Leo the Lion

Leo the Lion (新ジャングル大帝 進めレオ! Jungle Taitei Susume Leo) is a sequel to the Japanese-American co-produced anime Kimba, the White Lion.

Dubbing History
This series was dubbed into English by a company based in Miami, Florida in the United States known as SONIC-Sound International Corporation, and run by Enzo Caputo. Leo the Lion (so named because Leo was the Japanese name for the Kimba character) aired on CBN Cable Network in 1984, The theme song for the English dub was written by Mark Boccaccio and Susan Brunet. The English dub was so cheaply produced that it did not have any credits, not even a main title card.

Unlike Kimba, which had been extensively revised to tailor it to American tastes, Leo was an extremely accurate translation of the Japanese script. The original names of the characters were used, such as Leo (Kimba) and Liya (Kitty). This was likely done to avoid a copyright conflict with the Kimba property.

Stuart Chapin, who dubbed many of the voices into English, "colloquialized" all 26 scripts. After Chapin and Caputo clashed about basic matters (Chapin wanted the series to reference Kimba, a show Caputo never heard of; Chapin also wanted the Thompson gazelle to be called "Tommy" but Caputo stuck with "Tumy" because that was how the Japanese spelled it), Chapin ignored most of the plots and made up the scripts as he pleased, matching the dialog to lip movements. Thus, an elephant quotes a poem by Emily Dickinson and a gadget-heavy spy episode becomes a vehicle for "Sterling Bond", James' hapless brother. In later scripts, puns abounded. In the last script, Chapin had Leo/Kimba (voiced by Caputo himself) explain the Kimba name mix-up.

Additional Voices

 * Stuart Chapin - Parrot, Panther, Rhino