Ian Melchinger

Sanity Clause (Thing is Thing) (YouTube link)

Start simple.
(Sonic Youth meets Schoolhouse Rock)

Loving You is a Gerund Phrase

Nobody knows why it's called that.
(Aretha Franklin meets Beastie Boys)

"The weight of this sad time we must obey."

Edgar (or Albany), in King Lear's final speech

The Lion King Lear

Before Shakspeare wrote King Lear, everyone knew that it had a partially happy ending: although King Lear eventually died in The True Chronicle History of King Leir and his three daughters, Gonerill, Ragan and Cordella (pub. 1605), as with Holinshed and Spencer's source work before that, Cordelia was restored to power and happiness. Shakespeare changed the story radically, pushed the envelope of tragedy yet again, and blew the minds of his audiences.

The Walt Disney Company has enchanted generations of children by adapting old, strange stories into easily digested commercial-empowerment fables. All child viewers expect a dead parent, a God-given destiny, a maniacal (unmarried) villain, a big disappoinment, nihilistic moping (Hakuna Matata!), and an ultraviolent finale in which God's will is made manifest as the villain plummets from a great height, is eaten, or in the case of Marvel's franchise might be skewered in the crotch a la Green Goblin. Tragic falls shift to the villain so the hero can get married and breed. Even false mavericks like DreamWorks' Shrek can't resist the formula -- but maybe our students can!

This project asks students to steal the Disney classics back, doing unto them what Shakespeare did to the original King Leir story he had on his shelf. Students put as much of a well-studied Shakespearean King Lear into a beloved Disney/Pixar/Marvel/DreamWorks commercial hit as possible, in order to experience just how cataclysmically bold Shakespeare's new experience in bleakness really was.