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Though Disney seems to hold one firm opinion on the Simba vs. Kimba debate, actor Matthew Broderick ― who voiced Simba ― admitted he was initially confused about his role. “I thought he meant Kimba, who was a white lion in a cartoon when I was a little kid,” Broderick had said in a 1994 interview about his casting. And while the projects differ in their storylines ― with the Japanese cartoon exploring the relationship between humans and animals ― there are some visual similarities between the two.

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From the epic vision of a lion standing atop Pride Rock to the unforgettable appearance of Mufasa in the clouds, “The Lion King” does appear to mirror “Kimba” at certain points.

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Many also reference similarities in the characters as proof of a connection. In addition to the main characters having extremely similar names ― Kimba and Simba, respectively (Kimba is known as Leo in “Jungle Emperor”) ― there is also a sage baboon, bumbling hyenas, a young lioness love-interest, a Zazu-like bird and an evil lion with an eye ailment. His name is Claw.

The Real Story In an interview with HuffPost Entertainment, Sito said “Kimba” did not serve as source material for the film. But his comments confirm that at least some people working on the project had seen the cartoons and comics before, which is contrary to the initial reported corporate stance that the filmmakers were unaware of “Kimba” or Tezuka. (In a 1994 interview, Minkoff did not rule out the possibility that Tezuka was discussed in the years prior to his arrival on the project.) However, in comments made to HuffPost, “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.”

According to Sito, filmmakers first learned about similarities between the projects late in the production process, with more than half the film having been completed. “One of the animators found a Manga comic book of Kimba’s with a setup that kind of looked like Pride Rock, and I remember he was like showing it to us, and I was like, ‘Wow, that is really close to ours, yeah.’ But I think it was never more than an amusing coincidence,” said Sito. Other filmmakers on the project confirm Sito’s comments. In 1997, Mark Kausler, who has a story credit on the film, told author Fred Patten that he had watched “Kimba” as a kid, but during the production process the animators were focused on creating a story that was more like “Bambi” set in Africa without the “animals versus man” theme: 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. In regard to “Bambi” serving as a template for “Lion King,” Sito said, “I think we were trying to achieve the same naturalism in the acting as ‘Bambi.’ The animals don’t walk around on two legs, and wear gloves with three lines on them. The art directors were also inspired by the color palate [as the] ‘Bambi’ art director Tyrus Wong. Taking into account the vastly different setting of course, ‘Lion King’ is in African savannah while ‘Bambi’ is set in a North American indigenous forrest.” Though “The Lion King” wasn’t developed with “Kimba” in mind, the similarities are evident. In his book Watching Anime, Reading Manga: 25 Years of Essays and Reviews, Patten cites an interview with “Lion King” animator Sadao Miyamoto, in which he told Bridge U.S.A. that he was “taken aback” when he first saw storyboards because of their likeness to Tezuka’s work and that there must’ve been at least some influence.

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Sito explained that wasn’t necessarily the case. “Honestly, I think it’s seriously coincidence,” the animator said. “You know I’m not a spokesman for Disney, but I was there during all the story development and nobody consciously thought [about] that. I think when you do the kind of things that lions do, the grasslands and the kind of environment they’re in, and the type of props they would work with, trees and rocks and the other animals, I think some similarities are inevitable.” (For those wondering, Simba is reportedly the Swahili word for lion, which would explain the name similarities.) Disney did not respond to requests for comment. Back in 1994, Takayuki Matsutani, the president of Osamu Tezuka’s production company, Tezuka Productions, agreed with what Sito said today: 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 continued saying that if Tezuka had thought Disney “got a hint” of “Lion King” from his work, he would have been pleased.