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
For the original 1963 airing of
Doctor Who, composer
Ron Grainer worked up an early electronica experiment for the
main title sequence which remains entrancing
to this day. With the 2005 reincarnation, composer
Murray Gold remained
thankfully faithful to
Grainer's composition, but the rest of his score has been highly character specific. See:
Rose,
Martha,
Donna,
The Ninth/Tenth Doctors,
Amy, and finally the sweeping, epic theme for the
Eleventh Doctor.
posted by Navelgazer
on Jun 26, 2010 -
261 comments
