The Lion King on Oscar Night

[Noah]

About a week ago, I came across a topic on MLK that advertised that members could write articles and submit them to the staff for review. This seemed really interesting to me, and being the guillible person I am, I decided to write one and submit it, only to be informed by Moka that the policy was outdated and have him subsequently delete the "Articles" topic. Well, anyways, I thought I might as well post it, since I put so much effort into it. I hope you all enjoy it. I apologize in advance if you can't view some of the sources I used. Some newspapers make you pay in order to gain access to their archives.

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The Lion King on Oscar Night
Written by: Noahcs

The Oscars are the pinnacle of all movie awards. Any motion picture that can gain a nomination permanently secures their place in the history books as one of the greatest movies of all time. Any fan of The Lion King could tell you that the animated masterpiece walked away with two trophies that night: both in the musical categories. What you may not be aware of, is that this cause celebré was almost over before it began.

Despite being the top grossing movie of 1994, The Lion King had an uphill battle for Oscar gold. Like for all of its films, Disney mounted a campaign to help Simba win the most prizes he could. Movie studios often do this to give their films an advantage in the annual frantic race. Advertisements are the standard operating procedure and Hollywood bigwigs can spend up to $2 million dollars on a single movie. That year Disney opted to take a different route. Instead of their normal brochure, they mailed out a $450 package to every single member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Included was a pop art display and a certain book. Can you guess what it was? It was none other than The Art of the Lion King. That coffee table book caused a firestorm and nearly led to The Lion King's disqualification. Thankfully, the board of governors decided to only take away two of Disney's tickets to the ceremony as a punishment. However, The Academy banned all gifts from future campaigns.

Hans Zimmer was fortunate enough to gain a nomination for his role in composing the magical score for the Disney blockbuster. Despite being considered a musical genius nowadays, the odds were against him that night. Numerous film critics predicted that the score to Little Women, composed by David Newman, would take home the prize. Zimmer pulled a small upset by winning the Oscar. The next day, newspapers claimed that Disney had stolen the award away from Newman's "instant-classic" score.

The surprises kept coming on Oscar night. After winning at the Golden Globes, The Lion King was expected to take home the prize for Best Original Song, but as to which of its three songs was still a mystery. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert wrongly predicted that Circle of Life would take home the Oscar. At the same time, his talk show partner Gene Siskel said that Hakuna Matata would emerge victorious. Both were proved wrong when Can You Feel the Love Tonight? took home the prize. Despite this, Elton John assured reporters backstage that he always knew his love ballad would win him his first Academy Award.

Regardless of these controversies, history has validated The Lion King to be an amazing film. Not only has it received critical and commercial success, but it has also become the rare film to successfully enter popular culture with phrases that will last throughout the ages.

Photo Credit: "Hans Zimmer with Oscar" Getty Images ©1995

References
• IMDb.com "Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song. Academy Award for Best Music, Original Score"
• Bona, Damien. Inside Oscar 2. 1st ed. 2. San Francisco: Ballantine Books, 2002. 448. eBook.
• CONUS Archive Video: " OSCAR ARRIVALS (03/27/1995)" (fee required) Visit their official website.
• Ebert, Roger. "Oscar Predictions for 1995" Chicago Sun-Times. March 1995. Reproduced on TheWell.com
• "Movie Critics Siskel and Ebert Pick Oscar Winners - 'Pulp Fiction' Top Film of '94" PR Newswire March 6, 1995.
• "Sane goes down the drain when studios campaign" (fee required) Fort Worth Star-Telegram February 13, 1995.
• Waxman, Sharon. "WHISPERING IN OSCAR'S EAR: Studios Keep the Buzz -- and Their Hopes -- Up for Monday's Academy Awards" (fee required) Washington Post B1. Style. Mar 22, 1997.

[DGFone]

Yeah, the articles section existed before you came, but it was removed after the forums went through an overhaul. You came just a bit too late, Noah.

[Noah]

[quote="DGFone"]Yeah, the articles section existed before you came, but it was removed after the forums went through an overhaul. You came just a bit too late, Noah. [/quote]

[WindAnnWise]

That's a great article. Noahcs! I liked learning about the Lion King and the year it won 2 Oscars!

[KentuckyWildcat]

For what it's worth, I thought your article was very well written. Given that I was 6 years old and could care less about the Oscars in 1995, I also learned a thing or two. I was especially surprised to read about the amount of controversy surrounding the award for Best Score given that Zimmer's work in TLK has since become so iconic.

[nathalie]

My dad managed to tape it for me back then, I still have it on VHS, but here are the performances from that night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVZh0RY3WBo

[Moka]

That doesn't look like Lebo M.. >.>

Great article! And thanks for sharing the video, nathalie.

EDIT: Nevermind! I hear him in the second "Circle of Life" song. Seems odd they feature a singer other than him in the rest of them. But still impressive they managed to find him.

[Noah]

[quote="Moka"]That doesn't look like Lebo M.. >.>

Great article! And thanks for sharing the video, nathalie.

EDIT: Nevermind! I hear him in the second "Circle of Life" song. Seems odd they feature a singer other than him in the rest of them. But still impressive they managed to find him. [/quote]
I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[nathalie]

[quote="Moka"]That doesn't look like Lebo M.. >.>

Great article! And thanks for sharing the video, nathalie.

EDIT: Nevermind! I hear him in the second "Circle of Life" song. Seems odd they feature a singer other than him in the rest of them. But still impressive they managed to find him. [/quote]

Hehe, he's in the beginning too, but he only does the begin "scream" and the background vocals.
He's standing on top of that thing, with the red robe.

[Wrightfan]

The 1995 Oscars was also the site of this lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-BJTE56I14

If I recall correctly, they pretty much said for Letterman to never come back again because the joke went absolutely nowhere.