Disney's "The Lion King"
The Lion King Official Trailer Disney

“The Lion King” is a photorealistic remake of the 1994 film of the same title. The story features a young lion named Simba in a quest to return to his homeland and reclaim the throne that his father left. The remake of “The Lion King” has already hit theaters, and Timon and Pumbaa are stealing the show.

In a featurette released by Disney, voice actors Donald Glover, who plays Simba; Billy Eichner, who gives life to Timon; and Seth Rogen, who voices Pumbaa, relive the experience of recording “Hakuna Matata.”

“Hakuna Matata” is a song played in an iconic scene from the 1994 film. In the trailer of the 2019 film, the same scene was mirrored and re-enacted in a CGI live action. The song is also part of “The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack,” a full-length album released on July 11.

“It’s really cool to work with something this big,” said Glover, widely known as Childish Gambino. In one interview, he mentioned that he wanted to make the film a “global and metropolitan” one. Meanwhile, Rogen said that they didn’t just want to recreate the songs. They wanted to reinvent them in their own way.

“We got to improvise a lot and find our own version of it,” added Eichner. The actors revealed that they’ve created recordings with improvisation that did not make the cut, but they still enjoyed recording.

Hans Zimmer, the composer of the soundtrack of the 1994 film, returned this time to score the 2019 remake. Elton John and Tim Rice wrote most of the songs on the album.

Other artists who worked on the original soundtrack include Jady McCrary, John Oliver and Lebo M. Beyoncé also worked on the song titled “Spirit.” She recently released the music video for the song featuring African dancers and music, with a cameo from her daughter, Blue Ivy Carter.

Aside from the original soundtrack, Beyoncé also released a full-length standalone album to supplement the film and the original album. The singer described the music as a new genre with African instruments and sounds mixed with American producers. Beyoncé is also an executive producer of the film.

Hours into the film’s release in theaters, “The Lion King” was already getting criticisms. The popular opinion was that the live-action CGI failed to capture the lively and wondrous illusion of the original 1994 film, especially when the mirrored clips are compared with each other. The film hit theaters on July 19.

'The Lion King'
'The Lion King' remake arrives in theaters on July 19. Facebook/DisneyTheLionKing

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