Animation Source Forums

TLK fans seem to get mad when Kimba is brought up, I guess seeing the whole Disney Copied Kimba controversey, right away people automatcally assume, theyre betraying TLK by believing That Disney copied Kimba to make Lion King, not true, I am a fan of both sides, I DID see the Lion King before Kimba, then I watched Kimba and liked it and didnt know about the controversey about 2 years later. but the truth is they did copy a lot, then denyed they even knew of Kimba until after the release of Lion King, when several of their staff admitted to watching Kimba as a kid, not of a lot of Disney fans appreciate Kimba, because its old, and the animation is diffrent, and that it came before Lion King, Im speaking in the perspective of young artist who wanna be animators some day, the first thing they got to worry about when they do come animators is someone taking their work, making it better, and getting popular off of it, then everyone hate the original creator, which would be you if that happened to you. i do appreicate Kimba, because if there was no Kimba, there'd be no Simba.

LK copying Kimba doesn't prevent it from being one of the best 2D disney films, IMO.

I have nothing against kimba, I haven't seen it yet.

its more than just minor ideas, Disney tried to buy rights to Kimba so they can remake it, but they failed to get the rights, and went ahead with the Lion King, Simba was white in the planning stages, and in the prodigy session of 1993, whena question about his future film "The Lion King" Roy Disney reffered to his central character as Kimba, so dont take this personally, im just responding to your answer, if you dont like Kimba im not gonna argue with you, i respect your opinion, the only point im trying to make is that if there were no Kimba, there would probly be no Lion King, or there would be but it would be diffrent as we know it.

I think SilverToraGe is right, if there was no Kimba there'd be no Simba, (then ther'd be no Kovu, then i'd cry )
because look at it this way, Kimba was the first source of inspiration Disney took to make Lion King, (lions) and everyone knows that Simba means Lion, and back in the 50's when Kimba was brought here, they were gonna call Kimba Simba, but for advertising purposes, the translators changed it to Kimba, what do you think would happen if they did keep Simba for Kimba, then what would Disney have done, Silver does bring up a good point about respecting the animtions that came before our current ones,

lets say 40 years from now another movie came out about Lions, an exact rip off of Lion King, and a proper lawsuit doesnt pull through, we as lion king fans would be pissed, while our kids would say, hey! this is better Lion King is old, and the animation sucks! i think i'd slap my kid if he/she said Lion King sucked (lol j/k)

Well I never sall Kimba so I can't say that Lion King is somewhat a copy of Kimba.

I kinda wish they kept Kimba's original name Leo in the series.. even though it is a generic term for lion..

and something eerie worth noting.. I've made a list of Kimba and Lion King media. and found some interesting facts..

1950: Jungle Emperor Leo (kimba the novel) is published in Japan
1966: the Kimba series comes to America (it premiered in Japan a year before)
also Go ahead Leo! (the sequel series to Kimba aka JEL) is shown in Japan..
1967:select episodes of the Kimba series are combined with new animation to make the feature Jungle Emperor Leo the movie shown in Japan..
1984: Go Ahead Leo! (Leo the Lion in the U.S) is shown in the U.S on a cable christian network..

1989: Osamu Tezuka (creater of Kimba dies) but a re-make is produced called the New Adventures of Kimba premieres in Japan.
1991: the first episode of 1966 Kimba is re-done as a music only (like fantasia) video called the symphonic poem..

1993:a few episodes of Leo the Lion are avaiable on home video
1994 The Lion King premieres around the world
1995: after some legal disputes (see kimbawlion.com for more info) Kimba the white lion premiers on Home Video under the title Kimba the Lion Prince(though I believe a canadian company somehow got the rights to the 1966 series and re-dubbed the voices and the music for this version)

also the Timon and Pumbaa series premieres..

1997: a feature length movie of Jungle Emperor Leo (Kimba as adult with cubs premiers in Japan)
The Lion king premieres on Broadway..

1998: The Lion King II:Simba's Pride is released
as is some episodes of the New adventures of Kimba
Disney files suit to prevent the Jungle Emperor movie (the 1997 one) from being shown in Toronto Canada..

2000:the complete 1966 episodes (with orginal voices and music) are finally released in the U.S (albeit out of order)

2003: the 1966 series is released on DVD (with only 26 episodes , 52 are the total amount)..
Leo the Lion series has some episodes on DVD that year
and the Jungle Emperor movie (1997) is also released

The Lion King also premieres on DVD..

2004:Lion King 1 1/2 premieres on DVD and Video .. but the Kimba series (the re-dubbed version) is shown (and still shown on some premiere cable stations)

2005: all 52 episodes of the 1966 version are finally on DVD (in an ultimate box set)...

also the original title for TLK was King of the Jungle ...compare with Jungle Emperor.. and..

also I'll post later the cover I have of the Video that has a few Leo the Lion eps on it.. the cover is strikingly similar to the Lion King cover..

I wonder what will happen when TLK comes out in Blu-ray..