Rerelease of Lion king

[Bobtheduck]

I noticed this was getting re-released, and see all the lovely things all these people have to say about it... I mean, when i saw it the first time I liked it too. I understand where these people are coming from. But, you know, how many of you know about "Jungle Emporer"? It's one of the early manga/anime that modern manga/anime pioneer, Osamu Tezuka, had made. Here's a link to a rushed synopsis, but of course it's flooded with spoilers... http://www.ex.org/4.1/27-manga_jungletaiteileo.html

In any case, I'm just wondering why no one in Disney talks about at least the inspiration from this that Lion King had... True, Jungle Taitei was a much longer story and most of it was entirely dissimilar to Lion King, but the main part of the story is very similar to a specific set of events in Jungle Taitei... Oh well, I suppose there's nothing wrong with inspiration, I just wish that Disney would acknowledge it, that's all...

What do you all think about it? Do you think Disney should have acknowledged their inspiration? Along those same lines, do you think that Osamu Tezuka should have done more to honor the original Metropolis (the silent french movie) when he wrote his manga? Do you think that perhaps "The Lion King" is just everything coming around? What are your feelings on this?

[Kat Walker]

I honestly see no striking similarities, other than the fact that it's a story about lion princes, and that Simba and Kimba rhyme. That's easily dismissed though, since "simba" is Swahili for "little lion". (Besides, isn't Kimba the name from the dubbed version?) Other than that, the plotlines couldn't BE any more different. I hate to break it to you flaming Disney-hating otaku types, but anime does not own the copyrights to stories about lions, nor did Tezuka come up with the concept of lions being 'king of the jungle'. If there was any creative inspiration, then it's only in the extremely basic underlying concept. Apparently no one is open to the idea that all of this might be, oh I don't know....a very vague coincidence?

Besides, I'm willing to bet that half of the people who made those claims have not even seen or read Jungle Emperor Leo/Kimba.

People were saying the same about Disney's Atlantis and Nadia. The only thing those two have in common are a nerdy guy and an exotic princess as the main characters.

It's just overbearing anime fanatics looking for a fight, if you ask me.

[Gypsy]

Hmm, I've seen big arguments about Atlatis and Nadia around, but never took the time to really look into it. Is Nadia a good series?

[Bobtheduck]

People were saying the same about Disney's Atlantis and Nadia. The only thing those two have in common are a nerdy guy and an exotic princess as the main characters.

It's just overbearing anime fanatics looking for a fight, if you ask me.

You're dead wrong about nadia... Both Atlantis and Nadia came from the same source, Jules Verne's 20,000 leagues under the sea. Atlantis wasn't a rip off of nadia, but it would be pretty bad if there weren't a lot of similarities since they came from the same source.

However, I doubt you've read all of Jungle Emporer either... It was in release for like over a decade, I believe, it's over 500 pages longs alltogether. There are many many sub stories in it, and one of the stories in it as someone described to me was darn close to Lion King. Specifically, the evil uncle and the death of the father.Of course, Lion king was presentd much better, far more realistic (as those sorts of things go, anyhow) and one coherent story from one end to the other. Jungle Emporer was much more fantastical and the anime was nothing close to the production values of Lion king... However, based on the synopsis of at least 1 arc of Jungle Emporer, it seems too close to completely discount. I used to care, but don't care that much anymore, except that its never even talked about by disney... Actually, the similarities weren't just "overbearing anime fans" as there was talk of lawsuits from the Tezuka estates, but they eventually decided to see it as a compliment since he was influenced by disney to begin with. So it went farther than overbearing anime fans.

However, many people have been upset by the anime "Metropolis" which is based on a manga which was got it's title, characters, and premise from a 1920's french silent film of the same name. What do you think of that? I think the manga honored the original production just fine, but some people thought there should be more... Specifically monetary compensation for the estate of the guy that mad ethe original Metropolis... I don't think that is true, because it was significantly changed and took on it's own life separate from the original.

[Kat Walker]

Post go bye-bye due to overabundant sarcasm ^^;;

[Kat Walker]

Ah, one last comment....

Even if TLK was greatly influenced by Leo, wouldn't that make Tezuka studios completely hypocritical for not properly acknowledging that he took his idea from the french movie, or as Bob said, making money off someone else's idea and not reimbursing them? And that's assuming he directly remade the entire movie, where as Lion King took after one tiny part of his story.

And I do have to admit I admire them for not going through with a lawsuit and even took it as a compliment by acknowledging that they took every bit as much inspiration from Disney as they had from anime. I guess whether Disney really *did* base their stuff off of Tezuka or fell upon an unlucky coincidence will have to remain a heated debate within animation fandom until a credible source speaks up.

And you *have* to admit that anime probably wouldn't be what it is today (Jungle Emperor Leo probably wouldn't even exist) if Disney hadn't developed animation and mainstream it so successfully.

[Kat Walker]

http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm

I was bored so I did some research...

This is an interesting theory that claims the Lion King was supposed to be a remake of Kimba, in other words a TOTALLY legal enterprise, but then the corporate bigwigs couldn't earn the rights to it and not wanting to waste any more money, tweaked it around and shipped it off as an original idea. Thought-provoking, indeed.

[MasterDias]

Lion King has always been one of my favorite Disney movies. Some of those old pictures from Kimba on that link do look similar to the Lion King pictures next to them.

Has anyone here actually seen any episodes of Kimba?

[WhiteDragon]

I heard that Disney's inspiration for "The Lion King" was from "Hamlet" (I think it was written by Shakespear) I've never heard of "Jungle Taitei", but then again, I wasn't into anime until I was fourteen ^^;

[Nia-chan]

I think my dad might have seen some when he was a kid... how old is the anime? I've never seen it, but the disney one(which I haven't seen in a long time) seems better. There's a white lion who wants to give a vegetarian substitute for carnivores? That's kind of wierd.

[otaku]

disney had alot of influence on anime and manga really. I would acknowledge it if i were them they release some of there own. not interested in this rerelease but I loved the show when I was a kid.

[Michael]

Sadly it seems like another attempt at wringing money out of a dead franchise.

[Rashiir]

I don't know about Lion King, but I have a pretty strong feeling that Disney ripped off Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty.

[Bobtheduck]

Ok... That link actually contains the case I brought up and...I'm not gonna discuss this anymore... If it's interesting to anyone and they want to discuss it, they can... It's boring to me now... So yeah, either discuss it or let it disappear into obscurity. Either one is ok.