[This essay is original written for Chinese
readers and is directly translate into English to reach a wider reader]
[My English is poor, I hope the grammar and
wording errors will not cause misunderstanding or inconvenience.]
The Chinese version is available here: https://www.zhihu.com/question/34892480/answer/579734800
The CG remake The Lion King is coming this
summer, several video clips has been spread widely on Bilibili [YouTube-like
Chinese website], Weibo [Twitter-like Chinese website], and Tieba [Chinese forum
website], pointing out that a number of similar scenes between The Lion King
and Kimba the White Lion and some behaviors of Disney, saying that The Lion
King is a complete rip-off of the Lion King.
(Notice: The following pictures I show do
not mean to criticize these people, I just want to prove that these rumors is
widespread.)
(Videos from YouTube on Bilibili)
(Tieba)
(Weibo)
I have heard of this Simba & Kimba controversy,
which started from 1994 the date The Lion King was released. And I have seen
these videos years ago, which did not attract such attention. Maybe the CG The
Lion King remake start it again. To my surprise, the opinion is one-sided on
those website (maybe some people argue in the comment zone, but few people
wrote a long essay on behalf of The Lion King, these web page https://www.gcores.com/articles/104591
is the first essay I found defending The Lion King.).I grow up on Kimba the White
Lion, and I saw The Lion King at my early age. However, the thought that The
Lion King has ripped off Kimba the White Lion never come to my mind, until I
heard of this controversy five or six years ago. I didn’t agree with the
opinion of the YouTube videos, and these videos has caused some
misunderstanding and the spread of some rumor in China (like Disney purchased
the copyright of Kimba the White Lion and Mushi Production sued Disney). Hence,
I find it necessary to write a complete account of the Simba & Kimba controversy
and tell some story which the YouTube videos didn’t tell you. After all, we
should hear the opinion from both sides, right?
Let’s analyse the most watched video
(almost reach 90k) on Bilibili:
Let’s take a look at the following image:
Are you sure that you can come to a
conclusion that The Lion King is a ripped off of Kimba the White Lion rather
than a sheer coincident from the pictures I show above?
If you think the pictures are strong enough
to show The Lion King has something to do with Kimba the White Lion, there’s
one thing I have to point out——Kimba the White Lion is
a series, the mange was released in 1950, followed by 1965 TV series (based on
the first half of the manga), 1966 film (based on the first half of the manga,
just like the 1965 TV series), 1966 TV series(based on the second half of the
manga), 1989 TV series(based on the first half of the manga),1991 OVA, 1997 film(based
on the second half of the manga), 2000 short, and 2009 film(a new story that
has nothing to do with the manga). And the pictures I show above, the pictures
from Kimba the White Lion is actually from the 1997 film! The Lion King
sequence shows that Simba is born, an iconic opening. And the Kimba sequence
shows that Leo’s children Lune and Lukio are born. If you have to claim that
the picture is strong enough to show a rip-off relationship between them, you
have to come to the conclusion that Kimba ripped-off The Lion King!
The video mention that Kimba 97 film
started production in 1989, so can that be an argument that this is definitely
not influenced by the Lion King? Well, if you have to say that, please exclude
all the similarities between The Lion King and 89 Simba TV series since The
Lion King begun its production in 1988, not 1989 as one of the video claimed.
And to confirm that, I go through the manga
(Vol.2 Chapter.11) and 66 TV series (Ep.5) which depict the same event that
Leo’s children is born:
Here’s the 66 TV series:
You can see that similar scenes between The
Lion King and Kimba 97 film do first appear in the 97 film in the Kimba series.
And the following scenes I took from the
video also using 97 Kimba film for comparison with earlier Lion King materials.
There’s also some Kimba materials from the
2000 short:
So what do the video really want to
indicate? Kimba ripped off The Lion King in return?
Of course, I don’t think that 97 Kimba film
ripped off The Lion King. What I say above just want to show you: First, this
video is kind of misleading. Second, it is not that easy to tell the
differences between coincidence and rip-off. If you agree that the pictures
above is not sufficient to show that Kimba has ripped of the Lion King, please
keep this criterion to read the rest of this essay.
For the topic of common used scene, I can
come up with more examples:
First, the scene showing that the main
character standing on the top of a rock, which the video points out a multiple
time.
Really? Isn’t it a commonly used scene?
Like
(Disney- The Jungle Book-2016)
(Dreamworks-Spirit: Stallion of the
Cimarron-2002)End of the film
Madagascar 2
(Disney-Bambi-1942) Middle and the end of
the film
And just watch this meme:
And the scene of sunrise:
You can see it in a number of documentaries:
(Discovery-Brothers in Blood: The Lions of
Sabi Sand-2013)
(The Village of Lion [Translated from
Chinese]-2014)
(A program broadcast on CCTV in 2009 on
lions)
About the scenes characters falling from the
height:
(I will come back on these scenes later)
In fact, falling from a height and cause
the injury or death of a character is a widely used pattern, especially in
animation. It is said that falling from a height is not so violent but able to
create feeling of tension, so that more likely to have a lower rating like G
for Lion King.
Some famous scene:
(Warner Bros.-Blade Runner-1982)
Red Dead Redemption, computer game
(Disney-Beauty and the Beast-1991)
(Disney-The Hunchback of Notre Dame-1996)
(Disney-Brother Bear-2003)
And Kimba series itself have used this
pattern again and again:
In the 66 series:
（Ep.3）
（Ep.26）
（89 series Ep.34）
（89 series-Ep.44）
And the 65 series is no exception:
（Ep.22）
（Ep.24）
（Ep.37）
（Ep.38）
（Ep.34）
（Ep.41）
（Ep.14）
（Ep.7）
So how can you say this is not a widely
used pattern?
Let’s move on to the spirits of ancestors:
Let’s put aside the scene selection problem
at first, I have to say that if Lion King has been influenced by Hamlet, it is
naturally to have Simba’s father’s spirit appear. Second, a lot of other works
also have ancestor’s spirits appeared.
（The middle of Spirit: Stallion of the
Cimarron）
（the end of Spirit: Stallion of
the Cimarron）
(The middle and the end of Brother Bear)
(The middle and the end of Moana)
(The Land Before Time, 1988)
And now we come to another problem of the
video——the editing and scene selection.
Let’s take the Simba & Kimba comparison
scene above for example. In the three pictures, the scene from the Lion King is
continuously (from 1hr6min to 1hr7min), the logical connections of them is that
(P1) Simba saw his father’s spirit in the sky, (P2) the appearance of Mufasa’s
spirit, (P3) Mufasa’s spirit is leaving and Simba chasing him. The context is
that Nala comes across Simba and urge him go back to Pridelands and take back
the throne while Simba rejects. And he meets Rafiki by the river, who leads him
to the spirit of Mufasa. Mufasa says something to Simba and changed his mind.
However, the scenes of Kimba is from
(P1)the last chapter of the mange (Vol.3 Chapter.21, also can be seen in 66
series Ep.26), (P2) 89 series Ep.2 (cannot be seen in the manga and 66 series),
(P3)89 series Ep.37(cannot be found in the manga).
The context of the first picture is: Leo
and a man confront danger on the top of mountain, and he sacrifices himself to
save the man so that he can bring back the valued science record. The man meet
Leo’s son at the feet of the mountain, and then they see cloud in the shape of
Leo. And the film ended (the manga has one page left showing that Leo’s son
gets marries).
(Subtitle: Please use my flesh to satisfy
your hunger and use my fur to warm yourself)
The context of P2 is : Leo’s father gets
killed before the birth of Leo and mother captured by , human, Leo, born
onboard, jump into the sea hoping to swim back to Africa but ends up arriving a
city and be adopted by a Japanese family. In Ep.2, he leads three black
panthers to escape the zoo through subway. However they were found by human,
two black panthers are ran over by train and one is shoot dead, and Leo is back
to the boy who adopted him. This is when he sees his father’s spirits running
in the sky.
P3: Leo found his father’s fur in a human residence,
he manages to take it back. And he lays on the fur and tells out his emotions
to his father’s fur. Then he sees his father’s spirit appears. His father
comforts and encourages him, then disappears. This is the only time that he
communicates with his father.
(Subtitle: I have been longing to see you.)
(Subtitle: Please wait, dad.)
Well, we can see that these scenes have
very different function in shaping the characters and developing the plot since
the context of them are quite different.
In fact, this pattern occurs frequently in
Kimba series. Just take 65 series for example:
(Leo swimming in the water, his mother
guiding him as stars while his mother was captured by human)
(Middle of Ep.8, Kimba crying besides his
father’s fur; Subtitle: What should I do, dad?)
(The end of Ep.8)
(Ep.19, in doubt whether it is spirit,
Subtitle: The wind rises.)
And clouds resemble some people do not
necessarily means his spirits, because some persons alive can have clouds like
them
Subtitle: How are you doing in Tokyo,
father, mother, grandfather and grandmother?
Now let’s move on to the next sequence,
which Simba meet hyenas in the elephant graveyard.
The sequence of Lion King was continuously
screenshotted from 21min to 22min, the logical connection is that (due to
Scar’s scheme) Simba and Nala are chasing by hyenas, and Simba fights back and
is pushed to a dead end. His father comes to his rescue just in time. And Scar
watches all of these in the dark.
The screenshot of Kimba is from everywhere.
P1 and P2 is from 89 series Ep.15, the
story is hyenas are fighting with another spice. Leo is trying to stop them.
(Subtitle: Stop fighting.)
I cannot figure out where P3 is from, but
at least not from 89 series Ep.15 (Look at the differences of the claws)
P4 is from 66 series Ep.5 18min, Leo fights
with hyenas in an open area,
P5 is from 66 series Ep.10, the story was
Leo’s son and daughter find a (pretended) fainted wolf and bring him back to the
forest, while Leo doubts him and questions him.
P6 is from 66 series Ep.5 12min.
Notice that the corresponding scene of the
later scene of Lion King is earlier in Kimba. In the Lion King, P6 shows the
regret and guilty of Simba for his deliberately disobeying his father’s order.
While in Kimba this picture shows that Leo asks his son to go back home alone
without him, and Leo’s son is confused and upset.
The last two pictures are from 65 series
Ep.34
Here’s the story, the hyenas kidnapped
Leo’s girlfriend and were chased down by Leo to a canyon, where Leo had a fight
with black panther. Then the hyenas and black panther pretended to surrender,
while the evil lion is acting to make it seem more real.
Now here comes the question: the Kimba scenes
are from at least 4 episodes of 3 versions, and there’s no logical connection
between them (If there’s any, it is they just look like some scenes of the Lion
King). Notice that there’s 3 versions of TV series, 4 films. With scenes
selected from everywhere, it the video really that persuasive? (I saw a lot of
people were misled into thinking that the plot is also alike, which is
absolutely wrong!)
In fact, this sequence is very common. In
Lady and the Tramp (1955) (the following shots are continous)
(A is chasing by three dogs, and ends up no
way to go)
(B arrives just in time)
(B fights off the three dogs)
(A talks to B)
Alright, here’s the next sequence:
In the Lion King (from 32min to 38min),
Scar cheated Simba to the canyon, and have hyenas to trigger a stampede,
finally killed Mufasa and made Simba into thinking that he is the one
responsible for all of these.
The scenes from Kimba is selected from:
The first source, 65 series Ep.39
(Subtitle: Those guys move from north to
south like birds)
(Subtitle: They cannot turn back even
there’s a lake in front of them)
This episode tells the story that the the
migrating animals cause Leo and his friends big trouble. Leo and his friends
try to stop them from running into the lake.
(Following scenes at 17min, animals rushing
to the lake)
The following scene at 9 min, Leo’s friend
was stuck in the stampede.
(Subtitle: Listen to me, Tommy[name of the
deer].)
The way that Leo helped him out is to move
the tree out of the stampede with the help from marmots.
The stampede is not an invention of Kimba
series. In the Jungle Book, Shere Khan was killed in a narrow canyon and
stampeded to death by the buffalo incited by Akela and Mowgli——apparently more alike to the plot in the Lion King.
(The death of Shere Khan is changed both in
the animated and CG Jungle Book produced by Disney. However, this idea become
the way that Mowgli got rid of the chase of Shere Khan in the CG Jungle Book)
The second source is 66 series Ep.10 which
I mentioned before. The wolf takes advantage of the rising of the river to
cheat Leo’s children to the center of the river and have Leo to come to fight
with him. And Leo defeated him, and jump into water trying to save his children
but no use. However, the wolf chooses to be kind and jump to the island to
protect Leo’s children and sacrifices himself.
The scene that someone bites Leo’s hand is
from 66 series Ep.2, the plot is that a lion outside the forest challenges Leo.
I cannot find the scene that a bird is
thrown into a tree, but I am sure it is not from the episodes I mention above.
I can guess from the picture it is from somewhere in 65 series.
As for the scenes corresponding to Scar
cheated Simba into running away come from 89 series Ep.17. The plot is that Leo
injured a lot of animals in the hope of stopping the fight. The villain lion
take advantage of Leo’s kindness and exiled him.
(Subtitle: All I want to do is just ……)
(Subtitle: Do not stay with the animals who
violates the law.)
(Subtitle: What else excuse do you have? )
The scene that Leo laying on his father’s
fur comes from 65 series Ep.8, which I have mention before.
Let’s analyze the fighting scene.
The scenes from Kimba series released later
than 1994 are emitted.
P1 ,The Lion King scene is showing the
terrible situation of Pridelands under the reign of Scar. While Kimba scene is
showing the situation after an attack of a group of bird of prey.
And the next scene is from 89 series Ep.21,
the exiled Leo is back to the forest, the villain lion wants to cheat Leo into
using brutal force again so that they can exile him forever, while Leo manages
to control himself from using force, the villain runs away under the pressure
of other animals.
(Subtitle: If you cannot do it, get out of
our forest!)
(Subtitle: Get out!)
(Subtitle: -Obey the rule. -Get out, obey
the rule!)
And 66 series Ep.2:
(This lion falls off from height, his sister
comes over to see if he is OK)
The next scene is from 66 series Ep.3,
which Leo fights with a bad-tempered lion who kills animals arbitrarily.
(His wife is surprise because she sees Leo
is fighting, not because anyone is hanging on the cliff)
The following scene is from 65 series Ep.7,
the black panther cheat Leo to the edge of a cliff and push him down the cliff,
and Leo gets out of it with the help of marmots.
And the hyenas scene is from 65 series
Ep.14, the reason the got hit by the monkey is that they are spreading rumors
that Leo is not a lion.
(Subtitle: Leo is not a lion.)
(Subtitle: Understand? We……)
We can see from the example above that the
final battel of the Lion King has to have more than three fights from
everywhere in Kimba to correspond. In fact, you can find more similar fights in Kimba series if you like.
Since continuously sequence can use Kimba
scene all over multiple versions, the sole scene is just not that persuasive.
This sequence shows that Simba and Nala
have an argument over whether to go back to Pridelands and take back the
throne, Simba is angry at Nala for her not understanding him while he feels
regret and helpless for what he thought he have done, that’s when he meets the
monkey.
First, it is not weird to have an animal
watching his reflection in the water:
(Bambi)
And P1 and P3 is from 66 series Ep.17, Leo
accidentally hurt his friend, monkey, feeling guilty he left the forest, on his
way he was first captured by human then came across a big crocodile. And he met
another lion while wandering on the grassland.
And in the following pictures, The Lion
King sequences is continuous, the pig walk to the lake to drink water. While
the Kimba scenes are not continuous, there’s a gap between them.
(Mind the time shift of Kimba scene)
At last, let’s check out how “similar” are
some of the rest comparison. Please cling to the criterion you hold at the
beginning of this essay.
(One Kimba scene for two Lion King scene,
animals welcome the Lion King, really that special?)
(Two lions that have romantic relationship,
you tell me isn’t it naturally to draw like this? Putting them together? A lot
of similar scene from other animation like Lady and the Tramp and so on)
(That’s not even the same animals! Where
are the similarities?)
（Lion Prince riding on animals, Simba and
Nala trying to get rid of Zazu while Leo’s son is learning to fly）
It might seen
similar in separate pic, but you will find it differs a lot in the film itself
since the motion of the camera and mise-en-scene are totally different. Notice that the
following scene in the video is not the following scene in the film.
(Simba has a quarrel with Nala and leaves
angrily, while Leo don’t have anything wrong with his wife, the animal that
leave them is not Leo’s wife and none of them are angry or such )
(Common in documentary)
(Discovery-Brothers in Blood: The Lions of Sabi Sand)
（Big landscape with small character running
or moving, can be seen in western film）
（Dances with Wolf 1990）
(The video uses Lion King 2 for comparison)
Taking into account that the setting of The
Lion King and Kimba the White Lion are alike (which is totally not a crime,
otherwise all the agent films or western films are ripping of each other), and
the numerous materials for comparison, and the way the maker of the video
process the materials, it would be irresponsible to come to the conclusion that
Lion King is a rip-off of Kimba the White Lion. I mean, if you use all of the
007 films and Mission Impossible films and TV series and edit them the way that
video do to the Lion King and Kimba the White Lion, or Marvel movie and DC
movie, you might also make people thinking that they are all ripping off each
other, which is definitely not the case. It took me almost a week to go through
all these materials, and it cause me another day to select out the scene I mention
above, it took a lot of effort. You know, two continuously scene in Lion King
can be in different version of Kimba the White Lion!
As for the plot, even the people who most
believe that Lion King is a rip-off of Kimba the White Lion have to agree that
the plots are totally different.
(YouTuber Ali Kat made two most viewed
Simba & Kimba controversy video)
(In the comment zone of another video of
him, My Thoughts on Jungle Emperor Leo(1997), Ali Kat agreed that Lion King and
Kimba the White Lion have totally different plot.)
One user: FINALLY! Someone acknowledges that
the Jungle Emperor and The Lion King are nothing alike.
Ali Kat replies: I mean, I still think that
Disney lifted tons of the visuals, setpieces and character designs. I just don’t
think the plots are the same, which they’re not.
And another people that believe in Lion
King is a rip-off of Kimba the White Lion, Peter Hong, wrote on LA Times,
2002/5/19: ”Animation buffs believe Disney ripped off Kimba to create The Lion
King. Disney insists similarities…are coincidence. If anything supports Disney
argument, it`s the depth of the Japanese show. The Kimba episodes deal with
justice and morality, never presuming children deserve only light
entertainment.” No matter what his personal comment is, at least he agreed that
the main idea of The Lion King is definitely different from Kimba the White
Lion.
Let’s go over the plot of them:
The Lion King: Mufasa is the king of the
Pridelands, his son Simba is the prince, while his uncle always wants to get
the throne. Scar uses scheme to kill Mufasa and cheated Simba into running
away. The exiled Simba grows up with Timon and Pumbaa outside Pridelands. The
adult Simba comes across Nala one day, and after the enlightening of Rafiki and
Mufasa’s spirit, he chooses to return to the Pridelands and gets back his
throne.
Kimba the White Lion: Panja is the god of
the forest, while human captures her wife and sets trap for him and he dies in
the rescue for his wife. Human ships her wife to city. Leo, born onboard, jumps
into the sea and try to swim back to Africa. But he first arrives at a city
where a Japanese family adopts him, while there’re people who try to kidnap
Leo. And then he and the family go to Africa, living peacefully in the forest
with other animals. A lot of interesting stories happened meanwhile, like
setting up forest restaurant, setting up forest school, the conflict of
enforcing non-violent law using violence, and Leo learns and grows from that.
And Leo then gets married and have a son and a daughter. And his son travels to
the cities. And a mass disease breaks out in the forest, a expedition group of
human use medicine cure the animals. To pay it back, Leo leads the humans to
the top of the mountain where they confront danger. Leo finally scarifies
himself to save the human.
You can see that the plot of them are
totally different, The Lion King is based on Hamlet telling a story of a loyal
revenge. While Kimba the White Lion focus on the relationship between human and
animals and different species of animals. For the main idea, The Lion King
focus responsibility, facing the past and circle of life. While Kimba focus on
justice, morality and the relationship between human and nature.
You can also verify it by examining the
story telling of them.
In the Lion King, Simba loses his father at
almost the middle of the film, while depicting Mufasa and Simba’s family
relationship and Scar’s ambition and scheme takes up half of the film’s running
time. And the major part of Kimba the White Lion——the
governing of a kingdom and the growth of the main character are emitted in The
Lion King.
（Simba grows up in ten second in Hakuna
Matata sequence）
(The governing of Pridelands is not
mentioned at all)
On the contrary, there’s not revenge in the
Kimba series, Leo never kill any human or animals. He engaged himself in
maintaining the balance of different spices of animals, animals and human. And
the villain lion never succeeds in taking over the throne.
In addition, the behaviors and
personalities of the characters are different too.
In the Lion King, the connection of
character are mainly within the lions, the hyenas, Zazu, Timon and Pumbaa are
rare exception, while Leo communicate with all kinds of animals, and have a
more equal relationship with other animals, more like protector not ruler in
the Lion King.
And there’s no human in the Lion King, the
animals behave the way like in nature.
While the characters in Kimba act more like
human, Leo can talk to human.
(Leo dives with human, Subtitle: Let’s go!)
(Lions write to human)
(Leo walks on two feet)
For the character design, first on Simba
and Mufasa
（Voice for Simba）
（Design for Adult Simba）
（Adult Leo in 66 TV series）
According to documentary The Pride of the
Lion King, adult Simba’s character design was first based on the voice actor of
adult Simba with black mane. After the animator saw the design of Mufasa, he
make a few amendment and there comes the final version.
The similarities between the name of Simba
& Kimba is that Simba is the Swahili word for “lion” and “king” (Brakefield,
Tom (1993). "Sociable Simba". Big Cats: Kingdom of Might. Voyageur
Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-89658-329-0.),while Sarabi for “mirage” and Rafiki for
“friends”. According to http://www.ign.com/articles/1998/04/22/emperor-of-the-jungle,
the name of Kimba is derived from Simba, too (while it should be Leo). However,
NBC decided to change the first letter for some reason.
Let’s look at Scar’s character design, some
say that Scar has a scar on his eye while Claw, the villain lion in Kimba
series has one eye blind. In the 1994 documentary, The Making of the Lion King,
we can see that the prototype of Scar is the image of Al Pacino in the film
Scarface.
(Subtitle: The inspiration of the film)
(Villain lion in the 65 Kimba series)
By the way, Shere Khan also have one eye
blind in the CG Jungle Book
There’re also some claimed similarities,
like hyenas, birds, and monkeys.
First, stereotypes are widely used in
animation. Like smart fox, diligent bee and so on.
Hyenas as the villain when the main
character is a lion, nothing wrong:
(Documentary: Lifetime enemy: Lions and
Hyenas[Translated from Chinese])
(Documentary: Legends: The War Between
Lions and Hyenas[Translated from Chinese])
Also, besides hyenas and lion, the villains
in Kimba also features eagle and black panther. (In fact, hyenas are not
present in the manga, and don’t appear as frequently as the lion and black panther)
As for the monkey as guider, it can be
explained by stereotype since people are widely thought that monkey is the
smartest animal. And there are rhinoceros, mammoth and other lions act as
guider in Kimba series (89 series). The monkey acts like a wizard in Lion King and
the monkey act more like a wise and respected old man.
The bird in the Lion King is a servant for
the king , which the specie really suits. And the bird in Kimba series is a
friend of Leo, not servant.
Finished with the work itself, move on to
the materials outside the work. Who is the one that is most suitable to
determine whether Lion King is a rip-off of Kimba the White Lion? The court and
Mushi Production I thought.
There’re rumors that Mushi Production once
sued Disney and won the case. However, that is not true. There’s no lawsuit
between Disney and Mushi Pro over Lion King and Kimba. （Kuwahara Y. Japanese Culture and Popular Consciousness: Disney's The
Lion King vs. Tezuka's Jungle Emperor[J]. The Journal of Popular Culture, 1997,
31(1): 37-48.）。
The video mention that Disney was trying to
prevent the screening of 1997 Kimba film, but doesn’t tell whether Disney have put
it to court. Maybe it has something to do with the copyright of Kimba in USA, which
I will elaborate later.
(Subtitle: It is reported that in 1997
Disney tried to prevent ……)
The video also cite the word of Yoshihiro
Shimizu, president of Mushi Pro and also friend of Tezuka:
----------------------
We're a small, weak company. It wouldn't be
worth it anyway ... Disney's lawyers are among the top twenty in the world!
---------------------
That is indeed his word, but sort of taking
it out of the context, here’s the original report passage:
----------------------------
First the is asked of the rumor that Disney
paid the owners Kimba The White Lion to keep quiet about the apparent copyright
infringement with “hush money” or otherwise known as a bribe to maintain
silence towards the issue. He bluntly responds, “Zero”, Making a “O” with his
fingers. After reflecting on the two works separately he states, “We think it’s
a totally different story. Kimba is part human, part animal. The Lion King is
just an animal. Of course, we were urged to sue Disney by some in our industry.
But we’re a small, weak, company. It wouldn’t be worth it anyway. We received
letters from lawyers in places like Iowa and Hawaii,
offering to
take up the case.” He then chuckles and blurts, “Disney’s lawyers are among the
top twenty in the world!”
You can see that it is more likely that Yoshihiro
Shimizu is complaining on the people who urge him to file a case against Disney
and the lawyers who keep sending mails to him. After reflecting on the
relationship of Tezuka and Walt Disney, he added
If Tezuka were alive when Lion King was released,” he concludes,
“and if he knew about even the rumor that Disney might have copied elements of
his work, he would have been proud.”
I can understand why the the maker of the
video take the word out of its context, but to my surprise, WikiPedia also do
so,
Frederick Schodt, author of a guide to Japanese comics, "Manga, Manga," says the Disney story, while it apparently pays homage to its Japanese antecedents and many other sources, is quite different from Mr. Tezuka's original story.
Tezuka's daughter, Rumiko, said:
'My father would have been pleased if his work influenced Disney. So we wouldn't think about a lawsuit at all.'
Another former president of Mushi Pro, Takayuki Matsutani, answers the question of whether the Lion King is a rip-off of Kimba the White Lion:
To the Independent:
'Although there are some similarities in the characterisation of the animals, it cannot be helped,' Mr Matsutani said. 'For example, a monkey appears as a smart animal in both stories. But when you think about the monkey's cleverness in real life, it is natural he would be clever in the film also. And we remember Mr Tezuka's personality very well: he hated all kinds of quarrels, disputes and controversies. . . I am sure if he were still alive he would not take any legal action against The Lion King.'
To the Los Angeles Times:
"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.”
And Fred Ladd, who helped the release of Kimba
the White Lion in USA, said
“Tezuka was a big fan of Disney. In fact,
Tezuka did a 45 minute featurette in which he used
characters that looked like the seven
dwarfs. So, when Disney proved to be an admirer of Kimba, the studio did not retaliate.
When they were called about this, they said that they were sure that Mr. [Don]
Hahn [The Lion King's producer] did not deliberately do this, and that, 'We are
sure that Disney would not deliberately do this and it's all purely
coincidental. Our leader [Tezuka died in 1989] would have been very flattered."
Tezuka met Walt Disney at the 1964 World’s
Fair in New York. Walt allegedly told Tezuka that he admired Astro Boy and
wanted to create something like it. A framed photograph of the two shaking
hands still hangs in the entranceway of the Tezuka home.
Tezuka wrote this in 1973:
I liked Disney, I adored Disney, here
before you is a man whose life was determined by Disney.
Tezuka also wrote a number of letters to Carl
Barks, a animator who works on Donald Duck, which reflect the friendship
between them
The Copyright Issue
Rumors are that Disney finally purchased
the copyright of Kimba the White Lion, is it true?
(Some comments say that Disney purchased
the copyright of Kimba the White Lion)
The copyright of Kimba the White Lion is a
complicated story. In 1966, NBC purchased a 12-year license of Kimba the White
Lion to broadcast the TV series. In 1971, due to the change of NBC structure, NBC
sold the license to National Telefilm Associates while Mushi Pro bankrupted in
1973 immediately followed by lawsuits on the assets of Mushi Pro including the
copyright of Kimba. So there was no one was able to re-license the copyright in
1978 when the license expired. It is thought that Kimba was not protected in
USA for a period of time since some bootleg DVD became popular seller that time.
After years of trials, Fumio Suzuki, a
Japanese, claimed that he owned the copyright of Kimba and willing to sell the
copyright of Kimba in the USA before the judgment actually came out. The Right
Stuf International was interesting in getting the copyright of Kimba, but to
find out that Fumio Suzuki might not have the copyright of Kimba. So they
turned to the reorganized Mushi Pro. In 1997, the case of the copyright of Kimba
was finally settled in favor of Mushi Pro, then RSI finally got the copyright
of Kimba in the USA.
But rumors said that somehow Disney managed
to seize copyright of Kimba from NBC and re-license it somehow. It is also said
that while RSI was working on the copyright of Kimba they confronted some law
affairs from USA. However, I cannot verify these hearsays, either to disprove
it. No official comments on this issue were made.
The copyright issue of Kimba was so complex
that one conspiracy theory claim that Disney once had the copyright of Kimba
and they were originally making a Kimba remake. However, the lost the copyright
to public property during trails or whatever, Disney found it a loss to make a
Kimba remake while it is a public copyright, hence they made some major amendment
of it to become the Lion King. And since Kimba is of public copyright, so no
one can sue Disney, either. I do not know what do you think of this idea, but I
think it is rather non-sense. But at least, it shows how complex the copyright issue
of Kimba is.
Did the staff of Disney really not hear of
Kimba before?
Although they claimed so, I thought this is
definitely Disney’s fault, at least the Public Relation Branch has to take the
shame.
Like the voice for Simba, once said, cited
from the video:
And the president of WDAS(Walt Disney
Animation Studio) mentioned Kimba while answering questions from fans by mail:
Notice that he did not mention Kimba on the storyboard, but in a
mail to a fan. The mail subject is does Disney have any nice motherly figures
in animated films. You can see more mails at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.arts.disney/yaGofGdVxyc/-lw9dxhrxbIJ
And the letters shown
in the above link shows some other question like whether WDAS is going to make
sequel, the chronicle of Beauty and the Beast, his personal view on a book about
Walt Disney and even whether Walt Disney is frozen.
So we can say
that someone in WDAS known Kimba that time.
We will not expect
the staff now still working for Disney to say something in contradiction to the
official statement of WDAS. However, according to a survey done in Zhihu[A Chinese
Quora-like website], a lot of people working on the Lion King has now left Disney
working for other company.
(General idea: 16%
percent of The Lion King staff have continued their traditional animation career
without involving in any CG animation in other company. And made a lot of famous
animation series.)
The director, Roger
Allers, said that
It’s strange you
mention Roy Disney or some of the cast mentioning Kimba the White Lion. The
whole time I worked on The Lion King the name of that show never came up. At
least I never heard it. I had never seen the show and really only became aware
of it as Lion King was being completed, and someone showed me images of it. I
worked with George Scribner (the first director) and Linda Woolverton (the
first writer) to develop the story in the early days but then left to help out
on Aladdin. If one of them were familiar with Kimba they didn’t say. Of course,
it’s possible. Then later I teamed up with Rob Minkoff to direct it together
and with new writers Irene Mecchi and Jonathan Roberts. Many story ideas
developed and changed along the way, always just to make our story stronger. I
could certainly understand Kimba’s creators feeling angry if they felt we had
stolen ideas from them. If I had been inspired by Kimba I would certainly
acknowledge my inspiration. All I can offer is my respect to those artists and
say that their creation has its loyal admirers and its assured place in
animation history.
However, some say
that Allers once worked in Japan, it is unlikely that he not heard of Kimba.
Rob Minkoff, now
working for Dreamworks, said
"Frankly,
I'm not familiar with (the TV series)," said Rob Minkoff, who added that
he and co-director。
“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."
The founder of
Dreamworks and the president of Walt Disney Studio that time , Jeffrey Katzenberg
said that he put a lot of his personal experience into the Lion King during the
interview in the documentary The Pride of the Lion King. Notice that Katzenberg
left Disney and set up Dreamworks before the release of The Lion King in 1994 because
he had a serious argument with the CEO Michael Eisner for the vacancy of the president
of Disney due to the accidentally death of Franks Wells. He was even not
invited to the premiere of The Lion King. And he filed a lawsuit with Disney,
and finally got his 2.5 hundred million after eight years. Meanwhile he took a lot
of animator from WDAS to Dreamworks.
A Japanese
animator of The Lion King Sadao Miyamoto said he was surprised looking at the storyboard
of The Lion King at first sight for some similarities to Kimba, he thought
Kimba had some influence of The Lion King.
A currently
working for Warner Bro. animator, Tom Sito said:
“I can say there
is absolutely no inspiration from ‘Kimba,’” animator Tom Sito told HuffPost Entertainment.
Sito’s resume includes classic Disney films such as “Beauty and the Beast,”
“Aladdin” and, of course, “The Lion King,” to name a few. “I mean the artists
working on the film, if they grew up in the ‘60s, they probably saw ‘Kimba.’ I
mean, I watched ‘Kimba’ when I was a kid in the ‘60s, and I think in the
recesses of my memory we’re aware of it, but I don’t think anybody consciously
thought, ‘Let’s rip off ‘Kimba.’”
“Lion King”
producer Charlie Fink maintains that “Kimba” was not discussed at all, saying,
“‘Lion King’ was based on ‘Bambi’ with a touch of ‘Hamlet,’ but at the same
time it was totally original and internal to Disney. We never even heard of any
of these until after the movie opened.”
The story writer
Mark Kausle said he watched Kimba when he was a child but it is Bambi he referring
to when creating the Lion King, and the theme of nature and man was not present
in the Lion King which is the main idea of Kimba film.
“Nobody ever
mentioned “Kimba,” and if any of us who knew of it thought about it, I guess we
figured that since “Kimba” was always about the animals trying to get the
humans to accept them as equals, the absence of humans in “The Lion King” made
it obviously a different plot.”
During the production
of the Lion King, each animator was able to bring up their own advice, even
composer Hans Zimmer and Elton John affected the film greatly. The making of
Lion King is a collective creativity procedure. If the Lion King is really a
rip-off of Kimba, it is impossible for Disney to keep all of its staff mute especially
those who left Disney working for its opponents like Dreamworks.
(Subtitle:
Leading a group of animators and writers to create the storyboard……)
The opening
scene is not created until the song Circle of Life is made. Subtitle: It[Circle
of Life] inspired us to create the opening scene.
The Can You Feel
The Love Tonight sequence was ordinally performed by Timon and Pumbaa, and
Elton John interfered and changed it.
And the
executives of WDAS were thinking that Pocahontas would more likely to be a hit,
so most experienced animators were working on Pocahontas while the green hand
animators and younger animators who have less chance of watching Kimba are
mostly working on the Lion King.
And there was a
change of director of the Lion King. George Scribner quarreled with Allers, Scribner
wanted to make a documentary-like and more real animation while Allers wanted
to make a musical and Scribner eventually left the Lion King creativity group.
The whole story kept changing all the time during the production. It is impossible
for The Lion King to continuously and deliberately rip-off Kimba.
Well, it is sure
that some animators were influenced by Kimba (subconsciously, maybe), but no
one ever mention Kimba in public during the production.
The relationship
between Tezuka and Disney? Did Tezuka ripped-off Disney in the first place?
First, I have to
claim that whether Tezuka ripped off Disney or not has nothing to do with the
relationship of The Lion King and Kimba the White Lion, but I find it necessary
to bring up this issue since people repeatedly said that Tezuka and Disney is
just ripping off each other or consider Disney’s ripping off an act of revenge.
(Comments criticizing
Tezuka ripping off Disney in the first place)
Roland Kelts
wrote in his book:
“Still smiling,
he [Tezuka] excuses himself, and then returns with two handsome hardbacks
featuring Bambi and Snow White. He leafs through them, showing me some of the
pages. The illustrations are definitely Disney-like, but something about the
lines is a bit off—a little shakier, perhaps, less assured, but also more
complex. Tezuka loved the Disney stories and illustrations so much, he copied
them line for line—not from comic books, but by going to the movie theater and
sitting with his sketch pad through several showings of the Disney films. The
books he produced were originally sold on the streets of Japan in the 1950s,
without Disney’s knowledge or permission.”
The video said
that Disney invited Tezuka to make a comic of Bambi, which is not the case.
(The video claimed
that Tezuka made the Bambi comic under the invitation of Disney)
The Bambi manga was
licensed by Mr. Nagata Masaichi, the President of the Daiei Motion Picture
Company. A company that was also responsible for distributing the animated
motion picture at the time. As such, the
Walt Disney copyright is clearly visible on the first page. However, it would take a more in-depth legal
analysis to determine if Daiei Co. were actually within their rights to negotiate
the manga license. Moreover, Bambi manga was excluded in the Osamu Tezuka
Complete Manga Works edition that was released between 1977 and 1997.
Compared to the
arguable Bambi manga, the Pinocchio manga by Tezuka was certainly unlicensed.
And it was also excluded in the Osamu Tezuka Complete Manga Works edition that
was released between 1977 and 1997.
The translator
for Tezuka, Fred Schodt said:
“copyrights were
more loosely enforced in Japan than they are now”
Beside Bambi and
Pinocchio, Micky Mouse was also used in Tezuka’s works, probably without permission
or acknowledge of Disney.
And eventually,
Disney reached an agreement with Mushi Pro and granted Mushi Pro the right to
publish Tezuka’s controversial works. And the works mentioned above is now
reprint beautifully and legitimately.
Disney is easy
to be accused of ripping-off?
Comments also
mention that Disney’s Zootopia ripped off Goldman, a once staff’s idea.
(When you are
hired by Disney, the work you created and handed in to Disney belonged to
Disney while you got your salary. Even they accepted your idea and made you
director, Disney always has the right to replace the director. And you will
even not be in the credits lists just like what happened to Bolt. The same
things, the copyright of Zootopia doesn’t belong to Byron and Rich, it belongs
to Disney.)
The first time:
And not surprisingly
at all, the court dismissed Goldman’s lawsuit:
“Esplanade
alleges that Goldman twice shared a synopsis and treatment for the movie
Looney, along with his ideas for a larger franchise called Zootopia, with
Disney agents and executives,” Fitzgerald wrote (read the ruling here). “The
parties now dispute whether Goldman’s materials are sufficiently similar to the
Disney film to support an action for copyright infringement. But despite both
parties’ urging, the Court cannot engage in a copying analysis on the merits
because Esplanade failed either to attach the allegedly infringed materials to
the Complaint, or to describe them in sufficient detail to permit the requested
analysis. In this action, as in every action, it is the plaintiff’s obligation
to allege sufficient facts, if proved true, to permit a jury to rule in the
plaintiff’s favor. Esplanade has not met that burden here.
The second time:
“…Goldman’s effort to make the plots of “Looney” and “Zootopia” seem similar were strained. All the purported similarities between the two works were themes, not plot points or sequences of events, that were too general to be protected by copyright law.”
The second time:
“…Goldman’s effort to make the plots of “Looney” and “Zootopia” seem similar were strained. All the purported similarities between the two works were themes, not plot points or sequences of events, that were too general to be protected by copyright law.”
And even Frozen
is accused of ripping of another anime (isn’t it from a fairly tale?!)
I don’t have a
clear memory of Saint Seiya, thought I might have watched it at my childhood.
There’re always some
false allegations against Disney, I can understand why Disney is always so
nervous about such claim.
So what about
Simba the King Lion made by Italy?
This series has
nothing to do with Disney, it is made by an Italy public company Mondo TV. And Simba
the King Lion was released in 1996, two years after the release of The Lion
King.
A lot of Chinese TV channel had broadcast three independent animation have a setting of a lion as a king:——Mushi Pro (Kimba the White Lion), Disney (The Lion King), Mondo TV(Simba the King Lion)—— at almost the same time. Resulted in many people got really confused. And Simba the King Lion 2 was also introduced into China, in which Simba and his friends went to New York and joined the World Cup.
The works by Mondo TV is rather interesting:
The 1997 special
release: Pocahontas, Hua Mulan, Quasimodo: The Hunchback of Notre Dame,
Hercules, King David, Ulysses, The Thief of Baghdad. That really rings a bell,
right?
But it would be
unfair to claim that they are ripping off Disney, since they have never confront
a lawsuit from Disney. What they actually do is to tell a different story with
the setting. Like The Legend of Titanic in 1999, which the Nostalgia Critic has
reviewed once. (Available at https://www.bilibili.com/video/av1699813
[Chinese Website- Voice in English with Chinese subtitle].
The plot of Simba
the Lion King is mixed with the Jungle Book (The villain is a tiger, Simba is an
orphan adopted by a wolf, there’re also a bear, a snake and a panther in it),
Bambi (Simba’s father was shot dead by a hunter, Simba grows up with a deer),
and Hamlet (Revenges the tiger and takes the throne) And besides all of that,
the most attractive thing of it to me as a child is the magic and supernatural
element——Simba shooting out laser of his paw! “The
power of Ursa Major!”[Directly translated from Chinese subtitle]
So some might wondered why Disney took no
action to this company. Well, first Disney’s law team is not that aggressive as
some depicted. Second, having the same setting does not necessarily mean
rip-off (Refer to Mandeville-Anthony v. Walt Disney Co. and Benay v. Warner
Bros. Entm’t, Inc) And the plot of it is different from The Lion King. And
Simba’s name is not copyrighted since it is a Swahili word. Third, some
animators worked on this project said that this project took three years to
complete, one year before the release of The Lion King. So it is more likely
that they just copy the setting——but developed their own
plot——the setting of The Lion King might had somehow be
known to them, and that’s when they started the project. I think even for
Disney’s law team could do nothing to them.
(Mondo TV’s official
website, some elements failed to load, however the fox on the upper left really
remind me of something……)
Almost the end……
Spending a few
days on this essay, now I finally arrive here with nearly 16 thousand word.
And why I start
writing this essay? I want to say, when you try to reach a conclusion of a
25-year controversy (if there’s any), shouldn’t you look to both side then make
your own judgment rather than watch two one-sided video on YouTube. Besides, the
references are all over the Internet and all versions of Kimba the White Lion
is available [In China, I mean. I don’t know whether all of them are available
in USA or other places,], you can easily search for them and make your decision.
To my disappointment, people come to a conclusion
after just watching two one-sided video. And rumors spread all over. That’s why
I feel sad.
(Some references
I used for this essay)
(Some emotional comments
and comments contain false statement on Bilibili)
However, on the
same website, all versions of Kimba the White Lion is available:
Compared to the
viewer of the comparison video (almost 90k, plus that some people watch this
video on other website), the Kimba the White Lion work itself receive much lower
viewer, indicating that most of the people who think The Lion King is a rip-off
after watching that video don’t even spend a minute to check out what Kimba the
White Lion really about.
In fact, both
The Lion King and Kimba the White Lion have become classic and become a wonderful
memory of a generation and it will continue to influence more and more people.
I can totally understand the discontented of some people that Kimba’s reputation
is way too not worth the quality and value of it, especially when compared to
the Lion King. Actually, Kimba the White Lion is a great masterpiece that no
one should miss in my opinion with deeper main idea and more complicated
figures. And it deserves more reputation and acknowledgment. As for me, who
grow up watching the Kimba series, I do hope that Kimba can be known,
appreciated and loved by a wider audience. However, I just do not think Lion
King is a rip-off of Kimba in any case.
While some staff
of the Lion King may be influenced by Kimba, the Lion King has an original
story, character development, storytelling, songs and score. The resemblance between
them has been extremely exaggerated in the YouTube video, taking into account
the number of the materials and the unusual way of editing. What’s more, the
Mushi Pro also stated that The Lion King is an original story that has nothing
to do with Kimba and praised The Lion King for its excellence achievement. What’s
the problem then?
In the end, I
hope the CG remake The Lion King will be a big success and be appreciated by
audience and critic. And I do hope that more people can get to know, watch and
love Kimba the White Lion——for its profound main idea
and lovely character, not for the so called “controversy” with The Lion King.
(Simba and Kimba(in 1997 film))
The END
2019/1/22 21:03
The Chinese version
2019/1/24 15:54
Translated into English
This essay is distributed
using CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 License, which you can learn detailed information at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/deed.en
Further reading
(Two essay that help me most during the writing of this essay, strongly
recommended for further reading):
https://www.gcores.com/articles/104591
[In Chinese]
https://www.gcores.com/articles/21763
[In Chinese]
References:
19、
Kuwahara Y.
Japanese Culture and Popular Consciousness: Disney's The Lion King vs. Tezuka's
Jungle Emperor[J]. The Journal of Popular Culture, 1997, 31(1): 37-48.
20、
Documentary-The Making of the
Lion King
21、
Documentary-Pride of the Lion
King
22、
Documentary- The Lion King- A
Memoir with Don Hahn
23、
Book-The Art of the Lion King
29、
https://www.tor.com/2015/06/19/the-lion-king-was-the-most-unlikely-success-story-you-will-ever-hear/
31、
Book- The Writer's Journey:
Mythic Structure for Writers
34、
https://deadline.com/2017/07/zootopia-copyright-suit-dismissed-disney-gary-l-goldman-1202126800/
39、
Book- DisneyWar
42、
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av1699813 [Voice in English with Chinese subtitle]
44、 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/japanese-get-animated-over-disney-cartoon-1383466.html
45、https://www.bilibili.com/video/av16187074
46、https://www.bilibili.com/video/av16187164
47、Brakefield, Tom (1993). "Sociable Simba". Big Cats: Kingdom of Might. Voyageur Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-89658-329-0.
48、http://www.ign.com/articles/1998/04/22/emperor-of-the-jungle
49、https://sites.google.com/site/disneylionking1990script/home/The%20Lion%20King_JT%20Allen%20%26%20Ron%20Bass_original%20movie%20script_5-23-90.pdf?attredirects=0
50、http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2007/08/19/books/book-reviews/osamu-tezuka-fighting-for-peace-with-the-mighty-atom/#.Vyov2Gz2aM9
51、 http://www.tcj.com/tezuka-osamu-and-american-comics/
52、 http://www.cracked.com/article_19021_5-amazing-things-invented-by-donald-duck-seriously.html
45、https://www.bilibili.com/video/av16187074
46、https://www.bilibili.com/video/av16187164
47、Brakefield, Tom (1993). "Sociable Simba". Big Cats: Kingdom of Might. Voyageur Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-89658-329-0.
48、http://www.ign.com/articles/1998/04/22/emperor-of-the-jungle
49、https://sites.google.com/site/disneylionking1990script/home/The%20Lion%20King_JT%20Allen%20%26%20Ron%20Bass_original%20movie%20script_5-23-90.pdf?attredirects=0
50、http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2007/08/19/books/book-reviews/osamu-tezuka-fighting-for-peace-with-the-mighty-atom/#.Vyov2Gz2aM9
51、 http://www.tcj.com/tezuka-osamu-and-american-comics/
52、 http://www.cracked.com/article_19021_5-amazing-things-invented-by-donald-duck-seriously.html
Someone question that why both Kimba and
Simba live in jungle while lions in real life live on plain. I would say “King
of the Jungle” is a common phrase (you can Google it and you would figure it
out that “ King of the Jungle” is widely used to refer to lions)
And some other cartoon also assumed that
lions live in jungle, like the following Chinese cartoon "King of the Forest (1959)":
(A Chinese animation called “King of the
Forest” in which the lions live in the forest)
And there might be other reasons like white
lions is special and unlike other lions in Kimba the White Lion, which is supposed
to be the representation of god (see Ep.14 of 65 TV series), and we can see
that other lions still live on the plain like what they do in real life in 65
series and 66 series. (By the way, the three black lions in 89 series are also
set to be special lions). In The Lion King, only the expelled Simba lived in
the forest, which might be out of story-telling reason that stress the main
character grows up in a different environment he originally should be (like the
story of King Arthur and Harry Potter ).
Update:
A Bilibili (Youtube-like website) user
upload a video concerning the controversy of similar scenes between anime Your
Name(2016) and Rainbow Fireflies(2012) ， which you can
watch at https://www.bilibili.com/video/av12689459
[In Chinese Only] , which is really beneficial to out discussion.
And I make an analysis on that video, about 1min46s
are from Kimba the White Lion after 1994.
The Kimba the White Lion materials used in
the video:
65 series 25*52=1300mins=21.67hrs
66 series 25*26=650mins=10.83hrs
89 series 25*52=1300mins=21.67hrs
91 film=46min
Three volumes of manga with one extra
volume of manga=136 pages (two page counted as one here), assume that one page
contains 12 pictures, and one pictures has a average duration of 3s in the
video, makes it 736*12*3/3600=7.36hrs
97 film=100mins
00 short film=9mins
The Lion King = 89mins
The Lion King storyboard and concept art
available should add up to about 1000,1000*3/60=50min
Here we just don’t consider that fact the
Kimba the White Lion still have two films uncounted and Lion King 2 (which was
also used in the video , but no of significant duration, I just ignore that) .
The Lion King total = 2hrs19mins
Kimba the White Lion before 1994 62.73hrs,
duration in the video 6:05
Kimba the White Lion after 1994 1hr49mins,
duration in the video 1:46
Update:
I contact a wide-known website complaining
that the mistakes they made in their official Weibo (Twitter-like website),
like they certainly wrongly claim that all the Kimba materials are from 1965, I
don’t even have to mention the editing problems
(Translation: Disney The Lion King (1994)
compared to Tezuka Kimba the White Lion(1965) , make sure you watch the video
after 1min)
(I am contacting the website, translation:
M for me, T for they)
T: This is the original title of the video
T: Our Weibo is written according the
original title
M: Alright, but I think it will be better
if you verify the video before writing that Weibo, after all it is your
official Weibo
T: We just write according to the original
video
T: If you have any problems please contact
the user who upload this original video
M: I understand, but I hope you can be more
series about what your official Weibo
T: We have make it clear that
T: We just write what the original video
suggested
M: Alright
T: What else can I help you?
M: Alright, I give up on this issue, I
still hope you can be more serious about what you write in your official Weibo.
It seems to me that it is useless to
contact them, I know that it might be impossible to verify everything the
official Weibo writes (but I still think it is their duty to verify the things
they write, look at the retweet numbers and comment numbers, you can see that
they have huge influence) But when someone complain about the authenticity of
their Weibo shouldn’t they react to that and check whether it is true rather
than putting aside all the responsible by saying they just simply write what
the video suggest (I don’t know what the law requests here, maybe that’s the
case , otherwise , if the lawyers are as aggressive as they criticize, they
should have been sued by Disney long ago) What’s more, if the uploader of that
video take my advice and do something with that video, will they do something
about it like apologizing or clarifying the whole issue on Weibo? I doubt it.
.
I don’t want to
spend more time on that. And I put some advice and some reliable sources in the
Wikipedia Talk pages (I thought the content that Wikipedia present about this
issue is sort-of Cherry picking, like what I mention before, kind of taking
words out of context), and nobody reacts to me so far.
Alright, I give
up.
Update:
Some people
question the white lion in the concept art of the Lion King, I would like to
respond to it.
First, the Lion King concept art was first
released into public in the 2004 DVD of Lion King (as early as I can traced
back), if Disney was deliberately copying Kimba , are they providing evidence
to us willingly? And the Kimba scene was
from 1997 film. They are both playing with butterfly are sheer coincidence
(unless you think someone in Disney gave Mushi Pro that concept art under the
table before 1997, which is non-sense; And I checked it again that no such
scene appear in Kimba the White Lion before 1994) Once again, we see that
coincident happened more often than you think.
Second, it is not unusual to have character
no-colored or colored in other color in the early concept art. Like you can
find a picture showing Po a white bear in the book the Art of Kung Fu Panda,
although we know that Po is a panda. You cannot claim Dreamworks were
originally going to make a film called Kung Fu Polar Bear holding this picture
(I read over the Art of Kung Fu Panda, nothing suggests that they were going to
make Po other animals than panda)
Update:
Someone who have watched the Saint
Seiya tells me that he thinks the idea that Frozen have ripped-off Saint Seiya is non-sense. And I go through some forums and find most people treat it like a
joke (It have been joked about among the Chinese, you can find people joking
about this non-scene story at[Forum Websites in Chinese] https://tieba.baidu.com/p/2992164450?red_tag=0261557697,
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/2939896638?red_tag=0263699950,
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/2939712281?red_tag=0358501794,
. Well, however, still some media report it
in a serious manner and you can say some people do buy their idea as you can
find out in the comment zone. https://kotaku.com/some-say-frozen-ripped-off-a-japanese-anime-heres-why-1548623784
And it just proves what Minkoff said, “People
are claiming copyright infringement all the time.”
What’s more, if Frozen did confront such
issue how can it win the best foreign film award of the Japanese Academy Award,
and have such a big box office gross in Japan. And I also check the box office
of the Lion King, it is higher than Beauty and the Beast, and the Lion King
musical release in Japan in 1998, the earliest place to have the Lion King
musical outside USA. And it has ran from then to now, breaking a number of box
office records and winning national award in Japan.
My responds to another person who left a comment on Zhihu:
Thanks for your comment, as a person who
both enjoy The Lion King and Kimba the White Lion, I feel extremely sad, since
some criticize that Lion King is a rip-off while some criticize that Tezuka
ripped off Bambi, Pinocchio and Mickey Mouse in the first place, ending up both
Disney and Tezuka being rebuked. The video is very misleading. I can also say
that Madagascar films ripped off Kimba the White Lion too, since both of their
plot have: lion as a main character, little lion left his parents to grow up on
his own, main character lion object to the use of violence and understand human
culture, human villains trying to catch the main characters in the city,
animals try to escape from the zoo through subway, animals are divided into
pro-human and anti-human, animals fell from a ship and travelled to an
unexpected place, the lion changed his diet, a crashed plane in the forest, main
character’s father is the king and be set up by a villain lion with black mane,
saving characters about to fell off the cliff, human enter the place where
animals live and causing troubles, the main character save the kingdom by
destroying a dam (a drought vs. a fire), the main character won back the
throne, animals enter human world by circus…… However, as far as I am
concerned, the level that The Lion King resembles to Kimba the White Lion is
just like how Kimba the White Lion resembles Madagascar and how The Lion King
resembles to Madagascar (Nobody is going to claim Madagascar is a rip-off of
The Lion King, right?)……
However, Wikipedia shows that it did have
an American release. (What does COMPLETE means here?)
Update:
Here’s some other scenes analysis
Animals changes from eating meat to other
thing is so common, you can find tiger eating noodles in Kung Fu Panda, animals
eating ice cream in Zootopia, and lions eating grass then Sushi in Madagascar. In fact, if
you have to make friends between animals eating meat and animals eating grass,
you have to change the diet of the animals eating meat
Scenes of Simba and Nala meeting again:
The Lion King scenes are rather gathered
(near Can You Feel The Love Tonight ,although most of the sequence have been
edited out in that video) And the Kimba scenes are selected out from 66 series
Ep.2 and Ep.4, and the order of them are in chaos (like, the first pic in fact
should be after the second pic in the Kimba story) And the place Kimba and his lover show up include
but not limit to: riverbank, mountains, valley, cave, forest, jungle,
grassland, dessert, land with snow, on the tree……
And lovers have fun by the river and
chasing each other are no invention of Kimba, you can find this idea in Bambi
I Just Can’t Wait to be King sequences,
still, the Lion King scenes are gathered but most of them have been edited out
but the order was still right
Kimba pic from 89 series Ep.5, in The Lion
King, the bird is supervising the two cubs to go to the waterhole, and Simba
and Nala are trying to get rid of the bird; while in Kimba, Leo met the other
lion cub for the first time and they are asking the bird to show them the way
to find medicine
Kimba scenes form 65 series Ep.37, Simba
and Nala figure out a plan to get rid of the bird, and Leo have the other lion
to help him
Subtitle: Let me help you, Leo
Subtitle: OK, I don’t need your help any
more with her help
Kimba scenes failed to be located, guess it
form somewhere in 65 series.
Kimba scenes failed to be located, guess it
form somewhere in 65 series or 66 series, at least it is not following the
above scene
Bambi
Kimba scenes from 65 series Ep.3, Lion King
the crocodiles opening the mouths revealing the singing birds, while in Kimba
the singing crocodiles and sing birds are separate scenes with other animals
shows up between them in the original episode.
Kimba scenes from 86 series Ep.16, Simba
and Nala fights and fell off the cliff. While Leo was trying to rescue the
falling lion
Kimba scenes from 65 series Ep.37, Simba
and Nala are surprised at the elephant graveyard, while Leo are surprised at
the show up of the evil lion.
Other scenes
Simba fainted out, eagles are waiting for
him to die so they can eat him
And the Kimba story was (89 series Ep.14)
The bird attack Leo
It circled in the sky then flyed away
Left Leo lying on the ground but still conscious
Kimba scenes from 66 series Ep.24, on the
left is the circle of life scene, while the Kimba story is that Leo running
through a plain and scares off the birds. Be aware of the different angles: one
from top one from the ground
Well you can find similar scenes in
documentary
The protest letter cannot tell the problem.
The Kung Fu Panda was also be boycotted and protested in China by some people,
the organizer is an artist and support by many people including professor of
Peking University, the top university of China and the head of animation
department of Beijing Film Academy, the largest institution specialising in the
tertiary education for film and television production in Asia. And it became so
serious that the government responded to it and delay the release of Kung Fu
Panda in Sichuan Province, which is much much much more serious than what The
Lion King confronted in Japan. However, Kung Fu Panda was still a hit in China
as well as The Lion King was a hit in Japan. And I can tell you that most of
the Chinese people love Kung Fu Panda and I suppose reasonably The Lion King
might be as well in Japan.
----------------------------SPECIAL PART BEGINS----------------------------------
Update:
At the very beginning, I have to say that
before reading this part you must read the previous part first, this
part would be meaningless without reading that article at first. This
article is ONLY used to explain that similar plot and scenes are inevitable in
films with similar setting (especially when you can select out the scenes out
of context) . Due to my time limit I cannot watch all of these films over and
over again so that I can just pick out some similar scenes that come to my mind
at once. I declare that my opinion is that the relationship of any two of Madagascar,
Kimba the White Lion, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and The Lion King are
the same: they have similar plots point and scenes but NOT RIP-OFF. (I like all
of the four and quite familiar with them so that I choose them to exemplify my
idea) The following article should be treated as no more than a joke. And the
definition of “similar” will be no looser than that video.
Here I am going to show you the
similarities between Madagascar and Kimba the White Lion as well as The Lion
King and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
By the way, Jeffrey Katzenberg was the head
of Walt Disney Animation Studio during the production of The Lion King, and he
went to Dreamworks later and produced Madagascar and Spirit: Stallion of the
Cimarron
Part A Madagascar and Kimba the White Lion
The directors of Madagascar, Eric Darnel
and Tom McGrath were born in 1960s, which means that they could probably watch
Kimba the White Lion.
The hero’s father is the king of the
kingdom and the villain is another lion
(Gift: another similar scene)
The lion cub was caught by human
The hero get off the ship and float in the sea
The lion try to eat grass
Frighten off the hyenas
(A more similar scene)
(Landscape)
Lion’s appearance
Tree
Come to a new place
Save friends from hyenas
Lion becomes violent and becomes an outcast
Drought occurs
(Subtitles: What can we do? There’s no
water.)
(Subtitle: Alright, Leo. The crops are
dying, destroy the dam.)
Play with butterfly
Riding animals
In the mountains
Go to human world in circus
Part B Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and
the Lion King
Lion King can probably be watched by the
director.
The subtitle are almost the same in Chinese
(The Lion King vs. The Horse King) Yeah, I know it’s translation but Kimba is
also a translation while it should be Leo. And they both come out of Swahili
language.
The opening scenes includes a shot that
follows a bird
Sunrise
Hero was born
Have a bird as a friend
Saving others
End up no where to go in the valley
Birds
Looking into the starry night sky and missing their relativities and homeland
Playing with water
Romantic moment
Clouds that resemble the ancestor
Running
On fire
The ending
-------The above comparisons are just for FUN,
please make sure you have read the beginning of this part---------------
Update:2019/2/28
I manage to get access to serval reference
recently, including Kelts, Roland. Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has
Invaded the U.S. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print. ; Kuwahara, Yasue.
"Japanese Culture and Popular Consciousness: Disney's The Lion King vs.
Tezuka's Jungle Emperor." The Journal of Popular Culture 31.1 (1997):
37-48. Print.; Yasumoto, Seiko. From Whence Does Popular Culture Emanate and
How is it Remade? Junguru Or Lion King? Tech. Sydney, Australia: Seiko
Yasumoto, 2008. Print. Hence, I have something else to add to.
The first thing we can affirm again is that
some animators of The Lion King knew Kimba, and even realized the similarities
at some time but no discussed in the production team. In Watching Anime,
Reading Manga, Tom Sito said that he knew that one animator knew Kimba far
before the production of The Lion King and pined some photo of Kimba on the bulletin.
While Tim Sito said only when a animator took a Kimba manga to him in the
middle of the production then he remember Kimba and realizes the similarities but
he thinks it would not cause any trouble since the story is totally different. Another
animator said he knew Kimba at the beginning, but when he said to his colleague,
“It is mighty similar to Kimba the White Lion”, his colleague stared blank indicating
that they know nothing about Kimba. So we can conclude again that some animators
did know Kimba but the number is not that high and Kimba had never been discussed
in public.
The similarities between works are
inevitable, but as just what has been said in Geoffrey T. Williams,
Plaintiff-appellant, v. Michael Crichton; Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; Random
House,inc.; Universal City Studios, Inc.; Mca, Inc.;amblin Entertainment, Inc.;
Stevenspielberg; David Koepp,defendants-appellees, 84 F.3d 581 (2d Cir. 1996):
Upon any work, ... a great number of
patterns of increasing generality will fit equally well, as more and more of
the incident is left out. The last may perhaps be no more than the most general
statement of what the [work] is about, and at times might consist only of its
title; but there is a point in this series of abstractions where they are no
longer protected, since otherwise the [author] could prevent the use of his
'ideas,' to which, apart from their expression, his property is never extended.
In this series, from general plot to the
detailed, a merely title to a complete script, can be coincident, influenced, imitation,
tribute and to plagiarize. But where is the point that divides them? Different
people might have different opinions. But we should know that when we notice
that sorrow of the people whose work has been ripped-off, we should also be
aware that the pain of the author who create original works but are accused of plagiarizing
just because some similarities. That’s why I think law should applied rather
than posting a hostile comment on the web in no more than 4 seconds, or at least
I hope people can do more research before they choosing a side.
In Watching Anime, Reading Manga, a lot of
animation scholars express various opinions on this issue, some thought it mere
coincident, some thought that some animators paying tribute to Kimba without
saying that to their co-workers or superiors ( Further, animators have had a
reputation for decades of having irresponsible senses of humor and a penchant
for practical jokes on each other and on studio management, and of drawing
hidden jokes into their cartooning (See, for example, Walt Disney and Assorted
Other Characters; An Unauthorized Account of the Early Years at Disney’s by
Jack Kinney; Harmony Books, 1998 ) If some Disney artists were aware of Kimba,
might they added visual references to Kimba as an injoke without admitting that
to their co-workers or their superiors? If that did happen, then what Disney thought
it knew was less than what it actually knew.）And the
most serve accusation is “influenced but not acknowledge” at best
Fred Ladd，said that borrowing is common in cartoon but it is ridiculous that Disney claim that their hundreds of animators are all never heard of Tezuka.
Chris Gore, a critic，said “Animation cirtics have accused Disney of borrowing quite heavily
from Japanese favorite Kimba——there are too many
parallels to ignore. But when I watched the film, I wasn’t thinking of that
white lion at all. If only Disney could simply acknowledge that Kimba was an
influence, then I don’t think anyone would care.”
The ending part of this part of the book：Whether there was any conscious
influence from Kimba in the Lion King, as a return gift from some Disney
animators to Tezuka as Tezuka’s Jungle Emperor was his gift to Disney, which
Tezuka would have doubtlessly understood and appreciated, is incidental to the
fact the The Lion King clearly shows enough originality to be appreciated as an
original creation by the accepted definition of that term. It was Disney’s management’s
insistent that, despite its worldwide animation expertise, it had never heard
of Tezuka or Kimba—— that they were not worthy of
knowing about—— which cause the entire controversary.
To quote Frederik L. Schodt in his Dreamland Japan, “Ironically, the entire
controversary could easily have been resolved by a simple tip of that hat to Tezuka,
either in the form of a film credit or a public statement.” Instead, the affair
has demonstrated the knowledge of Disney’s creative staff——and the stubbornly willful ignorance of Disney’s management.
And the protest letter signed by many
people are not alleging that The Lion King is a rip-off of Kimba and all they
asked for is an official declaration from Disney that Tezuka’s influence on The
Lion King.
And apart from all these controversy, The
Lion King is a big success in Japan. the
Lion King’s box office is higher than Beauty and the Beast, and the Lion King
musical release in Japan in 1998, the earliest place to have the Lion King
musical outside USA. And it has ran from then to now, breaking a number of box
office records and winning national award in Japan.
In Kuwahara Y. Japanese Culture and Popular Consciousness: Disney's The Lion King vs. Tezuka's Jungle Emperor[J]. The Journal of Popular Culture, 1997, 31(1): 37-48.said，
Although these articles had appeared before the movie opened at theaters in Japan [In fact, it has been discussed even before the release in America, see https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=pl#!topic/alt.fan.furry/yw9HiRV0qH4], Japanese businesses which, knowing the Japanese love of Disney, used the movie characters for promotion and the newspapers which previewed the movie did not raise a question as to its origin. Despite the controversy (or because of it), The Lion King was a hit in the Japanese box office.
This might be a typical respond from a
company when confront with legal issue. This might be a strategy. Like in Dunn
v. DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (Kung Fu Panda was accused of ripping of
Mr.Dunn’s idea )
“unless Mr.Beck, Raphe Beck, Mr. Lachance,
Mr. Kuser, Mr. Katzenberg, Mr Reiff and Mr. Voris are all lying……they are all
going to testify that they have never heard of Mr.Dunn, they never heard of any
of his ideas, and no one passed any of these ideas onto the writer of Kung Fu Panda.
(4 RT 710:10-16)”
However, the jury find a implied contact
between Dunn and Dreamworks with a 11-1 verdict, indicating that no only did they
contact but they exchange a number of idea and discuss a lot of things regarding
the film. But they jury also find the Kung Fu Panda is original with a 9-3 verdict.
Maybe you do not understand why the company
are so sensitive to such claim. That is because they are scared to some degree.
As far as I know, from Jurassic Park, to The Last Samurai, to Cabin in the Woods
, to Talyor Swift’s Shake It Off and even the latest blockbuster Alita, all got
sued for infringement. Just take Kung Fu Panda for example, Dunn v. DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. is not
the only copyright infringement case on Kung Fu Panda, we also have Gordon vs Dreamworks
Animation SKG. But this case end up in another case. The lawyer of Dreamworks found a picture Gordon
claimed he created in 1992 is similar to a picture in a book published in 1996,
together with other evidence (like erasing relative computer data during the
trial; the treatment registered in 2000 and 2008 is deliberately changed, etc)
And Gordon finally dismissed the case, but D.A. then sued him and put him in
jail for two years for fraud and perjury. And Dreamworks spent 3 million
dollars on this non-sense two year trail.
However, Gordon didn’t spend a penny. Because
contingency fee is used here, which means the lawyers will only have their fee
only if they win the case. However, even if they failed the case, such a media-focus
event will bring certain advantage to the lawyers. Like these lawyers who try
to persuade Yoshihiro Shimizu to file a lawsuit probably offer similar offer. In
other words, the Mushi Pro was able to file a lawsuit against Disney at any
time they want. (However, after 25 years, due to the Statute of limitations,
which means you have to bring a lawsuit within a certain period of time after
the event happened, The Lion King is free of any possible lawsuit now) And I
also want to mention that such copyright infringement case usually will not use
in-house lawyers, like Esplanade Productions, Inc. v. The Walt Disney Company,
et al. (Zootopia issue) is handled by Loeb & Loeb LLP, which provide the
same service to Dreamworks （Dunn v. DreamWorks
Animation SKG, Inc.，Gordon v. DreamWorks Animation et
al. two cases of Kung Fu Panda）, Warner Bros.（Benay v. Warner Bros. Entm’t, Inc.，The Last
Samurai issue ）、Fox（Clay v. Cameron，the Avatar issue）and many other studios.
Interestingly, I found a recent debate here
http://www.tcj.com/gottfredsons-illegitimate-heirs-tezuka-osamu-and-the-great-wall-of-1945/,
Ryan Holmberg , an American scholar , write an essay about how Donald Duck
Finds Pirate Gold influenced Tezuka’s New Treasure Island, was in debate with
an Japanese scholar Watanabe Yasushi respond to it argue that Tezuka cannot be
influenced by Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. And it become a debate. So now we
see that “influence” can be a sensitive topic.
Please allow me to conclude again in the light favor of Kimba the white lion:
After 25 years, the whole issue seems less
complicated now. First, did Disney to be blamed? Yes, but no the Lion King film
itself and the 400 animator who dedicated six years to it (The animators are
innocent, they are suppressed by major studio, https://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/animation-wage-fixing-lawsuit-explainer-community-131812.html,
even the director can be fired during the production, and making an excellent film
is what they want——though they won’t profit from it),
it is the legal team of Disney and the Public relationship team should be
blamed(Maybe Michael Eisner, too. You will be impressed by him if you read the
Disneywar). From the legal aspect,
denial might be the right thing to do, but this is not a legal problem at all
at any time. The scholars and media were not saying that The Lion King is a
rip-off, all they asked for is an acknowledge of Tezuka’s influence rather than
saying “No one ever heard of Tezuka”. It is a disastrous public relationship to
my view. And the silence of Disney and Mushi Pro there after, some problematic
reports and some misleading articles or video with factual errors and
misleading wording turn all the issue into an urban myth. The denial of Disney
is to be accused, but accusing The Lion King is a rip-off by publishing problematic
materials to mislead the public is also wrong. It not only impair Disney’s fame but also
Tezuka back.(We have seen the widespread rumors that Tezuka rip off Disney in
the first place in China)
It is complicated, it cannot be said who is
right and who is wrong in one word. Tezuka did used Disney’s character without
permission, but he is also a big fan of Disney and they are very good friends, and
Disney granted Tezuka the copyrighrt. The Lion King did have similarities with
Kimba, different scholars have different opinion——but one
thing we can say for sure is that scholars and media did not claim Lion King is
a rip-off, The Lion King contains enough original materials to be accepted as
an original film, the reason people got angry is that Disney choose to say “no
one heard of Tezuka” and deny all possible influence. And all they want is no
more than an official acknowledgement. No matter out of what reason (probably
the legal reason), it is a disastrous public relation case to my view. After
the praise from Mushi Pro and the official statement that Mushi Pro agree that
The Lion King is an original film, the dispute faded away. However, the spread
of urban myth and some misleading and problematic reports and videos with
factual errors reignite everything by greatly misleading the public. As what I said before, The Lion King
and Kimba the White Lion are no doubt excellent work and are definitely bound
to be honored by generations after generations. Light does not need dark to
show. 25 years of scholars discussing, 400 animators spending six years, two great
people’s years’ friendship, is simply destroyed by posting a hostile comment in
no more than 5 seconds. I hope all these words can help you understand more on this
controversy. And I hope all of us can both enjoy The Lion King and Kimba the White Lion, which are definitely great work that will be always be honored. .
Update 2019/3/1:
Another interesting issue about the The Cat Concerto and Rhapsody Rabbit controversy. Suggesting that certain amount of similarities could be coincidental. And it is beneficial to our discussion.
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/27908986 [In Chinese]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Concerto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_Rabbit
And special thanks to this article which I cited in screenshot format above
https://www.zhihu.com/question/31158514/answer/141184669
Thanks for reading my article.Another interesting issue about the The Cat Concerto and Rhapsody Rabbit controversy. Suggesting that certain amount of similarities could be coincidental. And it is beneficial to our discussion.
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/27908986 [In Chinese]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Concerto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_Rabbit
And special thanks to this article which I cited in screenshot format above
https://www.zhihu.com/question/31158514/answer/141184669
Update:
I am always very skeptical of the first
minute comparing concept art, first I cannot identify the source of these image,
second even if I find the source I cannot identify the time it was created. But
I would like to talk about the so-called “white lion” concept art.
The word SIMBA seems to indicate that this
painting is the early setting of SIMBA, however, I would like to say:
1、 As what I have said before, like the Kung Fu Panda concept art, no
color does not necessarily means white.
2、 This is not the concept art of Simba, this concept art was release
in the Lion King DVD, but there wasn’t the word SIMBA. And the description of
this concept art in the DVD was that this concept art belongs to Mheetu, a
deleted character, who was set to be Nala’s brother and Simba’s friend. And the
character was deleted. The art of the lion king book and the revealed early script
can prove it.
3、 All these concept art showing a “white lion ” has the signature “Thom
Enriquez”, who later worked for the Dreamworks and retired at 2009. Someone
contact him by E-mail (See, https://www.animationsource.org/lion_king/en/articles/The-Newly-revealed-Simba-Concept.../171874.html&id_film=13).
He confirmed that all these painting belongs to Mheetu, the word “SIMBA” is not
written by him and it is not on his original work. And according to the other
sources and concept art by other animators shows that Mheetu was set be moderate
vermilion fur or dark golden fur. (Maybe that’s the reason why it was uncolored,
since many things were uncertain that time)
4、 I cannot identity the source of the Kimba image and the time it was
created.
I was no going to talk about Roy’s Email, since at best it just prove that he knows Kimba and nothing more. Just like sometimes you will mistakenly call Gandalf Dumbledore. And Kimba is a real name like Kimba Wood, an American feral judge, born in 1944. And Roy was a member of the broad of Disney that time. Do not think these executives knows well about these projects, especially when Lion King is not attached much importance that time. Even Christopher Finch the one who interview the whole process of making the lion king mistake Mheetu for Mee-too in his book, And composer John Williams mistake Darth Vader for Darth Vadar all over his script. And another example was the one who conceive and drove the project of Kung Fu Panda admitted that he have no special interests in China or material art. And the script writers do not know why these five animals were chose to be furious five. Because the animation film is a collective work, there’re three screenplay credit, eleven story credit and eight additional story materials credit in the Lion King. According to Thom Enriquez, they spend months on the stampede scene. Another hearsay (it was news but I forget the source so just treat it like hearsay) When Roy attend a premiere of The Wild, he is angry and exited the theater before the film reach its half, you can tell that he obviously know little about this film before and watched it for the first time.
As for the voice actor, Simba’s voice learn that the girl he met everyday in the hallway is Nala’s voice only after almost all the work has finished. What do you expect he to know?
I was no going to talk about Roy’s Email, since at best it just prove that he knows Kimba and nothing more. Just like sometimes you will mistakenly call Gandalf Dumbledore. And Kimba is a real name like Kimba Wood, an American feral judge, born in 1944. And Roy was a member of the broad of Disney that time. Do not think these executives knows well about these projects, especially when Lion King is not attached much importance that time. Even Christopher Finch the one who interview the whole process of making the lion king mistake Mheetu for Mee-too in his book, And composer John Williams mistake Darth Vader for Darth Vadar all over his script. And another example was the one who conceive and drove the project of Kung Fu Panda admitted that he have no special interests in China or material art. And the script writers do not know why these five animals were chose to be furious five. Because the animation film is a collective work, there’re three screenplay credit, eleven story credit and eight additional story materials credit in the Lion King. According to Thom Enriquez, they spend months on the stampede scene. Another hearsay (it was news but I forget the source so just treat it like hearsay) When Roy attend a premiere of The Wild, he is angry and exited the theater before the film reach its half, you can tell that he obviously know little about this film before and watched it for the first time.
As for the voice actor, Simba’s voice learn that the girl he met everyday in the hallway is Nala’s voice only after almost all the work has finished. What do you expect he to know?
Update:
I thought the previous video I analysis is
already very biased, however I come across this
Except for ONE scene, all the other scene
is from 97 film.
(The ONLY scene that came out before 1994)
However,
(Translation: I thought they only copy the
setting, however they copy everything.)
So what exactly do you mean, the 97 Kimba
film ripped-off the The Lion King? (Very funny, and the rest of the video just prove once again that coincident is far more frequent than you think)
Update: 2019/3/14
According to Kuwahara Y. Japanese Culture and Popular Consciousness: Disney's The Lion King vs. Tezuka's Jungle Emperor[J]. Cartoon and Animation Studies, 2000: 254-266.
Update: 2019/3/14
According to Kuwahara Y. Japanese Culture and Popular Consciousness: Disney's The Lion King vs. Tezuka's Jungle Emperor[J]. Cartoon and Animation Studies, 2000: 254-266.
Although a Disney film has never failed to
attract a Japanese audience, such cross-promotion by businesses[Note: Disney allow other to use their character to promote their business without paying fee to Disney], followed by
major newspapers’ favorable reviews, not only helped but ensured the success of
The Lion King in Japan.
The first media pointed out this controversy
is The Sun Francisco Chronicle in July 11th (The Lion King is released
in June 15th), followed by Los Angeles Times two days later. Alerted by the
reports, Machiko Satonaka wrote an open letter to Disney:
Dear Sirs,
The attached list of signees are only a
fraction of the people you have offended with your recent production that
mirrors Osamu Tezuka's 40 year old "Jungle Emperor" comic book and
the 1966 "Kimba the White Lion" American TV animated stories. In fact
, the doubts about the close similarities between the works began within the
American cartoon community.
To Japanese Mr.Tezuka's works are a
national legacy. Therefore, the respect and admiration we Japanese felt for
Disney Co. is severely diminished. It is not possible to explain the damage
inflicted upon our love of this aspect of Japanese culture.
All Japanese admired Walt Disney. I
personally thank him for teaching me how writers should keep and protect their
own rights and copyrights. Therefore, it is very disappointing to feel doubt
about your "Lion King" movie as it is presented today.
As I said in my interview with Asahi News,
Tokyo News, Tokyo News, Nikkan Gendai and Mainichi Japanese newspapers, I think
the works are so similar, it cannot be co-incidental. The International Herald
Tribune reported this fact along with the San Francisco Chronicle, Nikkan
Sports, Weekly Asahi and the Sankei News.
The basic story of a Prince cast out to
return as the hero King after his father is killed, is only the beginning of a
long list parallels. There is the eye-scarred, black maned villainous Uncle
backed by hyenas[Wrong, the villainous lion is not any kind of relative of Leo],
the chattering bird friend, the wise baboon, the promotional shot of the
jutting rock, the father lion in the clouds talking to his son[Wrong, just a
cloud in the shape of Leo appeared without any communication to anyone], the
stony wilderness habitat, insect eating carnivores[The animals were first
eating vegetables and eat locust egg from 65 series Ep.23-26, and they stop
doing so when they find a kind of vegetable works well to replace meat], even
the names Kimba and Simba are strikingly similar. I don't need to go on.
No one is claiming the stories are
identical.
However, when my observations first reached
Disney I was told abruptly, "Disney has never heard of 'Jungle Emperor' or
'Kimba, the White Lion' ".
As I said on my interview with CNN, it is
with sadness and regret that we are forced to write this letter. I feel that
Mr.Tezuka's works should live as property of the Japanese people. It is not
fair to dishonour the value, repsect and importance that the "Jungle
Emperor" has for them.
I also believe that Tezuka Productions'
conciliatory stance is a typical Japanese response:avoid an embarrassing
confrontation at any cost.
At least a sub-title to pay homage to Osamu
Tezuka or a few lines paying respect to the origin of the story should be
included. If these lines were to appear at the beginning of the movie then
surely both Walt Disney and Osamu Tezuka would feel satisfaction.
Yours Truly,
Machiko Satonaka.
However, Disney refused to reply this
letter, and stress that they have never heard of Tezuka and Kimba.
There is also so-called controversy about Spirit Away ripped-off Xiao Qian（1997 Chinese Animation Film) ,and a lot of similarities are listed like, an innocent character enter a ghost city where no people in day but a lot of ghost at night, the hero enter a restaurant and confront another character who will help the hero get out of here and develop romantic relationships, and the villain are alike, and the character helping the hero get hurt as the turn of the plot, and the no-returned train, a character turn into a monster, and the list goes on. There are also a number of pictures shows similar scenes...... the similarities of Lion King and Kimba is no more and even less than Spirited Away and Xiao Qian. （Strange that there is little coverage of this controversy in English network, but you can see discussion here (in Chinese): https://www.zhihu.com/question/32758353/answer/58465957）
Of course, as what I said before this is not a legal matter. However, what bothers me most is the two apparent errors in the letter (the relationship between the villain lion and Leo, the ending scene of the Kimba story) and the 488 signees including 80 comic professionals failed to correct it. I think the reason might be 1\ These people did not read the letter carefully so they failed to see these errors 2\ These people have vague memory of Kimba the White Lion, forgetting the relationship between characters and the ending of the story, so they failed to find out the errors 3\ These people read the letter and notice the errors, but they just go on and sign their name. No matter what the reason might be, the value and credibility of the letter now needs to be questioned.
I have to say that besides some similarities
that can be well explained like the name, the similarities Machiko Satonaka
points out is so general and contains so much scénes-á-faire that some case
with equal or more similarities will be dismiss or handle by summary judgement
at court. (See Esplanade Productions, Inc. v. The Walt Disney Company, et al. or
Benay v. Warner Bros. Entm’t, Inc., 607
F.3d 620, 624 (9th Cir. 2010))
Esplanade Productions, Inc. v. The Walt
Disney Company, et al.
See www.scribd.com/document/363910084/Goldman-is-Gone-Official-Court-Minutes
A Brief Introduction to Benay v. Warner
Bros. Entm’t, Inc., 607 F.3d 620, 624 (9th Cir. 2010))
The Benays wrote their Screenplay between
1997 and 1999. They registered it with the Writers Guild of America in 1999 and
with the federal copyright office on February 23, 2001. The Benays' agent,
David Phillips, "pitched" the Screenplay to the president of
production at Bedford Falls, Richard Solomon, on the telephone sometime between
May 9, 2000, and May 12, 2000. Phillips provided a copy of the Screenplay to
Solomon on May 16, 2000. According to Phillips, he provided the Screenplay with
the implicit understanding that if Bedford Falls used it to produce a film, the
Benays would be appropriately compensated. Solomon informed Phillips after
receiving the Screenplay that Bedford Falls had decided to "pass"
because it already had a similar project in development.
The Benays point to a number of
similarities between the Screenplay and the Film. Both have identical titles;
both share the historically unfounded premise of an American war veteran going
to Japan to help the Imperial Army by training it in the methods of modern
Western warfare for its fight against a samurai uprising; both have
protagonists who are authors of non-fiction studies on war and who have
flashbacks to battles in America; both include meetings with the Emperor and
numerous battle scenes; both are reverential toward Japanese culture; and both
feature the leader of the samurai rebellion as an important foil to the
protagonist. Finally, in both works the American protagonist is spiritually
transformed by his experience in Japan.
We agree with the district court that
"[w]hile on cursory review, these similarities may appear substantial, a
closer examination of the protectable elements, including plot, themes,
dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters, and sequence of events, exposes many
more differences than similarities between Plaintiffs' Screenplay and
Defendants' film." The most important similarities involve unprotectable
elements. They are shared historical facts, familiar stock scenes, and
characteristics that flow naturally from the works' shared basic plot premise.
Stripped of these unprotected elements, the works are not sufficiently similar
to satisfy the extrinsic test.
There is also so-called controversy about Spirit Away ripped-off Xiao Qian（1997 Chinese Animation Film) ,and a lot of similarities are listed like, an innocent character enter a ghost city where no people in day but a lot of ghost at night, the hero enter a restaurant and confront another character who will help the hero get out of here and develop romantic relationships, and the villain are alike, and the character helping the hero get hurt as the turn of the plot, and the no-returned train, a character turn into a monster, and the list goes on. There are also a number of pictures shows similar scenes...... the similarities of Lion King and Kimba is no more and even less than Spirited Away and Xiao Qian. （Strange that there is little coverage of this controversy in English network, but you can see discussion here (in Chinese): https://www.zhihu.com/question/32758353/answer/58465957）
Of course, as what I said before this is not a legal matter. However, what bothers me most is the two apparent errors in the letter (the relationship between the villain lion and Leo, the ending scene of the Kimba story) and the 488 signees including 80 comic professionals failed to correct it. I think the reason might be 1\ These people did not read the letter carefully so they failed to see these errors 2\ These people have vague memory of Kimba the White Lion, forgetting the relationship between characters and the ending of the story, so they failed to find out the errors 3\ These people read the letter and notice the errors, but they just go on and sign their name. No matter what the reason might be, the value and credibility of the letter now needs to be questioned.
Later, Machiko Satonaka wrote another open
letter, which is the one with most signees.
TO BUENA VISTA INTERNATIONAL:
We would like to give you our review and
opinion of your "Lion King" animation movie.
Your "Lion King" movie reminds me
of Osamu Tezuka's published manga story "Kimba the White Lion" in
Japan. In other words, it is hard to believe the similarity of these twe
stories is a coincidence.
All Japanese admired Walt Disney therefore
it is very disappointing to feel doubt about your "Lion King" movie
as it is presented today.
We Japanese are proud of Osamu Tezuka and
we feel that his manga is a representation of Japanese culture.
The original "Kimba, the White
Lion" is one of his most famous works. We feel it should live as the
property of every Japanese. So, I feel it is not fair to hurt the value,
respect and importance that "Kimba, the White Lion" has for them.
As least a sub-title to pay homage to Osamu
Tezuka or a few lines paying respect to the story of "Kimba, the White
Lion" should be included. If these lines were on the beginning of the
movie then Walt Disney and Osamu Tezuka would both feel satisfaction.
This is my personal opinion expressed apart
from Tezuka Production's opinion.
Yours sincerely
Machiko Satonaka.
Of course, Disney didn’t reply it, either.
And maintain that they have never heard of Tezuka and Kimba. (Although those staff
that no longer work in Disney like Tom Sito express different story)
Watching Anime, Reading Manga concludes
this issue：
……Open letter to Disney signed by over 200
Japanese artists and supports to protest Disney’s failure to recognize Tezuka’s
professional stature: “Disney’s lawyers, apparently unable to grasp the fact
that this was a question of courtesy rather than copyright infringement or punitive
damages, responded defensively and with a level of legalistic unusual even for
them.” In actuality, Disney did not reply to this letter at all; its arrogance
was in ignoring it. In other words, Disney has treated the issue as a legal one,
not an ethical one or one of etiquette, of politeness.
In the end, as in the beginning, we cannot
know what Disney did or did not know, nor can we say Kimba cause The Lion King.
But we can say that Disney’ declaration that it was ignorant of Tezuka and Kimba
before and during the the making of the film and its continuing maintenance of
that ignorance after release of the film destroy its claim to global expertise
in animation.
The Washington Times, Friday, July 15,
1995, p.C-15
Mr.Ladd and others are did not accuse
Disney of stealing ideas from Tezuka but said they simply want the creators of “The
Lion King” to admit the influence of Tezuka on their work.
According to Tezuka Productions second
press release, Monday, August 22, 1994
After declaring that they don’t think The Lion
King is a rip-off of Kimba, the president of Mushi Pro Mr. Matsutani said, “That
stated, we are nonetheless always prepared to act resolutely, to protect both the
works of Dr.Osamu Tezuka and his honor, whenever we feel that our copyrights
have been maliciously violated.” stressing that they attitude towards the Lion
King is not a result of compromise.
As I mentioned before, nobody is accusing
The Lion King ripped off Kimba, what makes people angry is the statement made
by the law department and public relation department of Disney, “We have never
heard of Tezuka and Kimba” .which is purely out of legal practice and unnecessarily
over reacted.
And Kuwahara Y. Japanese Culture and
Popular Consciousness: Disney's The Lion King vs. Tezuka's Jungle Emperor[J].
Cartoon and Animation Studies, 2000: 254-266. Has another interesting yet maybe
controversial opinion towards this issue. So I upside-down this part and I will
not express my opinion on this part.
By the way, I identify the following Kimba picture is from the
promotional materials of 97 Kimba films which is created after 1994.
Another interesting issue:
The animation media, Rotoscopers wrote:
I’m sure all of us by now have heard of the
ridiculous lawsuit aimed at Frozen （The comment of Whitney
Grace, the reporter of this website comment on it: If that is approach is
taken, anyone who has a sister, lived in a village, opened a door, and been
betrayed could sue Disney.）. Now we bring news of
equally ridiculous claims against a Disney film that’s not even out yet![In fact, two years before the film’s release]
Just as what Rob Minkoff said，“People are claiming copyright infringement all the time!”
Update 2019/3/14:
The King of the Jungle title is a very early working title. At least the script draft J.T.Allen and Ron Bass wrote in 1990 Jan. and May. already titled “King of the Beasts”. And what’s more, it is a very common phrase. You know what, there’s a cartoon short in China with exactly the same name (《森林之王》，"King of the Jungle") in 1952 (with an obviously very different story and settings). So what’s the matter with the title? I cannot see where the point is.
I believe as long as we insist the principle that “Based on facts, argue by law” rather than unreliable rumors and personal subjective conjecture, the truth will always come out.
Update 2019/4/26:
You can watch The Little Tiger Goes Home （《小虎还乡》） and compare the similarities between it and the Kimba the White Lion and the Lion King.
More on the letter: I say that letter at
best just prove that Roy knew Kimba, which I have mentioned about. In addition,
the reference on this letter I can find out is a page of the Google Groups
which was published by some one else. Disney and Mushi Pro have never mentioned
about this letter. And Wikipedia and big media covered this issue never mentioned
this letter. Although this letter was published in 1993 but the controversary
had already began that time. (See https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=pl#!topic/alt.fan.furry/yw9HiRV0qH4)
,So…… I would say that again, it at best just prove Roy know Kimba.
“A kingdom ruled by lions, and the lion
gave birth to his son then died and lost the throne, and his son take back the
throne.” Such plot is also applied to an anti-Semitic story Van den vos
Reynaerde, which is adapted from le roman de renart which is created around 1175.
I hope there will be no more updates. I have to move on and leave this controversy behind.
Comments
Post a Comment