Ancient Web: A Kimba Fan Connected Christian the Lion to a Viral Video

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

The famous video of a lion recognizing two former human caretakers has an unusual home on the old Web: a page devoted to Kimba the White Lion.

Visit the Christian the Lion fan essay

The author, Craig Andersen, says the page first appeared in early 2002 and was updated on June 6, 2011. It was originally part of a fan website about Kimba, an animated lion whose fictional upbringing among humans becomes important to the series' view of relations between animals and people.

Andersen saw a real-life parallel in Christian, the lion bought by Anthony Bourke and John Rendall in London in the late 1960s. Christian eventually went to Africa, where conservationist George Adamson helped him adjust to life outside the city. The story became the subject of a documentary and books.

The fan site gave the reunion a different meaning

The page embeds links to Christian's much-shared reunion video and discusses the moment when Bourke and Rendall visited him after time apart. Andersen's interpretation is that the bond between humans and a large wild animal endured; he uses it to explore the fictional Kimba's hope of building understanding between species.

That is a striking example of fan writing going somewhere unexpected. A Japanese cartoon leads to a real conservation story, which leads to questions about human obligations to wildlife.

The site's opening banner claims to have been the first Web page to present Christian's story and to have introduced the viral clip. Its publication date is visible, but the larger claim of being first is not independently established here. It is best read as a piece of the webmaster's recollection rather than a proven origin story for the video's later circulation.

The essay includes contemporary media traces as well. It mentions a March 18, 2009 Today show appearance by Bourke and Rendall and directs readers to organizations involved in Christian's conservation legacy.

The layout is unmistakable personal-Web fandom: colorful photographs, a movie still, hand-written commentary, charity links, an embedded video, and occasional references to the author's original television enthusiasm.

This is not a comprehensive historical account of the lion or a scientific study of animal behavior. It preserves what an enthusiastic viewer believed the story meant, before and during its transformation into an Internet phenomenon.

Read Andersen's original Kimba-and-Christian comparison.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.