Jungle Emperor (International Dubs) (2025)

For the 1966 series - "Onward, Leo!", see page: Jungle Emperor - Onward, Leo! (International Dubs)

For the 1989 series, see page: Jungle Emperor 1989 (International Dubs)

Jungle Emperor (ジャングル大帝 Jungle Taitei) a.k.a. "Kimba the White Lion" is very well-known internationally as this first series has been dubbed to many different languages throughout many decades after its debut in Japan (1965). Some dubs are the entire series or they can be merely a few episodes. Below is a list by language of the known dubs:

English[]

• The first international dub to be produced and record was the complete 1966 NBC Enterprises dub. The main title was renamed to "Kimba the White Lion". Many dubs that followed would choose this new name as well. It stars Billie Lou Watt, Rey Owens, Sonia Owens, Gilbert Mack, Jackson Beck and Hal Studer. NBC scrambled with the original episode order and broadcasted/released them on video in their own chosen order (Main Article)
• A second dub (also titled "Kimba the White Lion" a.k.a "Canadian Dub") was produced in 1993 with new music by Zaza Sound and voice actors. Some character names were also changed or kept their original Japanese name when the first dub did not. Yvonne Murray, Allen Kosonic, Don Neilson, Robin Jordan, Peter Dufferin, Jackie Pardy and Steve Tamer are the known voices. It is unknown of how many episodes were re-dubbed. Multiple sources state different episode counts such as 20, 26, 42, or 52. Only the first 21 episodes were released on home video along with ep. 24, 25 & 26. With this release, many other dubs in other languages followed. (Main Article)
• A third English dub, also titled "Kimba the White Lion," began airing on NET25 in the Philippines on July 7, 2024. This dub kept the original music by Isao Tomita from the 1965 series, as well as the original Japanese characters' names (except Kimba's name). It airs on Saturdays at 9 AM (PhST) with repeat on Sunday at 9 AM (1 episode), as well as on Sundays at 12 PM (PhST) as part of the channel's "Sine Throwback" programming block (4 episodes block).

Spanish (Español)[]

• "Kimba el León Blanco" - dubbed in Puerto Rico which started right after the English NBC dub's completion, it broadcasted from 1966 - 1978 on channel 2 Telemundo. Later, it broadcasted on TVE in Spain in the year 1969, later released on Home video by distributor SAV with edited episodes. Some the actors include Fanny Kock (Kimba), Hope Martinez (Pauly), Felix Antelo (Dan'l) as well as Walter Mercado and Vicente Vazquez providing additional voices. This dub was based off the the episode order of the NBC dub and used some of the names such as "Caesar" for Panja. The NBC intro melody was also reused for the new introduction. This was the first anime to be broadcasted in Spain.

• Along with the new English dub in 1993, a new Spanish dub was also recorded in Colombia in 1995. It uses the same introduction as the '93 English dub along with the spoken Spanish title: "Kimba el León Blanco"

• In 1998, another dub in Venezuela was recorded. both previous openings were used, expect a different voice actor is used for the spoken line from the second introduction.

Korean (한국어)[]

"밀림의 왕자 레오" (millim uiwangja le-o)

• First aired on MBC TV from February 15th to March 27, 1971 on Mondays. Then a change in weekday airing occurred in 1972. The show then aired on Saturdays from April 1st to May 27th. One episode was aired every 40 minutes. Form March 30th to July 20th, 1989, two episodes per episode were re-broadcasted every Thursday at 6pm. Then from February 6th to April 18th, 1995, it was broadcast every Monday to Thursday at 6:25 pm on SBS. Color TV signals did not exist yet in South Korea during this time, so the footage only is in black and white. Later broadcasts were in color and with a different opening song. The 3-disc DVD set used the '93 dub for it's opening, but still used the original Korean dub.

Chinese (中文)[]

Mandarin[]

• 小白獅 Little White Lion - first translated in 1974 and broadcasted in Hong Kong. The show came to Taiwan on TTV named 小獅王 Little Lion King and broadcasted on October 6, 1975. The sequel series was also broadcasted simultaneously.

• In 1982, China was introduced to Jungle Emperor by the name: "森林大帝" (Sēnlín dàdì), which broadcasted on CCTV. The first 26 episodes were dubbed.

German (Deutsch)[]

• 39 episodes were dubbed in German based on the '66 NBC English Dub of the show in 1977, using the changed names and all. The title of this dub was: "Kimba der weisse Löwe". One difference is that Dan'l Baboon (Mandi) narrates the story and gives introductions to each episode. It broadcasted on ZDF (Germany) and ORF 1 (Austria). The dub was based on the '66 NBC dub for the translation and character names. In the US episodes, only Tomita's music is played, while in the German episodes by the team of lyricists and composers Fred Strittmatter and Quirin Amper Jr. (known from many TV series) added loads of additional melodies and songs were written.
• The remaining 14 episodes were newly-dubbed in 1991 along with the second series. For this reason, Kimba is called "Bou-bou". The episode, The Return of Fancy Prancy was initially aired in 1977 but which was damaged immediately after that first airing, and so it had to be retaken and re-dubbed.
• First airing on Germany in September 1999, "Leo der Löwen-König" ("Jungle Emperor Leo") was the 1st season series of Baby/Young Leo (Kimba) as well as the 1965 52 episodes. It broadcasted on ZDF-Tivi (Germany) and KiKA (Austria).

Italian (Italiano)[]

• Under the title, "Kimba il leone bianco", the anime was aired in Italy for the first time in September 1977 on stations TV Voxson and GBR. The U.S. NBC opening theme was used and Kimba had a female voice. Only 26 episodes were produced by two different companies.
• The entire series was re-dubbed a few years later in 1982. A new Italian opening was recorded instead of recycling the American one. Also, Kimba has a male voice actor. In the 80s both of these dubs were used interchangeably in the 1980s.

• In 1999, the series was dubbed again with an all-new opening song: "Una giungla di avventure per Kimba" and shown on Italia

French (Français)[]

• The first series was finally brought to France in 1990 under the title: "Le Retour de Léo", broadcasted on "La 5". These episodes were also later broadcasted on TF1 in 1995 (under the title "Le Retour du Roi Léo") and on FR3 (France 3) in 1996. The opening theme was performed by Claude Lombard. This song is actually based on the opening theme of the italian TV series "Sabato al circo" ("Saturdays at the circus") - the music (by N.Carucci) is the same in both songs, only the italian lyrics (by A.Valeri Manera) were replaced with the french lyrics by Charles Level.
• The first 8 episodes of the "Canadian '93 Dub" were dubbed into french and released onto home video in 1997, titled, "Les Aventures de Kimba Le Roi de la jungle".

Croatian (Hrvatski)[]

• "Kimba bijeli lavić" had a 1995 home video release and a 2003 DVD release, both by Zauder Film. It was based on the '93 Canadian Dub. The dub was produced by Alfa Film in Zagreb in 1995, it was directed by Otokar Levaj who is also one of the voice actors. It was broadcasted on ATV Split and on NeT in 2000, on TV Nova Pula in 2001 and 2002, and on GTV Zadar in 2002.

Slovenian (Slovenščina)[]

• This dub was released by Alteka video in 1995, and by Media Film in 2003, both under the name: "Kimba beli levček". It was based on the '93 Canadian Dub. It was broadcasted on POP TV in 1997, on TV3 in 2000, and on NET TV in 2003.

Portuguese (Português)[]

• "Kimba o leão branco" was broadcasted in the year 2000 on Brazilian television.
• A DVD box was released in Portugal in June 2006 by Filmes Unimundo also under the title "Kimba o Leão Branco". This release recorded a new theme song using the '93 Canadian dub's song melody.

Hungarian (Magyar)[]

• 13 episodes of "Kimba a feher orozslán" was shown in Miramax TV in 2000. It also aired on Szív TV and Hálózat TV.

Russian (русский)[]

• A home video called "Кимба" with 2 dubbed episodes was released in the year 2000. The release by Arena Video is not well known. The only surviving image is the cover art.

Arabic (العربية)[]

• كيمبا والغابة السعيدة (kimibaan walghabat alsaeida) which translates to: "Kimba and the Happy Forest". Surprisingly, this dub uses both English dub tracks ("66 and '93) for its dub basis. For the spoken portions of the episodes, the '93 Canadian dub track is used. The fight scenes and music-driven portions switch to the '66 NBC track as Billie Lou Watt's voice can be heard at times along with the original music.

• A second relatively unknown dub called ( مغامرات ) الليث الأبيض "Adventures of the White Lion" was also recorded at the start of the new millennium with different voice actors. What is known is that it aired on Sama Dubai TV.
• There is also an Islamic Arabic dub called "ورد الغابة" that formerly aired on Basma. This dub was produced by the Al-Bashaer Foundation for International Artistic Production and Distribution in Jordan. All of the music was removed because musical instruments are considered forbidden in some interpretations of Islam. It was primarily a dub of the second series, but at least 5 episodes from the first series were dubbed: The Troublemaker, Destroyers from the Desert, The Balloon That Blows Up, Monster of the Mountain, and The Return of Fancy Prancy.

Catalan (Català)[]

• "Kimba, el lleó blanc" was dubbed in Catalan and broadcasted on Canal Nou Dous. Very little has resurfaced other than the introduction and a very short clip from episode 51: The Day the Sun Went Out. All is known is the dub was based on the '93 Canadian Dub as the theme song uses the same melody.

Thai (ไทย)[]

• This dub (under the name: คิมบ้าเดอะไลอ้อนคิงส์ ) was released on 5 VCDs by SEIGA in 2002 and uses the 1993 Canadian dub soundtrack and as a basis for the dialogue. (Warning: Please do not visit their associated website stated on the introduction on the discs without an anti-virus).

Persian/Farsi (فارسی)[]

(Keamba shar sfad) کیمبا شیر سفید aired on IRIB TV2, and was formerly available for streaming on TVA. Not much is known about this dub, except for two voice actors: Kimba was voiced by Mahvash Pashari, and Tom/Dick was voiced by the late Morteza Ahmadi. This dub was undocumented until 2020, when clips began to be posted on Instagram under the tag #کیمبا.

International Theme Songs[]

Resources[]

https://www.50yearsofkimba.com/index.php?page=history - CroKimba's site - great resource for international releases

https://namu.wiki/w/%EB%B0%80%EB%A6%BC%EC%9D%98%20%EC%99%95%EC%9E%90%20%EB%A0%88%EC%98%A4 - Korean release information

https://web.archive.org/web/20180922145345/http://www.kimba1977.de/ - Former German fan site - 1977 music

https://www.worldcat.org/title/kimba-beli-levcek/oclc/781012122#borrow - Slovenian DVD

https://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0317/031746.html - Korean Color TV introduction

http://www.jasonforce.com/memory/video44.html - Hong Kong and Taiwan releases

http://news.cctv.com/science/20081007/105268.shtml - Mandarin

https://lostmediaarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Kimba_the_White_Lion_(partially_found_Persian_dub) - Persian Dub (found by Akachi729)

https://way2allah.com/var-group-929.htm - Islamic Arabic

NET25 English dub:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9-iKayF37E - Trailer #1
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMEZll0sFTM - Trailer #2