Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Король Лев" in Russian language version.
The Lion King is a coming-of-age story
The whole time I worked on The Lion King the name of that show never came up. At least I never heard it. I had never seen the show and really only became aware of it as Lion King was being completed, and someone showed me images of it. I worked with George Scribner and Linda Woolverton to develop the story in the early days but then left to help out on Aladdin. If one of them were familiar with Kimba they didn't say. Of course, it's possible... Many story ideas developed and changed along the way, always just to make our story stronger. I could certainly understand Kimbás creators feeling angry if they felt we had stolen ideas from them. If I had been inspired by Kimba I would certainly acknowledge my inspiration. All I can offer is my respect to those artists and say that their creation has its loyal admirers and its assured place in animation history.
The top-selling video of 1995 was Disney's The Lion King, which sold more than 30 million copies in North America after its release in March of that year. Toward the end of 1995, another 23 million copies of the animated musical were shipped for sale in international markets.
I know for a fact that [Kimba] has never been discussed as long as I've been on the project... In my experience, if Disney becomes aware of anything like that, they say you will not do it. People are claiming copyright infringement all the time
