Kimba the White Lion

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 Kimba), and Eliza is put on a ship, destined for a zoo.

Kimba (Leo in Japanese[lower-alpha 1]) 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 and Kimba 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. Kimba 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 Kimba's life after he returns to the wild, still a young cub, and how he learns and grows in the next year. Kimba soon learns that only communication and mutual understanding between animals and humans will bring true peace.

The series uses several themes. The 1966 Japanese version uses an opening theme and a closing theme. The opening is called "Jungle-Taitei" (ジャングル大帝, Janguru-Taitei, "Jungle Emperor"). The end song is "Leo no Uta" (レオのうた, Reo no Uta, "Leo's Song"). For the Japanese remake, the opening song is "Savanna o Koete" (サバンナを越えて, Sabanna wo Koete, "Past the Savanna") sung by Ichiro Mizuki, and the ending is "Yūbae ni Nare" (夕映えになれ) sung by Tomoko Tokugai.

The American theme was written by Bernie Baum, Bill Giant and Florence Kaye and sung by Bill Giant. The opening song for the sequel series is "Go Ahead Onward Leo!" written by Isao Tomita and sung by Mieko Hirota. The US-English theme song known as "Leo the Lion" was written by Mark Boccaccio and Susan Brunet of Miami, Florida's SONIC-Sound International Corporation in 1984. Jungle Emperor Symphonic Poem (by Isao Tomita) was released on LP in 1966.

Screenshot from an early presentation reel of The Lion King that shows a white lion cub and a butterfly.

As a number of journalists and fans watched Disney's animated feature film The Lion King, they noticed characters and events in the story resembling those of Kimba. Although the two works follow different screenplays, there are strong artistic similarities, and The Lion King contains numerous sequences that closely match Kimba's.[24] Alleged similarities in the characters: the protagonist lion cubs Kimba and Simba, the evil lions, the one-eyed Claw and Scar, the mandrils Dan'l and Rafiki, the animated birds Pauley Cracker and Zazu (though Pauley Craker is a parrot, while Zazu is an African red-billed Hornbill,[25] other differences include Zazu being Mufasa's Major Domo, while Pauley Craker (Coco) is merely a childhood friend of Kimba's), and the pair of hyena sidekicks (it was a trio in the Disney film).[26] The Lion King co-director Rob Minkoff deflected criticism of similarities in the characters by stating it was "not unusual to have characters like a baboon, a bird or hyenas" in films set in Africa.[27] The similar choice of setting and subject matter can possibly explain other supposed coincidences. For example, the word for 'lion' in Swahili is 'simba'. This is where American producers at NBC got the idea for the name Kimba in the first place.[28] In addition, some claims of similarities may fail to take into account difficulties comparing the abundance of Kimba content created between 1950 and 1991 to the single 1994 Disney film. The Kimba franchise went through many transformations of plot and cast of characters. It includes a trip to Paris, Wild West themed scenes, and Kimba learning from humans and wearing clothes.

Upon the release of The Lion King in Japan, multiple Japanese cartoonists including Machiko Satonaka signed a letter urging The Walt Disney Company to acknowledge due credit to Jungle Emperor Leo in the making of The Lion King.[29] 488 Japanese cartoonists and animators signed the petition, which drew a protest in Japan, where Tezuka and Kimba are cultural icons.[30][31]

The Lion King director Roger Allers claimed he remained unfamiliar with Kimba throughout production until his film was nearly completed.[32] Co-director Rob Minkoff also claimed he was unfamiliar with Kimba.[27]

Fred Ladd, who was involved early on with importing Kimba and other Japanese anime into America for NBC, expressed incredulity that Disney's people could remain ignorant.[33][34] Ladd stated there was at least one Disney animator, Shawn Keller, remembered by his colleagues as being an avid Kimba fan and being quite vociferous about Disney's conduct during production.[33]

Matthew Broderick has said that when he was hired as the voice of adult Simba in The Lion King, he presumed the project was related to Kimba the White Lion.[35][36][37][38] He explained that he "thought he meant Kimba, who was a white lion in a cartoon when I was a little kid, so I kept telling everybody I was going to play Kimba. I didn't really know anything about it, but I didn't really care."[39][40] Animators Tom Sito and Mark Kausler, who both have story credits, have admitted to watching Kimba, and assumed many of their colleagues had too, especially if they grew up in the 1960s.[41]

The Tezuka–Disney connection extends back decades before the movie. Tezuka met Walt Disney at the 1964 New York World's Fair, and Disney said he hoped to "make something just like" Tezuka's Astro Boy.[42]

Tezuka's family and Tezuka Productions have never pursued litigation against The Walt Disney Company for copyright infringement. Yoshihiro Shimizu, the company's director, stated that many of their employees saw resemblances between the two properties, but "any similarities in their plots are based in the facts of nature and therefore are two different works".[43] In his book, Makoto Tezuka states that the controversy started in America and people inflated the issue because of their opposition to Disney's business practices. He also states that he refuses to participate in this denunciation of Disney and that he does not want to see his father's works being turned into a weapon for those people. Tezuka acknowledges that Kimba and The Lion King are two different stories with different themes, and if the latter was about a white lion who spoke with humans, then he would not be able to pardon the similarities.[44]

In 1967, the Jungle Emperor theatrical feature was awarded the St. Mark's Silver Lion Award at the 19th Venice International Film Festival.

In 1978 the adult Leo character, designed by Tezuka himself, became the mascot for the Seibu Lions (current Saitama Seibu Lions) baseball team, along with his sister Lina who was created for the baseball team. The Leo mascot was used on the team baseball cap and helmet for decades[45] Leo also appeared on the players' uniform for the 2014 season, designed by Tezuka Productions.[45][46] The Seibu conglomerate-owned team's mascot became highly visible throughout Japan on baseball caps, shirts, etc., as well as being heavily used in advertisement especially in the Tokyo area.[47][48] Frederick L. Schodt makes the argument that by the 1980s, Leo the lion could hardly escape the notice of foreign visitors to the city.[47]

Image from the Jungle Emperor manga appears on shirts made by Lacoste in cooperation with Tezuka Productions for their "Lacoste Live" capsule collection "Tezuka Collection", edition Fall/Winter 2013/2014.[49]

• List of Osamu Tezuka anime
• List of Osamu Tezuka manga
• Osamu Tezuka's Star System
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water controversy, a similar plagiarism controversy

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Many links and texts including Machiko Satonaka's letter to Disney signed by hundreds of Japanese animators