Several articles I have read about The Lion King give reference to how the film was based off of Shakespeare's Hamlet. After Googling this topic I have found that many people have address this popular theory. In looking at the similarities between the two texts, I was surprised by how many similarities there were between the two. One scene that particularly stuck out to me is when Scar was staring at at skull in his hand, an iconic image from Hamlet (although perhaps Simba was supposed to be the one holding the skull).I wondered if the writers intended to model their movie on Hamlet and I found two quotes from director Rob Minkoff:
"The similarity to Hamlet was noticed only after we had come up with the story structure and had been working on it for a while.""Because The Lion King was considered an original story there was always the need to anchor it with something familiar. When we first pitched the revised outline of the movie to Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Peter Schneider and Tom Schumacher, someone in the room announced that Hamlet was similar in its themes and relationships. Everyone responded favorably to the idea that we were doing something Shakespearean and so we continued to look for ways to model our film on that all time classic."
Here is a link to a YouTube clip outlining some of the similarities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYheFyrahng
Citations:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/06/11/article-2339722-1A439A34000005DC-606_634x831.jpg
https://dogstocats.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/lion-king-scar-holding-the-skull.jpg
http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2011/09/special-features-q-with-lion-king-co.html
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