Friday, February 20, 2009

While We're On the Subject of Hamlet...

Yesterday during lunch, Mig and I were talking about the paper for my Shakespeare class that I have to work on this weekend. (Actually I was the one who was talking, while Mig was pretending to listen with this 'oh no she's rambling' look on his face..)

I asked him if he remembered reading Hamlet in high school. (I know for a fact that he read it during our senior year, because we had the same English teacher that year, only for different periods.)

He vaguely remembered what it was sort of, kind of about, so I started describing the plot to him.

"You know: Hamlet's father is killed by his uncle, only no one knows that the uncle actually murdered him. Then Hamlet's uncle becomes king, and then the whole play, Hamlet is torn...."



At this point in my Hamlet recap, Mig says,

"Oh yeah, kinda like The Lion King.."

My first reaction was to laugh a little at this comparison. Simba and Hamlet are alike? Ok. lol

But then I thought about it for a second, and the two plots really are strangely similar. Mufasa even comes back in ghost (?) form to tell Simba to remember who he is. He doesn't exactly tell Simba to kill his uncle or anything, but if he did, then it probably wouldn't have been a kid-friendly rated G movie.
I mean I know that Shakespeare has been a great influence for so many, but for Disney too?
hmm... It seems so, doesn't it?
Except in The Lion King, Hamlet, I mean Simba has a happy ending, which is also nice for the kiddos watching.
And hey, I guess Mig really was listening to me ramble on...

12 comments:

  1. That is such a funny comparison!

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  2. OMG This is so funny. I really wonder if he just spit something out to make it sound like he was listening or if he really drew a connection between the two storylines...?? Oh well, at least he was being responsive :)

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  3. That is too funny! My hubby does the platonic listening mode to me every so often, too! :) I love that Mig compared Hamlet to The Lion King... :)

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  4. Anita, I wondered if he was really listening myself, but when I first laughed and then he insisted that Hamlet really was like the Lion King, it seemed liked he really had been listening. That would be a first! lol

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  5. Ha! That made me laugh! From Shakespeare to Disney!

    really cute blog! I especially like your header graphic! Did you design it?

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  6. That is actually very interesting.

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  7. Jolene,

    Very true. Lucky for him he gets to listen to you and not Edwin...imagine hearing about how a radar is able to identify objects because it sends a signal that hits the object and sends it back, blah, blah, blah...Yeah, thats my life, lol

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  8. Perfect! See, those Disney movies will pay off for our kids sooner or later. Shakespeare...No problem,I got the Disney Cliff Notes!

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  9. Now, this post made me laugh when I visited you the other day and it's making me giggle again. Kinda hard to giggle and jog, but I am holding my own. Thanks for supporting me on my little Blog Jog!

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  10. If *that* blows your mind ... check out the similarities between "Lion King 1 1/2" and Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead". :D

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  11. Never thought of it, but true.

    This is my first visit, nice to meet you!

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  12. ~ZenMom, I've actually never seen Lion King 1 1/2,but when I do, I will be sure to keep this in mind...very interesting.

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