66, it's from the Jungle Emperor Leo 1997 movie, 3 years after the Lion King was released. Stop pushing fake news.
This entire article is, if you excuse the slight pun, complete hogwash. YMS did a 2 hour long deconstruction of basically every single account of "plagiarism" that could be levied to Disney in this case. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5B1mIfQuo4
Lol this entire article is complete hogwash. YMS did a 2 hour long rebuttal of basically everything you, and others, have written about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5B1mIfQuo4
I watched Kimba as a kid and just assumed that they had purchased the rights when I saw Lion King.
Well this is a speedy way to make me lose faith in this website. Tell me, have any if you even watched a minute of any Kimba series? Kimba and TLK are.. ridiculously different in all of Kimba's renditions. Also worth noting, a good load of these shots are from the 1997 film, so I'm not sure what point you think you're making here. Than Jungle Emperor Leo (the 1997 film) ripped off TLK? There's about 100x more Kimba footage than lion king footage, and there's only so many things that can be done in an African setting, so of course some scenes are gonna look similar. Great going.
I thought THE LION KING was exactly a retelling of Kimba. I loved that show as a kid!
The fact is there is no point in suing the financial juggernaut Disney they will simply keep it in court till the plaintiff runs out of money if Disney wants it they will take it or buy the entire studio and all the subsidiary.
I'm not siding with Disney but am looking at the different side of the stories. Disney has worked with Japanese Manga/Anime artists/filmmakers before Like Spirited Away's creator Hayao Miyazaki. So as for Kimba, we don't know if it was copied or if Disney did get permission from the original artist or family members of Kimba's creator to use parts of his creation. So I find this debate inconclusive.
I grew up watching Kimba. Loved that show! And honestly, I don't think there IS anything original anymore. We all pull from our subconscious minds. Disney just needs to thank Kimba's creators for giving them inspiration.
Obvious Plagiarism, but they have been arguing this for decades and nothing has happened.
The Lion king is based on a classic story, Hamlet. And if you stop to actually watch Kimba you'll see it's very different, starting by the fact the the hyaenas are good and Kimba has humans. Plus, working with animation is dull, voting and endless work. They'll take images that have already been animated and change a little. Everyone does that when working on animation. So, what's with that? A couple scenes that were took from another animation are common.
Kimba is a great show. 1st 2 episodes are real tear jerkers! I saw the similarities right away, and was poo-poohed. Can't deny what is true, though! Even the Simpsons pointed it out!
i have no doubt the people behind the lion king took stuff from Kimba (though they say otherwise)
Disgraceful, actually. Never knew. I do now, not that it makes any difference. Just compounds my cynicism in today's monetary world. Ho hum.
The question would be what if Lion King was the first one, and someone made Jungle King with these similarities, would Disney be pretty cool about it? Would Disney say something like “oh, yeah, some say they have some likeness but, no, we don’t see it at all. they’re totally their own original. It’s just a coincidence. So, No way, we’re suing them.”
1/2 This is not faithful to the plot, in fact Kimba is the cub's name in the English version, in the original Japanese series it's Leo. Here's a copy of what's published about that show in Wikipedia: In Africa during the mid-20th century, as mankind encroaches, the white lion Panja (Caesar in the English dub) gives the jungle's wild animals a safe haven. However, he angers nearby villagers by stealing their cattle and their food to feed the jungle carnivores (in the English dub he merely frees the cattle). A professional hunter, Ham Egg (Viper Snakely in the English dub), is called in to stop these raids. He avoids directly attacking Panja. Instead, he records the sounds of Panja and uses them to trap his pregnant mate, Eliza, who then becomes bait in a trap for Panja. Panja is killed for his hide (but not before asking Eliza to name their child Leo), and Eliza is put on a ship, destined for a zoo.
Man... talk about jumping into the wayback machine... this debate was settled literally decades ago... Disney paid up to settle out of court. Yes, it's a direct ripoff. This isn't news, this isn't a surprise. It IS a surprise that BP is digging up such archaic trash though.
Until Disney decided it was a good idea to remake it in 2019 to new generations. So yeah why not share this news to new generations as well?
Load More Replies...well...Americans are known for stealing great ideas from others and making it their own anyways
This tumblr post I recently stumbled upon had my laughing so hard about this: https://onceuponamirror.tumblr.com/post/186881223896/anthony-mcpartlin-sethgetrecked-nicolauda
It's not the first time when Disney or another big company just steal artwork of smaller studios or unknown artists - disgusting. And the worst thing is that everyone knows about it, but stealing company always wins, earn millions and people prefer their works anyway. Really uncool and unfair.
Osamu Tezuka is not unknown though.... His works include Atom (or Astro Boy) and he's actually an important historical figure for the world of comics and animated film. In fact, "Tezuka Awards" was named after him.
Load More Replies...This might be fare fetched. But could it be that Disney tried to buy the rights to remake Kimba the white Lion? Something didn't go as planned and when the creator of the original movie died they saw their chance to rip of the franchise with a few changes to characters and story-line. There is a scoop here I can smell it.
All are copies of 'Hamlet', maybe Shakespeare's descendants should sue both of them?
This is obviously a copy of the original, I absolutely loved Lion King as a child but the fact that I loved it doesn't prevent me from being objective. It's a copy.
I watched both movies. Kimba, being an older movie doesn't look as good as Lion King, but it's definitely the original. I was so confused when I watched it at first. I didn't even know its name until years later this debate arose. Lion King could easily be just an improved version.
Load More Replies...So we're doing this again? I mean this was widely known in industry even at the time - Disney wanted to do a remake of Kimba but for some reason they were denied the rights. Problem was they were so confident they'd already started work. Opps. So instead they filed off the serial numbers, changed the initial of the name and the colour of the main character, changed the story and released it as "original work". And now that they own 90% of everything, they keep trying to impose their version of reality, because "of course" they'd never even heard of it, besides entire scenes being exactly the same.
Maybe it was widely known in industry, but it's the first I'm hearing of it. Maybe I was too young when Lion King came out. Either way, it doesn't hurt to inform a new generation of the facts.
Load More Replies...Renard, Kimba the White Lion has many many movie adaptations made of it before LK and wether it is a movie or a series, blatant plagarism is blatant plagarism
Load More Replies...I totally believe Disney when they say they have no knowledge of Kimba. Anyway, I have this brilliant idea about a centaur girl with a beautiful singing voice who sells that voice to the forest witch so she can get human legs and marry the CEO of a company who's life she saved during a forest fire.
Heh good joke. And this twist on the original would probably be a lot better that the live action recycled version coming up.
Load More Replies...Kimba the white lion was one of my most favorite cartoons that I watched growing up as a kid of the 70s. When I saw the Lion King, there was no doubt in my mind that it was a direct copy of my beloved cartoon. Shame on Disney for promoting themselves as something they're not. What was the point of it anyways?
It was mine too. I was around 5 when they took it off the air, and I was DEVASTATED. I cried for 2 weeks (my poor mom LOL not like running out to get the video was an option back then). And I was furious when I saw Lion King; didn't need to read any articles to know they stole the story from Kimba (I was crushed when I saw they even plagiarized dear departed daddy in the clouds).
Load More Replies..."Someone Makes A Comparison Video That Accuses Disney Of Stealing Lion King’s Story From A 1965 Japanese Animation" With all respect, this title is actually ridiculous, as this is not something that "someone just came up with", it's a well known fact within the world of fandoms and culture of filmography (especially for the animated film part), as well as for anyone who deeply studies Japanese animation alone. My suggestion is something along those lines of "Kimba the White Lion Is the Real Lion King" or "Kimba vs. Simba, copy-cat or inspiration?" This way you balance out the feelings of the audiences that knew and those that didn't.
Well to be fair at least Disney made it culturally inclusive
Load More Replies...I thought everyone knew most of Disney's works are stolen. They've always been thieves, but they do such a good job, no one seems to care.
Yes. But Disney never claim that their other stories are originals, not like with Lion King where they said that "this (Lion King) is an original story which haven't been done before". While in truth, it has been done (Kimba The White Lion) and copyrighted.
Load More Replies...What a co-winkie-d**k! Don't get me wrong I love the movie, but for Disney to not be grateful and pay credit where credits due and go as far as to deny allegations even when all the similarities are laid out is low...there's only a one letter difference between the lead characters' name for crying out loud!
They also bought the distribution rights and prevent every screening in the US.
Never heard of Kimba before, but you cannot deny the copying of original from the examples above. WTF Disney!
When the lion king came out, I read a story saying they wanted the rights to make a remake of Kimba the White Lion and asked to buy them but Tezuka refused so they just copied it. I don't know if it's true but I wouldn't be surprised.
are we really talking about if simba is a remake of kimba? come on you gotta be kidding me if you still think that walt disney did not steal from kimba
It is kind of technically impossible Disney didn't know about it since the white lion series has been on tv in loads of countries all over the world since the 70's at least from the top of my head. I remember watching some of it from when I was a toddler.
Load More Replies...this was done a lot back in the day. you have to remember that most people did not have the tech or the ability to know if something was a copy from someone or somewhere else.
Would not surprise me, Disney released a cartoon called Treasure Planet in the early 2000's the story was based on Treasure Island as you would expect but just about everything else was ripped off from a Japanese RPG called Sykies of Acadia, Flying Sailboats, Check. Magic Goo, Check. Captain with steam punk cyber arm Check the list goes on.
In fact, I think almost every Hollywood film has an older Japanese counterpart. Kimba The White Lion → Lion King; Paprika → Inception; Battle Royale → The Hunger Games etc. Also, Matrix took the whole green letters rain aesthetics from Ghost in the Shell. Japanese entertainment has been "inspiring" Hollywood for decades.
Load More Replies...From what I've read originally disney wanted to cooperate with osamu tezuka to make a kimba movie. But he died during the early negotiations. Somehow disney still managed to make the movie with just enough differences to call it their "original". When people in japan immediately notices their similarities, disney even had the audacity to sue tezuka's family for plagiarism. The family replied "You have clearly stolen his work and now you're trying to sue us?" Then disney cancelled their case. The rest of the world is oblivious about this thing because tezuka's family or studio won't press any charges (its impossible to win against disney), but every older generations from japan all know this.
It's well known Disney stole it. But they had the money for the lawyers to bankrupt the real owner and he died fighting in court, broke.
Ok, yes, but this is OLD news. Pretty much anyone who's aware of the internet already knows about this, especially if they're into anime or movies.
Other than the multiple people, on this thread alone, who are currently on the internet, and states they have not heard of it....
Load More Replies...1/2 This is not faithful to the plot, infact Kimba is the name used in the English version, the cub's name in the original series was Leo. Here's what the Wikipedia says about the plot: In Africa during the mid-20th century, as mankind encroaches, the white lion Panja (Caesar in the English dub) gives the jungle's wild animals a safe haven. However, he angers nearby villagers by stealing their cattle and their food to feed the jungle carnivores (in the English dub he merely frees the cattle). A professional hunter, Ham Egg (Viper Snakely in the English dub), is called in to stop these raids. He avoids directly attacking Panja. Instead, he records the sounds of Panja and uses them to trap his pregnant mate, Eliza, who then becomes bait in a trap for Panja. Panja is killed for his hide (but not before asking Eliza to name their child Leo), and Eliza is put on a ship, destined for a zoo.
2/2 Leo (Kimba in the English dub[a]) is born on the ship. Eliza teaches him his father's ideals. As a huge tropical storm nears, she urges her cub out through the bars of her cage. The storm wrecks the ship, killing all the humans and animals on board (including his mother) and Leo starts to drown in the ocean. The fish help him learn to swim. As he begins to despair, the stars in the sky form the face of his mother, who encourages him. Guided by butterflies, he makes it to land. Leo lands far from his ancestral home and is found and cared for by some people. He learns the advantages of human culture, and decides that when he returns to his wild home he will bring culture to the jungle and stand for peace like his father. The show follows Leo's life after he returns to the wild, still a young cub, and how he learns and grows in the next year. Leo soon learns that only communication and mutual understanding between animals and humans will bring true peace.
This is stupid, most of the images of this post are from 1996-7 Kimba movie (after TLK), and the other shots are nitpicked frames from the countless hours worth of KTWL. The villain "Claw" is the only big similarity, but it's just similar in appearance, their personalities are completely different. The "character falling off cliff" thing is exploited in multiple episodes, and the "lion in the clouds" thing is used in completely different contexts. The parrot character and Zazu also have completely different personalities. I doubt you even watched the show, all you did was watch that video and make assumptions
I'm not siding with Disney but am looking at the different side of the stories. Disney has worked with Japanese Manga/Anime artists/filmmakers before Like Spirited Away's creator Hayao Miyazaki. So as for Kimba, we don't know if it was copied or if Disney did get permission from the original artist or family members of Kimba's creator to use parts of his creation. So I find this debate inconclusive.
I grew up watching Kimba during the 70's. When Lion King first came out, I thought it was paying homage to Kimba. Then I realized the story was HAMLET using lions and scenes from Kimba. Yeah, folks at Disney can deny all they want. The copying of KIMBA is all to painfully obvious.
I grew up with the Kimba movie and series in Germany. Yes, it was a whole series. I always knew The Lion King copied Kimba. *starts singing* "Kleiner weisser Loewe, wir sind stolz auf dich, stolz auf dich..."
When I read this, I remembered a BP post about a young kid who wishes his headstone to have Spiderman on it and Disney prohibited the parents from doing so. The injustice feeling is real.... https://www.boredpanda.com/disney-refused-grieving-dad-spider-man-picture-sons-ollie-jones-headstone-permission/
Good observation. However, guess this family better ask Sony, at this point...
Load More Replies...Why is this not a thing? This is just shameful stealing. Disney should be making reparations to Tezuka Productions for the wholesale plagiarism of Tezuka's property. It's f*****g ironic that Tezuka literally WORSHIPED early Disney animation, which was his greatest early influence. If the folks at Disney had the balls, they would admit that everyone who worked on "Lion King" thought it was going to be a homage to Tezuka. (Many of those animators were introduced to Kimba and Japanese anime through the ground-breaking Cartoon/Fantasy Organization that I helped start.) It must be some colossal joke on the part of Disney's creative staff to literally lift the Kimba story characters frame by frame from the original, just to see if they could get away with it!
landscapes - 1 point for Kimba characters - 1point for Simba originality - 1 point for the dead guy
I just had the greatest idea ever, what If I put together tomato sauce and mozzarella? I'll call It " peeza".
The use of a Yellow, or Chinese Lion, is meant to reflect today's Africa, whilst the White Lion of the 50's is meant to reflect European colonialism in Africa. Two completely different things eh? Very sad - a Disney denial of derivation, how ... Trumpian.
GUYS, there are some visual overlaps—some obviously so. But the stories are different, the characters are different, and the overlaps last for a single cut, not for full scenes. That’s generally legal. Copyright infringement needs to be EXACT copying of art, dialogue, characters, and other protected elements. Not “there are zebras in this scene” and “to speak to a gathering of animals, you stand on a jutting rock”. Yes, this is some pretty heavy usage of Kimba’s imagery. Yes, Disney was a d**k for sending that "cease and desist" letter after Jungle Emperor Leo was released. But Disney did not infringe on specific art. The distinction is important. Lastly, there are 52 episodes of Kimba, 22 minutes each. That’s 19 hours of Kimba footage. The Lion King is not even 90 minutes long. Going to be pretty hard in a story about animals in Africa who talk not having visual overlap with other movies in Africa who talk.
I just like the fact when 'creators' deny the obvious. Iconical costume and incubator scene of The Fifth Elements was just 100% copied by Luc Besson. The original creator was a Hungarian artist, the scene was part of a schockingly modern physical theater performance from the 60's. A small, Central-European production wouldn't have any chance at the court. Meanwhile in France: "The French ad agency Publicis Conseil was fined a total of €2.75 million following claims of plagiarism by filmmaker Luc Besson and his production company Gaumont." as working with Mila Jovovich and using her movie character as inspiration for an advertisement. Beyoncé copy pasted one of the dance performances by Anne Theresa de Keersmaeker and her Belgian company, Rosas. The official feedback by Beyoncé's team was a denial. They just know that they can do/afford that. So don't mess with the big guys, kids!
I remember soon as I saw the lion king in theaters back in the 90s my mother paused half way through and said "Kimba?" She was a huge fan of Kimba when she was a child. Many people knew disney stole the idea, too bad the company never sued them
Picked this when the first Lion King came out. Good to see that the world has caught up.
For people who are wondering why Disney won't step up and admit it, I believe it's largely a money thing. I don't know for sure, but I think if they admit it then there's more legal grounds for them to actually have to give money to the Kimba creators. Not sure this far on, but if they said they stole it, everyone would want Disney to share their profit.
Kimba was my FAVORITE cartoon as a child - I miss it now! I never found similarities as it touched me in a way The Lion King never did but this does shed some interesting similarities. I challenge anyone to not sob like a baby when little Kimba's mother drowns in a cage after the ship of their captors sinks. I still remember being 5 years old and weeping at my mother's side...
Most of the pictures used to say that the lion king ripped off kimba the white lion are actually from the 1997 jungle emperor Leo film, which came out 3 years after The Lion King.
The picture at the top is not from 1965 or 66, it's from the Jungle Emperor Leo 1997 movie, 3 years after the Lion King was released. Stop pushing fake news.
This entire article is, if you excuse the slight pun, complete hogwash. YMS did a 2 hour long deconstruction of basically every single account of "plagiarism" that could be levied to Disney in this case. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5B1mIfQuo4
Lol this entire article is complete hogwash. YMS did a 2 hour long rebuttal of basically everything you, and others, have written about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5B1mIfQuo4
I watched Kimba as a kid and just assumed that they had purchased the rights when I saw Lion King.
Well this is a speedy way to make me lose faith in this website. Tell me, have any if you even watched a minute of any Kimba series? Kimba and TLK are.. ridiculously different in all of Kimba's renditions. Also worth noting, a good load of these shots are from the 1997 film, so I'm not sure what point you think you're making here. Than Jungle Emperor Leo (the 1997 film) ripped off TLK? There's about 100x more Kimba footage than lion king footage, and there's only so many things that can be done in an African setting, so of course some scenes are gonna look similar. Great going.
I thought THE LION KING was exactly a retelling of Kimba. I loved that show as a kid!
The fact is there is no point in suing the financial juggernaut Disney they will simply keep it in court till the plaintiff runs out of money if Disney wants it they will take it or buy the entire studio and all the subsidiary.
I'm not siding with Disney but am looking at the different side of the stories. Disney has worked with Japanese Manga/Anime artists/filmmakers before Like Spirited Away's creator Hayao Miyazaki. So as for Kimba, we don't know if it was copied or if Disney did get permission from the original artist or family members of Kimba's creator to use parts of his creation. So I find this debate inconclusive.
I grew up watching Kimba. Loved that show! And honestly, I don't think there IS anything original anymore. We all pull from our subconscious minds. Disney just needs to thank Kimba's creators for giving them inspiration.
Obvious Plagiarism, but they have been arguing this for decades and nothing has happened.
The Lion king is based on a classic story, Hamlet. And if you stop to actually watch Kimba you'll see it's very different, starting by the fact the the hyaenas are good and Kimba has humans. Plus, working with animation is dull, voting and endless work. They'll take images that have already been animated and change a little. Everyone does that when working on animation. So, what's with that? A couple scenes that were took from another animation are common.
Kimba is a great show. 1st 2 episodes are real tear jerkers! I saw the similarities right away, and was poo-poohed. Can't deny what is true, though! Even the Simpsons pointed it out!
i have no doubt the people behind the lion king took stuff from Kimba (though they say otherwise)
Disgraceful, actually. Never knew. I do now, not that it makes any difference. Just compounds my cynicism in today's monetary world. Ho hum.
The question would be what if Lion King was the first one, and someone made Jungle King with these similarities, would Disney be pretty cool about it? Would Disney say something like “oh, yeah, some say they have some likeness but, no, we don’t see it at all. they’re totally their own original. It’s just a coincidence. So, No way, we’re suing them.”
1/2 This is not faithful to the plot, in fact Kimba is the cub's name in the English version, in the original Japanese series it's Leo. Here's a copy of what's published about that show in Wikipedia: In Africa during the mid-20th century, as mankind encroaches, the white lion Panja (Caesar in the English dub) gives the jungle's wild animals a safe haven. However, he angers nearby villagers by stealing their cattle and their food to feed the jungle carnivores (in the English dub he merely frees the cattle). A professional hunter, Ham Egg (Viper Snakely in the English dub), is called in to stop these raids. He avoids directly attacking Panja. Instead, he records the sounds of Panja and uses them to trap his pregnant mate, Eliza, who then becomes bait in a trap for Panja. Panja is killed for his hide (but not before asking Eliza to name their child Leo), and Eliza is put on a ship, destined for a zoo.
Man... talk about jumping into the wayback machine... this debate was settled literally decades ago... Disney paid up to settle out of court. Yes, it's a direct ripoff. This isn't news, this isn't a surprise. It IS a surprise that BP is digging up such archaic trash though.
Until Disney decided it was a good idea to remake it in 2019 to new generations. So yeah why not share this news to new generations as well?
Load More Replies...well...Americans are known for stealing great ideas from others and making it their own anyways
This tumblr post I recently stumbled upon had my laughing so hard about this: https://onceuponamirror.tumblr.com/post/186881223896/anthony-mcpartlin-sethgetrecked-nicolauda
It's not the first time when Disney or another big company just steal artwork of smaller studios or unknown artists - disgusting. And the worst thing is that everyone knows about it, but stealing company always wins, earn millions and people prefer their works anyway. Really uncool and unfair.
Osamu Tezuka is not unknown though.... His works include Atom (or Astro Boy) and he's actually an important historical figure for the world of comics and animated film. In fact, "Tezuka Awards" was named after him.
Load More Replies...This might be fare fetched. But could it be that Disney tried to buy the rights to remake Kimba the white Lion? Something didn't go as planned and when the creator of the original movie died they saw their chance to rip of the franchise with a few changes to characters and story-line. There is a scoop here I can smell it.
All are copies of 'Hamlet', maybe Shakespeare's descendants should sue both of them?
270
136