Disney's The Lion King

Disney’s The Lion King is one of Disney’s most successful “original” stories. This tag of “original” has brought speculation, and viewers have attempted to locate the source material for the movie, and see how it fits into the trend of animated movies made by Disney in the 90’s. The suspect claimed by most scholars originally was Hamlet. However, upon my viewing, I found merely a small link between the two. The only similar aspects are that there is a monarchy, the uncle kills the father to gain power, and that the son eventually gets his revenge on the uncle. However, Simba and Hamlet have very different character arcs. While Hamlet is met with the realization that his father was killed early in the movie, and then plots from within to bring the downfall of his uncle, Simba’s naivety is taken advantage of by Scar. After Simba is set up to believe that he is the cause of his father’s death, Scar encourages Simba to run away and then sets the hyenas on him. After leaving Pride Rock, Simba gains apathy toward his former life, and goes on to live with his newfound and laid back friends Timone and Pumba. However, what brings him back to Pride Rock is the responsibility he has for Nala, his mother, and his kingdom. His return does not come from a place of revenge, as at this point he is not even aware of Scar’s foul play. Simba therefore becomes a more noble hero, as his reason from returning comes from love rather than vengeance. This is aside from the entire method of action that Simba takes, as opposed to Hamlet’s falsified insanity which brings down everyone in his wake, although this could be attributed to a different target audience, as this is a family movie rather than a British tragedy. And then, of course, not everyone ends up dead in The Lion King, which is definitely a benefit. The other story that The Lion King has been compared to has been Sundiata, as covered in our last blog post. Again, I see very small links between the two. There is a similar African heritage and name, along with the hero being outcasted to return to power. However, Simba’s upbringing was void of the same struggles that Sundiata suffered. Sundiata could not walk or talk for a large portion of his childhood, leaving him to be belittled and ridiculed. Simba was depicted as a typical child of a king: naïve and underprepared but still very confident in himself initially. As well, the villain is very different in Sundiata, as it is the magical sorcerer half-brother of Sundiata. The biggest reason I do not see the connection between these two stories is centered around the character of Mufasa. 

Mufasa is such an integral character to The Lion King, and his presence is felt throughout the movie even after his untimely death. He is such an influential character that he is able to speak to Simba through the sky and offer him guidance to his destiny. The father of Sundiata is relegated to a plot device to explain Sundiata’s birthright, and him dying is meaningless to Sundiata as a character. With Mufasa being such an important character throughout the story and his Sundiata counterpart being mainly trivial, I cannot see a definitive connection between the two stories.