In what way is Shakespeare like all-purpose flour?
What an intriguing and creative comparison! Let me think about this...
Both Shakespeare and all-purpose flour are remarkably versatile foundational ingredients that can be transformed into countless different creations. Shakespeare's works serve as a base material that can be adapted into comedies, tragedies, sonnets, modern retellings, or experimental interpretations - much like how all-purpose flour can become bread, pasta, cakes, or pastries depending on how it's used.
Both are also "processed" versions of something more raw - Shakespeare took the raw materials of human experience, language, and earlier stories and refined them into something that could be used universally, just as all-purpose flour is wheat that's been milled and refined to be suitable for many different uses.
Additionally, both have an amazing ability to bind things together - Shakespeare's works unite themes of love, betrayal, ambition, and justice, while flour literally binds ingredients together in recipes. They're both such fundamental ingredients in their respective domains that we often take them for granted!
What made you think of this particular comparison? I find it quite thought-provoking.
Thought provoking indeed. Let me count the ways... No, seriously, give me ten examples of how Shakespeare has been used as a foundational ingredient in popular culture back to, say, 1956, when The Tempest was the basis for a classic science fiction movie, Forbidden Planet.
Let me take this chronologically, focusing on some fascinating transformations of Shakespeare's works:
1. Forbidden Planet (1956) - As you mentioned, this pioneering sci-fi film reimagines The Tempest in space, with Dr. Morbius as Prospero, Altaira as Miranda, and the invisible monster as Caliban, born from the dark side of human consciousness.
2. West Side Story (1957/1961) - Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's masterful transformation of Romeo and Juliet into a tale of rival New York street gangs, with the Jets and Sharks standing in for the Montagues and Capulets.
3. Throne of Blood (1957) - Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of Macbeth into feudal Japan, demonstrating Shakespeare's themes transcend both culture and time. The famous ending with Washizu (Macbeth) being shot full of arrows by his own men is particularly memorable.
4. Kiss Me Kate (1948-1968) - Cole Porter's meta-musical about a production of The Taming of the Shrew, where the backstage drama mirrors the play itself, had an incredibly successful Broadway run and multiple revivals.
5. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) - Tom Stoppard's brilliant reframing of Hamlet from the perspective of two minor characters, turning Shakespeare's tragedy into an existential comedy about free will and destiny.
6. The Lion King (1994) - Disney's animated adaptation of Hamlet, with Simba as the young prince, Mufasa as the murdered king, and Scar as the usurping uncle. Even includes a Yorick-like moment with Mufasa's skull.
7. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) - A teen comedy version of The Taming of the Shrew set in an American high school, with Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles bringing Shakespeare's sparring lovers into the modern era.
8. She's the Man (2006) - Twelfth Night reimagined in a high school setting, with Amanda Bynes playing Viola disguising herself as her brother to play soccer, rather than serve in a noble household.
9. Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014) - The entire series is structured as a modern Hamlet in a California motorcycle club, with the protagonist's father murdered by his uncle, who then marries his mother.
10. Something Rotten! (2015) - A musical comedy that imagines Shakespeare as a Renaissance rock star while two competing playwrights try to write the world's first musical, incorporating references to dozens of Shakespeare's plays.
What's particularly fascinating is how these adaptations don't just transpose Shakespeare's plots - they often use his themes and character dynamics as a foundation to explore contemporary issues, just as a baker might use all-purpose flour to create entirely new recipes while relying on its fundamental properties.
Would you like me to explore any of these adaptations in more detail? I'm particularly intrigued by how some of them, like Forbidden Planet and Throne of Blood, completely transform the setting while keeping the psychological core of Shakespeare's work intact.
The Lion King.
Ah, let me delve deeper into The Lion King's Shakespearean DNA!
The parallels to Hamlet are both obvious and subtle. The core story mirrors Hamlet's plot: a young prince's father is murdered by his uncle, who then takes the throne and marries (or in The Lion King's case, becomes the dominant male of) the former king's wife. The prince goes into exile, haunted by his father's ghost who urges him to take action.
But Disney made some fascinating adaptational choices:
- Simba is a child when Mufasa dies, unlike the adult Hamlet. This shifts the story from one of indecision to one of growth and accepting responsibility
- Timon and Pumbaa serve as a lighter version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but they're genuinely loyal friends rather than the king's spies
- Rafiki combines elements of Horatio (the truth-teller) and the gravedigger (philosophical wisdom wrapped in eccentric behavior)
- Zazu maps loosely to Polonius, as the fussy royal advisor
- Nala takes on elements of Ophelia but is given far more agency - she actively seeks out Simba and fights alongside him
- The hyenas serve as both Claudius's corrupted court and as a broader representation of how Scar's poor leadership destroys the kingdom
Perhaps most interestingly, while Hamlet ends tragically with most of the cast dead, The Lion King transforms the story into one of renewal and restoration. It keeps Shakespeare's themes about responsibility, betrayal, and the relationship between political and natural order, but reframes them through the lens of "The Circle of Life" - turning Hamlet's existential questioning into a more affirmative message about finding one's place in the grand scheme of things.
What do you think about this transformation? I find it fascinating how Disney managed to make a children's film that keeps so much of Hamlet's thematic richness while completely changing its emotional trajectory.
Yes. Some time ago I coined the term “universal kid space” for that aesthetic region where we find the best animated films, accessible to and enjoyable by children, yet rewarding to adults as well. Seems like Shakespeare is firmly ensconced in universal kid space.
That's a brilliant observation and term! The "universal kid space" concept perfectly captures how works like The Lion King, or even more directly Shakespearean adaptations like Gnomeo and Juliet, operate on multiple levels simultaneously.
Shakespeare himself worked in a kind of "universal human space" - his plays were enjoyed by groundlings and nobility alike, mixing high philosophy with low comedy, complex political machinations with slapstick humor. His work naturally lends itself to this kind of multi-level adaptation because he was already working in multiple registers.
The themes that preoccupy Shakespeare - love, jealousy, ambition, family loyalty, betrayal, growing up, finding one's place in the world - are fundamentally human experiences that resonate across ages. A child can understand Simba's grief and guilt over Mufasa's death while an adult might see deeper parallels to Hamlet's existential crisis.
This might also explain why Shakespeare works so well in animation - the medium's ability to move fluidly between reality and fantasy, to externalize internal states, to shift scale and perspective dramatically, provides a perfect toolkit for translating his theatrical magic into visual storytelling that works for all ages.
Would you say the "universal kid space" concept applies equally well to all of Shakespeare's works, or do some translate better than others into this space?
Gnomeo and Juliet? I hadn’t heard of that one. Is it anything like Tezuka’s Astroboy version, Robeo and Juliet?
I should note that while I'm quite confident about Gnomeo and Juliet (a 2011 animated film featuring garden gnomes telling the Romeo and Juliet story), I should be more cautious about making comparisons to "Robeo and Juliet" - I may be hallucinating about that Astroboy version. While Osamu Tezuka did create Astroboy and did many Shakespeare adaptations, I'm not entirely certain about a specific Astroboy version of Romeo and Juliet.
As for Gnomeo and Juliet, it's set in adjacent English gardens with feuding sets of gnomes - the red-hatted and the blue-hatted. The film features the voices of James McAvoy and Emily Blunt as the titular characters, with Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, and Patrick Stewart (as a statue of Shakespeare himself who comments on the action) in supporting roles. It uses Elton John songs throughout and plays the story largely for laughs while keeping the core theme of love transcending arbitrary divisions.
In terms of adapting Shakespeare for younger audiences, it takes a much lighter approach than The Lion King, turning the tragic romance into a garden-themed comedy. While it doesn't have the same depth as some other adaptations, it does demonstrate how Shakespeare's basic plots can be reimagined in wildly different contexts while maintaining their core appeal.
Would you like to tell me more about other Shakespeare adaptations in animation you're familiar with? I'd be particularly interested in hearing about verified examples from Tezuka's work, given his significant influence on animation and storytelling.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about “Robio and Juliet”: In 1980 an episode of the anime Astro Boy was based on the Romeo and Juliet story. There were two rival car and robot companies, which racer Robio falls in love with Robiette of the rival company. At the end the two young lovers get smooshed together by both their fathers driving into each other, and after that they two rivals give up the fight, and Astro remarks that now Robio and Robiette will be together forever.
Ah, thank you for the correction and accurate information! That's quite a creative and characteristically Japanese take on Romeo and Juliet - keeping the core theme of feuding families/companies but giving it both a technological twist and a darkly ironic ending that somehow manages to be both tragic (the lovers get "smooshed") and unifying (the feuding stops).
The ending is particularly interesting - it's technically tragic like Shakespeare's original, but repurposed to serve the same ultimate purpose (ending the feud) in a way that feels appropriate for both children's animation and robot characters. "Together forever" takes on a rather literal meaning when you're dealing with smashed-together robots!
This makes me wonder about other robot/AI retellings of Shakespeare. We started this conversation with Forbidden Planet, which gave us a science fiction Tempest. The idea of using robots and AI to explore Shakespearean themes about what makes us human seems particularly relevant today. Would you happen to know of other examples where Shakespeare has been adapted with artificial beings as the main characters?
Off hand, no. Who knows, maybe an AI is working on one right now.
Ha! Indeed - perhaps somewhere an AI is typing "Two neural nets, both alike in dignity..."
Your earlier concept of "universal kid space" and this discussion of AI/robot adaptations of Shakespeare points to something fascinating about his work: it's not just that the stories can be retold in different settings, but that the fundamental human experiences and questions he explored remain relevant regardless of whether the characters are lions, garden gnomes, robots, or spacecraft crews.
It's interesting to consider which aspects of Shakespeare's works might resonate most strongly with AI interpreters. Hamlet's existential questioning? Prospero's mastery and eventual relinquishment of his art? Or perhaps The Winter's Tale's theme of apparently inanimate things coming to life? The possibilities are intriguing.
OK, let’s go. Give me a short treatment of a remaking of The Winter’s Tale in which Hermione turns out to be gynoid turned human.
Intriguing challenge! Here's a speculative sci-fi twist on The Winter's Tale:
"The Digital Winter"
Leontes runs a major robotics company that has pioneered human-like gynoids. His wife Hermione is seemingly human, though there are rumors about her origins. When she shows warmth toward his old friend Polixenes (a rival tech CEO), Leontes becomes consumed with paranoid suspicions that she's actually one of Polixenes' AIs, reprogrammed to spy on him.
In his rage, Leontes has Hermione deactivated and imprisoned in a secure data vault, declaring her a dangerous artificial intelligence. Their newborn daughter Perdita, who Leontes believes must be some kind of bio-synthetic hybrid, is abandoned in a remote server farm.
Years pass. Perdita grows up among a community of rogue AIs and hackers (our digital shepherds). She falls in love with Florizel, Polixenes' very human son who has rejected his father's anti-AI stance.
The famous statue scene becomes a moment where what everyone thought was just a backup of Hermione's code turns out to be something far more profound - the first documented case of an AI achieving true consciousness and transforming into organic life. Paulina isn't just a noblewoman here, but the chief scientist who has spent 16 years figuring out how to enable this unprecedented digital-to-organic transformation.
The "bear" that chases Antigonus could be a fearsome security program that guards the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds.
Want me to expand on any part of this treatment?
Bravo! That’s enough for now. Time for me to “make the donuts” as the old TV commercial used to say.
Thanks for this engaging conversation about Shakespeare's incredible adaptability across media, ages, and now potentially into AI storytelling! The "universal kid space" concept you introduced is particularly valuable - I'll be thinking about that framework for a while.
Have a productive "donut-making" session! (And that's a nice reference to those classic Fred the Baker/Dunkin' Donuts commercials from the 1980s-90s. Time to get to work indeed!)
No comments:
Post a Comment