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Description
ZIMBA:
In the late 1940s English film mogul J. Arthur Rank wanted to create a British cartoon studio to rival Disney's . He hired David Hand, Disney's own director of Snow White and Bambi, to put together this studio. Hand tried to start a series named Animaland in 1948. Its main star was a red squirrel named Ginger Nutt, but the first Animaland cartoon featured a humorous "nature study" of the African lion. This lion only appeared in two of the nine cartoons, where he was called Zimmy Lion. But according to studio notes for future cartoons, which were partially published in the single children's picture book that came out before the studio ran out of money and -closed down in 1950, Zimmy was a nickname for Zimba.

KIMBA:
Kimba, the White Lion was one of the most popular TV cartoons of the late 1960s. The show came from Japan, where it began as a famous 1950s children's comic-art novel, Jungulu Taitei [King of the Jungle] by Osamu Tesuka, who was already popular for his Astro Boy character.

Kimba was a Japanese cartoon, but the name is American. in the original Japanese, Jungulu Taitei, he's Leo the Lion. NBC, which bought the American rights, considered this moniker too unimaginative. They instructed producer Fred Ladd to change the hero's name to something more original. Ladd's team of writers and dubbers, led by Cliff Owens and Billie Lou Watt., took the Swahili word for lion, simba, and changed the initial letter to create Kimba-a unique name.

/Add: Interestingly, "Kimba" is also Swahili like "Simba" is for "Lion" but his is...
Kimba in Swahili means "dung, faeces (feces)" or "dead body, corpse"

SIMBA:
The main inspiration for the final version of Simba is Prince Hamlet .

Though Disney denies that The Lion King was inspired by Kimba the White Lion, Simba bears many resemblances to Kimba, including his name and early design (as he was originally drawn to be a white-furred cub). Both characters lose their father at a young age and later encounter his ghost, and both struggle against a lion enemy who is scarred across one eye.

Description
ZIMBA:
In the late 1940s English film mogul J. Arthur Rank wanted to create a British cartoon studio to rival Disney's . He hired David Hand, Disney's own director of Snow White and Bambi, to put together this studio. Hand tried to start a series named Animaland in 1948. Its main star was a red squirrel named Ginger Nutt, but the first Animaland cartoon featured a humorous "nature study" of the African lion. This lion only appeared in two of the nine cartoons, where he was called Zimmy Lion. But according to studio notes for future cartoons, which were partially published in the single children's picture book that came out before the studio ran out of money and -closed down in 1950, Zimmy was a nickname for Zimba.

KIMBA:
Kimba, the White Lion was one of the most popular TV cartoons of the late 1960s. The show came from Japan, where it began as a famous 1950s children's comic-art novel, Jungulu Taitei [King of the Jungle] by Osamu Tesuka, who was already popular for his Astro Boy character.

Kimba was a Japanese cartoon, but the name is American. in the original Japanese, Jungulu Taitei, he's Leo the Lion. NBC, which bought the American rights, considered this moniker too unimaginative. They instructed producer Fred Ladd to change the hero's name to something more original. Ladd's team of writers and dubbers, led by Cliff Owens and Billie Lou Watt., took the Swahili word for lion, simba, and changed the initial letter to create Kimba-a unique name.

/Add: Interestingly, "Kimba" is also Swahili like "Simba" is for "Lion" but his is...
Kimba in Swahili means "dung, faeces (feces)" or "dead body, corpse"

SIMBA:
The main inspiration for the final version of Simba is Prince Hamlet .

Though Disney denies that The Lion King was inspired by Kimba the White Lion, Simba bears many resemblances to Kimba, including his name and early design (as he was originally drawn to be a white-furred cub). Both characters lose their father at a young age and later encounter his ghost, and both struggle against a lion enemy who is scarred across one eye.