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Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is perhaps one of the most well known plays of Shakespeare. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet are two young lovers, who fall in love despite their family's feud. They marry in secret, but through miscommunication and mishap, the story ends in complete tradgedy when Romeo, Juliet, and many other main characters all die in the end. (Alchin)
In 1996 a film adaptation was made called Romeo + Juliet. The theme of the film is exactly the same as the play, of two young lovers trying to overcome their families hatred of each other. "Most of the film's story takes place in a city called 'Verona Beach.' Verona Beach is the center of a corporate war between two leaders of industry, 'Montague' and 'Capulet', rather than just a mere family feud. Prince Escalus is renamed 'Captain Prince', and instead of being Prince of Verona, he is the Chief of the Verona Beach Police Department. Dave Paris is stated as being the Governor's son rather than a nobleman." ("Romeo + Juliet")
As with the Lion King, it is easiest to line up the characters and the places side by side with the current film in order to truly show current culture the Shakespearean characters. Besides the ability of the film to preserve all the original names and places, just update them to current culture, the film also does a very unique thing: it keeps Shakespeare's original dialogue, just cut down for time. It gives the audience to not only see a play adapted from Shakespeare, but also see it and understand it in the Shakespearen dialogue, very different from today's speech.