Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner, who voice Timon and Pumba in upcoming The Lion King movie, have funny things to say about Beyoncé and Donald Glover's singing "break".
While speaking to Variety about working with the two phenomenal singers, Eichner joked, "It's about time. This is the culmination for them of so many years of hard work trying to get to our level," and added, "It's really gratifying that we've been able to give them this opportunity."
On the same, even Rogen added, "Yeah, I feel good for them. They deserve this break. I can't imagine how thrilling it must be for them." Of course, they also commented on how they got to discover their vocal talents and croon to the tunes of Can You Feel the Love Tonight? and Hakuna Matata.
"It's fun because you grow up with them," Rogen told Variety. "There was a certain exercise in my head of not being too familiar with the original version. Your first instinct is, 'I'll go listen to the original version and remind myself of what it was like.' The instinct that served me better was to not do that specifically and really trust that Jon would guide me to do all the things that he thought were necessary in order to make the song hit," he said.
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Eichner spoke about how singing those songs were probably the more intimidating parts of the recording as they were walking down the path of celebrated classics.
"The songs were probably one of the more intimidating parts to record in terms of having to walk this fine line of nodding to the original and certain elements of the original performances that people just love and would be disappointed not to hear again, but also finding ways to make it our own," Eichner said.
"Especially 'Hakuna Matata' — that song is ingrained in people's heads. Once you get past the first few takes, you start to fall into your own rhythm. Eventually, the anxiety wears off, but that's a big one to take on," he added.
The Lion King is all set to release on July 19. The film also stars Keegan-Michael Key and Chiwetel Ejiofor in pivotal roles.
