Shakespeare's Plays vs. The Lion King Franchise

There are many Disney fans out there that will agree that Disney's highest grossing animated film of the 90's: The Lion King, draws some of its elements from the Shakespearean play, Hamlet, and i'd be lying if i said that i didn't seen that myself. Just like i can't deny seeing the resemblance between the sequel movie, The Lion King II: Simba's Pride and the Shakespeare Play, Romeo and Juliet.

I'll admit right now, i'm not entirely familiar with either plays (i don't every Act scene-for-scene and word-for-word), but i do think that i have the gist of their plots. At least enough to make this thread, so that people can compare which handled the stories better: the great William Shakespeare or the proud people of the famous Walt Disney Animation Studios.

I'll start

Granted, Disney gave the otherwise tragic story of Hamlet a happy ending, but i think they added a bit of depth to the story that the play didn't:

In the play, the story starts after the king is murdered, so, from what i gathered, we know very little about his relationship with Hamlet, the Queen and Claudius. But in The Lion King, the Father (Mufasa) is portrayed as having a very strong and loving bond with his wife and son, which adds real drama to his death, as both Simba and Sarabi are visibly devastated by it.

In the play, for all that is mentioned, we can only assume that Claudius only did away with his brother so that he could become king. Granted, that's what Scar did too, but with the latter, jealousy also played a role in it, which implied that Scar had long awaited for an opportunity to do away with Mufasa. Plus, while Claudius only killed the king and left Hamlet unaccounted for, Scar actually took steps to make sure Simba was out of the way too, making sure that no one would be left to challenge his claim to the throne.

In the play, when Hamlet's father appears to Hamlet as a ghost, he encourages him to exact revenge on his uncle, which, when you think about it, implies that the king has a vengeful side and wants Hamlet to settle the score for him. However, in the Lion King, Mufasa only appeared to Simba to tell him to stop hiding from his past and who he was and reclaim his place as king. He just wanted Simba to save his home before was too late.

In the play, the Queen of Denmark was a quick to remarry with Claudius after the death of her husband, which caused some unsaid friction between her and Hamlet. But in the movie, the Queen, Sarabi, remained loyal to Mufasa and wanted nothing to do with Scar.

Anyone have anything they want to add?

This might be a little off topic, but I've always thought The Lion King compared well to Egyptian Mythology, though I don't know how aware Disney is of it. Consider the parallels:

• Mufasa = Osiris
• Scar= Set, "evil" (more like chaotic) deity who kills his brother to steal the throne
• Simba = Horus, son of Osiris who grows up to battle Set to avenge his father
• Raffiki= Thoth, a god of wisdom who sometimes did appear as a baboon.
• Nala = Hathor/Sekhmet.

edited 26th Mar '14 10:22:40 PM by Surenity

I think the first half of the movie bears a much stronger resemblance to Macbeth than to Hamlet. It's almost like they combined the two stories in an insightful way.

And Scar is certainly much, much more interesting of a villain than Claudius was.

It's been awhile since I saw Lion King, but I think I can say with some confidence that Simba never had sex with Scar, catch Scar's cum in his hand and throw it in the river so as to avoid being inseminated by Scar, then cum on a lettuce leaf and trick Scar into eating said lettuce leaf so as to make Scar look like a fool in front of the other lions.

Set vs Horus. Why? Because Egypt that's why.

edited 31st Mar '14 2:46:11 PM by Eagal

I remember reading in a Disney magazine someone who worked on Simba's Pride comparing it to Romeo and Juliet, whereas the first movie was more King Lear. I can only hope they knew what they were talking about!

The Ancient Egyptians did have an obsession with splooge

From what little I know about Romeo and Juliet (closest I ever got to actually seeing that play was Romeo Must Die with Jet Li) Kiara and Kovu have almost as little in common with them as Edward and Bella

edited 31st Mar '14 10:16:08 PM by Eagal

I actually really like Lion King 2's Romeo and Juliet influence, because it recasts the heroes from the first film as the oppressive (if ignorant) villains of the source material. Simba is Lord Capulet, Timon and Pumba are sort of the Nurse is a weird way, Rafiki is Father Lawrence etc.

The first film however has a clear theme to it though; overcome your past to make way for a better future or something like that. We're still trying to figure out what Hamlet's about. My biggest issue with Lion King is how in the end, everything Simba learned about overcoming his past is for nothing because he didn't actually have a past to overcome. In Hamlet - throughout the play - is (depending on your interpretation) manipulating everyone against each other, making him as bad, if not worse than Claudius. He has a bit of a Heel Realization in his last moments, realizing all the death he's caused and seeming a bit remorseful for it. Hamlet accepts responsibility for his actions where Simba does for a bit until he finds out he isn't responsible for Mufasa's death after all.

Hamlet's a more interesting protagonist than Simba, so in that sense, Lion King's not the best adaptation, but it's still a Pragmatic Adaptation, and does add a really meaningful backstory that's only ever alluded to in the play, as you mentioned.