Nants ingonyama bagithi baba! It's been nearly two decades since that glorious savanna sunrise, and once again
The Lion King is
at the top of the box office. It's a good chance to revisit what made the original the capstone of the
Disney Renaissance, starting with the music. Not the gaudy show tunes or the Elton John ballads, but the soaring, elegiac score by Hans Zimmer which, despite winning an Oscar, never saw a full release outside of
an unofficial bootleg.
Luckily, it's unabridged and high-quality, allowing one to lay Zimmer's
haunting,
pulse-pounding,
joyful tracks
alongside the original video (
part 2,
3,
4), revealing the subtle leitmotifs and careful matching of music and action.
In addition, South African collaborator
Lebo M wove traditional Zulu chorals into the score, providing
veiled commentary on
scenes like this; his work was later
expanded into
a full album,
the Broadway stage show, and
projects closer to his heart. Speaking of expanded works, there were inevitable sequels -- all of which you can experience with
The Lion King: Full Circle (
download guide), a fan-made, three-hour supercut of the original film and its two follow-ups.
Want more? Look...
harder... [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Oct 1, 2011 -
22 comments
We wanted to hold onto them for as long as possible. Not as much as a tribute to the early history of MAD... but because these paintings were covering up quite a few holes in the walls.
posted by R. Mutt
on Oct 17, 2008 -
8 comments
No Tourists, No Artists. Tourists at
Atlanta's Underground didn't realize they were working with an real live artist, but they were.
Tom Richmond,
Caricaturist Of The Year for 1998 and 1999,
recipient of a Reuben Award in
2003 ,
one-time comic book creator, and frequent artistic contributor to
Mad Magazine (
movie parodies, mostly), supported his freelance work for almost 18 years by doing cartoons-for-hire in
historic Underground Atlanta.
Despite many efforts to "save" it,
Underground continues to
fade in popularity and the tourist traffic just dwindles on down, leaving folks like Tom no choice but to pack up their paints and leave. Tom's story makes for interesting insight into a job that most of us might take for tourist-trapping huckstery.
(via Radical Georgia Moderate)
posted by grabbingsand
on Jan 7, 2008 -
14 comments
The Apocalypse According to Mad Magazine? Basil Wolverton, best known for his work on
early issues of Mad Magazine, was also a Minister in the
Radio Church of God. This church, founded by Herbert Armstrong, father of Garner Ted, believed the Apocalypse would happen sometime in 1972, and Wolverton's illustrations were in pamphlets designed to alert the public to this fact. 1972 has passed, the church has splintered, and Herbert is long dead - but nonetheless he has a
blog. As a bonus, you can view Basil's apocalypse
in 3-d.
Wolverton links via
posted by Rumple
on May 26, 2006 -
11 comments
A Mad Parody Of The Onion Well, if this isn't Meta, I don't know what is. Certainly, we all know about
The Onion (and, indeed, our consensus is that we don't post Onion links here). The fine fellows at
MAD magazine have hoisted the Area Men by their own petard. I hate to say it, 'cuz I think The Onion is often quite funny, but they've got it nailed. (via
Heath Row's Media Diet)
posted by briank
on Nov 13, 2002 -
58 comments
