![]() ![]() The plan was that we wouldn’t write the usual Broadway-style Disney score, but try and come up with pop songs that kids would like.” I was intrigued… The songs had to tell a story. Apparently, Disney were making their first animated film based on an original story rather than an existing work, and Tim wanted me involved. In his 2019 autobiography, Me, Elton John remembered Rice’s original approach, “Ten years after we’d last written a song together, Tim Rice phoned up out of the blue, asking me if I was interested in working with him again. They asked him and to my amazement, Elton said yes.” I said, well, Elton John would be fantastic, but you probably won’t get a hold of him simply because he’s very busy and he hasn’t done a film score like this in 25 years. “They said choose anybody in the world and choose the best. “The studio asked me if I had any suggestions,” he recalled. Rice set about choosing a writing partner, as he recalled in The Lion King’s original production notes. Listen to the Disney Hits playlist on Spotify or Apple Music now. Disney called upon British lyricist Tim Rice – best known for collaborating on stage musicals with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber – to finish Ashman’s work on Aladdin and asked him to remain with the studio for their next feature, The Lion King. Tragically, lyricist Howard Ashman died during the making of 1992’s Aladdin, breaking up the winning partnership he’d formed with composer Alan Menken on the soundtracks of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. That last point was borne out of necessity. And it was the first film of the studio’s renaissance to look beyond the talents of Broadway composers for its songs. Nor had a Disney movie ever featured an entire cast of animal characters, though 1942’s Bambi had come close. The studio had never based a feature film on an original story. ![]() ![]() ![]() It’s incredible to think that 1994’s The Lion King was initially considered a risky move, such was the incredible success of Disney’s 32nd feature film. ![]()
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