The Lion King Wasn't the First Original Story
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
It has been believed that The Lion King was the first original story created by Disney. All the other theatrically released animated movies were based on books or pre-existing stories. Disney wouldn’t release an original story until Dinosaur (2000).
Some believe the story of The Lion King was copied from the Japanese manga series Kimba the White Lion. It was also called King of the Jungle and Jungle Emperor. A manga is like a comic book. Kimba was published in a Japanese Shōnen manga magazine from 1950 to 1954. Kimba’s creator, Osamu Tezuka, was also known for Astro Boy. Kimba later became an animated series from 1965 to 1967.
It was the first color animated series in Japan. It began airing in the United States in 1966. Tezuka Production began working on the film Jungle Emperor Leo in 1989, which was based on the second half of the manga series. That same year, Disney started production on The Lion King.
The film wasn’t completed and released until 1997. At the time, Disney sent them a cease-and-desist letter alleging they were copying The Lion King. The case was thrown out when it was revealed that Kimba had been around for four decades before The Lion King was created. Looking closely at The Lion King and Kimba, you can see lots of similarities between the two, like characters, scenes, and even the plot.
There wasn't just the 1966 series either. There was a 1966 film, a 1989 series rebooting the 1966 series, a 1991 short film, the previously mentioned 1997 film, another short film from 2000, and a made-for-TV movie from 2009. In total, there are over 50 hours of Kimba-related footage.
An excellent 10-minute video on YouTube titled “Did You Know? The Shocking Truth Behind Simba & Kimba – The Lion King Story,” by CineFacts, perfectly describes and shows the two productions side by side. Matthew Broderick was interviewed by the Texas newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman, in June 1994 during the press tour, and he stated, “I thought they meant Kimba, who was a white lion on TV when I was a little kid. So I kept telling everyone I was going to play Kimba.”
Of course, there are others who believe that Jungle Emperor Leo just copied Disney because it was released three years later. Sure, they could have copied some scenes, but both movies went into production at the same time. Here is another video that discusses it.
Bonus Fact: Osamu Tezuka had said his animation style was inspired by Disney animation, specifically the movies Bambi (1942), Pinocchio (1940), and Dumbo (1941). Walt Disney approached Osamu to adapt Bambi into a manga for Japanese audiences. The Japanese manga of Bambi was released in November 1951. It was an exact retelling of the movie. In June 1952, Osamu released a manga adaptation of Disney’s Pinocchio (1940). Tezuka liked the large eyes of the characters in Disney films, so he adopted that style for his manga, which has remained popular for decades.
Everyone on the Disney staff denies ever having even heard of Kimba the White Lion and says that any similarities are just a coincidence and that, because they are set in Africa, they could have similar storytelling. Hmmmmmm…
What do you think? Was The Lion King the first original story from Disney, or do you think it took too much inspiration from Kimba to count it?
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