Lines: 125 Message-ID: <3023qm$5nt@nyx.cs.du.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: nyx.cs.du.edu The following article is from today's LA Times Calendar Section (July 13, 1994) and is posted without permission for your perusal. Any typos are mine. A "KIMBA" SURPRISE FOR DISNEY MOVIES: "The Lion King" is a hit, but reported similarities to the Japanese-created American cartoon of the 60s are raising some questions. By Robert W. Welkos Times Staff Writer Hollywood--Creators of "The Lion King," Dsney's summer box-office smash, say they were surprised to learn of reported similarities in the animated film and a Japanese-created American television cartoon series of the 1960s called "Kimba, the White Lion." "Frankly, I'm not familiar with ," said Rob Minkoff, who added that he and co-director Roger Allers first learned about the controversy on a recent trip to Japan to promote the Disney film, whose lion cub is named Simba. Disney promotional material says that the idea for its African-based coming-of-age story originated "in the story department of Disney Feature Animation more than four years ago." "The project was initially called 'King of the Jungle' and, like most animated features at Disney, its development was evolutionary, taking years to create and refine," stated a Disney press kit. An expert on Japanese comic books and the American producer of "Kimba" both said that while the story itself is far different from the "Lion King," they noticed striking similarities in several characters and in at least one scene. The similarities in characters include an excitable bird who accompanies the lion, a guru-like baboon who gives sage advice, and even a pack of smart-aleck hyenas, according to Fred Ladd, who produced the "Kimba" TV series. "When one sees the film, it's inevitable that one should be reminded of similar material in the TV series of 30 years ago," Ladd said. Frederik Schodt of San Fransisco, author of a 1983 book on Japanese comic books called "Manga! Manga!," said the Disney film contains one scene that is amazingly similar to a scene on Page 173, Vol. 3, of a paperback edition of the 1950s comic book series called "The Jungle Emperor" by animator Osamu Tezuka. The cartoon TV series was based on the comic book series. In that scene, Schodt recalled, the lion father, named Leo, has just died (by a hunter's gun) and his son, named Lune, runs into a man who has witnessed the killing. "They are about to walk off into the distance when the clouds on the horizon start to take on the shape of Leo," Schodt said. "The man says to the little lion cub, 'Look, that cloud looks just like Leo.' Then, on the horizon, we see the shape of the lion's father." Schodt said he thought a scene in "Lion King" where Simba sees his ghostly father, Mufasa, in the clouds "too similar to be a coincidence." Indeed, Schodt said, it would be nearly impossible for the hundreds of animators at Disney not to be aware of the similarities in the comic book. "There are an awful lot of young Ameicans who are big fans of Japanese animation today," he said. "Many of those people are now working in the United States animation industry. It would be inconceivable that no one had never seen 'Kimba, the White Lion' before. "In animation," he added, "it is common to have allusions to other movies and in-jokes." But, while some see obvious references and influences to Tezuka's work in "Lion King," the story itself is quite different. In "Kimba," the cub's mother dies aboard a ship and Kimba escapes, swimming back to shore. While trying to go home, he visits cities and realizes that mankind has created a wonderful civilization of laws--quite different from the law of the jungle. In "Lion King," Simba leaves the pride after mistakenly believing that he had a role in his father's death. In "Kimba," the hero battles poachers and trappers, a magic serpent and even the monster of Petrified Valley. He defends his domain against "the insect invasion," "the red menace" and "the gigantic grasshopper." Aiding his efforts are his animal friends, Dan'l Baboon, Pauley Cracker, Tadpole, Samson and Roger Ranger, who is a human. In "Lion King," however, there are no human beings and Simba fights hyenas and Scar. The character of Scar, the power hungry "black sheep" brother of Mufasa, is particularly intriguing to some observers. In the TV series, the villian Claw, who has a scar above his eye, takes over the throne in Kimba's abscence. Takayuki Matsutani, president of Tezuka Productions in Tokyo, said there is some similarity between the animated creations on two counts: the son grows up to be the king's successor after his father's death, and the symbolic scene where Simba stands on a rock in "The Lion King," whereas in the Japanese version, the opening scene has Kimba standing on a rock. He also agreed there were similarities in the baboon, the bird, the hyenas and te evil lion. "However, quite a few staff of our company saw a preview of 'The Lion King,' discussed this subject and came to the conclusion that you cannot avoid having these similarities as long as you use animals as characters and try to draw images out of them," Matsutani said. "If the Disney Co. had gotten a hint from 'The Jungle Emperor,' Osamu Tezuka, a founder of our company, would have been pleased," he continued. "And, we feel the same way, rather than making a claim. "Therefore, our company's general opinion is 'The Lion King' is a totally different piece from 'The Jungle Emperor' and is an original work completed by the Disney production's long-lasting excellent production technique." Asked about the apparent similarities, Minkoff said that whenever a story is based in Africa, it is "not unusual to have characters like a baboon, a bird or hyenas." "I know for a fact that <"Kimba"> has never been discussed as long as I've been on the project," said Minkoff, who joined the film project in April, 1992. "In my experience, if Disney becomes aware of anything like that, they say you will not do it. People are claiming copyright infringement all the time." ===== In the article are two color pictures from "The Lion King". The first is a picture of the baboon Rafaki, with the caption: "Disney baboon Rafiki may suggest Kimba's Dan'l Baboon." The second picture is of Simba talking with Scar. The caption reads: "'The Lion King's' Simba, left, has to deal with scheming Uncle Scar, who seems similar to 'Kimba, the White Lion's' villian, Claw." Hmm. Kimba, Simba. Scar, Claw. Hmmm... :::::Larry::::: From avatar@wings.micro.umn.edu Fri Jul 15 08:02:31 PDT 1994 Article: 48175 of rec.arts.disney Xref: netcom.com rec.arts.animation:22529 rec.arts.anime:114746 rec.arts.disney:48175 Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation,rec.arts.anime,rec.arts.disney Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!tribune.usask.ca!quartz.ucs.ualberta.ca!unixg.ubc.ca!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!zip.eecs.umich.edu!umn.edu!wings.micro.umn.edu!avatar From: avatar@wings.micro.umn.edu (Timothy Fay) Subject: Re: Lion King vs Kimba: Summary/Update? Message-ID: Sender: news@news.cis.umn.edu (Usenet News Administration) Nntp-Posting-Host: wings.micro.umn.edu Organization: Teenage Lobotomy Productions X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6] References: Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 15:24:05 GMT Lines: 76 Collin Ong (collin@intel.com) wrote: > >Could somebody in the know please summarize the topics and themes of >Kimba, comparing them to Lion King? Are the similarities real? I tried to e-mail this to Collin, but it bounced, so please forgive me if I post this once again: There are several striking similarities between Disney's LION KING and Tezuka's KIMBA/JUNGLE EMPEROR. For example: o Tezuka's character was named (by NBC) 'Kimba.' Disney's character is named 'Simba.' o Kimba's enemy was a lion with a scar over one eye. Simba's enemy is a lion with a scar over one eye. o Kimba's mentor is a wise old baboon. Simba's mentor is a wise old baboon. o Kimba's advisor is a wise-cracking bird. Simba's advisor is a wise- cracking bird. o In KIMBA, the bad lion had two hyena henchmen. In THE LION KING, the bad lion has THREE hyena henchmen (important distinction, here!). o Kimba's dead mother appears in the sky to guide him. Simba's _father_ appears in the sky to guide him (another important distinction!). Though, as several articles have pointed out, in the comic-book version Kimba dies and appears to his son, Rune, in the clouds in similar fashion to the way Mufasa appears to Simba in THE LION KING. Also, this post from another newsgroup: >From: farallon@crash.cts.com (Lawrence Adams) >Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 05:59:52 GMT >Subject: Re: Disney's "The Lion King" >Organization: CTS Network Services (CTSNET/crash), San Diego, CA "Well there are a couple (dozen) other similarities. i.e. The villin 'Scar' is an analog to Kimba's 'Claw' even down to the same scar over the left eye. Scar's henchmen are a triplet of heyenas as opposed to the two Tom and Tab in Kimba. Kimba's friends include a bird although he's not a parrot. The opening sequence has several features that are found in the original Japanese title sequence for kimba, in fact they had the opening sequence to the Japanese Kimba(Leo) video printed and pasted up on the wall at the studio! And it was originally planned to make Simba white! They though better of that fairly quickly. And with the exception of the lions themselves all the 'background' animals have the same streamline flair of design that Tezuka put into all his drawings. "Even Rob Minkoff at a recent comic con stated that Disney used several 'outside' influences in the making of the movie. (Effectivly stalling any Kimba related questions from the crowd) "To be fair of course Tezuka himself copied Disney! Mainly in the eyes. He was always a big fan of disney..." >Farallon Seal Another point: Before production began on the KIMBA series, NBC (the network that syndicated the KIMBA series) sponsored a visit by Tezuka to the Walt Disney Studios so he could pick up some tips on color animation production (KIMBA was the first animated series in Japan shot in color). So for Disney to claim no knowledge of Tezuka or his works is suspect, at best. -- Reply to: avatar@wings.micro.umn.edu fayxx001@maroon.tc.umn.edu "My mental facilities are TWICE what yours are -- you pea brain!" -Percival McLeach Subject: Re: WANTED: Tezuka's "lion on a rock" scene from "Jungle Taitei" Date: 6 Apr 1995 15:11:47 GMT Organization: 3M - St. Paul, MN 55144-1000 US Eric T. Cheng (s564146@aix2.uottawa.ca) wrote: : : Jungle Emperor (Osamu Tezuka) : 1. 52-episodes tv series based upon original comic by Mr. Tezuka (1965-67) : 2. protagonist is a young white lion named Kimba : 3. bildungsroman tale of a young African lion whose fater is done in by : treachery : 4. said treachery performed by a nefarious hunter named "Ham Egg" : 5. physically challenged evil male relative: Uncle Claw (has only one eye) : 6. anthropomorphic sidekicks including a talkative parrot named Coco : 7. carrion-eating allies of evil uncle: hyenas : 8. dead father appears to son as a ghost in the clouds above a jutting : promentory : 9. Kimba stands proudly on a rock cliff : : The Lion King (Walt Disney) : 1. full-length animated feature (1994) : 2. protagonist is a young goldent lion named Simba : 3. bildungsroman tale of a young African lion whose fater is done in by : treachery : 4. said treachery performed by a nefarious family member : 5. physically challenged evil male relative: Uncle Scar (has scar over : one eye) : 6. anthropomorphic sidekicks including a talkative parrot named Zazu : 7. carrion-eating allies of evil uncle: hyenas : 8. dead father appears to son as a ghost in the clouds above a jutting : promentory : 9. Simba stands proudly on a rock cliff : Let's see if I get the hang of this: Hamlet (Shakespeare - at least that was one of the ways he spelled it) 1. Full-length play (and even a movie, and probably a cartoon) 2. Protagonist is a young white Dane (that rhymes with mane, I think that might be a tip-off to a rip-off) named Hamlet (see for example Ham Egg - curiouser and curioser) 3. Bildungsroman tale of a young Dane (there's that rhyme again) whose fater (don't you love German) is done in by treachery (most foul) 4. Said treachery performed by a nefarious family member (in more than one way) 5. Physically challenged evil male relative: Uncle is an alcoholic. 6. Anthropomorphic sidekicks including a skull named Yoric. 7. Carrion-eating allies of evil uncle: Rosencranz and Guildenstern. 8. Dead father appears to son as a ghost in the vapors overlooking the family castle. 9. Hamlet stands proudly on the parapets overlooking the land. Oliver Stone, get out of town. _____________________________________________________________________________ Disclammer...Disclamur...Whatever...If I can't spell Disclaimer, it's obvious I don't speak for 3M. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------