Like how quite a few spaghetti western plots had been directly taken from Japanese films but the samurai replaced with cowboys, so too, at first glance, it could seem as though Disney had been too closely inspired by the Japanese anime series Kimba the White Lion when creating The Lion King. But even though both may have some suspicious but slight similarities in visuals and plot, the assumptive rumor of one ripping off the other couldn’t be further from the truth.
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While Kimba the White Lion by Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy and Dororo, was created in 1965 by Mushi Production, The Lion King film by Disney may have been released afterwards in 1994 but doesn’t actually hold up to the accusations of people calling out plagiarism. Though we have summed up some of the differences here, feel free to also check out YouTube channel YMS’s video detailing the nitty-gritty comparisons between the franchises — the lack of actual likenesses between the two may shock you.
What is Kimba the White Lion Even About?
Kimba the White Lion, both the 52-episode original and 1989 remake series, revolves around the adventures of Kimba, or Leo in the original Japanese dub, a young, ambitious white lion cub as he strives to achieve peace between the human and animal societies. When Caesar, the white lion King of the Jungle, is killed and his mate Snowene is captured by poachers, Kimba is then born on an ocean liner that is met with the unfortunate circumstance of crashing, throwing Kimba into the sea.
In the original series, Kimba swims his way to shore and cuts to him living in Africa, later briefly recounting how he’d had to fend for himself in a human city on his way to his homeland. After traveling and learning for himself the ways of human language and civilization, Kimba wanted to return to his homeland where he belongs and teach animals how to also be civilized. And so, after growing up among humans and learning about them, that’s the short of how Kimba came to journey back to Africa himself.
The 1989 remake takes a bit of a detour to go more into depth about Kimba’s life in the city and how it had really affected him and his outlook on life. After being tossed into the sea, Kimba is brought aboard the dinghy of a surviving poacher until they both get picked up by another ship, where a man named Dr. Ban and his nephew Kenichi are called by police officers to assess the well-being of the lion cub. Deciding to care for Kimba themselves, the boy names him Shiro, meaning white.
Kimba learns the ways of humans, like how to understand their language and civility. When Kenichi takes him to the zoo, Kimba meets other jungle cats. Upon telling them he’s the son of Caesar (Panja in the Japanese original dub) and his late mother wished for him to return to the jungle, even the zoo animals know of such a revered lion. After the black panthers promised to help him get to Africa, Kimba witnesses the brutality between humans and escaped zoo cats when he tries to free them. Being retrieved after the incident, Dr. Ban and Kenichi decide to return Kimba to the wilds of Africa, where they come face to face with the struggles against poachers.
In any case, Kimba manages to make it to his parents’ homeland and follows in the footsteps of his father as the new King of the Jungle. Kimba faces many struggles from surviving the concrete jungle to an actual one, endeavoring to utilize and teach civil communication and mutual understanding to overcome the fight for space and resources. Although his own father had been killed by poachers, Kimba still strives towards peace and harmony between humans and animals, his knowledge of each world helping to bridge the gap.
So What’s the Fuss Between The Lion King and Kimba the White Lion?
Well, in reality, there isn’t much. While Kimba the White Lion and The Lion King both have a plot revolving around young lions growing up to become strong leaders in their fathers’ steads, there’s really not much beyond said vague premise that warrants any serious scrutiny. Sure, there’s a myriad of superficially similar-looking scenes floating around and, yes, the names Kimba and Simba seem like they could practically be interchangeable, but that’s about where the comparisons cease, especially with Simba being Swahili for “Lion,” a deliberate naming choice. While Simba was briefly considered as the name for Kimba during the English localization, that’s all it is, a coincidence. And looking deeper into the facts, even those similarities are flimsy at best.
Looking more scrupulously into the details, the two are vastly different and bring their own stories to the table — Kimba the White Lion focuses on Kimba striving for harmony between humans and animals, sometimes even taking place in human civilizations and having outlandishly wacky situations, while The Lion King is grounded on the plot of Simba running away from and later facing up to his own guilt and murderous uncle. In typical Disney fashion of essentially rebranding pieces of fiction and fairy tales, it’s well-known that The Lion King is actually heavily influenced by the story of Hamlet, not Kimba.
Not only do Kimba the White Lion and The Lion King lack any actual similarities of substance, but they also often have directly opposing themes. For instance, some contrasting elements include odd takes on shying away from some harsh realities while taking others head-on. Although Kimba means well to find peace between beings of all kinds, The Lion King doesn’t shy away from highlighting the necessity of natural order. And while The Lion King doesn’t feature any humans, Kimba isn’t afraid to show the reality of poachers and guns. Heck, while The Lion King had audiences weeping over the emotional death of Mufasa, Kimba can instead be seen prominently parading around with his father’s carcass at times.
Even taking the other Kimba the White Lion series and films from the franchise into consideration, the scrutiny over comparisons between the two franchises is overall reductive to the point of vagueness that could apply to most any coincidence in media. Those arguing over the suspicious relatability of the two properties tend to stitch together carefully nitpicked, unrelated scenes from the plethora of Kimba material in a forced effort to make the two look as similar as possible to those unfamiliar with either. Sometimes these hodge-podge “similarity” compilations even pull visuals from Kimba media made after 1994 to retroactively call out The Lion King supposedly plagiarizing.
But it’s easy to create such divisive and compelling rhetoric when more substantial info is kept from the audience. Lacuna matata, you could say.
What’s your take on this animated lion controversy? Let us know in the comments if you think there’s more to it than mere coincidences!
H/T: YMS (YourMovieSucks.org) on YouTube
