I see people compare Simba’s Pride and Romeo & Juliet all the time, often with a negative connotation like “Lion King is just Hamlet and Simba’s Pride is just Romeo & Juliet” like that’s a bad thing. First of all, there are endless books and movies based on Shakespeare plays that are excellent. Not to mention the plethora of fairytale retellings that are so popular right now. So even if that movie was the exact same plot as Romeo & Juliet, that wouldn’t be anything to snub at.
… except it’s not.
Yes, Simba’s Pride is about two characters from warring families and tragedy ensues because they fall in love. That’s about where the similarities end.
So let’s talk about the differences between these two stories and why labeling anything with starcrossed lovers is kind of short-sighted and makes me feel like you haven’t actually read Romeo & Juliet.
Obviously there will be tons of spoilers for both stories below, so if for some reason you aren’t familiar and don’t want the whole plot spoiled… stop reading.
- The Meeting
- Romeo & Juliet: In the Shakespeare play, Romeo and his buddies party crash a Capulet party, where Romeo meets (and instantly falls in love with) Juliet Capulet. They later learn that their families are sworn enemies.
- Simba’s Pride: The two lion cubs meet when they’re kids and accidentally befriend each other. There’s no love involved yet. They’re just cute kids wanting to play.
- The… Actual Plot
- Romeo & Juliet: The plot of the play is basically the two characters fall in love and realize their families hate each other, which makes it difficult to be together. They secretly get married, which of course causes drama. In an attempt to be together, Juliet fakes her death, only Romeo doesn’t get the message that it’s fake and thinks she’s actually dead. You already know the rest unless you’ve been living under a rock. Seeing the death and misery their feud has caused, the two families decide to reconcile and never argue again.
- Simba’s Pride: Zera wants Simba dead so she sends her son in undercover, having him rescue Kiara in order to trick Simba into letting him join the pride. He fully intends to carry out his mission, except he falls in love with Kiara and changes his mind. When Simba learns Kovu’s real original motive, he banishes him from the pridelands. Kiara runs away to be with him, but the two have to return when they realize the outsiders and pridelanders are going into a full-out battle. Kovu and Kiara stop the battle and convince the two sides that the war between them is pointless and they don’t have to fight (excluding Zera, who still wants her revenge). Absolutely none of this happens in Romeo & Juliet.
- Nuka & Mercutio
- If you really want to reach, you could draw a parallel between Nuka’s death and the fight between Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin) and Mercutio (Romeo’s friend). In R&J, Tybalt kills Mercutio and Romeo then kills Tybalt out of revenge. In the Lion King, Nuka attempts to kill Simba and is accidentally killed when, in his attempts to escape, Simba causes a bunch of logs to fall on Nuka. Kovu is upset at his brother’s death, but he doesn’t turn against Simba because of it. If anything, it pushes a wedge between Kovu and the outsiders because Zera blames him for Nuka’s death. So… I guess the parallel is someone died because the families are trying to kill each other. Go figure.
So… yeah. If feuding families + romance = Romeo & Juliet, then the Lion King 2 is just that. It’s a pretty shallow assessment if you ask me.
Nicole Aisling - Author 