Walt Disney Pictures had its fourth straight massive hit with an animated movie musical in the summer of 1994, a tale of the coming of age of a young lion. The movie studio changed composers, replacing
Alan Menken, who scored The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, with
Hans Zimmer (instrumental score) and
Elton John (songs); lyricist
Tim Rice, who took over on Aladdin after the death of
Howard Ashman, remained in place.
John took a leaf from the
Paul Simon Graceland songbook and filled his music with references to South African mbaqanga. But there wasn't that much of it: We're only talking about five songs here, three of which are repeated at the end in versions by
John (one of those, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," became a hit single). And an already-padded soundtrack was further padded with four excerpts from
Zimmer's score. Pretty skimpy, all things considered, but that didn't keep this album from topping the charts as the movie harvested hundreds of millions of dollars all summer. ~ William Ruhlmann