New Delhi:
An ‘original’ Disney animation that first came out in 1994 setting new pars for other animations to come in the future, ‘The Lion King’ is one of those movies that is more than a movie. It has a whole bunch of emotions attached to it only people, which is most people, who have watched the movie can comprehend. More than 20 years down the line, Jon Favreau thought it wise to revoke the emotions hence remaking the Lion King remake with photo-realistic visuals that could trick the human eye. The movie though received with mixed responses has had a theatre run for more than a month placing it ninth in the highest grossing movie of all time earning $997.9 billion overseas and $1.509 billion worldwide on a $165 million budget.
But despite the humongous success Disney has never escaped the radar that one of their most loved movies is hauntingly a frame to frame copy of the Japanese animation, 'Kimba the White Lion,' created by Japan's "God of manga," Osamu Tezuka that was broadcast on Fuji Television from 1965 to 1967.
Disney, however, for the most part have always denied that The Lion King has had no inspiration from 'Kimba the White Lion. "I can say there is absolutely no inspiration from 'Kimba,'" animator Tom Sito told HuffPost Entertainment. The question that is worth nothing however is that while Disney has never shied ‘remaking’ movies like "The Little Mermaid" (1989), "Beauty and the Beast," (1991) and "Aladdin" (1992), i.e. giving credit to their original creators, ‘The Lion King’ has always been claimed to be original. In fact, the film's creative team and studio execs made clear that unlike all of Disney's other animated films, Lion King was not based on a previous work, that it was an entirely original narrative developed "in the story department of Disney Feature Animation more than four years ago."
But is it really so? More than 25 years after its release the debate continues. Here is a look at one of the works created by a fan suggesting the ‘original’ might not really be an orginal after all?
