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Disney Lion King Ripped Off From Kimba
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Was it a mere coincidence that Disney’s Lion King bear so much resemblance to Kimba The White Lion by Osamu Tezuka? Even the names ‘Simba’ and ‘Kimba’ comes so near. Disney’s line goes like this ‘Our people never heard of Kimba before The Lion King was released’. Animation buffs believe that Disney ripped off Kimba to create The Lion King. |
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Check out the 10 pics of similarities between the two and judge for yourself after the jump.
Source: KimbaWLion
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April 28th, 2007 at 4:04 am
I would be more impressed if you found a Disney movie that didn’t completely rip off some prior art. “Imagineers” indeed!
April 29th, 2007 at 4:04 am
This shocks you? Let me guess: you’re one of those people who think The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Bambi, and Beaty and the Beast are all Disney’s too, right? Look ‘em up. All Disney does is alter art for children.
April 29th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Old news. Disney ripped off Atlantis too from Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, without giving proper credit.
That said, Lion King is still one of the best animated movies ever, regardless of whether they ripped off Kimba or not.
April 29th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
[...] mal ein Beweis, daß du in der Comic-Industrie nur mit RipOffs wirklich weit kommst: Kimba, der weisse Löwenkönig. Nur zur Referenz: Kimba war zuerst. Offizielle Aussage von Disney (siehe auch Text auf der Site): [...]
April 30th, 2007 at 1:20 am
This is nothing new. This link/copy/ripoff was exposed back when the Lion King came out like a decade+ ago. There are also many sites on the web that discuss the stolen idea and material. I think it’s fairly common knowledge that Disney ripped it off. The shitty part is their continued denial of any of it. It just makes them look even worse. Disney has sucked big time for years now anyways.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:20 am
the issue is not that disney did not create the story. the problem lies with their artwork. they can present the story in a million ways but they chose to copy someone elses idea. and that is hypocritical of disney since they are very protective of their “artwork”.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:27 am
Welcome to 1994
April 30th, 2007 at 8:23 am
[...] As if we didn’t already know that there are no original ideas, comes proof. [...]
April 30th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Disney is notorious for ripping off others’ ideas and then vehemently defending their own copyrights.
Sad thing is that they have the lawyers and money to keep this up indefinitely.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:00 am
Big F’ing deal-io, Come on, I would be more concerned about my paycheck, then this crap.
I mean, seriously: Get a job, invent something to help mankind, But please, stop whining about if a kiddy’s movie is ripped of, from another kiddy’s movie, or not.
People, This kind of thinkin “Killed” people back in the 70′s, ya know!
May 17th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Um, come on people. I was one who didn’t know about this, and so I found this interesting. Stop complaining.
May 25th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Ok, guys i’de hate to break up the pitty party, but these are all really old movies, I think its time that all of you who are still in battle about this,whatever side you’re on, you definetly need to get over it. I mean come on! you ‘ve been fighting about it since 1994 when lion king came out! Five the F***ing thing a rest!
June 25th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Okay, enough, yes disney rips off other peoples stuff. But you know what, Disney rocks! There old style of artwork is amazing, cause the stuff they do now isn’t nearly as good. But Classics are still classics and so Lion King isn’t a classic and it was ripped off, but you know what, I still consider it to be on of the best Disney movies! Stop fussing over it…..disney rocks ^^ I will always fight on their behalf
-Peraru Peach 18
August 5th, 2007 at 8:00 am
You need to stop hating on Disney, who ever gather this info are just mad that they didn’t come up with the idea first, Disney, and Dreamworks are the best movie producers in the world, you all are just a bunch of whinning pansies that try to start trouble, and if you have something you’d like to say to me please hit me up on myspace.com, I’d love to prove you wrong. Oh and it’s kinda low to be talking about a dead guy like that. KMA
December 6th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
well wat i found interesting is disney’s attitude of vehemently opposing the copying of stuff wat it has already copied. Suddenly they seem to be just as good (or bad) as thepiratebay and aXXo… but only richer
February 18th, 2008 at 9:31 am
You know what? I don’t care if Lion King did rip off Kimba anyway. I mean, the Lion King rules! Just because some cheesy Japanese or whatever comic or show or whatever dosn’t mean that Lion King isn’t better. Who’s ever even really heard about Kimba anyway until they stumbled across this?
March 1st, 2008 at 8:53 am
Ha! i knew it from the start lion king is a ripoff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 12th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
You are just being stupid
Lion king was made b4 Kimba btw
and they dont look anything alike.
lioon king is better
March 19th, 2008 at 4:35 am
ummmm Shanikaaaa… u r really dumb…. kimba was made WAYYYYYYY before lion king….. to be exact kimba was created in the 1960′s and lion king was made in 1994….. even the most retarded person would be able to figure that one out
April 4th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I didn’t hear about this before because I was born in 1993. This is very surprising; I always knew Disney was rubbish because they use the same story plots for everything, but this really did shock me.
Despite all of this, I do love Lion King, but it is disgusting that Disney ripped someone off to make it.
I like to write stories and draw manga comics (although they are just mess around things) but now I, aswell as others I’m sure, am a bit concerned about wether to ever release something we’ve worked hard on without Disney stealing it.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Well… it is quite cheeky that they did copy it but i am so glad that they made Lion King! I love Lion King and always watch it, to see this is shocking but i think we all know which one is the best…
I don’t mind that they copied it; Lion King’s art is brilliant and look at that. Singers can copy other peoples songs if they ask and you never know if they have asked, so i think it’s fine, well done Lion King!
April 21st, 2008 at 4:38 am
I love lion king and disney rocks!! they have beautiful animations and great songs and very emotional.lion king is sad and funny and have great characters
May 8th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Some of these people sound like the Chris Crocker guy, “LEAVE DISNEY ALONE!” You guys suck. How would you like it if you published a movie, I came along and watched it, copied almost everything about it, put my version of your work out, said it was MY IDEA, and made more money? On top of that, people told you to stop bitching cause my version was awsome and better than yours? You people need to suck my dack.
May 26th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I’m certain lionking got inspiration from kimba, but i don’t think they stole the story.inspiration is different than theft. Lionking has themes of hamlet, bambi, and even animal farm and reminds me more of these than kimba. Kimba relates to these films to a lesser extent i think, but due to human characters, i see some animal farm in kimba, so if u bitch at lionking, u better bitch at kimba unless yer a hypocrite. I bitch at niether.and about simba and kimbas dads in the sky?nobody can copyright supernatural things like that. Hell, every culture has it.and little foots mom appeared in clouds in land b 4 time,so did both of the dogs parents in family dog, and the black rabbit of death appears b 4 hazel in watership down. Most of all kimba and simbas plots are different. Kimbas element is his rulership. Simbas element is coping with death. I have lost a nephew at 7, big bro at 8, and my dad at 19. I know from experience that simbas emotions are realistic and are the center of the stoy.but this isnt so in kimba
May 29th, 2008 at 5:21 am
Listen right, maybe Walt Disney did ripp off Kimba maybe he didnt. Does it really matter? The result is; we have eneded up with a brilliant film for the whole family to love, and people who are going further into this ‘mystery’ cannot be very nice people because they must be trying to make little kids lose thier faverorite films! Weather they ripped them off or they didnt, to be fair – its none of our bloody business anyway! So why dosent everybody stop this argument and let it go. Anyway Kimba The White Lion was freakin’ years ago! Nobody even watches it anymore! Basically, The Lion King is a better version of Kimba. Dont get me wrong, Im not defending and denying the fact that Disney Stole Kimba, Im not because chances are they probably did, but face it, Lion King is a great film that millions enjoy, so get over stop trying to reveal Disneys ‘bad side’ and chill! Disneys Stole loadsa stuff anyway! Half of the films werent even written by him! So just leave it okay? It dosent even matter. Would it change the way we lived if Disney was uncovered a fraud? No. Would it help us to evolve? No. So just forget about it and get on with your lives. Put in the bigger rocks first; get a family, buy a house, get a job, all that stuff-then if you want, do that! try to uncover Walt Disney as a fraud, make yourself happy! But we dont need you stepping in right now!
Leave it.
Unamed
Aged 12
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I fear Disney might lose ground for claiming that certain Chinese animation works are pirated from Disney, because Disney itself do it.
July 31st, 2008 at 5:20 am
1. Father alongside his son, proud to teach him. Please watch Bambi, right after mother dies and after man comes to the forest.
2. Proud lion standing on top of a rock. Please look up Lambert the Sheepish Lion and Social Lion, both done by Disney before Kimba, both have this imagery.
3. Character design, black on eartips. Please look at young Bambi, done before Kimba.
4. Facial expression of disgust, lion not eating meat. For the disgust look, watch Bambi eating a mouthful of thistle for the first time. For the lion not eating meat, figure out what Lambert ate.
5. Falling in a briar patch. First, remember that Simba falls in the briar patch and escapes without much damage while the bad guys cannot. This is more of a nod to Song of the South (born and bred in the briar patch).
6-7. Danger from above. If you insist on the hero dangling, then see Bambi when Faleen is escaping the dog pack. If you insist on the danger being above, see the wolf in Lambert standing above his mother at the edge of what looks like Pride Rock. If you want to argue that the danger MUST be from above and the hero MUST be dangling, see Peter Pan.
8. The Stampede… while there are many examples of stampedes (Lambert and Social Lion both have stampedes) escaping by climbing the tree is a Goofy coincidence… Still, while I know there are shorts with this situation, I can’t come up with one off the top of my head.
9. The father appearing illuminated/father in the moon. Honestly, that’s not quite the same thing, but you can find similarities there through old mythology. The thing that comes to mind most easily though is Clash of the Titans. Of course that was AFTER Kimba, yet I don’t hear folks whining about that one… and it looks far more like Kimba’s than Simba’s dad.
10. The lion in the clouds… Please watch Bambi. While the love scene most especially puts a deer in the clouds, when young Bambi first sees his father it’s in a misty, cloudy scene. The imagery is far closer to Mufasa in the clouds than Leo’s cloud-shape.
My point? Kimba was inspired by earlier Disney movies, movies that Disney looked at again to make The Lion King. To say that Disney ripped off Kimba without looking at other works that Disney did BEFORE Kimba that they would have looked at… people need to wisen up and realize Disney did a LOT of work, work that strongly inspired Tezuka, and work that he obviously referenced in some of his work. Of COURSE you’ll see similarities.
September 27th, 2008 at 5:39 am
lightflow is so right, even if the lion king did rip off kimba, nobody had fucking heard of it before, and i have watched it on youtube, and then watched the lion king, and the lion king has a lot more stuff in there. so the people who made kimba should stop bitching, as the lion king put them on the map and made the known
September 30th, 2008 at 5:35 am
It seems like Disney did copy Kimba!
October 6th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Kieran Mellor;
Sorry to say this but your post was just really idiotic. Just because Kimba wasn’t known, or if Lion King is better, it doesn’t mean that stealing is right.
And besides, Kimba was made by Osamu Tezuka. OSAMU FUCKING TEZUKA. FATHER OF MODERN MANGA. Talk about unknown.
Not that I don’t like Lion King. And i haven’t seen Kimba. But I think it’s stupid from Disney to contiune denying that Lion King hasn’t anything in common with Kimba.
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:44 am
Everyone who thinks that lion king ripped of whatever the hell that stupid japenese thing was is a bitch!!!!!! The lion king is an amazing movie and they did not rip off those Kumba…whatever idiots and if they did loion king was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better any way so stop bitchin about it!
February 25th, 2009 at 6:32 am
“It’s not where you take things from- it’s where you take them to.” Jean-Luc Godard
April 18th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
they did it once angain in 2001 with ATLANTIS being a rip of NADIA AND THE SECRET OF THE BLUE WATER (Gainax – 1991)
whole story here
http://www.thesecretofbluewater.com/atlantis-i.htm
June 29th, 2009 at 12:06 am
you assholes lion king was an ass hole move on there part and like china_disneyworld said they ripped off lots of shit disney is by far the stupidest lazest company in the histroy of mankind.
I mean every movie the assholes have made arnt fuckin origanal cinderella and all there other shit were all books long before disney took them in and made them suck almost all idsney movies are terrible obivious ripoffs.
Only with more plot then the book(s).
Heres the ones that wernt 101 dolmations emperors new grove and lilo & stich are the only organal movies those fucks have made.
September 13th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Look I hate to break up th disney bashing, however you folks need to look at the whole media thing.
Disney corp is not the only one that has borrowed ideas from other sources, heck the great Tesuka did borrow Jungle Tatai ( KIMBA) from some brit author from the 19 century.
Actualy Atlantis was originaly scripted in 1989 but was shelved.
I have been an anime and animation fan since the early 70`s .
I am a big fan of Kimba, i loved Lion King.
I am not too thrilled on the re scoring of Laputa for Disney, but you know I will live with it.
The person above me could have used less offensive language to get the point across, but you know
thats what is great about the USA.
Peace
October 10th, 2009 at 5:53 am
kimba is shet, the lion king is the best
October 12th, 2009 at 11:25 am
I thought copying a movie or making it like something is against the law.
October 17th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Its blatantly obvious that Disney copied Kimba and done it stupidly precise, even i wouldn’t plagiarize an article for a report word for word, it would all be fine if they had the guts to own up to what they have done and given credit to Osamu Tezuka.
But no being Disney they just deny and hide behind their big shot lawyers.
I’m sure none of you here would like one your work which you have spent time and effort on for me to just copy it word for word etc and make a fortune out of it and then have some idiots scrutinizing the original and praising the thief.
So i guess Disney is condoning theft and plagiarism, what a great message they are sending out to kids these days.
December 26th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
The Lion King is better than that kimba shit. Simba is cuter than kimba,the pictures from that show even look stupid. LION KING FTW – KIMBA FTL
March 16th, 2010 at 2:53 am
You guys, seriuosly, what does it matter? I love The Lion King, I’ve watched it like a thousand times! And it doesn’t matter if the idea was “stolen” from Kimba, it’s a great movie and million of kids loved it, and still do! Maybe the maker of Kimba should be proud that Disney got ispired by him.. I don’t know if it’s true, and I don’t care.. And all those pictures,, seriuously, of course they are similar! Is it that strainge that a father is standing next to his son, or that a ghost or god or whatever appears in the clouds? Like that isn’t done before! And about cinderella and the little mermaid, these are all fairytales, and excisted a long time ago before Disney made those movies, but they didn’t stole an idea, they just picked a fairytale and made a movie about it. Cinderella is written by a thousand writers, not by just one. It was a good story, and a lot of people used it for their own creations. It’s not weird or wrong.. And does that really matter? Everybody is right or wrong, you can’t be just one of them.. That’s why we’re humans, its natural..
Well anyway, i like the lion king, don’t rune it for the little kids ..
May 13th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
I think this is all for bitcin about cartoons from the west and overrate the already overated manga/anime. If this makes any sense, the old mangas took a lot influence from the west, especially from the early disneys, and whom else than Osama Tezuka’s art would prove this fact.
Yes, I know Kimba made earlier than Lion King. I’ve just said this, because it gives me the nerve that anime fans trying to prove how cool and original EVERY anime is. Both the west and the east have many shitty cartoons, you just have to dig out the good ones. And both of them borrow each others influence. I think its a cool thing.
Besides if the japanese were really pissed off by Lion King, they already would have complained about it through in judicial way. I guess Tezuka took this as a compliment not as a commited crime.
I still respect both Tezuka and Disney. They made my childhood exciting.
Peace
June 14th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
there was a sequel to Kimba called Leo the Lion
http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/leo-the-lion-sequel-to-kimba-the-white-lion/
July 18th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Has anyone ever read Shakespeare’s Hamlet? Because that’s where The Lion King’s story came from. And honestly, if they’re both so similar, then they both ripped off Shakespeare. And really, do you honestly think that Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Princess and the Frog, etc. are original Disney Stories? If you do, then congratulations. You’re a 100% genuine idiot.
And if it’s the artwork that’s in question, who’s to say that it’s Disney’s fault? What if some animation director, or even one of the animators, saw Kimba and got inspiration from that? Or copied it without saying anything because they knew no one else had seen it? Disney employs A LOT of people, and why would they question said employees if they do a great job? Honestly, even if Disney copied it start to finish, word for word, they did a HELL of a better job. Simba and his dad actually look like lions. Kimba looks like a leggy white mouse with a black-tufted tail, and his dad looks the same with a mane.
But really people, if you’re going to bash Disney, take a Disney history lesson first. Disney isn’t about original stories. It’s about technological advancement in entertainment for everyone. Who created the first ever animation with synchronized sound? Disney did. It’s called Steamboat Willie. Who created the first color cartoon? Disney did. It’s called Flowers and Trees. Those are both Disney shorts, not full length movies, but they were the most amazing thing. Oh but who created the first full length full color animated movie? Disney did. It’s called Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. And Disney continued and continues to make breakthroughs in animation.
So like Disney, don’t like Disney, I don’t care. But if you’re going to bash Disney, at least do it intelligently.
July 24th, 2010 at 9:58 am
I have to lol at the “omg no one even knows about Kimba!11″ posts. I’m sure people in Japan know about Kimba just as much as people in the United States know about the Lion King.
Also, how does different character art make a story better? The animals in the Lion King don’t look realistic either anyway. Realistic doesn’t equal better.
As for Disney copying Kimba, I don’t think we’ll know unless someone admits to it. A lot of stuff could simply be coincidence. Seeing a parent figure in clouds, dangling from a ledge, and other things have been done in other movies.
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:48 am
Ok, first, Simba means “Lion” in Swahili which is an African language, and Lion King is staged in Africa. Second, who cares if it’s copied? It’s still the best Disney movie EVER, and my favorite movie of all time, so all of you whining about it can shut up now.