Kimba the White Lion

I have to admit : I, too, thought that the Lion King had ripped off some elements from Kimba the White Lion. This impressive "documentareview" is among the best documentaries I've ever seen in my life. It it thoughtful and thought-provocative, kinda like Zizek's The Pervert's Guide to Cinema/Ideology. Easily one of the, if not THE, greatest theory debunker available out there, completely free to watch, and only two clicks away.

It's probably a 7/10 or a 8/10, but I'm giving it a 9 out of 10 to artificially boost the notoriety of this solo production. I want more.

Quite possibly one the greatest, most in depth and well researched "well actually..." responses to a bad click bait story that circulated the internet.

This is a lengthy video analysis about the controversy of "The Lion King" being a ripoff of "Kimba The White Lion". I remember hearing about this controversy and didn't even know that it had been debunked. This video features a guy who (I believe) has seen every episode of the Kimba animes (is animes a word?) and its movies. I heard people saying this was a ripoff and on surface level, it seemed quite impressive. You had to have seen the show to fully understand how ridiculous it is. It actually kind of reminds me of the list of coincidences between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.

It's similar to the Sharpshooter Fallacy, in that it makes us focus on minor things while not getting the big picture. You could list every similarity between Kimba and "The Lion King" and debunk or at least study each entry just like the Lincoln-Kennedy list. Even Christopher Hitchens has made ludicrous claims like this. He, like many other people believe the Bible to be plagiarised from Egyptian mythology. That makes even less sense than these comparisons as those comparisons are almost entirely false. It seems like everyone (including me) has only heard of Kimba because of these allegations.

This video perfectly sums up every single argument you could ever have about these. I'm at least glad this is the most viewed Kimba video ever made. It's kind of sad that this guy saw all these episodes and didn't even become a fan of Kimba! People should at least consider themselves true fans if they don't want to talk about "The Lion King". It mentions things like how the villain Claw is a lion with a self-descriptive name and an eye deformity who wants to be king of the jungle. Just remember Claw is not Kimba's evil uncle, nor did he kill his father, nor is he even important enough to be featured in the movies which are described as summaries as episode he was in! ****

This YMS documentary about the origins and total nonsense of the "Disney ripped off Kimba" conspiracy theory is just how deep Adam went in order to show just how unlike Kimba and The Lion King are. For once, Disney-- the big evil corporate empire-- is innocent. All it took was one enraged YouTuber to actually become an expert in all things Kimba in order to clear those behind The Lion King of any wrongdoing.

However, what is scary is just how many people-- from normal people perusing clickbait articles to accredited university professors-- all assumed The Lion King was a rip-off without even watching the many Kimba anime series and movies, or reading the original manga. Adam goes into how unfair many "frame comparisons" between the two properties are, since there is only 90 minutes of The Lion King and over 3000 minutes of Kimba for biased writers to choose from.

He also shows how important context is when comparing two series and just how lacking in proper context the pro-ripoff arguers are-- for example, they claim a stampede is a major event in Kimba's life and that the dramatic stampede in the Disney movie is ripping it off, when in fact, the stampede showcased in Kimba is comedic in tone and not significant in the grand scheme of the series at all.

Another major theme in the documentary is how these conspiracy theorists misunderstand tropes and creativity. Tropes are common storytelling conventions: a simple-minded henchman duo, a villain kicking a dog to show how bad he is, a person being saved from a bullet by a book in their pocket, a villain expressing creepy interest in a damsel in distress. All of these are conventions seen in many kinds of movies, from thrillers to romantic comedies. Adam argues that the claims of TLK ripping off Kimba largely also come from the two stories just happening to share common tropes, such as the hero having a love interest or even something like a character temporarily blinding an opponent to make a quick escape. These are tropes common in stories beyond these talking animal stories-- it's hardly ripping off Kimba for Disney to give Simba a love interest, a convention as old as storytelling itself!

Beyond debunking a poorly researched theory, this documentary shows a much sadder truth about people in general-- mainly how gullible we all are. If we all assume something is true without the proper research or based only on inaccurate hearsay from "experts" when it comes to whether or not one children's cartoon is stealing from another, what does that imply about how people go about forming opinions on weightier matters? How often do people take the media's word for whatever's going on-- and how often do they do their own research rather than just taking an expert's word for it, so long as said expert confirms any existing bias they might have? It's terrifying.

This documentary shows more research than any other source out there with regards to the controversy. Where so many "experts" quoted in the film give misleading, unfounded, or outright false claims, Adam shows exactly how closely the two are related and why so many people have been lead to believe that the Lion King doesn't have an original frame in its film.

Perfect 6/10