Broadway to Hollywood
From play to movie Hamlet and Lion King are alike in many ways, Lion king being a 1994 Disney movie written by Rob Minkoff. And Hamlet being a 1603 play written by William Shakespeare.The two stories have much in common, Lion king is based off of Hamlet. They use different languages in these two works. Hamlet is spoken in in the beginning of modern English, and Lion King is spoken in modern English.
The time period makes each work feel different with Hamlet taking place in the 14-15th centuries, and Lion King taking place in more of a modern time period. The character and setting are entirely different. In Hamlet they are humans and the story takes place in Denmark, England and in Lion King the character are animals and it takes place in Tanzania, Africa. Hamlet was written for an adult audience,while Lion King appeals to younger audiences. After being banished from their home lands Simba and Hamlet both see a vision of their fathers after their father’s death (Who was killed by their brothers). In Hamlet’s vision he sees his father as a ghost.
The ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle killed him. In the lion king Simba’s sees his father as a cloud in the sky. His father Mufasa tells him he needs to go back to the Pridelands and take on Scar, his uncle and the kings throne. In Hamlet the scene is taken on top of a castle on a dark night. Hamlet’s father’s ghost talks in poetry to Hamlet, and tells him that Claudius put poison in his ear. In the lion king the scene is also taken at night when a monkey tells simba to look into a lake and see his father in his reflection he sees the clouds form into a spirit of Mufasa through the reflection in the water.
Who tells him he should be himself and go back to the Pride lands and finish his term as king. In Lion King they use an aerial shot to show Mufasa in the clouds and use a long shot to make him feel distant. Another scene i would like to go over is at the end of both movie and play when prince fights uncle (king). In the Lion King after finding out that his uncle killed his father Simba’s goes back to the Pride land to get revenge for his father and restore the Pridelands. Scar and Simba fight and in the end Simba killed Scar and takes his place as king.
In Hamlet after finding out Claudius killed his father he started to fight him, After Claudius kills his mother. When Hamlet kills claudius they both die from being hit from a poison tipped sword. In the end the King of Denmark takes over as king. As you can see these two movie and play are alike, if you look deeper into some movies and plays you can see that some of them are also alike. I liked movie and play, and it was fairly easy to see the difference between these two plays, other plays? That might be another story.
