How did Disney get away with such blatant plagiarism? Does anyone know if they paid anything for the rights or handed over any royalties? Why didn't Tezuka's estate sue Disney the way Kurosawa sued Sergio Leone for ripping off Yojimbo to make A Fistful of Dollars? To have something as wonderful as Kimba soiled in this way is a wound that has never healed. Help me, someone!
shareTezuka tried to sue Disney, but they didn't exactly have enough money and Disney got away with it. I love The Lion King, but they really need to come up with their own ideas.
shareSorry, lies. Tezuka died in 1989, the Lion King came out in 1994. So, I doubt he was trying to sue Disney. Old post, but lies need to be exposed no matter how old, and you lied.
"...nothing is left of me, each time I see her..." - Catullus
He's referring to what you would call in the US 'Tesuka's Estate'. That company that bears his name is responsible for all the distribution rights, the use of Kimba's image and whatnot. E.g., that baseball team you see all the time in documentaries about Japan's pop culture, Kimba is their mascot and they pay Tesuka's for that.
shareEver since Walt Disney got out of the picture, the Disney Company tried every possible trick to get more monopolized money. If I recall, Dr. Tezuka had some respect for Disney, so he didn't want his company to ever sue for the wrong reasons. They decided to play it safe, even though they were well aware of the fact that it was a rip-off, as of most people who know such things in Japan. Disney refuses to aknowledge that they used Kimba, and no royalties or credits were given. To this day, there are still some people that believe either that the Lion King was a legal remake of Kimba the White Lion, or that they heard from a "reliable Japanimation source" that Kimba itself was the rip-off. Can you imagine? Time travel paradox?
I have to say though, I have never personally watched a Kimba cartoon (I've seen a bit of the much darker sort-of companion semi-sequel series, Leo the Lion), but learning of this recently myself, I hope to find a DVD or VHS boxset in compensation for the tainted evil profit I've bought. How I wish I've heard of this earlier. Apparently, Disney originally wanted to obtain the rights for a remake, but when against a bunch of others for the rights, Disney went right through the scheduled plans of the movie, ripping off completely. From what I hear, they did the same thing for some others like the Muppets...
For more information, I think it's best to look into these websites... (the first one's a real great Kimba fansite, BTW)
http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm
http://www.50yearso fkimba.com/simbakimb a.htm
http://www.straight dope.com/classics/a9 91224.html
http://www.abcb.com/trivia/kim_0001.htm
(Remove spaces in Addresses.)
EDIT:
My bad. I forgot that Dr. Tezuka died in 1989I suppose this is more evidence that Disney waited until he died before they can produce their "original story" with enough tweaks in it to pass off normally so that there would be little chance of any possible powerful or damaging legal issues. Downright pathetic.
No offense to you guys, but I think Disney plagiarized more from Hamlet than from Kimba. =\
shareThen,go check out some source about Kimba.
Kabanahalafalakalakalahagashaganananapapa
I wish I had found this before.
I own the Kimba, The White Lion Ultra Edition Box Set and have watched all the episodes at least once(Some, a little to many times). My favorite Episode being "Soldier of Fortune." I saw absolutely nothing that really screamed out "OMG DISNEY DID RIP THIS OFF." Also, there;s a nifty little book that comes with the box set than explains everthing about Kimba. It even metions the contreversy about Disney ripping of Kimba. Here's one interseting tid bit, a lot of magizines printed exaggerated stories to keep the debate stirred up. One of them being, is that Disney went to court to stop Kimba merchandising here in America.
And also, in one of those websites where scenes are compared, how stupid can you be to do that? You know how many movies have similar looking scenes to other movies? Hell, I could say Daylight ripped of The Posiden Adventure if we wanna go be scene comparisons. Also, the whole Kimba and Simba name thing, Orginally, Kimba was gonna be called Simba, but they decided not to because it might be too hard to but a copyright on since Simba the Swahili word for Lion. And the guy you thought up the name based Kimbas name on a girls name Kim. The little book clears up a lot of things once you read it, but read the book itself, not some typed version on the internet, some people tend to leave out some parts that would clearly hurt their arguments.
They did'nt plagiarize anything from Hamlet.
"The Lion King" is loosely based on Hamlet. While "The Lion King 2" is loosely based on "Romeo and Juliet".
Yup, Disney cloned Kimba for the LK (Lion King), and man didn't land on the moon (which would in any case have cost as much to fake as actually do).
Character matches: big deal, I could find most, if not all of those characters in Star Wars.
Scene Matches: half those scenes don't even have the same characters, and anyway, they mostly have different causes and preceding events (the 'father in the clouds' scene is slightly suspicious, but as Straight Dope says, it could also be taken as the ghost from Hamlet).
As for just about everything else, the plot's different, so is the animation, and LK is a movie while Kimba's a TV series.
Now let's look at the things that are different
-Simba knew his father, Kimba didn't.
-Mufasa was killed by his brother, Ceaser was killed by a hunter.
-Simba grew up with Nala, Kimba met Kitty later.
-Simba grew up, Kimba didn't.
-LK's plot is Similar to Hamlet, whereas Kimba seemes to have just about everything short of alien invasion.
-Scar is a constant antagonist, Claw isn't.
-LK has set characters, Kimba has a lot of one-offs.
How much more evidence do I need to put down for you, LK isn't a Kimba ripoff.
I've read somewhere that the creators of Kimba were proud of the Lion King and that Osamu Tezuka would've been proud of it too. I love the Lion King and planning to work with Disney on another project. A "Nestor, the long eared Christmas donkey" remake.
Actually, from what I've heard, Disney didn't even really know that Kimba existed till they were about half way through making LK, and when they realized that there were a few similarities, they kinda said "Ooops! Well, there are a couple similarities, but not enough to cause problems." I don't remember where I read it, though.
shareOn a further note, they said it was too late to make changes because it would send them in debt. They already did so much for the film. They did plan on Lion King being a remake of Kimba but wasn't able to get American rights so they changed it to Hamlet.
Disney=Family
Nickelodeon=???
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Except for all the F's and your last sentence, Bandit, I couldn't agree more.
sharei never even *beep* heard of Simba the White Lion before but seeing a few clips of it shows lots of similarities between that and The Lion King they havnt remade Kimba cause tbh that would just be lame that show was pretty cheesy but the characters? the hyenas the noble father killed the evil other the wierd monkey and the bird com'on your not actually telling me that disney decided to make exactly the same characters the same animals or similar?thats just retarded
share
From what I heard is that when Disney could not secure the rights to Kimba the white Lion and copied it anyway. Since they are big and powerfull disney they can get away with it.
They even tried to cover it up by sending people to the zoo after the got outed to fool evenone that they drew from real animals.
Disney sucks bing time.
Check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh84g8rC2oA
That's the official line, yeah. Disney issued a statement saying none of their creators had ever heard of Kimba, nor of Osamu Tezuka!
This is like a Japanese animator saying he's never heard of Walt Disney. BOOLSHEET!
"Oh dear. I've trodden in monsieur's bucket."
Yeah, the [u]Creators[/u]
Creators can be different from writers and artists you know (who kinda set Lion King up the way it did)
So some people got confused about what Lion King originally was. They already had enough problems with foolish animators (Mermaid cover anyone?)
Jesus loves you no matter what race, whether your straight or gay. He will save you no matter what.
"Yup, Disney cloned Kimba for the LK (Lion King), and man didn't land on the moon (which would in any case have cost as much to fake as actually do). "
Disney did. And man didn't. How do you figure about the cost? And why would cost even be an issue - let alone the main issue?
Go watch some Jarrah White's videos about the topic, and you will really have to be a die-hard propagandist to actually deny that there's too much faking going on in all the Apollo missions, to blindly trust anything NASA says or displays.
And there are too many issues that a real moon landing would never have had - they could have jumped very high on the moon, had some fun with it all, and descended the ladder without even using their feet. But they do everything like they would on Earth - though in 67% of the motion (video slowed down) and using wires at the same time (creating the 'eerie moon motion', which still doesn't show them jump any higher than they could on Earth).
Research instead of believing, and you may find the truth. But if you just decide beforehand, you will always be duped by skillful propaganda and the 'official story'.
Until reality hits you in the face with such force that you will probably go insane. You are free to be wrong, of course - you have free will. Using it wisely would be an option, but I see you are not utilizing that option right now.
About the Moon Landing, the Soviets would have raised an unholy ruckus if they'd even had a whiff that the US had faked it. Try thinking before you post some mindless drivel.
shareWith all your brilliance in obtaining top-secret knowledge you of course, come to a children's cartoon board to proselytize.
Feel free to go back to the *beep* freak circus you escaped from.
By the way assclown, and I'm sure you put no thought behind your "Disney did", but to 'clone' would be to copy all the way down to details. So why is it that Kimba and Simba barely resemble the same species of animal?
shareOh c'mon aside the color of Kimba , LK is an american remake of the original anime. You cannot deny this, do you know that there is a Kimba sequel with Kimba as full grown adult? It is Leo the king of the jungle.
Americans mixed the anime with other elements.
You go that right. Everything Mr. Disney wanted in Disney died with him. They became corporate and ruthless. It will never be the same.
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Personally i dont see much of a resemlence between Kimba and the lion king. Sure the both kings of the jungle. But Kimba was more about animal and humans living in harmony. The Loin King had none of that. I should point out that i havent read the manga. Because theres no english translation. So im just taking this from the cartoon. But in kimba the father is killed by humans. While in the Lion King the father was killed by the uncle. Im not saying that there isnt similarities. But at the same time theres alot of differences. Plus if Disney did ripoff Kimba. Well didnt Tezuka ripoff or "adopt" Walt Disney's art style in all his mangas. So what if Disney ripoff or Adopted the Kimba story. If ask me thats a fair trade.
shareIt's not a ripoff. The original Kimba series was over 20 hours long, so of course some images are going to be similar to those in TLK. Anyone who claims that The Lion King is based on Kimba is carefully ignoring the COMPLETE differences in plot. The only similarities are the death of the father, and spending some time in a distant land.
shareexcept tv guide originally reported Disney said they were doing a big-screen remake of Kimna the White Lion.
Tvguise later said Disney said the report the movie they are working on is Kimba the White Lion was an error and that the movie is The Lion King.
Source?
All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies. And whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, full of tricks, and your people shall never be destroyed.
SnowyFrogger
~Proud to be a Gleek!~
Source?
I personally saw both in tvguide when they were originally printed.
first, tvguide reported Disney said they were making a theatrical movie of Kimba the White Lion.
Then later, tvguide reported Disney said the reports which came from their Disney company that they are doing a theatrical version of Kimba the White Lion was an error and the name of the theatriocal movie that they are actually making is The Lion King.
That combined with the fact their drawings of Simba was originally a white lion with the same distinctive ear marks as Kimba seems to be enough proof to me.
although there are more similarities than that.
Story-lines and plot structure aren't even close, the characters are stock, Simba is maybe linked, but maybe not (it's one of five names that are Swahili words, whereas 'Kimba' means nothing in any language), and the frame-for-frame, well it's hard to write a movie staring lions centrally and not get at least a few similar scenes compared to a 26 hour series staring lions centrally (and scenes featuring different characters can't be considered more than similar). If you want to convince me, give me a point-by-point analysis of the plot and characters, and do try to be objective about it, rather than the bratty little fan-boy you sound like.
Also for plot points:
Kimba's father is the king of a jungle
vs.
Simba's father is the king of a big patch of savannah
Kimba's father is killed by a hunter (apparently) for stealing domestic cattle off human villages.
vs.
Simba's father is killed by his brother out of greed.
Kimba is shipped off with him mother to a zoo, but escapes when the ship founders in a storm.
vs.
Simba is chased off alone by hyenas, but escapes when he falls into a field of thorn-bushes.
Kimba nearly drowns at sea, but is taught to swim by fishes and guided to land by butterflies.
vs.
Simba nearly dies in the desert, but is rescued at the last by Timon and Pumbaa.
Kimba is raised by two humans somewhere in the Middle-East.
vs.
Simba is raised by Timon and Pumbaa in an African Jungle.
Kimba is eager to get home.
vs.
Simba is not eager to go home, and is only shamed into it eventually by Rafiki.
Kimba brings the wonders of human civilisation to his jungle home.
vs.
Simba overthrows his tyrannical uncle to allow his land to regenerate.
Do any of those actually sound similar to you? They certainly don't to me.
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I agree. I've never seen a story so blatantly stolen as what Disney did to Kimba. I love Kimba and to see them flat out steal it to make lion king was brutal.
Bad karma on Disney. I doubt very much if the innovative Walt Disney would have done that. Ater he died, Disney changed.
Little kids to this day adore Kimba and love the shows.
Yes so "brutal". When Disney released their movie about lions with a Hamlet plot it totally killed off Kimba the White Lion from history. No wait, actually it had pretty much no affect on the 25 year-old canceled cartoon.
Place an ice pack on your rear and get a life.
Disney "ripped off" Tezuka for Lion King and and Tezuka "ripped off" Disney for Kimba (and Max Fleischer for Astro Boy). I'd say it all evens out.