JFF Theater: KIMBA, THE WHITE LION Review: The Tezuka´s classic that inspired The Lion King
The Japanese foundation continues spreading Japanese culture on their free streaming platform, offering from February, 1 until May, 1, a wide variety of films that comes from intimate dramas such as “My Broken Mariko” or “I am what am”, to stories with gluttony as their central axis, such as “The God of Ramen” or “School´s meals time of graduation” or delicious tales as “Bread of happiness” to funny comedies as “Project Dreams- How to build Mazinger Z´s hangar“, this month including animes such as Ozamu Tezuka´s classic, “Jungle Emperor Lion aka Kimba, the white Lion.” The movie I will comment on in this review
The success of Osamu Tezuka‘s manga and its subsequent animated adaptation for television led to Kimba making the leap to the big screen in Japanese cinemas with this adventure that is basically a montage in the form of a 70-minute feature film of the television series. In it, we follow the adventures of Kimba, a little lion who is orphaned after the death of his parents at the hands of some heartless hunters, and who must learn to fend for himself in the hostility of the jungle.
Normally these kinds of movies that try to condense a series into a limited-run theatrical film tend to feel like incomplete summaries where a lot of things are told in a rushed manner, but even though I haven’t seen the original series, nor have I read the manga, this movie didn’t make me feel like I was missing out on anything, and the script manages to keep the story concise and well-told.
Despite being a much-loved work in Japan, in recent times it is primarily remembered in the West for being the influence of Disney’s The Lion King, which in 1994 did not hesitate to copy all its style and aesthetics, to mount its own version of the Tezuka´s classic, passing it through a Shakespearian filter, with which they broke the box office records around the world and filled their pockets thanks to the merchandise. I was one of those children who went to a packed cinema to see it without knowing that Simba had an older cousin in Japan called Kimba.
Avalaible for free with multiple subtitles in JFF Theater streaming platform from February1 to May, 1, 2025:
