Yes, Tezuka was greatly inspired by ol' Walt, but so too did the respect go the other way. To say that manga (but you mean anime) was 'created' by Disney is a bit hyperbolistic (is that word? It is so fun to say!). There is so much in Japanese anime which comes from manga that isn't marketed much beyond Japanese shores due to its lack of 'cultural compatibility'. There are many examples within that which owe far more to traditional artforms such as Ukiyo-e and woodblock prints. The angular lines and characterisically sparse detail that still manages to 'say so much', and even the way that illustrations can enter almost entirely iconographic realms of expression and then back out again in the blink of a frames frame: it draws as much more from traditional art in Japan as it does, at least technically, from Walt. The first Japanese 'comic' is apparently at probably two hundred years old. I have seen it in a museum.
Oh and, I don't recall hearing animation ever referred to as 'manga', which is, as far as my experience in Japan, a word reserved for comics. Anime, a now imported Japanese contraction, is however, exclusively for pictures of the movie kind. The confusion is probably due to the Western anime distributor named 'Manga Entertainment'.
And also, the Disney film, 'Atlantis' is practicly a thef .. er .. remake of a single series Japanese anime, of a name that now escapes me.
