2024 was filled with plenty of big movies, from some of the biggest animated pictures of all time to plenty of huge franchise films. One of the most notable wasMufasa: The Lion King, which acts as a prequel to the 2019 remake ofThe Lion King. The film managed to become a pretty big hit after a relatively slow start, and despite the fact thatMufasa’s reviewswere as mixed as the previous film’s, certain aspects of it, such as the music, have become quite well-liked since its release.
While 2019’sThe Lion Kingremake mostly consists of the famous songs from the original animated classic,Mufasa’s soundtrackis entirely of original pieces,written by one of the biggest names in musical theater, Lin-Manuel Miranda.Fresh off the success of his work composing the music for Disney’sEncanto, Miranda was tasked with following up one of the mosticonic Disney soundtracks of all timeforMufasa, and apparently, there was one song that was more difficult than the rest for him to create.
“Milele” Was The Hardest Song in Mufasa: The Lion King For Lin-Manuel Miranda To Write
“Milele” is one of the first songs inMufasa —being the first full musical number outside the introductory musical sequence with Lebo M — sung by Mufasa’s birth parents, Keith David’s Masego and Anika Noni Rose’s Afia. In a conversation with director Barry Jenkins inMufasa’s digitally releasedbonus features,Miranda revealed that “Milele” was the hardest song for him to write, as he felt that the song had to rise and soar throughout the scene, which is a difficult feeling to intentionally pull off.
The bonus feature in which Miranda and Jenkins discuss the music ofMufasais called “Songs of the Savanna,” where the two talk about the film’s soundtrack as well as their personal experience with the project.
Another reason that Miranda found “Milele” so hard to write was that it was the closest piece of music to some of thesongs found in the originalThe Lion King, and trying to live up to those tracks was a very daunting task for the composer. He didn’t say exactly which songs those were, but “Milele” contains the lyrics “it lives in you, it lives in me,” a very clear reference to the song “He Lives in You,” which doesn’t actually appear in the original film, but did show up in the remake.
“Milele” Ended Up Being One Of The Best Songs From Mufasa: The Lion King
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Efforts Were Very Successful
Thankfully, Miranda was able to make “Milele” exactly what he envisioned it to be: a song that feels like it fits right alongside some of the original film’s tracks. While the writing and instrumentation are great, the song also reunited Keith David and Anika Noni Rose, the voices of Dr. Facilier and Tiana inThe Princess and the Frog, who brought their absolute best to the project, making the song that much better. In his conversation with Miranda, Jenkins declared that “Milele” was his favorite song inMufasa: The Lion King, cementing its status as an absolute classic.
