Shangri-La in popular culture

Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton, and its adaptations: 1937 film directed by Frank Capra titled Lost Horizon, and a 1973 musical film directed by Charles Jarrott. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains.
References to Shangri-La in other cultural works are commonplace, as it has become synonymous with any earthly paradise but particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia — a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world. In the novel Lost Horizon, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance. The word also evokes the imagery of exoticism of the Orient.
Below are various works that contain some substantive depiction of Shangri-La, or a parody of it. For things named after Shangri-La, see .
Film
* In the 1980 animated film Animalympics, a dachshund skiing champion stumbles upon "Dogra-la" while lost in the mountains, and is nursed back to health by its unaging canine inhabitants.
* Shangri-La is featured in the 2004 television movie The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, where Flynn and Nicole find the third piece of the Spear of Destiny.
* In the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Joseph Sullivan and Polly Perkins discover Shangri-La in Nepal.
* In the 2007 movie ', Shaggy and Scooby stumble across Shangri-La while escaping from the Yeti.
* In the 2008 film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the Dragon Emperor journeys to Shangri-La in search of the pool of eternal life.
* In the 2009 anime series Shangri-La, produced by Japanese studio .
Television
*"Journey to Shangri-La", an episode of Jem, is based around the premise of a visit to Shangri-La by Jem and the Holograms.
*In the anime Saiyuki, Son Goku, the monkey king, and Genjo Sanzo, a high buddhist priest set out to protect Shangri-La from Demons, with help from Cho Hakkai and Sha Gojyo, two demons themselves.
*Shangri-La was parodied on the The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius episode Operation: Rescue Jet Fusion as Shangri-Llama that Sheen Estevez and Carl Wheezer visit.
*An episode of the children's show Cyberchase is set in Shangri La. The episode is about the mathematical concept of doubling.
*An episode of Disney's animated series TaleSpin named "Last Horizons" depicts a plot where Baloo encounters a hidden city called "Panda-La". Anthropomorphic pandas (all the characters are anthropomorphic, in the series) rule the isolated city and the Emperor named Wan Lo (notably, Robert Ito is the voice) ultimately exploits the easy-going Baloo who leads them back to Cape Suzette where the Emperor launches an attack. Strangely, this episode was coined as controversial (though, it was definitely syndicated for a short time) and was temporarily banned and taken off the air. However, it can be found on the Vol. 2 DVD of the series.
Music
*"Shangri-La" is a song written in 1946 by Carl Sigman, Matt Malneck, and Robert Maxwell. Maxwell had a hit with the first instrumental version with his orchestra in 1964. It was also made popular in vocal recordings by The Four Coins and The Lettermen, and sung as a popular standard by many singers of the big band era. Jackie Gleason also used "Shangri-La" as his theme song. It was also used as the theme song of the radio program Radio City Playhouse.
*Shangri-La is referenced in multiple songs by Psychopathic Records artists, including Insane Clown Posse and Zug Izland. Within the context of Insane Clown Posse-mythology, Shangri-La refers to Heaven.
Games
*Shangri-La is the central theme of "The Bridges of Shangri-La", a board game designed by Leo Colovini and currently published by Überplay. Previous editions were published by Kosmos and 999 Games.
*Nathan Drake hunts for Shangri-La in the 2009 video game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
Other
*The United States navy named one of its aircraft carriers after the fictional location, . The name was a reference to the recently lost : after the Doolittle Raid, launched from the Hornet, President Roosevelt answered a reporter's question by saying that the raid had come from "Shangri-La".
*The name and legend inspired Carl Barks when he wrote and drew the Uncle Scrooge comic book "The Land of Tralla La" published in 1954. Half a century later, Don Rosa later wrote and drew "Return to Tralla La." Tralla La is shown as almost identical to Shangri-La.
*A version of Shangri-La called Nanda Parbat can be found in DC Comics. It was created by a deity called Rama Kushna, who also created Deadman.
*Allan Quatermain and Mina Murray meet Orlando during a visit to Shangri-la in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The New Traveller's Almanac.
*The characters of Urusei Yatsura visit a place claiming to be Shangri-La in one of the manga chapters.
*Shangri-La and the novel are spoofed in the Goon Show episode "Shangri-La Again". Script:
*In the Indiana Jones comic Thunder in the Orient, set in 1938, Indiana Jones and Sophia Hapgood discover an unknown city in the Western Hymalayas named "Chanri-Ha" and wonder if it might be Milton's real inspiration for Shangri-La. They soon discover, however, that the place is far from utopian as it still retains some brutal Pagan ceremonies including human sacrifice, as well as slavery, worship of ancient military conquerors of the city such as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, and systematic assassination of foreigners (which the locals consider demons). The city is later sacked and destroyed (or at least heavily damaged) by a Chinese female warlord known as the Serpent Lady.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu