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[0:00] Tim Rice: Hello, this is Tim Rice.

[0:01] Tim Rice: Welcome to episode 16 of my podcast, Get Onto My Cloud.

[0:15] Tim Rice: On July the 14th, 2019, BC, before COVID, I was invited to attend the premiere of the new Lion King movie, a computer generated remake of the 1994 hit animation film, for which Elton John and I had written the five featured songs, Circle of Life, Hakuna Matata, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, I Just Can't Wait to Be King, and Be Prepared.

[0:42] Tim Rice: These songs were to be included in the second version.

[0:45] Tim Rice: How could they not be, I arrogantly thought.

[0:48] Tim Rice: And we were kind of invited to write one more, something brand new for the 2019 version soundtrack.

[0:55] Tim Rice: We actually wrote two, which if you stick with this podcast, you will shortly hear.

[1:00] Tim Rice: But before I tell the story of their creation and play them, a tale about the London Premiere.

[1:06] Tim Rice: When the Walt Disney Company announced the date for this glittering occasion, they did not take the Cricket World Cup final into consideration.

[1:14] Tim Rice: When I agreed to attend the movie premiere some months before, I'd no idea there would be a clash, nor did I know that my team, England, would be in the final, which amazingly turned out to be the case.

[1:27] Tim Rice: For non-cricket fans, I should explain that the Cricket World Cup is as important to the sport and its followers as the Football World Cup is to soccer lovers, especially in cricket mad nations such as India and Pakistan.

[1:40] Tim Rice: Admittedly, cricket doesn't mean much in the USA, hence Disney's inconsiderate scheduling.

[1:46] Tim Rice: But in the places where it does matter, it's on a par with the World Series or the Olympic Games.

[1:51] Tim Rice: A game of cricket, of course, cricket being a subtle and intellectual endeavor, a game of cricket lasts much longer than most other sporting occasions, and the World Cup final at Lord's Cricket Ground that day began mid-morning and was scheduled to continue until early evening.

[2:08] Tim Rice: I would be able to see quite a bit of the match, which was England versus New Zealand, leave around mid-afternoon for the Lion King and hope that the climax of the game would not be particularly exciting.

[2:19] Tim Rice: Not a charitable thought for the 26,000 fans packed into Lord's, I admit.

[2:24] Tim Rice: So I left the game at around 3 p.m.

[2:27] Tim Rice: It showed no signs of being anything out of the ordinary.

[2:31] Tim Rice: By five o'clock, I was standing in my dinner jacket, in the line of A-listers and lesser mortals, in an increasingly warm cinema foyer in Leicester Square, wishing I had attended the Los Angeles World Premier a week earlier instead.

[2:44] Tim Rice: The heavyweights were all there, in addition to Elton and Bob Iger, Disney's CEO.

[2:49] Tim Rice: There was Beyonce, Jay-Z, Han Zimmer, Pharrell Williams, and the director of the film, John Favreau.

[2:56] Tim Rice: Guests of honour were Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, still doing their royal rounds at the time.

[3:03] Tim Rice: Whatever happened to them.

[3:05] Tim Rice: My brother was updating me with the cricket score as Harry and Meghan walked along the line of megastars and chatted to the team behind the film.

[3:13] Tim Rice: Simultaneously, it was becoming annoyingly clear that the World Cup final was turning into one of the most exciting matches of all time.

[3:21] Tim Rice: At least when Prince Harry spotted my phone and asked me what the latest score was, I was able to clue him in.

[3:27] Tim Rice: Once in the actual cinema, I was still glued to my phone rather than to the action on the larger screen.

[3:32] Tim Rice: I had, after all, seen quite a bit of Lion King in various forms since 1994, and this was a World Cup final featuring England, which hadn't happened since 1992.

[3:43] Tim Rice: As the game moved towards its gripping climax, Libo M's immortal opening chant to Circle of Life took flight.

[3:50] Tim Rice: An alert usher, quite correctly, of course, ordered me to switch off my phone.

[3:56] Tim Rice: Nearly two hours later, I learned what I'd missed, the climax to one of the great cricket matches of all time.

[4:03] Tim Rice: Back to the movie itself.

[4:05] Tim Rice: Only one of the two songs that Elton and I wrote made the cut, and even that was only featured over the end credits, so thoughts of us repeating our 1994 Oscar triumph we'd enjoyed with Can You Feel the Love Tonight were never seriously on.

[4:19] Tim Rice: Although Elton and Bernie Taupin, I'm very glad to say, won the 2019 Oscar with I'm Gonna Love Me Again, their song from Rocket Man, the Elton Biopic.

[4:29] Tim Rice: Elton was doubtless relieved not to be competing against himself for votes.

[4:33] Tim Rice: He and Bernie got my vote.

[4:35] Tim Rice: John Favreau's Lion King was a technical and visual triumph, a staggering CGI recreation of the original cartoon version.

[4:44] Tim Rice: Actually, officially, Disney never permit the description cartoon.

[4:48] Tim Rice: It's an animated feature.

[4:50] Tim Rice: Although for someone brought up on the early Disney animated masterpieces, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Fantasia, Cinderella, and so on, and other works of genius in that field, such as Tom and Jerry, cartoon is never an insult, but a most honourable accolade.

[5:06] Tim Rice: Our music and songs did not play such a crucial role as they had done in the original picture.

[5:11] Tim Rice: At one point, Scar's song Be Prepared was to be cut completely, which struck me as bonkers, not giving the villain his own musical moment.

[5:18] Tim Rice: Fortunately, this decision was rescinded, although Be Prepared wound up a good deal shorter than it originally was, and I was required to rewrite some of the words for reasons I never quite got and made no difference to the point of the number whatsoever.

[5:32] Tim Rice: The only song that was made more of in the new pick than the old was The Lion Sleeps Tonight, which of course Elton and I did not write.

[5:39] Tim Rice: I believe this song to be one of the greatest popular songs of the 20th century, and it has a long and tortuous history from its creation in 1939 by the South African Zulu writer Solomon Linda.

[5:52] Tim Rice: It was included in the 1994 film as a very funny one-line gag for Pumba, and was maybe slightly overplayed in the 2019 film.

[6:01] Tim Rice: Never quite sure where our new material would fit into this new film, Elton and I first wrote a reflective, serious ballad entitled Light of the World.

[6:10] Tim Rice: Here is the only recording, Elton's demo.

[6:38] Tim Rice: We need to be sure when betrayals begin that the light of the world isn't a lot in the fall.

[6:49] Tim Rice: It's part of the crime out of love out of time of the saviour of all.

[7:06] Tim Rice: When the roar of the Lion When the word of the king fade away in the night with the hope that they bring my mother a saint, my father long gone, and when looking ahead to the quick and the dead, you just carry on when you live for the truth, you see nothing but lies, and you marvel at some only fools could devise, and the light of the world here on earth are divine, may not be what it was, but in mouths because it can give me to shine.

[8:23] Tim Rice: We blessed with a choice, maybe spoke out of turn, but we all had a voice, though the light of the world may seem pleasantly wrong.

[8:40] Tim Rice: They'll all tell you how we were right all along.

[8:48] Tim Rice: When you live by the truth, you'll see nothing but lies, and you marvel at some fools could devise.

[8:59] Tim Rice: And the light of the world here on earth are divine.

[9:05] Tim Rice: May not be what it was, but a matter of because it continues to shine.

[9:16] Tim Rice: When you live by the truth, you'd see nothing but lies.

[9:22] Tim Rice: And you marvel at some fools could devise.

[9:28] Tim Rice: And the light of the world here on earth are divine.

[9:33] Tim Rice: May not be what it was, but it matters because it can give news to shine.

[9:44] Tim Rice: May not be what it was, but it matters because it continues to shine.

[10:31] Tim Rice: Second time around, we had a better idea for a number that would fit more straightforwardly into the storyline.

[10:36] Tim Rice: When Simba is convinced by Rafiki that it's his duty to return to his old life with a new determination to right the wrongs that he's attempted to ignore, our up-tempo song Never Too Late addressed this situation.

[10:49] Tim Rice: The director, producers, and musical team working on the film are much happier with this more instantly catchy number with lines such as It's never too late to turn things around, recover, unravel the past, to confound the doubters and losers that line of despair, who tell you it's over, you're going nowhere.

[10:49] Tim Rice: It's never too late.

[11:11] Tim Rice: I hope it's never too late.

[11:13] Tim Rice: There seemed to be a perfect slot for never too late as Simba returns to the Pride Lands, not necessarily using the entire song, but the opportunity for an offstage Disney choir or even a character such as Rafiki and Nala to musicalize Simba seeing the light and doing what has to be done.

[11:30] Tim Rice: But the powers that be felt otherwise, and it was their film.

[11:34] Tim Rice: Never too late ended up as the backdrop to the end credits, which, like all movie credits these days, go on and on, and do not necessarily encourage punters to sit in the cinema for another ten minutes to find out which catering companies supplied burgers for the second unit, or which limo service drove the hyenas home.

[11:53] Tim Rice: So not too many heard it. Here's your chance. It's never too late to turn things around. Recover and ride all the paths to confound the doubters and losers that line I despair. We tell you it's over, you're going nowhere. It's never too late. I hope it's never too late. It's never too late to get back on track. To get a kiss on, if not all of it back. I thought I was happy. I'm sometimes a part. But sadness to me because the carries away and hope it's never too late. Never too late to fight the fight. Never too late to keep the night. Never too late to win the day. Never too late to break away. Time alone and look to fight. Time is now my friend. I'm a long way from the start, but further from the end.

I did what I've done and I don't find a high. I love many things, but never my pride. I know. It's never too late. Never too late to fight the fight. Never too late to keep the night. Never too late to win the day. Never too late to break away. I'm alone and look to fight. Time is now my friend. I'm a long way from the start, but further from the end. I'm sleeping tonight. The day doing nothing, just doing it right. No hurry, no hiring takes as long as it takes. You might as well sleep for all the defunct makes. Never to live! Never to live!

[16:13] Tim Rice: Hugely successful though the second Lion King movie was, I still retain most affection for the first movie. When we were all working on that together back in the early 90s, directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, producer Don Hahn, Disney heavyweights Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Peter Schneider, Tom Schumacher, writers Irene Mechie, Brenda Chapman, all the animators, singers and actors, plus, of course, the music creators, Hans Zimmer, Lebo M. There was no certainty at all then that we would have a hit. Indeed, some of the early reviews were only lukewarm. But to put it mildly, the film did extraordinarily well. And I'm delighted to have remained in touch with so many of the creators today.

Immodestly, I feel the songs Elton and I wrote for the first film made a significant contribution to its popularity. We wrote many more than the five songs that ended up in the film. We wrote different versions of most of these songs, always with a consideration that the story must come first. Story is king, or should be in virtually all theatrical and cinematic exercises. Sometimes a perfectly good song was rejected simply because the story arc had changed. Maybe the character a song was written for was no longer in the film. It's much easier for a cartoon character to be sacked than it would be for a real live actor. Warthogs don't have agents to complain about their clients' removal. Of our five numbers in Lion King 1, four have become bona fide hits and/or children's standards.

Can You Feel the Love Tonight and Circle of Life for Elton himself? And Hakuna Matata and I Just Can't Wait to Be King, adored by nippers of all ages. The only song which hasn't been covered in vast quantities is Be Prepared, which is understandable because it's a very plot-driven lyric. Scar trying to convince the moronic hyenas that he's the key to their future existence. Needless to say, it's one of my favourite lyrics, not just one of my favourite Lion King lyrics, but one of my favourites of my entire output, œuvre or canon, whichever you feel sounds least pretentious. I did wonder whether the makers of Lion King 2 didn't quite get the importance or quality of the song simply because it hadn't been a hit.

The almost spoken shorter version in the second picture doesn't have the impact of the first time round, brilliant though the visuals are. Jeremy Irons's Scar in Lion King 1 was absolutely magnificent, an unbeatable performance, which might be another reason why the song struggled to get included in Lion King 2. Anyway, I'd like to end this brief look at the Lion King movies with the original Be Prepared, certainly the least heard song from the original soundtrack. Of course, quid pro quo, you're expected to appreciate Jeremy Irons with assistance from Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, and Jim Cummings. Be prepared.

[19:29] ♪ Musical number: "Be Prepared" — performed by Jeremy Irons, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, and Jim Cummings ♪

[22:58] Tim Rice: That was Get Onto My Cloud, episode sixteen of my podcast. Presented and written by me, Tim Rice, and produced by Peter Holtz.