Of course I have to write another Lion King post! The popularly accepted belief among internet users and Lion King fans is that the movie The Lion King is most similarly related to Hamlet the play. The most glaring similarity, I believe, is the relationship between the prince and the evil uncle. Both Scar and Claudius (the brothers of Mufasa and Hamlet Sr., respectively) were jealous of their brothers' power over the kingdom and killed them in order to acquire that power for themselves. Simba and Hamlet, the princes, are, therefore, both fatherless :( and Mufasa and Hamlet Sr. each appear to their sons in the form of ghosts. Both Simba and Hamlet have love interests--Simba develops a crush on Nala, while Hamlet develops a relationship with Ophelia.
Since we haven't read the whole play yet, I cannot write every similarity and difference there might be, but I will probably comment on this as we read further with updates!
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4 comments:
Lion King :)
I absolutely love the Lion King. It is one of my favorite Disney movies because it is so touching. For some reason, though, Hamlet is not having the same effect on me. I guess because the Lion King is animated and about cute cuddly lions, whereas Hamlet is much more dramatic and is about regular people. Although they both have the same basis of murdered fathers by crazy uncles who then are avenged by their sons, there is just not the same "OMG" for me as there is with the Lion King. There is an OMG, it just isn't the same kind. Not trying to say Hamlet isn't great...there is just something magical about Disney's The Lion King. <3
It's cool to think of the Lion King as an animated adaptation of Hamlet, and a lot of the plot points match up. I don't think that Hamlet really develops a relationship with Ophelia though. He only acts insanely in love with her to hide his intention to kill Claudius, because he knows that she would tell her father everything.
I think this is a really good point, Jack. It's actually pretty hard to tell if Hamlet truly ever loved Ophelia or not. Part of me agrees with you when you say that he's only acting to kind of cover his tracks. However, I also think that he may actually love her. After all, he does sent her a lot of letters. (But then again, maybe those could have been sent intentially knowing that Polonius would eventually get his hands on them). I think this is a question that's never truly answered. In the lion king Simba is definitely in love with Nala, and if I remember correctly, they have a cute little child in the next movie. If course, the writers of the lion king can't really make it so that Simba is faking his love for Nala because it's a children's movie. So, the plots do definitely match up with this one little difference.
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