President Squidward

Well, the popular urban legend is that back in the late 1980's, Disney tried to approach the original creator of "Kimba" to make a full-budget, animated movie based on his characters. Now, depending on who you believe, either the creator wanted too much money for the rights to make a film about his characters, or Disney didn't want to pay the asking price for his characters, and made "The Lion King" as a response to the creator, that they could MAKE a hit movie WITH or without his characters. A classic case of "He said, They Said," if you believe the urban legend.

Really goes to show just how sad it is that people have to invent myths to condemn Disney in defense of an anime series that 90% of the "Lion King ripped off Kimba" crowd have very much likely either never seen a single episode for, or are acting on their personal bias towards Tezuka, who ironically kickstarted his career as a mangaka with Disney being one of his main inspirations.

@4EverGreenwatch the YMS video if you haven't! it's good