Fred Ladd, who was involved early on with importing "Kimba" and other Japanese anime into America for NBC, expressed incredulity that Disney's people could remain ignorant. Ladd stated there was at least one animator remembered by his colleagues as being an avid "Kimba" fan and being quite vociferous about Disney's conduct during production. Animators Tom Sito and Mark Kausler have both stated that they had watched "Kimba" as children in the 1960s. However, Sito maintains there was "absolutely no inspiration" from "Kimba" during the production of "The Lion King", and Kausler emphasized Disney's own "Bambi" as being their model during development.