#this has been another rendition of 'the disney sequels are actually pretty solid'

[disneydreamlights]

Hey so I went off in the tags but I don’t think I talked about it here.

So let’s talk about the new Lion King songs, or actually basically the six old ones that existed prior to the movie.

And yes, by the way, I’m very salty.

Positives:

He Lives in You is in the movie. For those who don’t know it’s a song that started in the Broadway musical and eventually made it into the sequel. It’s a very good song that deserves every bit of attention it’s getting. And it’s a very good rendition of the song too. The lack of nostalgic ties makes it easier for me to recognize it for what it is and that’s amazing.

Circle of Life is an exact remake of the original song just with a new vocalist. I’m sure you expected me to consider this a negative but you cannot improve on perfection so the fact that they instead decided to replicate it is a good decision. I still stan Circle of Life.

Can You Feel the Love Tonight surprised me? I didn’t expect to like it and while I find the additions they added to Pumbaa’s lines a little grating when Simba and Nala are singing they steal the show. Beyonce’s voice also was really good in this song, which was another surprise since it’s very different than the stuff you normally hear her sing (R&B is very different from showtunes). She has a voice that fits a wide variety of genres and that in and of itself is impressive.

Overall they didn’t change the background melodies much. They’re still very clearly recognizable and this shouldn’t be important but literally if you’ve heard the A Whole New World remake where the singers were phenomenal and it would’ve been great except they turned the background music into bland terrible badness, you know why this is important. None of these songs have bland background tracks and are very faithful to their originals, probably the most faithful of all the Disney remake songs thus far, with one exception.

Negatives:

They ruined the best Disney villain song ever. With the lackluster effort they put into Be Prepared (spoiler alert, it’s fucking terrible) they might as well have not included the song. It doesn’t feel like a song, it’s just a poor mockery of the phenomenal and fun original. I hate it.

I Just Can’t Wait to be King lacks the same energy of the original. The baby Simba and Nala voices are actually really good and they did a great job with it but Zazu’s voice actor stays to serious. It’s boring and lacks the same staccato and energetic feel that the original does. As a result it feels too slow in contrast to the upbeat and fast paced singing and background of the song. The effect is further contrasted by the fact that several portions of the song in the latter half (Anything Zazu’s solo part) almost feels like they’re trying too hard to make it a Disney epic while also trying to keep it lighthearted and fun, but it’s not a combo that works because it forgets what makes the song fun to begin with. It’s not necessarily bad, it’s just a decision I don’t care for. I’m assuming it’s going to be similar for the scene as well, which is a shame since it’s one of the most fun pieces of Disney animation.

Hakuna Matata is...bad. There’s far too much banter between Timon and Pumbaa that it detracts from the song and paying attention, and almost none of it was funny. One line got a chuckle for a highly personal reason because the idea of Pumbaa being “Brad” (the most fuckboy name of all time imo) is just honestly hilarious, especially when you take into account I had a fairweather friend named Brad. In fact there was one line that took an actually funny joke (“And I got downhearted” “How did you feel” “Everytime that I--” “Pumbaa, not in front of the kid” “Oh, sorry”) from the original song and actually took a shot at it. (”Everytime that I farteeeeeeed aren’t you gonna stop me?” “No I’m not”) And it wasn’t funny, it was downright mean spirited. Like I didn’t hate it as much as I did Be Prepared, but it pissed me off anyways.

Other:

Did not listen to any new songs from the movie. I believe it’s just Beyonce’s solo but the point of my listening to the soundtrack was to assess the old songs since the new songs Disney has made for its rereleases (Evermore, Speechless, etc) tend to be pretty solid overall so long as they’ve had the vocalist to back it up (which with Beyonce they definitely do)

Anyways I didn’t really have a lot of hope for this remake and this didn’t really give me any reassurances. Kinda did the opposite. More trash from people who didn’t understand what made the original great and change things for the sake of answering nonexistent questions and “perceived plotholes” while taking jabs at earlier Renaissance Disney for things that don’t deserve jabs are on the horizon.

It’s actually sad because Circle of Life gave me hope because it was the first I listened to because I was looking to be salty, and then I was pleasantly surprised by Can You Feel the Love Tonight and He Lives in You, then that hope just got dashed by the latter half of my listening spree.

(Interestingly enough, this broke the trend from BatB though where the more I liked a song in the original the more I hated it in the remake. My song ranking list remains about how it was, just with Be Prepared being last instead of third. My favorite songs from the movie remained unscathed.)

#personal stuff