Cheap Jungle Emperor Leo (DVD) (Takao Takeuchi) Price

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Customer Reviews of Jungle Emperor Leo

Love and the struggle for a peaceful life
It seems that some people have trouble dealing with this movie. It is based on the same manga that gave us Kimba the White Lion and, a step removed (and oft denied), The Lion King. It is not the same type of story, however. Kimba gave us light and hope for a new kind of future. Jungle Emperor Leo is more along the lines of what actually happens as man storms through nature with greed as the driving force. If you can look at the entire picture, however... look at young Lune's story, you will see the hope is still there. Another generation has to pass, though. Overall, it is sad, but so is the actual relationship of man to nature. Where Kimba depicted the hope for a new future, perhaps the tragedy in this film can inspire change in a different way.

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This is not KIMBA!!!!!!!!!!
The animation is wonderful. Leo is drawn with just the right mixture of lion dignity and strength with some human expressivity added -- it puts the Disney rip-off to shame.

This movie brings to the screen the final chapter of Dr. Osamu Tezuka's epic fable, Jungle Emperor. The first half of the work was heavily reworked into the classic, beloved TV series Kimba the White Lion. Here, in this film, only minor changes have been made so that the story can stand on its own. It is an adaptation of the final chapters of the previously-published story.

I must warn you, don't think this is Kimba all over again -- because it isn't. It may have much of the original's life in it; but there is some serious darkness below the surface. This film -- like Sigourney Weaver's Alien 3 -- hits bellow the belt; and doesn't pull its punches. It is bleaker than anything that has gone before it, offering a modernist deconstructionist interpretation of the work. The events in it will leave your emotions mangled.

This didn't happen when Tezuka originally adapted the work to the small screen! Remember -- with the second series, he had full control.

I can only imagine the outcry that Dr. Tezuca got when he finished the original manga. Such things have happened before; like with the M*A*S*H episode ABYSSINIA, HENRY. The audience was outraged. That must have been why he changed the endings of the final 2 episodes of the FORWARD LEO. I wish they had followed that example like they did when they did METROPOLIS.

"Horror always has sad endings." -- the Pagemaster

Consider the themes of the series -- Freedom and the celebration of life! Go through the episodes and you can see this again and again. Think of the times Kimba was leading everybody in the big singalongs! A story about such things should NOT end in death. I compared the 1997 film to ALIEN 3, remember. It was like the Peter Davison episodes of DOCTOR WHO: this episode everybody dies! What was it Tegan said when she left him?; "Doctor, it's not fun any more!" When I saw ALIEN 3, I left asking myself "why did I even bother with the other 2 films?" In the case of this movie, the question remains. "Why did I bother to see an ending like this?" Leo was many things, but I never considered it to be in the genre of HORROR. It's not fun any more.

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The REAL Lion King
This film is a true achievement in animation history. Jungle Emperor Leo is Osamu Tezuka's life's work and even after his death in 1989, his work continues to inspire us all. The only flaw in this new edition to the Jungle Emperor Leo(Kimba the White Lion) saga is a bit of unbalanced story telling. This film was based on the second manga story from Tezuka and the story is a bit too much to be just a film. Although it's great to watch the whole story unfold in this beautiful film, there might have been a bit too much story to squeeze into 100 minutes. We have cases where it seems like part of the story is being ignored while another part of the story is going too fast. Reguardless I still highly recomend this.

NOW LET'S GET TO THE FUN STUFF!! I know that some of you may be wondering why I titled this "The Real Lion King". For those who don't know The Lion King was blatenly ripped off from Jungle Emoeror Leo(Kimba the White Lion). Every last aspect from the Lion King all the way from the stampede, to the pink birds in the opening sequence was ripped from Osamu Tezuka's masterpiece. It's kind of obvious which came first. The original Jungle Emperor Leo manga was writted in the 50's and animated in the early 60's. The Lion King was released in 1994. Do yourself a favor and check out the real story. You will be pleased. Just make sure you have a box of tissues with you, it's a bit more serious than you would expect.