Jungle Emperor Leo

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Jungle Emperor Leo
Jungle Emperor Leo
Directed by	Yoshio Takeuchi
Produced by	Tezuka Production Company Ltd.
Written by	Unknown
Starring	Yoshiko Ohta
Music by	Isao Tomita
Distributed by	Media Blasters (R1 DVD)
Release date(s)	August 1, 1997
Running time	100 min.
Language	Japanese, English
Budget	N/A
IMDb profile

(Note: The content on this page is taken from the web site http://www.kimbawlion.com, from a review of the movie written by the site owner.)

Known in Japan as "Janguru Taitei", Jungle Emperor Leo continues the story of Leo the white lion (otherwise known as Kimba). In this story he is an adult and has two cubs, Rune and Rukio.

Produced eight years after Dr. Osamu Tezuka's death, this movie is based on his epic Jungle Emperor manga. Jungle Emperor Leo tells approximately the last half of the original story. Previously, the first half had been adapted into the 1965 Jungle Emperor TV series (Kimba The White Lion outside of Japan), and the second half had been loosely adapted into the 1966 Susumu Leo TV series (Leo the Lion in the U.S.). In some ways, the Jungle Emperor Leo movie is noticeably more faithful to the manga story than the TV series had been, but in others--particularly in the relationships between the animals and humans--it is significantly different.

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie takes place somewhere in East Africa where lives a white lion named Leo (Kimba grown up), ruler of the jungle. Leo lives happily with his wife, Raiya (Kitty grown up), and their two children, Rune and Rukio.

Rune is fascinated with flying, and when he discovers a crashed airplane in the jungle and is told that it was a flying machine, the plane becomes his personal refuge.

One day a ruthless mercenary (Hamegg) and his group come to the jungle in search of "moonlight stones". Only concerned with making money, Hamegg has less than no regard for the animals and the jungle. In the midst of a fire they start, Rune is rescued by Dr. Moustache, who becomes the image of all humans to Rune.

At the same time, a highly contagious disease sweeps through the jungle and a massive storm floods the jungle. Rune rides some flotsam out to the ocean, where he is picked up by some fisherman who sell him to a circus. Here the movie falls into unfortunate stereotyping dating from a century ago, as the circus is portrayed as dominated by people who are brutal to all the animals.

A young trapeze artist named Mary takes Rune into her care and trains him for her act. Rune at last gets to fly. When a fire threatens the circus, Rune's natural leadership comes to the fore, astounding Mary who helps him to return to his home.

While Rune is gone, the plague affects most of the animals in the jungle. In this portion of the story the movie denies its roots because Leo does nothing to drive the humans out of the jungle, nor does he turn to them for help with the disease--at least, not until Rukio is struck with it. One of the key elements in the original manga and the precedent Jungle Emperor/Kimba The White Lion TV series was Leo/Kimba's ability to talk; for reasons of plot simplification, this plot point was eliminated from the story.

Dr. Moustache has a cure for the disease, and in gratitude Leo takes it upon himself to lead the expedition up Mt. Moon for their quest for the moonlight stones. Leo eventually sacrifices himself to save Dr. Moustache. This leaves the young Rune to carry on in his father's place.

[edit] Jungle Emperor Leo in context

This 1997 movie, made long after Dr. Tezuka's death, is part of a long history of TV and cinema adaptations of his epic Jungle Emperor manga.

It has been widely reported that Dr. Tezuka did not want his 1965 TV adaptation of Jungle Emperor to focus on Leo (Kimba) solely as a cub, but he bowed to pressure from the American company that translated the series into Kimba the White Lion (NBC Enterprises). However, both in the 1966 TV sequel (Leo the Lion, in which Dr. Tezuka had complete creative control) and in this 1997 movie made by his production company, the adult Leo/Kimba is depicted as somber and often ineffectual--the energy, optimism, and hope belong to the cub, Rune, who is often physically indistinguishable from Leo/Kimba as a cub. Never is it explained how the attractive personality of the young Leo degenerates into the personality of the adult.

Taking the events in this movie on their own gives the viewer a feeling of despair tempered with optimism for the future as embodied by Rune. Seeing this movie in its full context, however, leaves the viewer with a feeling of a repeating cycle in which optimism is always crushed by despair. Never is the viewer allowed any insight into this cycle; thus no hope of defeating the cycle is engendered. It is no wonder, therefore, that this Jungle Emperor Leo movie is more often received favorably by those who come to it with no previous exposure to the white lion epic (as such, it could be said that this film assumes that the viewer isn't familiar with the previous works). Fans of Kimba the White Lion often report feeling crushed and saddened by the movie. Dr. Tezuka himself was apparently aware of this problem with his story, for he changed the end of the story considerably for his 1966 TV adaptation.