Disney-fy Shakespeare

[Erts]

Right, I'm sure somebody has read the Cracked.com List where they mention how the Lion King is Hamlet, with singing Lions.
So. I was wondering, what other plays of Shakespeare could be Disneyfied, with singing animals.

Any ideas?

[onthetown]

If you break it down to its bare parts, the Lion King II could be Romeo & Juliet. Two "houses" that are against each other and two young adults fall in love with each other despite prejudice... Of course, you'd have to take out Romeo and Juliet killing and pretending to kill themselves and all the gruesome stuff, but the star-crossed lovers stuff is still there.

[Starscream]

I think Midsummer Night's Dream would make a decent Disney movie. It's a little bit more cutesy than most of Shakespeare's stuff to begin with. Just take out the raunchier aspects, and cast some famous comedian as Puck.

[Thursday]

King lear.

That, I would pay to see.

[Beelzebub1111]

If you break it down to its bare parts, the Lion King II could be Romeo & Juliet. Two "houses" that are against each other and two young adults fall in love with each other despite prejudice... Of course, you'd have to take out Romeo and Juliet killing and pretending to kill themselves and all the gruesome stuff, but the star-crossed lovers stuff is still there.

Lion king 1&1/2 was Rosencrants and Gildensturn are dead.

[Erts]

If you break it down to its bare parts, the Lion King II could be Romeo & Juliet. Two "houses" that are against each other and two young adults fall in love with each other despite prejudice... Of course, you'd have to take out Romeo and Juliet killing and pretending to kill themselves and all the gruesome stuff, but the star-crossed lovers stuff is still there.

Yes, actually, it is based on Romeo & Juliet.

[llamamushroom]

To be honest, there's nothing that can't be Disney-ified. And both Disney and Shakespeare use the "classic" storylines, so there's always going to be an analogous Disney version.

[Erts]

To be honest, there's nothing that can't be Disney-ified. And both Disney and Shakespeare use the "classic" storylines, so there's always going to be an analogous Disney version.

But with singing animals!
Try that with Oedipius Rex...

[llamamushroom]

But with singing animals!
Try that with Oedipius Rex...

... You have a point, there, sir. I concede.

[Faulty]

Titus Andronicus IMO. I would so totally pay to see that.

[BizzaroStormy]

Disney already has a process to their movies.

1. Choose Popular Literature Piece.
2. Replace Cast with Furries.
3. Replace 25%-30% of dialogue with musical numbers.
4. ???
5. Profit.


Disney is basically to literature, what 4Kids is to Anime.

[Dr.Epic]

Well, they are working on Lost Girls. (http://www.dorktower.com/2009/03/24/dork-tower-03-24-09-moore-or-less/)

[CollinPhillips]

I think Midsummer Night's Dream would make a decent Disney movie. It's a little bit more cutesy than most of Shakespeare's stuff to begin with. Just take out the raunchier aspects, and cast some famous comedian as Puck.

Stanley Tucci would make an excellent Puck.

[The Demented One]

Well, they are working on Lost Girls. (http://www.dorktower.com/2009/03/24/dork-tower-03-24-09-moore-or-less/)
uh buh duh wuh?

EDIT: Okay, it's not serious. Frontal lobe meltdown, averted.

[Thajocoth]

Disney already has a process to their movies.

1. Choose Popular Literature Piece.
2. Replace Cast with Furries.
3. Replace 25%-30% of dialogue with musical numbers.
4. ???
5. Profit.


Disney is basically to literature, what 4Kids is to Anime.

Actually, Disney has supposedly become rather anti-furry since Walt's death. At least according to the furries I know... They point to the facts that new animal-characters are no longer humanoid and a theme park policy on facial hair. They have this policy in their parks where everyone who works there and is publicly visible (used to be anyone who works there in general) has to shave their entire face. So the barbershop quartet must wear fake mustaches, they can't grow their own.

[Starscream]

Actually, Disney has supposedly become rather anti-furry since Walt's death.

Odd policy. While they may have moved away from anthropomorphic animals in their movies, so many of their popular television cartoons featured them.

Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, Tale Spin, Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Bonkers...

[Dr.Epic]

uh buh duh wuh?

EDIT: Okay, it's not serious. Frontal lobe meltdown, averted.

Wait, did you post that first then check out the link.

Also, I love the first part of your post.

[bibliophile]

I submit to you all that it is impossible to disneyfy Othello.

A captain, Othello, is happily married. His trusted lieutenant, Iago*, secretly furious that he did not get a promotion uses trickery and coincidence to convince Othello that his wife is cheating on him. She's not. He is slowly convinced, and eventually smothers her to death with his own hands. Othello later commits suicide.

And Othello is a different race than his wife, which also causes tension. And Iago turns other subordinates of Othello's against one another.

Iago being found out and sentenced to torture and death is the only really happy moment in the play


*Yes, this is the name of Jafar's parrot from Alladin

[Kallisti]

Impossible, bibliophile? Nothing is immune to Disney.

That said, I would love to hear Alan Menken's musical score for Disney's Othello. It would definitely be...interesting.

*Cue singing parrot*
Like fire, hellfire, this fire in my skin/My need to climb higher is turning me to sin.

[Thufir]

Impossible, bibliophile? Nothing is immune to Disney.

Yup. I mean, some events would have to be changed or removed (Like Othello smothering Desdemona in her sleep, or what's-his-name in King Lear getting his eyes put out...), but the basic ideas can be done.

Have to say, though, the initial premise that Lion King = Hamlet is not true. You could Disney-fy Hamlet, but The Lion King is not said Disney-fication. I just has a couple of things in common.

[Eldan]

Just look at the stories they already disneyfied. They left out a few of the more nasty aspects of the Little Mermaid's trade/curse, they left out half the story of Snow White (Punishment by hot coals for the mother, cutting out Snow White's heart) and so on. The old fairy tales are a lot bloodier than the Disney versions.

[Kallisti]

Othello can still smother Desdemona as long as it's accompanied by anthropomorphic animals doing a cheerful song-and-dance number.

[Thajocoth]

Just look at the stories they already disneyfied. They left out a few of the more nasty aspects of the Little Mermaid's trade/curse, they left out half the story of Snow White (Punishment by hot coals for the mother, cutting out Snow White's heart) and so on. The old fairy tales are a lot bloodier than the Disney versions.

We read Pinocchio in Elementary School. It ended with him turned into a donkey and sold, and Gepetto dying inside Monstro. No sudden realization at the last moment, saving his father and becoming a real boy...

[Brennan]

Right, I'm sure somebody has read the Cracked.com List where they mention how the Lion King is Hamlet, with singing Lions.
So. I was wondering, what other plays of Shakespeare could be Disneyfied, with singing animals.

Any ideas?

Lion King is actually Macbeth, but with singing lions. The reason nobody really notices it is because many of the characters serve dual identities when compared with Macb's characters.

... Hmm, I do see some Hamlet in there, though.

Scar: Macbeth
Mufasa: King Duncan/Banquo
Simba: Fleance/MacDuff
The Hynas: The Three Witches. Not in the fact that they give Scar extra knowledge, but in the fact that there are three of them, and they persuade Scar to kill Mufasa in the first place. (If I remember correctly. Haven't seen the movie in forever.) The Three Murderers.

[Ichneumon]

I think you could do both Othello and Julius Caesar, actually very well, as long as you change the setting to some animal/anthropomorphic animal setting and change the plots so the murders get changed to something less extreme or get turned into something more child-friendly on screen. We've seen murder before, look at the Lion King or Bambi. So maybe Julius Caesar could actually work.

[Thajocoth]

I think you could do both Othello and Julius Caesar, actually very well, as long as you change the setting to some animal/anthropomorphic animal setting and change the plots so the murders get changed to something less extreme or get turned into something more child-friendly on screen. We've seen murder before, look at the Lion King or Bambi. So maybe Julius Caesar could actually work.

Polymorph. Little Mermaid did it. Emperor's New Groove did it. Then in the ending all the polymorphs get reversed, but in the meantime the characters are essentially dead in a Disney way.

[Brennan]

Also, the fact that Scar is killed by the most unlikely person, (Macduff kills Macbeth, Simba kills Scar) then that person takes charge. It's very similar to the play Macbeth in that regard.

[Thajocoth]

Also, the fact that Scar is killed by the most unlikely person, (Macduff kills Macbeth, Simba kills Scar) then that person takes charge. It's very similar to the play Macbeth in that regard.

Simba doesn't kill scar. He tosses him off a cliff. The Hyenas kill scar. Not just the three... ALL the Hyenas turn on him because they saw he was willing to turn on them to save his own life.

"Friends? *Laugh* I thought you said we were the enemy..."
"Yeah, that's what I heard... Ed?"
Hungry laughter from Ed, shadows of other hyenas joining it, and scar's shadow on the rock wall illuminated by the flames as the pack of hyenas finally get the food they were promised.

[Brennan]

Simba doesn't kill scar. He tosses him off a cliff. The Hyenas kill scar. Not just the three... ALL the Hyenas turn on him because he was willing to turn on them to save his own life.

My apologies. It's been a long time since I've watched that movie.

Well, they'd have to change some things. Now that you all mention it, though, The Lion King is more Hamlet than anything else. Meh, doesn't matter.

[Thajocoth]

My apologies. It's been a long time since I've watched that movie.

Well, they'd have to change some things. Now that you all mention it, though, The Lion King is more Hamlet than anything else. Meh, doesn't matter.

The thing is, it's not close enough to either... But it's not far enough from either either.

[bosssmiley]

The Tempest begs for a Disney adaptation. Caliban reprising "I Wanna Be Like You" would be worth the price of admission.
Ditto The Taming of the Shrew (the original was actually pretty subversive of gender roles).
And King Lear. Goneril and Regan stripping their father of his attendants and dignity ~in song~ would be nightmare fuel to a whole generation if done in classic Disney villain style.


Goneril: "Hear me, my lord;
What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a house where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?"
Regan: "What need one?"

Falstaff has been ripped off so many times (Gaston in B&B, the warhog from Lion King) he's now a classic 'Shakespeare is full of cliches' character.

[CelesTial]

Impossible, bibliophile? Nothing is immune to Disney.

That gets sig quoted for the truth!

I would like to see MacBeth get the Disney treatment. Have the three witches sing like RnB singers. Replace the last scene with MacBeths head with a musical number. You know, usual disney stuff.

[snoopy13a]

[



Falstaff has been ripped off so many times (Gaston in B&B, the warhog from Lion King) he's now a classic 'Shakespeare is full of cliches' character.

I really don't see the Falstaff-Gaston comparision. The only connection is that they both like to hang out in taverns.

Gaston is an excellent hunter in top physical condition. Falstaff is a drunk, fat knight who plays possum in order to survive combat.

[CelesTial]

I really don't see the Falstaff-Gaston comparision. The only connection is that they both like to hang out in taverns.

Gaston is an excellent hunter in top physical condition. Falstaff is a drunk, fat knight who plays possum in order to survive combat.

Discretion is the better part of valour. That is even a semi quote about Falstaff ,you know.