POLL: APRIL MAYHEM TIME! Disney Song Challenge - Round of 64 - #3 We Don't Talk About Bruno vs #14 Be Prepared
Today's matchups:
3 We Don't Talk About Bruno vs 14 Be Prepared
4 Remember Me vs 13 I Just Can't Wait to be King
We Don't Talk About Bruno - Music and lyrics written by Lin-Manuel Miranda for Encanto (2021). Performed by some of the film's voice cast members: mainly Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo [es], Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero and Stephanie Beatriz, and a few others in minor roles.
Met with acclaim from music critics, who praised Miranda's craftsmanship and the song's mystery element, catchy rhythm, versatile composition, ensemble of singers, and lyrical personality. It spent several weeks at #1 in Ireland, the UK and the US, and peaked in the top five in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. It is the longest-reigning chart-topper for Disney in the US Billboard Hot 100 history, as well as the studio's first-ever original song to top the UK Singles Chart. It broke the all-time record for the most credited artists (7) on a Hot 100 chart-topper.
Be Prepared - Music written by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice for The Lion King (1994). Performed by Jim Cummings/Jeremy Irons, with Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin providing supporting vocals. Originally, the song (first called "Thanks to Me") was about Scar introducing the hyenas to the lionesses after he pronounced himself king. This idea was eventually scrapped and replaced with "Be Prepared". In the beginning of the second verse, an army of hyenas is shown goose-stepping in front of Scar, who is perched on an overlooking cliff in resemblance of Adolf Hitler with upwards of 22 beams of light pointing straight-up (resembling the Cathedral of light featured in many of the Nuremberg Rallies). Shadows cast onto the cliff evoke for a brief second monumental columns. This is modeled after footage from Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda movie "Triumph of the Will."
Though Jeremy Irons is credited for performing the lead vocals on the song, at the 2012 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, Jim Cummings, who also played Ed, stated that he sang most of the song, and that Irons only did some of the talking. However, footage from the film's recording sessions available on the film's 2017 Blu-ray release reveals that Irons sang the entire first verse of the song, while a cursory analysis of the recording suggests (due to a subtle but evident shift in vocal timbre heard in Scar's lead vocal) that Cummings only sang the final verse ("So prepare for the coup of the century..." onwards) in the final cut of the film. Cummings has also confirmed this in other interviews, claiming that he sang this last verse due to Irons developing vocal problems during the recording session. However this was later contradicted by Cummings yet again in his podcast "Toon'd In! with Jim Cummings" where he reiterated, he sang the entire song and Irons only did some talking.