Were Jungle Emperor Leo and The Lion King separated at birth?

Jungle Emperor Leo
Theatrical feature, 1997. Director: Yoshio Takeuchi. 99 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $19.95. Distributor: Anime Works/Media Blasters.

Osamu Tezuka wrote his 500+ page Jungle Emperor graphic novel in the early 1950s, about the struggle of the noble white lion, Leo, to create a kingdom where all animals could live in peace and equality with man. His TV series, Americanized as Kimba the White Lion, was based on Leo’s youth only. This feature by Tezuka Production Co. presents the last half of the novel: from the birth of the adult Leo’s cubs Lune and Lukio, to his heroic death while remaining true to his ideals. Devotees of animation conspiracy theories can have fun deciding what scenes in Disney’s 1994 The Lion King are too close to the 1965 Kimba to be coincidental, and what scenes in this 1997 Jungle Emperor Leo are too close to The Lion King to be coincidental. (Tezuka always acknowledged Disney’s Bambi as his inspiration.)

Jungle Emperor Leo is beautifully animated, blending lush cel animation with sparkling computer graphics. The movie also retains the symphonic arrangement of Isao Tomita’s 1965 TV music. Since Tezuka’s graphic novel has not yet been published in English, Americans who want to know what happened to “Kimba” after he grew up can find the answer here.

But as a modern film for family audiences, the story (or this adaptation of it) has serious problems. It is age-rated as “seven and up”, but some elements seem too juvenile for anyone much older than seven while others are too mature for those that young. Like many movie versions of novels, the story has been condensed to the point that some scenes may be puzzling to an audience unfamiliar with the original versions. Tezuka had a fondness for comical character names like Dr. Moustache, Mr. Lemonade and Mr. Ham-Egg that went out of style in the West in the 19th century, which undercut scenes that are supposed to be suspenseful. Ham-Egg’s expedition of greedy treasure-hunters are said to be frantic to find Mt. Moon as fast as they can, yet they take the time to bulldoze down the jungle and construct a road for their trucks, and stop to shoot every animal they see. It certainly establishes them as cruel and trigger-happy, but also as spectacularly stupid.

Even nine year olds must wonder how hard it can be today to find a single “lost” mountain that is supposed to tower over the jungle. Leo’s refusal to fight back against the humans -- his insistence that “fighting achieves nothing”, and that he will protect the animals but without resorting to violence -- means that he just watches as elephants, rhinos, hippos, gazelles and others are shot and left to rot by the hunters as they speed by; how is this protecting the animals? The tragic, tearjerker death of Leo’s mate Lyre (also spelled Laiya) from “death pox” and Leo’s own dramatically suicidal sacrifice to save the benevolent Dr. Moustache, may be too intense for the younger end of that seven and up range. And why is Tezuka’s name presented Japanese-style, family name first in the title and credits (Tezuka Osamu’s Jungle Emperor Leo) when all the other names are presented Western-style, family name last?

This may be unfair criticism. Cynics have pointed out that Disney’s The Lion King begins with all the prey animals in Africa cheering the birth of another predator, and that did not stop it from becoming the most popular animated feature before Finding Nemo. If you liked The Lion King, you should have no trouble loving Jungle Emperor Leo.