Did the creators of Kimba The White Lion sue Disney of copying the cartoon to create The Lion King?

[DodgerGirl]

My dad and I were discussing Disney movies and what I learned was that the creators of Kimba The White Lion accused Disney of copying the cartoon's storyline for The Lion King and Disney went to court and sued them and I would like to know if it really happened? Because from what I read Kimba The White Lion was a popular cartoon and I can't figure out why Disney would get sued over this for The Lion King? The only difference I see is that Disney named Simba because they didn't want to avoid confusion with naming the lion Kimba so they just named him Simba. What became of the story? Did the creators of Kimba The White Lion actually win the lawsuit or did Disney win?

 

[leiaorgana]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/m...lion-does-disney-need-come-clean-1225822/amp/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...erty-controversy-years-heres-story-behind-it/

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueFilm/comments/ez921l

 

[DodgerGirl]

The only other reason I see that The Lion King is not a copy of Kimba The White Lion is that in the cartoon of Kimba The White Lion Kimba was an orphan and in The Lion King Simba has his mom. Why I think the creators of Kimba The White Lion thought Disney could create their own version of Kimba The White Lion and title it The Lion King the creators of Kimba The White Lion could get some credit from Disney. When it comes to Disney choosing ideas for future movies I think they like to look at cartoons for new movie ideas. Frozen is another example because even though Frozen is supposed to be a version of the fairy tale The Snow Queen I don't think it was based on The Snow Queen and what my mom told me is a woman wrote the Frozen story first and her version of Frozen was very different than what Disney did with Frozen and the woman actually sued Disney for making changes to her Frozen story without her permission and I think the woman won her lawsuit. But with The Lion King it's different because I mainly think Disney made The Lion King was because animated movies that feature animals were a hit at the time and Disney wanted to join in that trend as well

 

[Kennywood]

Some of the scenes in The Lion King look like the animators used tracing paper over scenes from Kimba. Almost identical characters, identical scenes, identical plots, all show that Disney plagiarized the works of Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Kimba the White Lion.

It was even referenced in an episode of "The Simpsons":

 

[DodgerGirl]

Is that The Simpsons episode where Bleeding Gums Murphy dies and before he dies he thanks Lisa for playing his album and then that scene appears where Bleeding Gums Murphy tells Lisa a final goodbye? I do remember that episode well. Why I think Disney knew that they had copied a popular Japanese cartoon was they were afraid something might happen if the real truth about The Lion King came out. But from what I learned Disney did get inspired by Kimba The White Lion when The Lion King was in development and the film's working title was King Of The Jungle but I think Disney learned it's lesson after what happened with The Lion King

 

[Losker]

Is that The Simpsons episode where Bleeding Gums Murphy dies and before he dies he thanks Lisa for playing his album and then that scene appears where Bleeding Gums Murphy tells Lisa a final goodbye? I do remember that episode well. Why I think Disney knew that they had copied a popular Japanese cartoon was they were afraid something might happen if the real truth about The Lion King came out. But from what I learned Disney did get inspired by Kimba The White Lion when The Lion King was in development and the film's working title was King Of The Jungle but I think Disney learned it's lesson after what happened with The Lion King

I'm of the belief that The Lion King, did not rip off or steal from Kimba. I've already read and seen arguments against this over the last couple of years or so and it's pretty safe to say that Kimba and The Lion King are two different properties.

 

[Losker]

My dad and I were discussing Disney movies and what I learned was that the creators of Kimba The White Lion accused Disney of copying the cartoon's storyline for The Lion King and Disney went to court and sued them and I would like to know if it really happened? Because from what I read Kimba The White Lion was a popular cartoon and I can't figure out why Disney would get sued over this for The Lion King? The only difference I see is that Disney named Simba because they didn't want to avoid confusion with naming the lion Kimba so they just named him Simba. What became of the story? Did the creators of Kimba The White Lion actually win the lawsuit or did Disney win?

And no, Tezuka himself never sued because he passed away in 1989. His family never sued as they did not think the controversy was worth their time. They too believe that Kimba and TLK are not the same, and they do not wish for their father's work to be "used as someone else's weapon". One of the spokespersons for Tezuka Productions speculated that if Tezuka had lived and saw TLK, he would have been pleased if his work inspired Disney and would not have thought about a lawsuit.