It's an age old tale, and like many others, the modern film industry has taken the original and reformatted it to make a more "G-rated" for the consumption of children everywhere.
While reading The Annotated and Chronological Screenography of Hamlet I stumbled a funny piece of information, A favorite childhood movie of mine, The Lion King, is loosely based on the story of Hamlet. It all clicked together at that point, the uncles, the dead father, reclaiming of the throne, etc. Hamlet was just another of the many "age old tales" that have been reformatted for children across the globe, this time with a pride of lions.
Let's break this down, there's two royal families (one happens to be made up of African Lions), two princes, two evil uncles lusting after their brother's wives, two dead kings who appear as ghosts, two banished princes, two catchy phrases, two fights between uncle and prince, two kingdoms restored, and boom you've got not only the tale of Hamlet, but the plot of The Lion King. To elaborate further, not only is Simba a lion version of Hamlet, but many of the other characters from the play have an animated lion alter-ego.
Nala is an exemplary version of Ophelia, she is the epitome of an innocent, angel-like girl. However, due to the nature of the intended audience, she is plagued by much less mental instability and does not commit suicide. When Nala goes to find Simba, she is pulled into the water and immediately jumps from the water, with a shocked expression, not drowning as Ophelia does, but still making a connection to Ophelia's death scene. Another side not about Nala, when compared to the other lions, I noticed that she is a lighter shade, much like Ophelia's stereotypical portrayal in white.
Scar is another wonderful portrayal of their counterpart in the play. Bitter and lusting after his brother's wife(or mate in the movie's case), both murder their brothers in cold blood, for the throne and access to the queen. Cladius's first words are "Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death / The memory be green, and that is us befitted", throughout the movie, Scar is presented in a puff of green smoke, much like the green or "green envy" that Cladius is introduced to us with.
1. Do you agree that the film industry should recreate stories such as Hamlet's for children's consumption?
2. If it hadn't been made public that the movie was loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, would you have noticed?
1. I think that The Lion King does a very good job of translating the story of Hamlet for a younger audience without being too "intense." That being said, I think that the film industry should recreate stories such as Hamlet for children.
ReplyDelete2. I did not notice that the movie had been based on Hamlet until it was pointed out to me. Once it was brought up I was shocked I hadn't figured it out sooner! (Adding on to my response to question 1) Considering how I didn't notice the connection until it was made clear to me, I think that it would be appropriate for the film industry to recreate stories such as Hamlet. Younger audiences may not notice any connections until they are older, and at that point the reaction becomes "mind blown" and the information can be used in their AP Literature classes...
1. Recreate probably not, but loosely basing off it like this does is pretty cool. Its a good way to keep older audiences engaged in the story.
ReplyDelete2. I don't think I would have noticed.
1. I believe it is very interesting to put classic novels into children's movies, I think it's good for children to learn classical stories since they are so popular, even if it is talked about subtly. There are actually many children's movies that are loosely based off of shakespeare novels, including gnomeo and juliet. It hasn't hurt anybody so far so I think it's fine.
ReplyDelete2. I don't believe I would of noticed. I don't usually try to compare a movie with something completely different, which actually isn't different at all. Since just recently reading hamlet and not knowing what hamlet was completely about, I honestly thought this was just another original disney movie, or near original. I think if I watched it again while now knowing the information from hamlet, I would of put the pieces together and have figured it out.
1. I agree that the film industry should recreate stories such a Hamlet's for children's consumption. Of course, censor the touchy subjects that is a part of the story. I find it very interesting for a classic tale be made into a cartoon.
ReplyDelete2. It has never occurred to me that The Lion King is based on the plot of Hamlet. It is so interesting to know that classic texts are now being remade into a contemporary children's films. It makes me somewhat glad that Disney is doing that because Disney is a big part of my childhood and Shakespeare is a big part of my young adulthood.
1. Do you agree that the film industry should recreate stories such as Hamlet's for children's consumption?
ReplyDeleteI don’t see why recreating stories like Hamlet into movies for children would be a bad thing, unless they included suicide, and other "bad things” (for lack of a better term) that are not age appropriate. Based on your description even though it is loosely based on Hamlet they were able to alter it to be age appropriate and still create a good story for children that many people love; so I agree that the film industry should recreate stories such as Hamlet for children’s consumption.
2. If it hadn't been made public that the movie was loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, would you have noticed?
I have never watched The Lion King (shocker, I know, I hear all about it every time I say it), so I don’t know if I would have noticed or not.