Elton John Says 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight' Was Almost Cut From 'Lion King' | Variety Studio at TIFF 2024 - video Dailymotion

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Watch Elton John Says 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight' Was Almost Cut From 'Lion King' | Variety Studio at TIFF 2024 - Variety on Dailymotion

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00:00I have a question about The Lion King.

00:01So is it true that in Can You Feel the Love Tonight,

00:05it was originally supposed to be Timon and Pumbaa,

00:07and you said no, it has to be between Simba and Nala?

00:11No, it was different.

00:12It was actually, you should tell the story,

00:15but they took it out of the film completely.

00:17So when Elton screamed Lion King,

00:18there was no Can You Feel the Love Tonight.

00:20Maybe you should tell the story.

00:22I did The Lion King, obviously with Disney,

00:24and then Jeffrey Katzenberg,

00:25who was very involved in the film,

00:27and was great to work with,

00:29as with the whole Disney team,

00:30came down to Atlanta and showed me a rough cut of the film,

00:33nearly finished film,

00:35and there was no Can You Feel the Love Tonight.

00:37Jeffrey, where's Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

00:40He said, well, we just couldn't find a place for it.

00:42And I said, it's a love song.

00:44Every Disney animation film has a great love song.

00:46You really ought to reconsider this.

00:48And I was quite astonished that it wasn't there.

00:51Not hurt, just greatly surprised.

00:54And to his credit, they went back

00:55and they found a place for it, and it won the Oscar.

00:58And so, working with people like that,

01:02that we have done with Disney on this whole thing,

01:05and the live broadcast from Dodger Stadium,

01:07is a pleasure, because they listen, and we're a team.

01:10And for Jeffrey to go back and say,

01:11listen, Elton says we should put this back in the film,

01:14and they did, and as I say, it won the Oscar.

01:17It's Circle of Life should have won the Oscar,

01:18but I'm not gonna complain.

01:20Why Circle of Life?

01:21Because it's the song of The Lion King.

01:25It starts The Lion King.

01:26And you hear the Circle of Life,

01:28and you think of The Lion King.

01:31And yeah, to me, that's the song that makes The Lion King.

01:35But I'm not gonna complain.

01:36So when you saw it, there was no Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

01:38It's the peak of the movie, it's the soul of the movie.

01:41It wasn't, no.

01:43They took it out completely.

01:44Yeah.

01:45It wasn't there.

01:46There was no Can You Feel the Love Tonight.

01:48But then when the film came out, there was.

01:51But it's great, isn't it great to work with people

01:53when you collaborate, that they can listen to you?

01:57A lot of studios would have said, oh, we're tough.

01:58A tough luck.

01:59And this was such an important movie for them

02:02because it was their first ever original animation film.

02:05And it's been the biggest success as a commercial success.

02:10I don't know the actual numbers,

02:12but it's often quoted as the most successful

02:15entertainment product in history, like across everything.

02:19Don't know a grand total on that,

02:21but that's not too bad for your first animated film.

02:25It opened so many doors for me, that film,

02:26and I'm so grateful for that.

Elton John Says 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight' Was Almost Cut From 'Lion King' | Variety Studio at TIFF 2024

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