Kimba The Jungle Emperor Inspired The Creation Of Simba The Lion King?

It's no secret that inspiration begets inspiration. American entertainment and Japanese entertainment will inspire each other. So why do I think it's possible that Kimba may have inspired Simba? The late Osamu Tezuka who died in 1987 is a Disney fan. If he met with Walt Disney (this was way before the company ended up ruining my childhood) then what if copies of Kimba were at Disney and what if Disney long acquired the rights to produce a similar character? 

Here's an interesting excerpt about the Lion King and Kimba from the Huffington Post:

Tezuka died in 1989, but during his life he didn’t bother hiding his affection for Disney, especially his love for “Bambi,” claiming to have seen the film more than 100 times. The animator actually met Walt Disney during a World’s Fair before he ended up licensing “Bambi” for a Japanese adaptation and credits Disney in his autobiography for some creative influence. In his book, From Goods to a Good Life: Intellectual Property and Global Justice, Sunder points out that Tezuka said his own work on “Jungle Emperor,” aka “Kimba,” was an homage and a critique of the film.

Despite all the controversy surrounding “The Lion King” with regard to “Kimba,” both works have stood the test of time and hold an important place in the hearts of fans. With the news that each simply focuses on similar subject matter and drew varying inspiration Disney’s “Bambi,” it’s easy to see how some similarities, as Sito says, are “almost inevitable.”

In the end, it appears this case may just come down to a little thing called the circle of life.

One could deny the inspiration but it's out there. What if Lion King really had Tezuka in mind when they made the classic masterpiece? There are after all many similar characters that you can see -- a lion cub, a lioness cub love interest, an evil lion who usurps the throne, a deceased father, a bird adviser, a baboon, hyena villains -- all coming from Tezuka. I guess Disney just doesn't want to outright admit it that they were inspired by it and said, "Hey let's make a movie inspired by it and let's see how it does!" After all, some successful films were inspired by successful films.

It comes full circle after all, doesn't it?