Undeniably, the works of William Shakespeare have inspired contemporary adaptations that can appeal to audiences who have never read the Bard’s plays. But how appropriate is it to present to children, who lack the life experience and maturity to understand the depth of the works, the dark side of Shakespeare—the death of Juliet, the seductive nature of Caliban in The Tempest, and the violent struggles in Hamlet? There is no simple answer. In appropriating Shakespeare's works for young audiences, producers often alter elements that are deemed inappropriate for children—namely death, sex, and violence—but nonetheless play significant roles in the plays. Obviously, some value is lost in translation. However, the resulting recreations become gateways for young audiences to experience classic works of theatre, possibly outweighing the loss of thematic meaning. Ultimately, Shakespeare for young audiences is divisive, with valid arguments existing both for and against appropriation.
The significance of death in Shakespeare’s works is undeniable and conveys many themes in his plays. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses death to comment on the nature and consequences of conflict (Romeo and Juliet). These thematic elements are important in the text, but are practically absent in Disney’s The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, which directly appropriates the play. In the film, Kiara and Kovu, the children of two warring families, fall in love and inevitably quell their families’ feuds; they are Romeo and Juliet (The Lion King II). Death is not completely removed from the story, but in comparison with its source material, The Lion King II omits the most important deaths in Romeo and Juliet—those of the titular characters.
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...bridge, 2003. Print.
The Lion King. Dir. Roger Allers. Perf. Matthew Broderick and James Earl Jones. Walt Disney Pictures, 1994. DVD.
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Dir. Darrell Rooney. Perf. Matthew Broderick and Neve Campbell. Walt Disney Pictures, 1998. DVD.
Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet: Entire Play." The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. MIT, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. .
Shakespeare, William. "Romeo and Juliet: Entire Play." The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. MIT, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. .
Shakespeare, William. "The Tempest: Entire Play." The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. MIT, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. < http://shakespeare.mit.edu/tempest/full.html>.
Wells, Stanley. Introduction. Looking for Sex in Shakespeare. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print.
The Lion King film is not just an animated Walt Disney film but an inspirational movie. I think this is a good movie for anyone to watch because it has a lot of meaning for example, life lessons. Throughout the movie, there were different examples of life lessons such as hope, justice, and perserverance. I would definitely watch it again and children and adults to watch this movie.
Forrest Gump. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Screenplay by Eric Roth. Perf. Tom Hanks and Mykelti Williamson. Paramount, 1994. Film.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed Stephen Greenblatt, et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Velvet Goldmine. Dir. Todd Hayes. Perf. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale, Toni Collette. Miramax, 1998.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet (The New Folger Library Shakespeare). Simon & Schuster; New Folger Edition, 2003.
Mulan. Dir. Tony Bancroft. Perf. Ming-Na Wen, Eddie Murphy, and Bradley Darryl Wong. Walt Disney, 1998. Film.
The Princess and the Frog. Dir Ron Clements and John Musker. Perf. Anika Noni Rose, Bruno
Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.” The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. London: Spring Books, n.d.: 945-980.
...e tragic celebration of young, forbidden love told by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, has been tailored for many motion picture adaptations. The most famous of these adaptations are Franco Zeffirelli’s version and Baz Lurhmann’s film produced in 1996. These two films applied Shakespeare’s most well-known work as a basis for their motion pictures. Both films had similarities, but the differences were much more apparent. Ever since William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been debuted, it has and forever will be an artistic influence for playwrights, directors, and other artists.
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet is a film that converts Shakespeare’s famous play into a present-day setting. The film transforms the original texts into modern notions, whilst still employing Shakespearean language. Compared to Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Luhrmann’s picture is easier for a teenage audience to understand and relate to because of his modernisations. Despite the passing of four centuries Shakespeare’s themes of love, hate, violence, family and mortality remain the same regardless of the setting.
"Shakespeare, William." Elizabethan World Reference Library. Ed. Sonia G. Benson and Jennifer York Stock. Vol. 2: Biographies. Detroit: UXL, 2007. 197-207. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
The Hunger Games. Dir. Gary Ross. Perf. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. Lionsgate, 2012. DVD.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespear. Othello. Dir. Grenblatt, Cohen, Howard, and Eisaman Maus. (second ed.) New York. 2008.
The Lion King. Dir. Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. By Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, Linda
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Rev. ed. No Fear Shakespeare. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.