In our third visit to movies inspired by the plays of Shakespeare we continue to look at adaptions of Romeo and Juliet.
The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride is a 1998 American animated direct-to-video musical movie. It is the sequel to Disney’s 1994 animated feature film The Lion King, with its plot influenced by Romeo and Juliet, and the second installment in the trilogy. According to director Darrell Rooney, the final draft gradually became a variation of Romeo and Juliet. Released in October 1998, the film centres on Simba and Nala’s daughter Kiara, who falls in love with Kovu, a male rogue lion from a banished pride that was once loyal to Simba’s evil uncle, Scar. Separated by Simba’s prejudice against the banished pride and a vindictive plot planned by Kovu’s mother Zira, Kiara and Kovu struggle to unite their estranged prides and be together.
Most of the original cast returned to their roles from the first film with a few exceptions. Rowan Atkinson, who voiced Zazu in the first film, was replaced by Edward Hibbert for both this film and The Lion King 1.5 (2004). Jeremy Irons, who voiced Scar in the first film, was replaced by Jim Cummings, who briefly provided his singing voice in the first film. Despite receiving mixed to negative reviews, the film experienced a positive reassessment in later years, with many critics deeming it as one of Disney’s better direct-to-video sequels.
Warm Bodies is a novel by author Isaaac Marion. The book was described as a “zombie romance” and makes allusions to Romeo and Juliet. The author, based in Seattle, originally wrote a short story titled “I Am a Zombie Filled with Love”. Atria Books, acquired the publishing rights to the full novel in early 2010. The film focuses on the development of the relationship between Julie (Palmer), a young woman, and R (Hoult), a zombie, and their eventual romance, causing R to slowly return to human form. The film is noted for displaying human characteristics in zombie characters and for being told from a zombie’s perspective.
Actor Nicholas Hoult starred as the zombie R in a feature film adaptation written and directed by Jonathan Levine and released in February 2013. The film also starred Teresa Palmer as Julie Grigio, Rob Corddry as M, and John Malkovich as General Grigio. In the film, Julie’s father is not killed and though a stadium is used for certain scenes, a city barred with walls replaces it as the humans’ primary residence. The official movie poster in which R was giving Julie a bunch of flowers is not included in the movie but happened in the novel. There were also cut-scenes that were not included in the officially released movie that changed the flow of the story.
