Why was Matthew Broderick dubbed in "The Lion King?"

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 1:37pm

This may be the most pointless question but it's something that I've always wondered.

I know Disney often hired seasoned singers to provide the vocals in a great deal of their musicals in the early days through the 1990s. Sometimes an actor would provide the voice for both speaking dialogue and singing and other times they would hire two separate actors.

In the case with "The Lion King," I'm just curious as to why they felt Broderick had to be dubbed for his singing. True, he hadn't appeared on Broadway in H2$ yet but they must have at least given him a singing audition. I think he has a good enough voice to have provided adult Simba's limited singing vocals in the film.

Just curious.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 1:41pm

Why was Zac Efron dubbed in only one High School Musical film?

I think with Matthew's case, they were just going for a different sound to fit that song. Matthew has a distinctive voice that doesn't pleasantly fit every genre or style. Updated On: 2/21/14 at 01:41 PM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 1:51pm

What Wynbitch said.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 1:52pm

I'll have to look for the article about this very issue, but I recall producer Don Hahn explaining that Broderick was only known as a straight film actor at the time and they did not believe he was a true "singer" to handle Simba's vocals on Can You Feel The Love Tonight?.

Personally, I love that they brought in Toto's lead singer, Joseph Williams, to dub in the singing. Too great.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 2:08pm

Wynbish, I get your point about Efron but he was a virtual unknown at that point and Troy does a considerably larger amount of singing than adult Simba does.

On listening to the film's soundtrack, nothing about adult Simba's vocals seem all that difficult or out of Broderick's range.

I know he has a slightly more nasal voice than Joseph Williams but I don't see how the audience would have found it jarring as his speaking and singing voices are very similar.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 2:16pm

Back in 1992, the producers did not envision him as a singer/vocalist in any sense of the word. Why would they lie about that?

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 2:18pm

don't see how the audience would have found it jarring

FOA, but Disney may have thought it jarring, hence their decision

Simba, for all his faults, is still a Disney Prince, and there was a base level of polish Disney tried to put in all the princes and princesses up until now, possibly with Anna's awkwardness being a move away from that. Matthew's speaking voice adds to the rascally nature of Adult Simba and was a good aging of JTT's speaking voice.



Updated On: 2/21/14 at 02:18 PM

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 2:21pm

Don't remember using the word "lie" anywhere in my posts.

I'm just saying, I'm sure they gave him a singing audition. It surprises me that he wouldn't have been able to prove himself capable of handling it.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 2:26pm

One could also ask why Lea, an award-winning actress, wasn't the speaking voice of Mulan. It's just how Disney rolls, sometimes, and it looks like they're done with that, since both Tangled and Frozen use the actors' voices.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 2:30pm

Wynbish, same with "The Princess and the Frog" as well.

As far as "Mulan" (and even "Pocahontas" for that matter), I think Disney aimed to hire actresses who were of the same (or similar) heritage as the character they were voicing, Ming Na and Irene Bedard respectively.

As for why Lea didn't voice Jasmine's speaking voice in "Aladdin," your guess is as good as mine.

Updated On: 2/21/14 at 02:30 PM

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 2:33pm

For me, Jasmine is the biggest example for Disney of a speaking voice and a singing voice really not sounding like they both belong to the same person.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 2:36pm

And why did Prince Eric not have anything to sing?

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 3:14pm

Wait... what does Adult Simba even sing besides Hakuna Matata? That easily would have worked with Broderick's voice.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 3:20pm

JG2, he sings a few bars in "Can You Feel The Love Tonight?"

Again, nothing truly vocally taxing. I guess that why I'm so curious. It's not like Broderick was voicing Hercules. Adult Simba has very little singing to do.

Now, I don't know how it was early on in the process and if, in fact, there was much more to start with that eventually got cut from the film.

If that was the case, it makes more sense to me.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 3:22pm

Double Double

Updated On: 2/21/14 at 03:22 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 3:30pm

Didn't Broderick do the singing for adult Simba in one of the sequels? Maybe that was Disney's way of apologizing.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 3:43pm

i always thought the woman who sang Esmeralda was a perfect match for Demi Moore's speaking voice... also Irene Bedard and Judy Kuhn as Pocahontas

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 3:58pm

I was thinking Can You Feel the Love Tonight was all kind of a play while they frolic song.

[Jonwo]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 7:36pm

I think with technology and the internet, studios are more likely to either use an actors real singing voice and alter it digitally rather than go through the process of hiring another singer to use as the singing voice of the actor and get found out. I think Disney unlike other studios have been upfront about who was the singing voice and who was the speaking voice in their films,

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 9:30pm

Why was Rita Moreno's singing dubbed for some of West Side Story? And for The King and I?
Why was Angela Lansbury's singing dubbed for The Harvey Girls?

Because they cared more back then if a singing voice actually fit a character and the material, not just if the person could sing the notes and hold pitch.

I wish they cared as much today.

Updated On: 2/21/14 at 09:30 PM

[Wynbish]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 9:39pm

Per Simba's part in Hakuna Matata, they may have thought that Matthew's singing voice was too similar to Nathan's. They may have needed more differentiation between Simba and Timon

[BroadwayBenny]

Posted: 2/21/14 at 10:56pm

It was just a big Hollywood animated musical thing in the 90's started by Disney.

Val Kilmer also had a decent enough voice but had an alternate singer in Dreamwork's The Prince of Egypt, whilst they let Ralph Fiennes have a go at struggling to sing for Rameses for some reason.

On that note, I wish Disney had let someone else sing for John Smith besides Gibson in Pocahontas, then maybe they would have had more hesitance to cut If I Never Knew You.. Gibson was ok, but that score would have benefited greatly from a Broadway voice instead.

[Jon]

Posted: 2/22/14 at 5:04am

Efron was dubbed in the first HSM because his own voice was too deep - they wanted a younger tenor sound. He did his own singing for the sequel.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 2/22/14 at 11:44am

It was my understanding Broderick was "unavailable". Usually when a "ringer" is sent in like this case it's time/schedule/budget. They have to come in and learn these songs and it's treated differently than a regular record or ADR. Broderick was a busy guy then and certainly was paid more than say a Nathan Lane. For the most part because these features have incomplete scripts the recordings done over an extended period of time. Sometimes children's voices will change during the 4 years and they need to be swapped out.

Also if you listen closely at the end of "Be Prepared" you will notice Jeremy Irons is dubbed at the finish by the very talented Jim Cummings. I'm not sure Irons could actually sing that, but the word was he wasn't available to finish the record. Lyrics can change etc, and these actors move on to other commitments. Also back then, this was the first BLOCKBUSTER and up until that point Disney films were not taken very seriously by actors. Since that time and Shrek, actors can demand a lot more money and the residuals from those songs aren't too shabby.

Prince of Egypt was mentioned once again, Val was not available at least that is what Schwartz was saying.

"On that note, I wish Disney had let someone else sing for John Smith besides Gibson in Pocahontas, then maybe they would have had more hesitance to cut If I Never Knew You.. Gibson was ok, but that score would have benefited greatly from a Broadway voice instead."

They cut it because it slowed down a slow movie. The DVD version has that segment put back in, not sure it was worth the effort. He sounds pretty ok for that part, I love how his brother stands in for him in the sequel lol.

[tangentfunction]

Posted: 2/22/14 at 12:17pm

Matthew's been asked this a couple times, and he's said that they wanted a more "pop star" sounding voice. He did have a singing audition and he actually recorded all the songs. In the end, they just wanted a different style, and Matthew claims he can't really do pop style singing.