“To roar, or not to roar” “To be, or not to be”
Those are the questions.
THE LION KING, Ed, Scar, Shenzi, Banzai, Rafiki, Mufasa, Simba, Sarabi, Zazu, Timon, Pumbaa, Nala. 1994. Copyright Walt Disney Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection. Copyright Walt Disney Co. /Courtesy Everett Collection. | (Desta 2019)
Hamlet by William Shakespeare by Aran. | (Aran 2020)
Dear Patient Reader,
There are a number of sources which liken The Lion King to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Or to the true story of prince and founder of the Mali Empire, Mansa Sundiata Keita. Or: On The Lion King’s release in 1994, controversy was sparked due to the semblance it had to the Japanese shōnen manga series, Kimba the White Lion from the early 1950s. And though all such claims may or may not be all that very true – Why do a number of people think that Simba’s character and the plot take from Hamlet?
The prince’s uncle murders the king, there are sidekick comic characters, and ghosts. Yes, yes, yes, and check, check, check. Like Hamlet, Simba is haunted by his father’s sudden death and immobilised by his future. But Simba’s fate later, quickly takes a turn when he is put into action with Nala’s arrival.
Both are a different type of tragedy. With The Lion King, being a beloved family musical film by Walt Disney, it has a happy ending. The tragedy within these works therefore, has more to do with the position of events in each of their chronologies. Hamlet feigns madness, seeks revenge, there is a lot of violence, and the death of the characters at the end of the play. Not the kind of ending you would want in an animated Disney movie.
Both of the scripts leave you in tears for different reasons. And both are allegorical and metaphorical in nature for the intensity of human behaviour. And that goes both ways, the pleasant and the foul. Take a look at their individual highlights, which have become synonymous to both Hamlet and The Lion King, respectively. Hamlet’s famed soliloquy, “To be, or not to be”, as Prince Hamlet contemplates suicide. And the lyrics from The Circle of Life, as Mufasa later explains to Simba that everything he sees around him exists together through balance and respect.
The Lion King is a powerful story of loss and leadership.[1] While Hamlet is a powerful story that cautions of the dangers of obsessive revenge, and the naturality of an inner state of turmoil. The Lion King may share clear similarities to the happenings of Hamlet, but each are separate formulations created in very different times. Yet of course, human dilemmas and conflict remain timeless. And when taken analogously, The Lion King and Hamlet share two core philosophies, which is that of the circle of life and death.
Like this post?
Leave a comment below!
References
[1] Jackson, Kellie Carter. 2017. The true story behind ‘The Lion King’. July 17. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/07/17/true-story-behind-lion-king/.
Images
Aran. 2020. Hamlet by William Shakespeare. November. https://www.domestika.org/en/projects/950865-hamlet-by-william-shakespeare.
Desta, Yohana. 2019. The Lion King, Hand-Drawn Animation, and the Problem With Photo-Realism. July 18. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/07/lion-king-remake-disney-photorealism-animation.
Comments