Friday, March 13, 2015

Tooniversary: Kimba the White Lion (1965)

Kimba The White Lion began as a manga (Japanese comic book) in the 50's, then transitioned to television 50 years ago, migrating to the US around the same time. The series enjoyed a brief revival in the 80s, as the original series aired on, if memory serves, Nickelodeon, while CBN had the sequel.

The funny thing is, the sequel went under the title, Leo The Lion. Leo was the actual name of the titular star in the original series, who was rechristened Kimba for American audiences, likely to avoid copyright issues with MGM, whose lion mascot was also named Leo.

Edit, 8/25/16: Hulu has dropped the series, so here's the intro:



No rating.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

It's been said The Lion King was in fact based on Kimba - but Disney insisted it was their own creation. Considering the only major difference between the two was color, I'm wondering if the studio didn't grease a few palms with some Yen.

hobbyfan said...

I've read of this controversy. Have to do more research.