“The Lion King,” first released as an animated film in 1994, has spawned multiple adaptations and sequels, including Julie Taymor’s 1997 Broadway production and a soundtrack companion album by Beyoncé for the 2019 computer-enhanced movie version. The plot of the story, about a young lion finding his place in the world, has been compared to which play by William Shakespeare?

From a 1994 article by Perri Klass in The Times:

What there is in “The Lion King,” along with sometimes breathtaking animation and well-cast voices, is an interesting mix of “Hamlet,” “Bambi” and “The Jungle Book,” all shot through with some contemporary sensibility about men who can’t grow up. Is this just a late-20th-century take on “Hamlet” imbued with self-help books and actualization therapy? Instead of a young man who could not make up his mind, we have a young man who cannot share his feelings and has trouble with commitment. Still, when the ghost of the dead king appears to the young lion and charges him to depose his treacherous uncle to reclaim the kingdom, you can't help looking around for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (played here by a warthog and a meerkat).