The Lion King's Best Original Song 94/95 Halfisode - Three Kings, A Gem, and Randy Newman - a podcast by MMO

When I was a young warthog!

***We’re talking music here, but we do review the scenes where these songs are used***
So technically, there are some spoilers. Though we do steer clear of the main plot.

Intro / What’s a Best Original Song Halfisode? - Episode Start

“Can You Feel The Love Tonight?” from The Lion King - 2:16
Performed by Elton John

“Look What Love Has Done” from Junior - 10:25
Performed by Patty Smyth

“Circle of Life” from The Lion King - 13:26
Performed by Carmen Twillie

“Make Up Your Mind” from The Paper - 22:59
Performed by Randy Newman

“Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King - 24:55
Performed by Ernie Sabella & Nathan Lane

Our Re-Rank / Perfecting Perfection - 28:34

Outro / Social Media / Words of Wisdom - 30:55

The new Lion King remake trailer shook up the film world this past thanksgiving. So we thought it appropriate to do a retrospective on the 1994/95 Best Original Song category where the original film had not one, not two, but three nominees in the same category, including the winner in Elton John’s “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?” All things being considered, this was one of our more rewarding re-watches / re-listening deep dives on youtube.

Our format for these episodes is simple. We analyze the songs only as two Oscar film critics should. We break down the scenes the songs score in the nominated films, dish out hot takes on the performances on the Oscar stage, and act as a modern day Beavis & Butthead when we get the chance to review a music video or 5.

In this episode, we thoroughly enjoyed revisiting The Lion King as we anticipate the Jon Favreau “live action” (or is it?) remake coming out this summer, and rightfully so, our scene analysis tends to focus much more on those three Disney songs than the other two. Though it wouldn’t be a halfisode from MMO without spot on impersonations of the voices of other nominees and vivid descriptions of the mental pictures these tunes create in our brains. Then of course, we can’t resist a reranking segment we pompously entitle “Perfecting Perfection.”
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our other 11 Best Original Song Oscar Retrospective halfisodes. Do hit play on our playlist of them all in our Soundcloud account, where we review some of the more loaded categories in Academy history from Titanic to Stevie Wonder, from Cinderella to Frozen, and from Top Gun to The Greatest Showman. These are some of our favorite recording sessions, and we hope it you’ll agree with the results.

Let us know what your favorite song is from The Lion King and how you’re feeling about the eventual remake. We’re Mike, Mike, and Oscar on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Gmail. We’re at MMandOscar on Twitter, and don’t forget to join in on the fun with our SixDegreesOfMMO movie trivia game we’ve been playing every seven days on MMO Weekly. When reality sucks, keep watching movies and listening to Oscar music with us. We’re Mike, Mike, and Oscar!

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