Disney Trivia Guy

Happy 73rd birthday to Samuel E. Wright. Sam is best known for his voice work for Sebastian in The Little Mermaid (1989) and in everything Little Mermaid after that. He was nominated for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Mufasa in The Lion King on Broadway. In Dinosaur (2000), Sam voices Kron. If you liked this fun fact, you should check out my book that has over 3,700 fun facts in it about Disneyland and Disney Movies. www.DisneyGuy.org

As it has been told, The Lion King was the first original story created by Disney. All the other theatrically released animated movies were based on books or pre-existing stories. Disney wouldn’t release another original story until Dinosaur (2000).  Some believe that The Lion King story was copied from the Japanese manga series Kimba the White Lion . It was also called King of the Jungle and Jungle Emperor . A manga is like a comic book. Kimba was in a Japanese Manga Shōnen magazine from 1950-1954. Kimba’s creator, Osamu Tezuka, was also known for Astro Boy . Kimba later became an animated series from 1965-1967.                                              It was the first color animated series in Japan. It began airing in the US in 1966. The production company Tezuka Production began working on the film Jungle Emperor Leo in 1989, the same year Disne...