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

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

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.

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?

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.

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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.

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

And why did Prince Eric not have anything to sing?

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.

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

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

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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.

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

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.

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.