The man who played the singing voice of younger Simba in The Lion King recently revealed that Disney had reached out to him with a request to celebrate the movie’s 30th anniversary.
Yes, you read that right, The Lion King released three entire decades ago and doesn’t that just make you feel so ancient?
In that time, it has become the highest grossing traditionally animated film of all time, and picked up a couple of Oscars in the mix as well.
It turns out that somebody’s idea to do Hamlet with talking animals was one of the best decisions anyone ever made.
Speaking of good decisions in show business, Jason Weaver provided the singing voice of young Simba and he ended up doing rather well out of the movie thanks to a good call from his mum.
Jason Weaver was the singing voice for young Simba in The Lion King (Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET+)
Weaver was offered $2 million to be the singing voice for young Simba, meaning he’d have to do the lion’s share of ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ and plenty of ‘Hakuna Matata’.
That was and still is a lot of money, but Jason’s mum wanted her son not to just take the money and start negotiating royalties so he could continue to cash in on the movie’s success.
If you ever doubted the wisdom of listening to your mum’s advice, Jason ended up being paid $100,000 upfront for his part in The Lion King, but the royalties more than made up for it.
And it sounds like he’s still on good terms with Disney as well as in a recent interview with What’s The Word, he explained that they’d reached out to him with a request for the anniversary.
He said: “When all is said and done Disney respected the talent, my contribution, what I was bringing to that film and to that soundtrack.
Weaver said Disney invited him back for the 30th anniversary. (Disney)
“They treated me that way, and even now with the 30th year anniversary I just recently performed at the Hollywood Bowl for The Lion King 30th anniversary.
“That’s something Disney had reached out to me, like ‘man, we want you to be a part of this’, like ‘one of the main reasons why this project has been hugely successful is because of these songs’ and ‘we want to let you know how much we appreciate you’.
“It’s far beyond the monetary or financial reward, it’s people recognising, acknowledging and respecting what you’ve contributed to it, so Disney is number one.”
At the 30th anniversary celebrations at the Hollywood Bowl, Jason Weaver stepped out onto the stage to introduce North West’s performance of ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’, and performed ‘Hakuna Matata’ to a live audience.
