This article contains spoilers!
The Lion King is one of Disney’s highest grossing productions and is cherished by families and critics alike as a classic animated film. Directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, the storyline follows a young lion, Simba, after his father is murdered and he is exiled from his homeland, the Pride Lands. With the help of the friendships he builds during his exile, he resolves to return to the Pride Lands and regain his rightful place on the throne.
Similar to The Lion King’s success, Hamlet is one of Shakespeares’s most iconic works. The revenge tragedy from the late 16th century depicts how the the main character Prince Hamlet and how he struggles to cope with his father being killed, which he finds out is done at the hands of his uncle Claudius. Bloodthirsty and seeking revenge, he plans to find and murder his uncle, who has become the new king.
Both works’ core plots involve deep internal conflict in the aftermath of a gruesome murder. In each story, an evil uncle secretly murders the beloved king and father of the protagonist. Simba and Hamlet each experience ghostly interventions by their fathers which only they are privy to. These encounters compel them to take action after their father’s death and reclaim their places on the thrones of their kingdoms.
Both Simba and Hamlet are forced to flee their homes, not out of their own will, but as a result of psychological manipulation. Simba places himself in a self-imposed exile from the Pride Lands out of guilt and shame after his uncle, Scar, manipulates him into believing that he was to blame for his own father’s death. In reality, however, Scar intends to take over the throne during Simba’s absence. Hamlet, also by the persuasion of his uncle, escapes to England after accidentally killing a man by the name of Polonius, mistakenly believing him to be his father’s murderer.
While Claudius convinced Hamlet that it was only for his safety that he move temporarily, in reality he has plans for Hamlet to be murdered in England so that he may maintain his hold on the monarchy. Although Claudius did not attempt to convince Hamlet that he was to take the blame for his father’s death like Scar did with Samba, in both stories, the uncles use their age and status as leverage in convincing their nephews to flee their homes.
Though perhaps not quite as eloquent as Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy, Simba is also forced to confront his own inner struggles. As each character comes to grapple with their complex battles between losing their fathers and needing to concern themselves with what is best for the kingdom as a whole, both Simba and Hamlet are guided throughout their stories by their friendships.
Serving as confidantes as well as moral guides, Timon and Pumbaa helped raise Simba while he was in exile from his community. His close friend, Nala, is the one that encouraged him to return to his homeland and work to reclaim the throne. Similarly, Horatio was Hamlet’s best friend and remained close with him throughout the entirety of the play, even when it seemed as though everyone Hamlet was once close to had betrayed him. Horatio served as a strong voice of reason in the midst of the mental and physical chaos Hamlet suffered.
The protagonists are then urged to seek vengeance and go on their own journeys to return to power. Disney’s portrayal has a stereotypically lighter ending, which is expected of their productions given that their main audience is children: Simba successfully gets back his rightful place on the throne and returns the kingdom to its natural order. In Hamlet, however, nearly every major character including Hamlet himself dies. While a complex and timeless tale of family, madness, and revenge, it makes sense why Shakespeare’s original ending had to face some minor alterations for Disney’s audiences. Nonetheless, the essence of Shakespeare’s work remains in the riveting coming-of-age musical that is The Lion King.
