"The Lion King" Is Really An Anime Ripoff

"The Lion King" shares many similarities with "Jungle Emperor Leo," but which one came first?

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba!

The opening credits of both moves are strikingly similar.

Both contain stunning sunrises on the savanna...

It's hard to tell which is which! ("Leo" is on the left.)

Meerkats! And more meerkats!

("Leo" on the *right*, this time.)

Which water buffalo is which?

"Leo" is on the right - you might've thought from the blue used in the meerkats frame above that the image on the left was from "Leo."

The stories are similar...

....both tell the coming of age of a young lion who is the son of the king of the jungle.

The fathers in both movies die...

...and both reappear as a vision in the clouds to their sons.

Even minor characters are similar...

like this crazy guy, right here.

Both have warthogs, too!

The central conflicts are different:

"Leo" is about the conflict between man and beast.

But which one came first?

"Leo" came out in 1993, three years after "The Lion King."

BUT! and there's a big but!

"Leo" is actually based on a Japanese cartoon from the 1950s. In fact, Matthew Broderick, who voiced the character of Simba, said "I thought [Disney] meant Kimba, who was a white lion in a cartoon when I was a little kid. So I kept telling everybody I was going to play Kimba."

In fact...

Disney's original concept for Sima was a white lion that looks a LOT like Kimba.

And the Academy Award goes to...

Womp womp womp. Not "Leo." But it's still worth a watch!