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The first DVD offering from White Lion Restorations is a lost episode of the beloved 1960s TV series, Kimba The White Lion. This episode has never been on home video, and --until now-- no surviving copy was known to exist.
WHY THIS EPISODE WAS LOST
September 2, 1966: The first episode of Kimba The White Lion was broadcast. Immediately people fell in love with the little white lion and his story of courage and love. Talented voice actors brought the
story to life for American audience, lovingly translating the cartoon from its original Japanese language.
But behind the scenes, on August 29, 1966, the same production company had finished a new, second version of the soundtrack for this first Kimba episode! The same loving care was still there, but they
toned down the emotions just a bit, and left out things here and there. One gets the impression that someone somewhere decided their original version might be a little too powerful for the young
audience it was thought Kimba would appeal to.
But, in 1966, films for syndicated TV shows were physically shipped to TV stations for broadcast, and with four days until that first air date, there was not enough time to replace the films that had
already been made and shipped. The first version was out there, and broadcast, and somehow managed to stay in circulation for some years even as the replacement version became the only version that
was sent to all new TV stations who signed on to broadcast Kimba.
People who saw the original version took it to heart. This is the version they remember. And they cherished their memory even as this version disappeared. One woman saved her cassette tape of the
show, which she made by holding up a portable recorder to the TV when she was 5 years old. One man saved a reel tape of the soundtrack to this show, which he made using a clever configuration for
that time (1968) that allowed for high-fidelity recording from TV.
It is this latter recording that has been used to restore the show on this disc. Up until now, only the "official", replacement version has survived. But people who know the original, until-now-lost version consider it to be the best. Many hours of work went into restoring the soundtrack so that it will present the original recording for your enjoyment.
So, here it is, the "Little Kimba" episode of Kimba The White Lion, the way it was originally performed for American audiences. Restoring this episode was a labor of love, done for those who love this show. Maybe someday someone will discover even better, more complete materials for this episode, but this DVD represents years of searching and many hours of work to use what is known to exist and form it into a complete, enjoyable viewing experience. I hope you do enjoy it.
--Craig Andersen
White Lion Restorations
(edited from the booklet accompanying this DVD)
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