by Panpardus » January 30th, 2017, 8:19 am
The entirety of the "Duties of the King" musical number is a nice juxtaposing reference to "Just Can't Wait to be King". (And is so far the only reference to pre-existing material that I've actually liked and thought was well executed.) You have the same trio traveling together, first as Zazu and two friends who didn't want to get married and now as a couple with cubs; Simba was initially looking forward to becoming king while Zazu was trying to temper his attitude about it, whereas in the later song Zazu is singing it to encourage Simba to be happy about his role as king and all it actually entails; the two song's riffs are almost identical (same rhythm and melodic motion) and the songs themselves are only a half step apart, with "I Just Can't Wait to be King" being a half step above "Duties of the King".