I came across this before. It's old, 2008, as Wikipedia tells me, and there have been a bunch of spinoff series, and the story-timeline seems to progress in all of them.
And yes, Anime definitely was influenced by Disney, as almost all non-soviet animation was influenced by Disney, Just because Disney, throughout large parts of the 20th century, was a million miles ahead of its competition. Japan did have an animation industry, and I highly recommend taking a look at silent-era Momotaro films (if you ever want to see a samurai fight a submarine - but all the samurai's friends look very Ub Iwerks-early disney- rubberhose).
After the advent of Television, at some pointAmerican TV animation was outsorced to the then-cheap far east, and that's how they learned the techniques, combining it with their own graphic sensbilities developed over centuries in wood-cuts and ink drawings, by such famous mastter as Hokusai Katsushika, who at one point called a 15-volume collection of thousands of his drawings 'Manga'.
Nonetheless, Kimba the white Lion, by the 'japanese Walt Disney' Osamu Tezuka, is the blueprint for Simba, the white Lion, um. I mean. the Lion King.
And today, the huge media conglomerate that is Disney can't leave the potential of tapping into the huge worldwide popularity of japanese-style animation.
Or rebranding their orginal stories (Stitch!) for a japanese audience, in a native japanese style. The series seems to have been intended mainly for a japanese audiences, produced by top-notch studio MADHOUSE (initially), but sold under the Disney brand.
In the meantime, japanese animation studios try to outsource labour to cheaper countries, such as Korea. Korean Animation is starting to look really good now, although I'm personally not so much of a fan of this nation's style, even though it's very obviously still quite close to japanese styles.
And now my favourite bit: Italian television secured some rights to stories that would later (? I'm not sure who was first) also become Disney feature films for their animated television shows, which they would then produce in North Korea. Hence the rumour, parts of Pocahontas had been animated there. Well..yes, but not "Disney's Pocahontas", the animated feature but Mondo TV's "Pocahontas, Princess of the American Indians" http://www.mondotv.it/Pocahontas_en.php
or maybe some North Korean Simba, the Lion King? http://www.mondotv.it/kingLionSimba.php
or rather the original, japanese one.... .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQsQqOlPjhs
and my sister-in-law says I studied for nothing
_________________
I can read facial expressions. I did the test.