7/31/2023 0 Comments Simba movie background music![]() The whole thing opens, of course, with Lebo M’s legendary plaintive Zulu cry “Nants’ Ingonyama,” heralding the newborn king and inviting all the animals of the savannah to pay homage. Not only that, Disney took advantage of having global superstar Beyoncé in their cast by having her co-write a brand new song, while John and Rice also contributed a brand new song of their own for the end credits. The same opportunity was given to the songs, which were to be performed by an all-new voice cast, and had one or two updated lyrics and contemporary twists to keep them fresh. ![]() As was the case with Alan Menken on Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, this new version of The Lion King gave Zimmer the opportunity to revisit one of his best loved scores, 25 years down the line, and freshen up the sound for a new audience. Meanwhile, Zimmer won his first –and, to date, only – Academy Award for his score, just five years or so after he first broke through into the film music mainstream with Rain Man. Three of John and Rice’s original songs – “Circle of Life,” “Hakuna Matata,” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” – were nominated for an Academy Award, with the latter one taking home the Oscar. Music played a massive part in the success of the original Lion King, and the majority of it can be attributed to three men: Hans Zimmer, Elton John, and Tim Rice. Eventually, after many years in exile, Simba is convinced by his childhood friend Nala to return to Pride Rock, defeat Scar, and take his rightful place as king. Scar frames Simba for his father’s death in a wildebeest stampede, and coerces him into fleeing Simba ultimately grows up away from the pride, his only friends being a talkative meerkat named Timon and a flatulent warthog named Pumbaa. However, Simba’s uncle Scar covets the throne, and is Machiavellian in his plans to usurp the order of succession. ![]() The story is a well-worn one – to boil it down to its basics, it’s Shakespeare’s Hamlet with lions – and it follows the adventures of a young cub named Simba who is born into royal lineage and is destined to succeed his father, Mufasa, as king. ![]() Unlike the original film, which had a hand-drawn animated look, the new Lion King is rendered in near-perfect photo-realism the spectacular African backgrounds come straight from the pages of National Geographic, while the lions, hyenas, warthogs and meerkats are all now virtually indistinguishable from the real thing – except, of course, for the fact that they talk and sing. The man to whom Disney turned was actor-writer-director Jon Favreau, who had already pushed the boundaries of CGI when he directed a new version of The Jungle Book for them in 2016. With Disney in the middle of making live-action versions of several of their classic animated films – we have already had Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, among others – it stands to reason that The Lion King would be in line for the same treatment, given the improvements in digital computer technology since the original was released. The film spawned a massively successful stage show that ran for many years on Broadway, several animated spinoffs, and single-handedly introduced the phrase ‘hakuna matata’ into the American lexicon. The Lion King, originally directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, did pretty brisk business at the box office when it was released in the summer of 1994, raking in almost $1 billion at the global box office, and quickly becoming an enormous cultural phenomenon too. When Lebo M’s plaintive cry in his native Zulu rang out across the savannah, informing the animals of the plain that a newborn lion, destined for greatness, had been born, one of the most memorable moments in film music history was born along with him. Nants ingonyama bagithi baba! Sithi q!uhm, ingonyama Siyo n!qoba Ingonyama nengw’enamabala, ingonyama nengw’enamabala… Nants ingonyama bagithi baba! Sithi q!uhm, ingonyama.
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