Walt Disney and Osamu Tezuka

[Androids101]

Simba!

You're right. Kimba the white lion and The Lion King are actually controversial because of many similarities between them, right down to the name of the main character.

One of the artistic similarities between Kimba the White Lion and The Lion King.

(Character: Panja (left), Mufasa (right).)

One of the pictures taken from an early presentation reel of The Lion King, showing a white lion cub playing with an butterfly:

Many believe this may be a reference to Kimba the White Lion.

Quote from an episode of The Simpsons, parodying this:

"You must avenge my Death, Kimba...ur, I mean Simba!"

This was featured in many newspapers around the globe, most notably the front page of a June 2007 The Los Angeles Times article.

[Astronomical girl]

or it was an inspiration for the lion king

[Androids101]

It could be.

[Astronomical girl]

what does that say for other movies?

[Androids101]

Don't know

[fafner]

or it was an inspiration for the lion king

An inspiration which isn't cited and even denied is called "plagiarism"

[Astronomical girl]

what of Tezuka's Metropolis and Metropolis the 1927 silent film? it isn't plagiarism unless you knew about the other work to begin with.

[Androids101]

There have been a lot of films that share the same name, you know.

[MightyAstro]

As I understand Tezuka was aware of the classic "Metropolis". But he never had problem issues with plagiarism because his story, while it had similarities, they were only very minute. His Metropolis was sufficiently different to avoid copyright legalities.

[Androids101]

It has some parallels to the 1927 film of the same name, though Tezuka stated that he had only seen a single still image of the movie in a magazine at the time of creating his manga.

Yes, and this proves it