Did Disney Steal the Idea for The Lion King from a Japanese Comic Book?

Disney movies of the late 80's and all of the 90's were by and large sterilizations and retellings of classic fairy tales. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame were all Disney revisionist versions of time honored tales but when The Lion King came out it was hailed as being an original story.

That may not be as true as Disney would like us to believe.

In the 1950's, a Japanese artist, who also created Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka created a story called Jungle Taitei (Jungle Emperor), the tale followed the exploits of an orphaned lion cub prince who had been chosen to rule all of the animals of Africa. Sound familiar?

Almost fifty years before the hit Disney film Tezuka's version had been a comic book series and in 1965 it was turned into Japan's first color animated television cartoon series. All 52 episodes were released in the United States the following year under the name Kimba the White Lion.

Tezuka died in 1989 and five years later Disney released The Lion King in which Simba has some surprisingly similar concepts.

Some of the most striking similarities between the Disney film and the Japanese version are:

The names of the lion prince: Simba and Kimba.

Both are orphaned rulers who try to avoid their destiny.

Simba has a girlfriend named Nala and Kimba has a girlfriend named Kitty.

In both the Disney and Japanese version the prince is advised by a wise but crazy baboon.

Also in the Disney and Japanese version the prince is friends with a comical but finicky bird.

Simba's chief adversary is named Scar and evil lion with a scar over his left eye and Kimba's main adversary nemesis is named Claw and he has a scar over his blind left eye.

Disney's Scar employs hyena's as does Tozuka's Claw.

Simba and Kimba commune with the spirits of their fathers who now reside in the clouds. Father's they both lost to treachery.

The iconic Disney image of Simba standing on Pride rock is identical to the image of Kimba standing on a jutting stone over his own African kingdom.

Did Disney Borrow the Lion King Idea?