This thesis concentrates on the differences between American and Japanese adaptations of the same classic tragedy as an animated cartoon. For this purpose, the culture of the United States of America and Japan as well as their animation industry is assessed. This socio-cultural information provides the background on which a systematic film analysis of the American animation The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride and the Japanese animation Romeo x Juliet is conducted, both of them being adaptations of

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... lliam Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. This analysis yields the findings, that the American film version does not correspond with the common reproaches of simplicity of American cartoon animations and that the Japanese adaptation makes a point of not only clearly referring to the original, but also of referring to numerous other classical works. Moreover it turns out, that the adaptations are not as dissimilar as the differences of their cultures and the specialist literature would suggest. Because of these findings, a more detailed, updated scientific study of the subject matter seems to be appropriate.