by Chris Feil
When The Lion King arrived in 1994, it felt like the first Disney film fully developed in its post-Little Mermaid resurrected era. Whereas the genius of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin feel like passion projects born of new financial fluidity, this film rings like a triumphant self-actualization of its return to dominance. It’s right there in the in the rising sun and thunderous opening incantation of “Circle of Life” - Disney reclaiming with force what they had lost and owning the cyclical nature of creative power.
It’s arresting stuff on a meta level, but that’s still incomparable to the song’s visceral gut level impact. Paired with the imagery of a convening animal kingdom both too fantastical to be true and rendered with breathtaking reality, “Circle of Life” feels so monumental that even immersive IMAX screens and sound systems can’t do its scale justice...
When was the last time you experienced an intergenerational audience sit in silent awe during a musical number? Bet it didn’t also enrapture them in a complex relationship for the non-human world around us.
Not often does hyperbole feel insufficient, but the power of “Circle of Life” defies mild examinations. In the hugeness of the number, we feel the unfathomably large evolutionary chain of biological existence and our microscopic place in the middle of it.
“Circle of Life” is the high-budget prestige drama of Disney songs. Here the song finds the Mouse House taking itself very seriously and avoiding the pretentiousness that might have resulted through its genuine emotional reverence. Add in the prestige of Elton John and Tim Rice on songwriting duties, and you have come to the very pinnacle of Disney’s early 90s revolution.
And that’s how the movie begins. The sequence is so vast and flawless that it makes up for what some of the movie that follows lacks, an admittedly high bar for the film and songs to set from the jump. Later silliness ensues.
All that and “Circle of Life” still lost the Oscar to its act two chart topper “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”. The catch-phrase goodwill of “Hakuna Matata” never even stood a chance as the film’s third nominee. Oscar no longer allows this many nominees in the Original Song category, but The Lion King not only proves that a film can be worthy of 60% of the category, but taking the remaining two slots as well. Plenty will cry justice for “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”, but I prefer the Scar-as-gay-dictator drama of “Be Prepared”.
But honestly, how can “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, the Oscar winning track, even compare to “Circle of Life”’s elemental majesty? Yes, it was the film’s more radio friendly track, and one more easily transferable to John’s out-of-context vocal. But I don’t want to feel the love tonight. Plenty of other Oscar songs have felt the love tonight. Does Simba getting it on with Nala have the same melodic impact as an entire animal kingdom chorus acknowledging its cycle of rebirth? “Circle of Life”’s legacy will instead live on among other everlasting Disney benchmarks, a true all-time movie moment.
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