My Lion King Forum

http://www.eltonography.com/songs/the_king_must_die.html

Ok, Elton John aka the guy who worked with tim rice on the musical numbers for this movie helped write a song with bernie taupin, his long time songwriting partner called 'the king must die'. The song was on his self titled album 'Elton John' in 1970.

Did the scriptwriters of the movie take this song into account or is it just coincidemce as both tlk and the song are shakespearean in nature?

In the opening it is sung 'no mans a jester playing shakespeare'.

In the middle of the song he sings 'and the king must die' ... which is pretty much the basis for 'be prepared'

At the end he sings 'the king is dead'. Which is part of what Scar says to Simba before exile.

'And sooner or later everybodies kingdom must end' is also a part of the song. Mufasa's reign as well as Scar's reign ended. in the field, During the circle of life talk with Mufasa they talk about the inevitable death of a king and end of a reign, implying that simba will eventually die and his reign will end.

The final lyric is 'long live the king' which is scars last words to mufasa.

So... thoughts?

I think it's probably intentional but that's my view

I think it is pure coincidental. Remember The Lion King originated as a coming-of-age "Bambi in Africa" idea. It was not originally envisioned as an adaptation of Hamlet. In an interview back in 2014, co-director Rob Minkoff mentioned that in a pitch meeting, Michael Eisner felt the film could be more Shakespearean, and then Maureen Donley, the associate producer of The Little Mermaid, called out the similarities to Hamlet. Minkoff, Roger Allers, and Don Hahn were flabbergasted at the similarities, and took more ideas from Shakespeare and Hamlet. And we should all know it was Tim Rice who recommended to work with Elton John on the film.

The complete phrase "The king is dead, long live the king" is a phrase that goes back centuries starting in France long before the song was published. If the writers did take the song into account as inspiration, surely they would have mentioned it in an interview by now.

I say coincidence. I doubt they scoured through Elton's work and were like "He wrote a song about a dead king once, let's hire him!" Though, it would not surprise me if some of the staff knew about the song and referenced it. I'd expect that if some of them didn't grow up listening to Elton John, they may have gone back and done once they knew he would be involved. It is worth noting that the song didn't get mention in any interviews, though, so it was probably a subconscious reference.

Another possibility, is that Hamlet itself has phrases similar to these. Which wouldn't surprise me.