imba ascends Pride Rock to take his place as king. The biggest element we must contend with when comparing The Lion King to Hamlet is the happy ending versus the tragedy. As we have already seen, at least a little hope remains at the end of Hamlet that the errors of the past will not be repeated. But before this can occur, everyone in the play must die. We can hardly imagine Disney making the decision to eliminate Mufasa, Zazu, then Nala, followed by Sarabi, Simba, and Scar, then having the hyenas come in to clean up the mess. This would hardly make Pride Rock seem like a land worth saving. The film does not completely avoid violence, but Mufasa's death is unseen because of the masses of animals trampling him. When it comes time for Scar and Simba to fight, the scene is in slow-motion, without blood, and so it becomes more of a power struggle than a violent act. There is a battle between the hyenas and the lionesses that is obscured by shadows and burning brushwood. And it is not in fact Simba who kills Scar; he is attacked by his own three hyena henchmen, and we are only allowed to witness his death in shadow on the cliff face. Because the focus has been shifted onto regaining the throne rather than avenging his father's death, Simba is able to restore health to the kingdom by simply eliminating Scar. Once a new king takes the place of the old king, the fertility of the land is immediately restored and everyone lives happily ever after. The happy ending reassures us that the protagonist has done the right thing (something we are never quite sure of in Hamlet ), and eliminates many of the complex subplots of Shakespeare's writing. Thus we are able to retain the moral of living up to one's promises and responsibilities while creating the psychologically-satisfying happy ending where the hero prevails over all obstacles.Does The Lion King , then, do justice to the Hamlet story? "Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance", M...
