Recent Lion King Resurgence Renews Film’s Controversial Anime Roots

Disney’s The Lion King is currently sweeping the worldwide box office, and audiences seem to be loving it, by and large. However, this live-action adaptation of The Lion King has caused an old debate that erupted over the original animated Lion King‘s to resurface again.

That debate concerns the question of Disney’s true inspirations for The Lion King animated film, as many analysts and cinephiles have long held the opinion that the movie was inspired by an anime: Osamu Tezuka’s Kimba the White Lion. Take a look at one of the comparisons of Lion King and Kimba, that’s now gaining steam over on Reddit:

As you can see, there’s good reason why this controversy over Kimba and The Lion King exists. The stories are strikingly similar, for example the Circle of Life theme, or plot elements like the young lion cubs Simba/Kimba; evil one-eyed lion villains; hyena sidekicks for the villain; and a baboon sage character. Even specific shots from both animated films were nearly identical, like a scene of the young lion looking at a cloud in the shape of his dead father; the iconic lion standing on Pride Rock at sunrise shot; even the climatic battle between the young lion and the one-eyed villain plays out exactly the same way.

It doesn’t help things that Lion King director Roger Allers had lived in Tokyo and worked in animation back when Tezuka was an icon of genre in that country, and a Kimba remake was even said to be airing on TV at the time. Allers and co-director Rob Minkoff both denied awareness of the Kimba movie – a claim that has been challenged by numerous industry figures, including multiple other employees at Disney animation who admitted to being familiar with Kimba. Actor Matthew Broderick has been outspoken with his account of being hired as the adult voice of Simba in Disney Lion King, and at first thinking he had landed Disney’s adaptation of Kimba, a film he had encountered as a kid.

Now that anime has become a major mainstream draw, awareness of the work of icons like Osamu Tezuka is growing amongst animation fans all over the world. With that awareness comes the inevitable demand that the anime get all past credit (over)due to it, in addition to the recognition it now enjoys. In short, Disney, Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff and others associated with the original Lion King (and this new version) will eventually have to address this question again. And maybe be more forthcoming this time around…

The Lion King is now in theaters. Take some time to check out Kimba the White Lion if you can.