“From the day we arrive on the planet…”

My current obsession. This is dangerous, because this is a Level 2 trigger movie for me. Level 3 if I think about it too much. ((All cel-animation Disney movies are triggers for me. It makes it difficult to be nostalgic. The Little Mermaid is actually a direct Level 3 trigger. Look at Ariel’s father’s fucking destruction-of-her-stuff fit. Scary. My father emphasized this part of the movie to me repeatedly.

The Lion King is Level 2.5 on average because I listened to the soundtrack a lot when trying to escape in the library, finding patterns and inspirations to later sew into my little ark of endless small stuffed animals. It had tapirs. So yeah. And yes, sewing is also a trigger for me now. Fuck you, PTSD.)) *shudder* But damn it. This song, man. This song.

One day I hope to see the musical production as well. Here’s their version of Circle of Life, this version complete with the rotating Pride Rock prop.

Yes, Rafiki is female in the musical—which still works as well, if not better, in counterpoint with the two initial male singers.

In case you’re curious about the lyrics, here’s a somewhat more coherent version including the Zulu lyrics at the beginning of the movie version. I haven’t been able to find the expanded lyrics for the Broadway production.

And here’s a great big spool of behind the scenes videos from Disney (officially, too!) on YouTube.

And yes, it’s still going strong.

Pretty good for a movie that was supposedly only filler until Pocahontas was released. ((Making the Movie refers to a movie called Waking Sleeping Beauty. By the way, DisneyWar, mostly about the epic hissy fits battle between Eisner and Katzenberg, is available in Kindle format.)) Because really, how could a movie about talking animals be successful? Even if it’s Hamlet with lions.

Of course, no coverage of The Lion King is complete without pointing to the Kimba plagiarism scandal as well.

Bonus: TVTropes’ The Lion King page and Confused Matthew’s alternate character interpretation.

But you know what? That song. I don’t care about the movie plot all that much, just the soundtrack.

4 thoughts on ““From the day we arrive on the planet…””

  1. Being an incurable singer, I have a thing for Disney movies. Not necessarily the movies themselves, of course (with perhaps a couple of exceptions), but the music. What fun, singable music!

    This song, though, has got to be one of the best Disney ever gave us. It speaks to me. Of course, I’d expect nothing less of Tim Rice. Yeah, yeah… Sir Elton did a fine job on the music, too. :-)

    I thank all the deities that there are so few things that throw me back into remembering times of my life I really don’t want to remember… a few things remind me of my daughter who died, but I’m ok with that. Remembering the childhood… yeah, I’m happy to have blank spots. I’m sorry that so many seemingly ordinary things that I take for granted are triggers for you. “That totally sucks” seems like such an inadequate response.

  2. I think I must be sensitive. Or my father was really that horrible.

    Life is like a little minefield for me. If I thought about every step, perhaps I wouldn’t keep stumbling into mines, but sometimes I intentionally do so, out of some hope that the reaction has lessened over time.

    Eventually it will, but not today.

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