ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.03 - JUNE 2000

Which Is The Real Kimba?
(continued from page 1)

Fuel to the Fire
Other video versions stepped forward to take advantage of this publicity. First was a July 1994 release of eight videos (sixteen episodes) of the Leo the Lion series with Leo/Kimba as an adult. A distributor's announcement read: "As any hep person knows, the hit Disney movie The Lion King was inspired by Japanese animation great Osamu Tezuka's Kimba The White Lion, which appeared on U.S. TV in the mid-‘60s. In this sequel series, the lion cub has grown up, gotten married, sired two cubs, and changed his name to Leo. Go figure." (Advance Comics, October 1994, pg. 288) The video box logo, Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle, combined the American TV title with a translation of the Japanese title in a way that suggested the Disney feature. Despite the acknowledgement that this was a sequel, the promotion implied that anyone who wanted to see what Kimba was like would find out in these videos.0

Kimba, the Lion Prince. © MCMXCV UAV Corp.

In January 1996 four videos (eight episodes) appeared titled Kimba the Lion Prince. The video boxes emphasized that, "Kimba, the Lion Prince is the original lion adventure that started it all!", with synopses that were closer to The Lion King than Kimba had actually been. ("It's action and adventure as Kimba battles the evil hyenas and his father's wicked brother!" In the original program there was never any suggestion that the brutal adult lion whom Kimba must defeat was a relative.) This release did present the original 1965-'66 Mushi animation, but with new dialogue, music and sound effects. The new English credits named a Toronto production studio. The original Japanese credits for Osamu Tezuka and his staff were gone, replaced by a card reading, "Special Thanks To Fumio Suzuki."

The third and best promoted series was a six video release from October 1998 through July 1999 of the first thirteen episodes of the Japanese 1989-1990 50-episode Jungle Emperor, as The New Adventures of Kimba, the White Lion. This was a production of Pioneer Entertainment USA, the American subsidiary of the Japanese entertainment giant. Although the "New Adventures" in the title signified that this was not the original series, the larger Kimba, The White Lion logo implied that this was a part of that series, in the sense that a 1990s Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny cartoon can be considered to follow directly from the famous 1940s and 1950s theatrical cartoons.

Finally…
Now the original Kimba is finally available. In early 1997 the Japanese litigation over the 1973 Mushi Pro bankruptcy was resolved in favor of the reorganized Mushi studio. Mushi eventually signed a license with The Right Stuf International for an authorized American release produced from the original NBC masters. This release began in April 2000. It is scheduled to consist of thirteen monthly video releases of four episodes per video until all 52 episodes are out.

Kimba the White Lion and Polly Cracker try to figure out what all the confusion’s about! © The Right Stuf International.

However, The Right Stuf is encountering market confusion between the different Kimba versions, especially over Pioneer's New Adventures since that has been the most widely promoted. Shawne Kleckner, President of The Right Stuf International, recently said, "We have received a number of calls stating confusion between the Pioneer product and the original. To avoid confusion, we are planning marketing which will focus on the fact that this is the 'Original, Uncut 1966 Television Series' and the packaging will also reflect this. Also, the releases previously [of Kimba, the Lion Prince] and Leo the Lion were really of poor quality. The perception that they represent the quality of the original Kimba will have to be overcome."

The animals of Kimba’s domain stand behind him all the way! © The Right Stuf International.

The Good and the Bad
Actually, all four versions have some points in their favor. The 1966 series is, above all, the original. It established the name Kimba, the White Lion. It is the version for nostalgia fans who enjoyed it in their childhood and who want to own it now, or who are curious about the Kimba/Lion King controversy and want to see what may or may not have influenced Disney's animators.

But Kimba was an uneasy compromise between NBC and Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka wanted to produce a faithful dramatization of his cartoon novel, which showed Leo fighting for the rights of animals throughout his life and dying a martyr's death. NBC insisted that the story had to be less tense and violent for American viewers. The hero should remain a young cub with whom children could more easily identify, and should have more animal friends to interact with instead of being such a grim lone idealist. (NBC also arbitrarily changed all of the character names in the American dub.) Tezuka's Leo the Lion sequel was produced on a much lower budget and lacks the high production values of Kimba. But it does show his lion hero's later adventures the way Tezuka wanted the story to be told.
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