Understand the story about the alleged plagiarism involving the characters Kimba, from “The Emperor of the Jungle”, and Simba, from “The Lion King”
Exactly 29 years ago, what would be one of the biggest hits ever released by Disney: “The Lion King” premiered in theaters. After numerous animations inspired by old tales or stories of real people, the plot about Simba, Mufasa and company was the first one by the studio to be created from an original idea.
However, despite the production having been a resounding success, at the time of its release, rumors began to emerge in the press that the story would not be as original as the original. Mickey’s house preached.
As reflected by the Omelete portal, in the 90s, several vehicles inside and outside the United States began to point out that the plot about the lion Simba was, in fact, plagiarism of a Japanese animated series about a lion called Kimba.
But who is Kimba?
Kimba, as he is known in the West, is the protagonist of the manga “Jungle Taitei” (“The Emperor of the Jungle”, in Portuguese), released in 1950 by Osamu Tezuka. In the plot, the little lion, who on the pages is called Leo, is the son of Panja and Eliza, but ends up losing his parents after his mother is captured by a zoo and his father is killed by hunters.
Before being taken into captivity, Eliza asks her son to return to Africa and regain the throne that once belonged to his father. The franchise became a success in Japan and, in 1966, received its first anime produced by Tezuka Production, which was also very well received by the public, and ended up being exported to several countries in the 60s.
However, despite these similarities, it is not the entire plot that resembles the plot presented by Disney – but even so, that was enough for the plagiarism accusations to continue.
The accusations
Animation about Simba began to be produced in 1989, the same year that Kimba’s creator, Osamu Tezuka, died. In addition, initially, the project was not called “The Lion King”, but “The King of the Jungle”. At that time, the anime about the Japanese lion was already on the verge of receiving a second series.
All these facts were used as strong arguments to accuse Disney of copying the story of tezuka as soon as the Simba story was released. At the time, to defend themselves, Disney producers spoke out on the subject, claiming to be unaware of Kimba’s plot.
According to Omelette, Rob Minkoffdirector of “The Lion King”, said he only learned about the similarities between the two works when the team traveled to Japan to promote the film, and were asked about the alleged plagiarism.
The situation took on proportions that no one expected, directly affecting the box office of the film at the studios of walt disney in Japanese lands, which was not one of the best — after all, “The Emperor of the Jungle” was considered practically a cultural heritage of the country.
With so many arguments, it would be easy for Tezuka Production, the company founded by Kimba’s creator and responsible for the character’s rights, to win a copyright lawsuit against Disney. However, the story ended up having a very different ending than some expected.
As osamu was a big Disney fan, and was inspired by the studio’s animations to create his own characters, Takayuki Matsutanipresident of the company at the time, stated that, if he were alive, the founder would be honored by the similarities.
In an interview with the American newspaper The Baltimore Sun, Takayuki said that “Instead of filing a lawsuit, we were very happy to hear that people at Disney saw the work of the tezuka“, and ended his speech by stating that the two stories are different.
Source: Recreio
