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"Coexistance" by effrasorbus

Let's talk about the nature of inspiration.

You may have seen some articles floating around the internet discussing how Disney ripped off Jungle Emperor Leo to make The Lion King. The two stories certainly have their similarities in terms of characters--

A childhood companion who grows up to be a lover.

A feathered friend who advises the king.

A mandril monkey who helps along the way.

A dark, scarred lion who wants to take over the land.

And of course, the main characters, with only a letter's difference between their names.

Cut and dry, right? These are clear rip-offs... aren't they? Well... not quite.

Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Kimba, was an avid fan and collaborator with Walt Disney. He was licensed to create a manga for Disney's Bambi, and Bambi was a source of inspiration for his Jungle Emperor Leo series (Leo being the name for Kimba in Japan). This is a known fact--he was proud to claim the source of his inspiration! Kimba was renamed for America because the American TV producers who licensed him wanted a name they could trademark. Leo is of course an Astrological sign and not really suitable for a brand name, and Simba means "lion" in Swahili, so it wasn't ideal either. Thus, they changed the first letter of the African name for lion and created Kimba.

The Lion King naturally came later, and as Kimba was influenced by Disney, so too did it eventually influence Disney in return, creating an inspiration feedback loop. It is known that in the 1990's, there was a court battle in America for the rights to the Kimba franchise in America--and Disney lost it. But it's not entirely fair to say that The Lion King is a 1:1 direct ripoff of Kimba. For one thing, The Lion King is a single movie. Though it does have a few cartoon spinoffs, sequels, and a remake now, none of these actually convey the same story that Kimba does. Kimba has a lot of messages about interacting with nature and the human world. It also has some inspiration drawn from Hamlet, but The Lion King is a more clear copy of the tale from Shakespeare than the story by Tezuka.

It isn't actually coincidence that Simba and Kimba are so similar, and there were some shady coverups going on in the Disney corporation surrounding their inspiration and source material. The Disney corporation blocked the release of the Jungle Emperor Leo movie in America which came out after The Lion King, denied all knowledge of Osamu Tezuka despite evidence to the contrary, and essentially tried to hush anyone who spoke out about Kimba for years afterward. It's a shame, because it's widely known that Disney as a corporation has taken inspiration from many older tales, like how Frozen was inspired by The Snow Queen. The difference, maybe, is the fact that the creators of Kimba still had a living copyright to the white lion, so if they spoke of their inspiration they might have had to deal with a potential lawsuit or royalties, perhaps. Rather than admit it and possibly have to make a payout, it seems the Disney lawyers decided it would be best to deny and scrub Kimba from the face of the American public until he was forgotten. Honestly, it's crummy, but it doesn't make it theft, surprisingly enough. See, The Lion King and Jungle Emperor Leo are still very different stories. They bear striking similarities, but they are not the same. That's possibly the saddest part of the whole fiasco; the coverup wasn't really necessary. The Disney creators for The Lion King could have been honest about taking inspiration from Kimba the way Osamu Tezuka was honest about taking inspiration from Bambi. Rather than receiving flack from people, they would likely have received praise for their transparency, and people could have enjoyed Kimba media at the same time as they enjoyed The Lion King. But basically, that's the true story of what happened.

Most stories are inspired by other stories, and you'll often find similar characters in different media. So long as they aren't directly copying the original work, and they change enough for it to be considered something new and unique from its original inspiration, it's not theft. Kimba had many adventures throughout his series, and since it's based in the same location that The Lion King is, some overlap is incidental. The shadiness behind the scenes definitely casts doubt on their intentions, but in the end, The Lion King isn't a ripoff. It's just another story inspired by the ones that came before it. If you love lions, you will probably enjoy both stories.

credits

Lea

"We Love Both" stamp by SilverToraGe

"Coexistance" by effrasorbus

Kimba is a character who was created by Osamu Tezuka, who is known as the father of anime. All images and gifs on this page are directly from official Kimba media. This includes the original manga, the 1965 (original) series, the 1966 sequel series, the 1989 reboot/remake, and the 1997 film. All credit for these images goes to Osamu Tezuka and his team. Check out the official Tezuka Osamu website by clicking here to learn more about Kimba and his other works