The Lion King was
one of my favorite movies of all time growing up. As a kid nothing was more
satisfying than, first of all, watching these two incredibly cute lions run
around and get themselves into trouble, and ,second of all, going on the
emotional journey of growing up and discovering the meaning of friendships,
determination, and perseverance that became inevitable due to circumstances
that many see simply as life. However,
just a few years ago in my high school English class, we had to read one of
Shakespears classics, Hamlet, and it
was later brought to my attention the correlation of events between the play and The Lion King. After
being nothing other than disturbed by the story of Hamlet, I was ultimately
saddened by this revelation for now I can no longer watch the movie without the
heinous events and characters of Hamlet
creeping into my mind.
For those who are unfamiliar with Hamlet, it is, like most Shakespeare plays, a tragedy which
involves betrayal, murder, depression, love, and many other nontraditional
themes.
Here are the reasons The Lion King is observed to be based
off of Hamlet:
1.
Scar
Killed Mufasa
In Hamlet, King
Hamlet is killed by unforeseen reasons and purposefully by Clausius, his own
brother. In The Lion King, Mufasa is also cleverly killed by his brother
Scar.
2.
Simba
Delays Vengeance
After his fathers death, Hamlet becomes depressed, quite
mentally unstable, and without a ruler or father figure. He waits around in
sorrow as he tries to validate his suspitions of his death until he was finally
persuaded by his friend Horatio and others.
After the death of Mufasa, Simba also became depressed and lost without
his father and just ran away from his past leaving his loved ones and other to
suffer until Nala finally persuades him to return.
3.
Mufasa
Returned in Ghostly Form
In Act 1 scene 5 of Hamlet,
his father King Hamlet comes to him as a ghost and tells him to seek revenge of
his brother for he was responsible and leading to more horrible things. Mufasa also visits Simba in a ghostly form
and tells him to go back to Pride Rock and save the land of his loved ones from
Scar and the hyenas.
4. Serabi Has No Power as Queen
Gertrude, Queen of Denmark and
wife of late King Hamlet, has no part
over Claudius’ new reign over Denmark. She is simply there for show and for
Claudius’ personal use. Serabi, Queen of
Pride Rock also has no influence over scar, she is only used as abuse from Scar
to get what he wants or else.
5. Simba Gets Revenge
Lastly, Hamlet finally gets revenge and kills Cladius. Simba finally does as well and kills Scar.
Unlike Hamlet, however, Simba
survived the whole battle where as literally everyone died in Hamlet, including Hamlet. Yet lets not
forget that The Lion King is a Disney
movie; its against their name to have a tragic ending. And it is obvious that the creators of The Lion King got their inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, however, I am not surprised for Shakespeare
has created a baseline for many other movies and stories out there. He is one of the most influential writers of
all time and his stories will always continue to be told in one form or
another.
1 comment:
The Hamlet realtionship is obvious and very interesting. Like we saw in Everything is a Remix we always stand on the shoulders of Giants!.
Unfortunately Disney will always find a way to make millions on other people's backs and I don't have a lot of sympathy for that. I realize I am talking about an American Icon, but some gods have clay feet as they say.
A case in point: Ozamu Tezuka is considered in Japan (and the world) the Godfather of Anime, the father of manga and the god of comics, to name a few epithets. His influence in visual storytelling is simply enormous, probably only comparable to Will Eisner in the US.
Disney (the company) shamelessly stole one of Tezuka's most popular stories, Kimba The White Lion, (Jungle Emperor in Japan) simply renaming it The Lion King! without giving him any credit whatsoever. Disney (the man) was notorious for his many ripoffs that not many could fight against, giving his enormous popularity and his political connections. One needs to put a historical perspective on this, of course.
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