Stollen!?!

[faithfighter]

I just found this out and I think is horrible!!

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

Lion King was a remake of Kimba the white lion anime?!?

my brother was watching this the other day on the Christian channle, he was telling me about it. seems like the only part Disney didn't steal was the morals and Christian symbolism.
its kind of sad to realize that one of your favorite movies was a rip off.

well anyone have thoughts??

[Tarnish]

its kind of sad to realize that one of your favorite movies was a rip off.

You should see the look on people's faces when I tell them The Matrix was based off something else...

[Lady Macbeth]

I'm surprised there are people who still don't know this.

Disney and Japanese animators share a long history of "sharing" back and forth. The argument becomes circular if you pursue it too long: Disney stole that. Well yeah, but Japan stole that first. Well yeah, but Disney stole that before then. Well yeah, but Japan stole x idea two years before that.

No one's complained that Disney stole from the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson yet, so it's a good chance that these complaints arise because someone A) has a beef with Disney (don't we all) and B) discovers that one of Disney's best-sellers has an anime background instead of a classical literature background.

But yes, back to the topic at hand, The Lion King was "heavily inspired" by Kimba the White Lion. Officially, none of their animators "even saw" Kimba before work started on The Lion King - however, subsequent reports have proven that untrue, and the parallels in the two stories are unmistakable.

Disney just has to work harder at convincing people that there is no such thing as a truly original idea - we're influenced by what we see, whether we admit to it or not. The trick comes in when you decide where to take that inspiration.

[Chiyocities]

Yeah, I've known about the Kimba\Lion King story for a long time. Though you shouldn't really be surprised about things be copied or "stolen" within the entertainment industry. It happens all the time.

Just take a look at the Slam Dunk manga. The artist used already existing photos from the NBA and drew them in the story itself.

Giving credit does matter and the fact that some people either lie or don't say where exactly they came up with their ideas, makes it a problem.

[Tarnish]

I think the problem people have with it is that Disney claimed The Lion King to be their first "original" animated movie. When in reality...

[chibiphonebooth]

yeah, i learned about this when i had to do a report on how america is infulenced by japan. it was an 8 pg essay. x_x

i found this out and i was like OHEMGEEWTHLOLZ

yeah.

[Tenshi no Ai]

I think the problem people have with it is that Disney claimed The Lion King to be their first "original" animated movie. When in reality...

I heard that the VERY orginal story, was based off an old African folktale going... however many years back :/ Basically, it's like trying to remake a fairytale over and over again, like Cinderella, Snow White, etc. etc.

You should see the look on people's faces when I tell them The Matrix was based off something else...

I can see it now: "What the heck?! The GitS people have plugs in the back of their necks?! ....they're copying The Matrix!!"

*sigh* It's SO hard to find anything orginal nowadays! I used to think Wolf's Rain was a VERY orginal series, and then I watched the similar concept of Pom Poko :/ Well, some of Miyazaki's stuff is pretty orginal (the other half IS a retelling of an already made fable).

[RedMage]

There's a scene in The Matrix Reloaded that's uncannily like a scene in FLCL.

[Puritan]

Eh, the way I look at it, unless there is a case of copyright infringement, who cares if they recycle story ideas so long as the new version of the story is interesting and fun. Take Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The idea is by no means original, but most people consider it a classic (I personally find Hamlet or Macbeth much better, but that's another story). How original are most action movies? Hero/Heroine goes on quest to defeat evil menacing society/the world, meets strange sidekicks, has odd adventures, faces inner turmoil, defeats great evil. The idea has been around for millenia (heard of the Odyssey?) and probably is one of the basic storytelling ideas of the human race, but we still love to see it redone. Just so long as it seems new, we enjoy it.

[Arnobius]

Well, the Tezuka family believed there was infringement, and there were a lot of similarities.

Of coursenot all allegations are true. A few years back there was a stink that Atlantis had plagiarized Nadia, but anyone seeing both could see that the similarities were so superficial as to be considered coincidental.

[Tommy]

Well everybody gets influenced by something when they make a movie.

That`s so obvious.

[Arnobius]

Well everybody gets influenced by something when they make a movie.

That`s so obvious.

Well, the allegation was that Disney adapted Jungle Emperor Leo into Lion King without proper credits. It's not accidental infringement that was being alleged by the Tezuka family, but copyright violation

[Tenshi no Ai]

Well, the allegation was that Disney adapted Jungle Emperor Leo into Lion King without proper credits. It's not accidental infringement that was being alleged by the Tezuka family, but copyright violation

Not only that, Disney was actually thinking about licensing Kimba/Leo and guess make a dub version of it :/This was before Lion King too.

[MasterDias]

As for myself, I don't really care. I haven't seen Kimba so I can't comment on that, but I've always felt that anime fans were overly picky regarding originality.

Did The Lion King borrow from Kimba? Probably.

Can it be considered a ripoff? Maybe. Maybe not.
Remember, as Lady MacBeth said, Disney influenced the work of Japanese animators and vice versa.

And regarding the Matrix, I believe its creators' are big anime fans.

[Arnobius]

As for myself, I don't really care. I haven't seen Kimba so I can't comment on that, but I've always felt that anime fans were overly picky regarding originality.

Did The Lion King borrow from Kimba? Probably.

Can it be considered a ripoff? Maybe. Maybe not.
Remember, as Lady MacBeth said, Disney influenced the work of Japanese animators and vice versa.

And regarding the Matrix, I believe its creators' are big anime fans.

Well, when the Tezuka family asked for acknowledgement, Disney's reaction was "We never heard of Kimba the White Lion" (it was syndicated). Nadia on the other hand would probably been unknown in America when Disney began work on Atlantis

[faithfighter]

but as it said in the article I posted...one of the voice actors believed he was doing a remake of Kimba...and another person wore a Kimba costum to the cast part of Lion King...ya they really haven't hearde of it

it just ticks me off that ppl are so corupt...though I shouldn't be to surpirsed. still...it would be nice ya know?

Well everybody gets influenced by something when they make a movie.

That`s so obvious.

this is true...and I get infulenced by stuff when I right my stories to...but infulenced and blaten theiver are very very different

[rocklobster]

Don't feel too bad. Kimba is on DVD now, thanks to Right Stuf. And I agree that Lion King's similarities are just pure coincidence.

[eva-boy7985]

Regarding the Matrix info, yes the Wachowshi's are big anime fans, and they talk about quite signifcantly in the special features on the 3 Matrix film DVDs; also, there's a huge featurette on anime on the Animatrix DVD. Watch the classic original Ghost in the Shell movie and you'll see the influence the Wachowskis drew from it for their films, not so much in terms of visuals or combat, but more or less the deeper cyberpunk plot elements concerning the escalation of computers and technology, and how human life and worth are affected and connected to those things. That's partially what blew me away about Ghost in the Shell, being how much of the groundwork, both "philosophically" and somewhat plot-oriented material from it was infused into the Matrix (the first film anyways)!

[starwarsboy90]

Yeah, I agree about the Matrix part. As for The Lion King, now that was a violation of Kima's copyright! Evil Disney, they should of never have done The Lion, The Wtich And The Waredrobe!

[Tommy]

Yeah, I agree about the Matrix part. As for The Lion King, now that was a violation of Kima's copyright! Evil Disney, they should of never have done The Lion, The Wtich And The Waredrobe!

They just distributed it. Walden Media made it.

If you just had a weird sense of forgetfulness and meant to type The Lion King, we forgive you.

[starwarsboy90]

Lion King Indeed Tom Dincht!

[Kisa]

Yea I knew this... so much for their 'origional movie' huh?

[Radical Dreamer]

Yep, I had heard about this. Kind of a shame, but, then again, I did really love The Lion King. But I can wager a good bit that Kimba didn't have the suttle sexual references like Lion King does. XD

[Tommy]

But I can wager a good bit that Kimba didn't have the suttle sexual references like Lion King does. XD

I heard about that. I was like: What?

I heard Aladdin was worth in that category though.

[Radical Dreamer]

Heh, yeah, they're really there. My friends and I all witnessed them. XD There's two (that I know of) in Lion King, at least one in Aladdin, and at least two in The Little Mermaid. I'm not mentioning what they are here, though...XD;

[MorwenLaicoriel]

To be honest....I think people tend to exaggerate this. I haven't seen Kimba, so maybe I just don't know, but....from reading the article.....

I mean...it's obvious that the movie was effected visually from Kimba. But the story? From what I can TELL, Kimba's story is more of an enviromental tale, right? But Lion King has very little, if any, to do with that. In fact, you never see humans or technology in the entire movie! I think that the STORY, which is the real meat of the movie, was, as Disney claimed, mostly inspired and taken from Hamlet. While it's obvious that Kimba influenced Lion King somewhat, I don't think it's NEARLY enough to constitute copyright infringement.

(Oh, and even Simba's character design stealing from Kimba's can be questioned...yes, both have black rings around their ears, but lion cubs NORMALLY have black rings around their ears!)

As for the 'hidden sexual messages' in disney movies, most of those have been proven to be fake. The 'S-E-X' dust letters in Lion King are faint, and could actually be 'S-F-X' (which would stand for 'special effects', the department who would animate the dust in the first place). And the "good teenager, take off your clothes' from Aladdin is really 'good tiger, take off and go!"

Admittedly, I might be a bit biased since I'm a Disney fan, but still....

[Nate]

[quote="Radical Dreamer"]Heh, yeah, they're really there. My friends and I all witnessed them. XD There's two (that I know of) in Lion King, at least one in Aladdin, and at least two in The Little Mermaid. I'm not mentioning what they are here, though...XD]
Oh yeah, because even though snopes.com disproved most of them, there's nothing like following what the crowd says, eh?

[MorwenLaicoriel]

Oh yeah, because even though snopes.com disproved most of them, there's nothing like following what the crowd says, eh?

Well, there IS one that is true, but it's in The Rescuers, was done by a rogue animator, and was caught in the early 90's and taken out of subsequent releases of the movie.

[Nate]

Well, there IS one that is true, but it's in The Rescuers, was done by a rogue animator, and was caught in the early 90's and taken out of subsequent releases of the movie.

Yeah, I know about that one. That's the only true one. The only two that are unconfirmed are the letters in the sand in the one scene in The Lion King, and another rumor concerning Jessica Rabbit. Other than that, all other rumors about sexual stuff being inserted into Disney films are just that - rumor, not true at all.

[Radical Dreamer]

Well, there is one in The Little Mermaid that IS true, because I watched it with my own eyes (not gonna mention it here, hah). And since Disney's son was gay, I wouldn't doubt that they were there. Anyways, it's not "following the crowd" if you actually DO see it.