Could you take another animated movie and compare it to a long running TV animation with a similar main character and setting and come up with a similar set of matches? If so, I think it would put into question whether the similarities found between Lion King and Simba are significant. I agree that there are similarities, and they are striking. But given enough source material, you might be able to come up with a similar set of matching images for any set of movies and long running series. I could be completely wrong, but I think that’s the data that would be convincing to me.
However, I have no desire nor the ability to do that comparison, so I guess I’ll just have to drop it.