A lovely but completely unoriginal film.

Rating: 8/10 (13 October 2012)

Aside from the folks at Disney, anyone else my age who saw both the Japanese series "Kimba" and "The Lion King" could easily see that the Disney film was based almost completely on the earlier Japanese cartoon. Now I am no lover of "Kimba"--its American version was rather insipid. But the plot was clearly 'borrowed' by Disney to make "The Lion King". And, there are so many similarities that I cannot rate this wonderful film any higher than an 8--as it lacks originality. Sure, I loved Ed and felt my heart tugged by the film and loved the music--but it was a ripoff, ur....I mean 'very similar'. Not a bad film at all, but I recommend you try seeing the Japanese show if you can find a copy. Even the main character's names are practically the same!