I might see it again. I have to double-check that its still playing near me ,though--probably it is.
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No .. it sounds like Hamlet .. Razz
True, but:
A.) Hamlet didn't actually SEE his father killed (his father's ghost tells him about it.)
B.) Hamlet wasn't a child when the whole thing first happened (well, he was supposed to be a young man/teenager, but still.)
I've heard the whole Hamlet/Lion King thing before, but having having read Hamlet a lot through my school career, I just don't see that much of a resemblance even though I know that it was somewhat intended to be like the story.
I think TLK was
inspired by Hamlet, but definitely not based on it.
One of the most important aspects of Hamlet as a play is that Claudius goes after Hamlet's mom (sexually) after he kills Hamlet's father.
This was actually originally intended for TLK, but JK thought it would be too upsetting for little kids (on top of everything else that was going on.)
The whole thing about TLK is that Simba is a very young child when much of the film takes place. Hamlet is more or less a man--IMO that's a crucial difference.
(Mufasa also never tells Simba to kill Scar, just "remember who you are." You could say that he was subtly telling him to, but notice that Simba never actually DOES kill Scar ("I'm not like you") but the Hyenas do...(Simba's dirty work is done for him) which completes the film's narrative.)
Hamlet is a very heavy, very serious and very long play...but the whole "child witnesses father getting killed" thing was never in there. That's pure Disney's TLK.
Child trauma is also pure Disney, but taken to new heights in TLK.
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!
