The Lion King Controversy

[LonLonMarin]

Hi everyone, today while watching "Kimba the White Lion" I looked into the apparantly famous controversy regarding the similiarites between Kimba and "The Lion King". While it astonished me and personally left me a little disappointed with Disney, I was curious about what the thoughts are of fellow Tezuka fans. Does this whole controversy also leave you disappointed with Disney, too? Do you think Tezuka would be ok that one of his works (even if Disney doesn't admit it) was remade into a hit Disney film?

[strobe_z]

Fred Schodt discusses this in his book Dreamland. Basically the gist is that a) jungle emperor was heavily influenced by Bambi to begin with, and b) Tezuka was such a huge Disney fan, he probably would've been thrilled.

Still, while the fans are probably more outraged than he would've been, Disney should admit it borrowed liberally from JE. Stating they'd never even heard of it is proposteous.

[Jeffbert]

As I do not read Japanese, I cannot tell if the closing credits to MIGHTY ATOM episodes that I am certain borrow elements from films & such make references to them. I do wonder if, among the Japanese, there ever was controversy over this. Or W3, for that matter, since it is certain that Koichi (Kouichi) is modeled on 007, & other elements also are borrowed from JAMES BOND films. For that matter, a recent book examined Tezuka's borrowing. Though I really doubt he would deny having been influenced, as that DENIAL is the whole controversy here.

There are major motion pictures whose plots may have been based upon MIGHTY ATOM episodes, Schodt mentions FANTASTIC VOYAGE, but no others. From my knowledge, ARMAGEDDON & Jurassic PARK come to mind; but because I lack exhaustive knowledge of the PULP SCIFI of the early 20th century, I cannot say that both did not drew inspiration from a common source. Still, the denial is the question, here.

I think I am seeming confused, maybe I am tired.

[LonLonMarin]

@ Strobe_z: Well that's my whole problem with it, that Disney is claiming Kimba didn't influence The Lion King in any way even though there are so many similarities between the two. Not just that though, but Tezuka even asked Disney if he could create a story that would be heavily influenced by Bambi while Disney didn't even have the decency to reference Tezuka in The Lion King. I know this topic is a little dated, but I only recently started watching Kimba and when you grow up on Disney and think Disney is super awesome and imaginative only to find out one of your favourite movies was a rip-off of your favourite author, it kinda hits you hard.

[strobe_z]

Yeah, it does kinda lose some of the shine when you find out the "behind the music" version of events. That's why I try not to pay too much attention to the business end of my hobbies. It's similar to the way sports stars lose a bit of their shine when they're in contract negotiations and it makes everything "all about the money". I think this speaks to one of Tezuka's greatest frustrations - he was a brilliant artist, and a poor business man. I think the corporate machine rolled over him so many times because he tried to approach business with many of the same attitudes as he approached his art.

As a small tangent, this is a large part of why I prefer Tezuka's manga work to his anime - I feel it's a lot truer to Tezuka's vision. You make so many choices and compromises in order to create anime (especially for a television series) that it's sometimes hard to recognize the soul of the work shining through. Manga doesn't escape this - there's always editors, pagecounts and deadlines... but the artist is much more in control generally.

[LonLonMarin]

I prefer manga over anime as well, but I wanted to become more familiar with Tezuka's works and since Kimba hasn't been translated into English yet, I chose to go with the anime. There's still so many Tezuka manga I'm missing ><

[Bigdog]

[Jeffbert]

JP has elements similar to #68, REBELLION OF THE DINOSAUR PEOPLE (59 DINOSAUR DILEMMA) & ARMAGEDDON's plot is very similar to #38 The Disturbed Small Planet. Hamegg = Rockhound. Both are experts needed to destroy the asteroids, but Hamegg is a convict whose greed will endanger the mission, while Rockhound has his own problems that similarly cause problems. Check my review:

I have not made a page for #68, REBELLION OF THE DINOSAUR PEOPLE (59 DINOSAUR DILEMMA), but the resemblance is clear: both Duke Red & the other guy use biochemistry to make dinosaurs; both make tourist attractions.

[Bigdog]

[Jeffbert]

No, not manga; sorry for my omitting to note that these were 1960s anime episodes.

[Bigdog]

[HarryCanyon]

Well i think Disney is doing a homage to this awesome anime