"The Madness of King Scar" is a song written by English musician

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

and lyricist

Tim Rice Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English lyricist and author. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ' ...

, which premiered in the musical ''The Lion King'', a stage adaptation of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's 1994 animated film of the same name. "The Madness of King Scar" had been added to the musical along with two other songs. It is one of two tracks that more prominently features vocals from the character

Nala Nala (Sanskrit: नल) is a character in the ''Vana Parva'' book of the ''Mahabharata''. He was the king of Nishadha Kingdom and the son of Veerasena. Nala was known for his skill with horses and for his culinary expertise. He married prince ...

. The title is a reference to the 1994 film ''

The Madness of King George ''The Madness of King George'' is a 1994 British biographical historical comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner and adapted by Alan Bennett from his own 1991 play '' The Madness of George III''. It tells the true story of George III of G ...

''. Opening the musical's second act, "The Madness of King Scar" primarily consists of dialogue between

Scar A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other organs, and tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a na ...

, Nala, Zazu, and the

hyena Hyenas, or hyaenas (from Ancient Greek , ), are feliform carnivoran mammals of the family Hyaenidae . With only four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the Carnivora and one of the smallest in the clas ...

s Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed following Scar's rise to power due to his brother

Mufasa This article lists the characters appearing in Disney's ''The Lion King'' franchise. Introduced in ''The Lion King'' (1994) Simba Simba (voiced by Matthew Broderick as adult Simba in the films, Jonathan Taylor Thomas as a cub in ''The Lion Kin ...

's death. The lyrics revolve around Scar's paranoia, specifically his anxiety on the comparisons between himself and Mufasa, and his plan to produce an heir for his kingdom with Nala. Scholars had various interpretations of the song's lyrics and composition, who felt it used

stream-of-consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver in 1840 in ''First Li ...

to portray Scar as a

Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

character or interpreted the instrumental as a

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

underscoring Scar's behaviour towards Nala. For later productions of the musical, "The Madness of King Scar" was made shorter in length, before it was removed completely. Despite this, the song was included on the cast album for the original production, with John Vickery portraying Scar. It was also put on the records for the Mexican and Madrid productions. "The Madness of King Scar" primarily earned positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

, who believed it added more depth to the character of Scar. However, some commentators had more mixed to negative responses; some felt uncertain about the decision to add new material not found in the film to the musical, while others disagreed with the song's explicit content. In 2014, animator Eduardo Quintana created an animated sequence for the song for the 20th anniversary of the animated film. The video received positive reviews from media outlets, who found the animation quality to be on a professional level.

Background

"The Madness of King Scar" is one of three original songs that

and

had added for the musical adaptation of

's 1994 animated film ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...

''. John had composed the music while Rice wrote the lyrics; the title is a reference to the 1994 film ''

''. Hischak & Robinson (2009): p. 126 Created to further elaborate the storyline, it is one of two new tracks that feature the character

, along with " Shadowland". In the original film, she had only performed in a supporting role in the song "

Can You Feel the Love Tonight "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" is a song from Disney's 1994 animated film ''The Lion King'' composed by English musician Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice. At the 67th Academy Awards in March 1995 it won the Academy Award for Best Original So ...

". The song was inspired by a planned reprise of " Be Prepared" that was

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...

ed for the original film, but was ultimately cut from the final version.

Smosh Smosh is an American YouTube sketch comedy- improv collective founded by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. In 2002, Padilla created a website named "smosh.com" for making Flash animations, and he was later joined by Hecox. They began to post vide ...

's Mikey McCollor wrote that it was removed from the film for being "so creepy", primarily due to

's sexual comments toward Nala. Echoing McCollor's comments,

io9 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...

's Lauren Davis described Scar's interactions with Nala as creepy, and

Moviepilot Moviepilot (stylized Movie Pilot) was a fan-centric online magazine covering the film industry. Its content was written predominantly by an in-house team of staff writers, with additional articles from contributors known as Creators. History Mov ...

's Olivia van der Will attributed the exclusion of the song to its lyrics' reference to sexuality. Matthew Roulette of TheFW believes that the scene was abandoned because of the characters' significant age difference. In later productions of the musical, "The Madness of King Scar" was cut down to a shorter length, before it was fully removed altogether. However it was included on the

cast album A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the sho ...

for the musical, which was released on 1 January 1997. The song included the show's original members

Heather Headley Heather Headley (born October 5, 1974) is a Trinidadian-born American singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. She won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the titular role of ''Aida''. She also won the 2010 Grammy Aw ...

Geoff Hoyle Geoff Hoyle (born 15 April 1945) is an English performer who originated the role of Zazu in the Broadway theatre production of ''The Lion King.'' Hoyle has also performed in vaudeville shows, worked with Bill Irwin in "The Pickle Family Circus", p ...

Tracy Nicole Chapman Tracy Nicole Chapman is an American actress, best known for originating the role of Shenzi in the Broadway production of ''The Lion King''. She also appeared on Broadway in ''The Who's Tommy'', ''Caroline, or Change'', and Cy Coleman's ''The Lif ...

Stanley Wayne Mathis Stanley Wayne Mathis (born December 1, 1955) is an American actor, singer, and dancer. He played the character Schroeder in the 1999 revival of Clark Gesner's ''You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown''. Career Mathis played Paul in the revival of ''Kis ...

Kevin Cahoon Kevin Cahoon (born July 21, 1971) is an American actor, director, writer, and singer-songwriter. Early life Kevin Cahoon was born on July 21, 1971, in Houston, Texas. Cahoon began his performing career at the age of six as 'The World's Younges ...

, and John Vickery; Vickery had played the role of Scar for the official recording. The song was also featured on albums for the musical's Mexican and Madrid productions.

Context and composition

Part of the opening to the show's second act, "The Madness of King Scar" takes place entirely in Scar's cave, and involves Scar, Zazu, Nala, and the

s Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed. Viagas & Asch (2006): p. 225 The lead vocal for "The Madness of King Scar" spans between Eb4 to G5, with the instrumental including a piano and

chords Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord (as ...

. An "extended character song for the dissatisfied lion monarch", the lyrics revolve around Scar's "paranoid pursuit of the lion throne". The song is primarily composed of dialogue rather than singing, with Rice describing it, along with "Chow Down", as "just potboilers". ''

The Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...

Heather Violanti summarised the performance as "five minutes of painful rumination by the evil Scar and his hyena henchmen after Scar's usurpation of the throne". During the song, the hyenas express their discontent with Scar for his inability to deal with a drought affecting the

Pride Land ''The Lion King'' is a Disney media franchise comprising a film series and additional media. The success of the original 1994 American animated feature, ''The Lion King'', directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, led to a direct-to-video seq ...

s, begging for him to give them a "fix of flesh" to satisfy their "needs". Through the course of the lyrics, Scar becomes increasingly paranoid about comparisons to his deceased brother

. After fixating on a plan to produce an heir for his kingdom, Scar makes sexual advances to Nala, who explicitly refuses him. Some of Scar's comments to Nala include: "She's got those assets feminine, I have to make her mine!" and "Nala, my, my, how you have grown." Scholars had various interpretations of the song's lyrics and composition. In their book ''The Disney Song Encyclopedia,'' Thomas S. Hischak and Mark A. Robinson described the composition as a "

number alternat ngbetween buffoonish comedy and cold-blooded evil". Alfredo Michel Modenessi wrote, in his article "Disney's 'War Efforts': ''The Lion King'' and ''Education for Death''; or Shakespeare Made Easy for Your Apocalyptic Convenience" that the song drew close parallels between Scar and a

character, and further develops his relationship with the hyenas following his assumption of power. Modenessi (2009): p. 193 Modenessi identified "The Madness of King Scar" as taking on qualities of a

. Connecting Scar's behaviour with the

Argentine tango Argentine tango is a musical genre and accompanying social dance originating at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. It typically has a or rhythmic time signature, and two or three parts repeating in patterns such as AB ...

, Modenessi described his attempts to approach Nala as occurring to "the beat of that stereotyped 'music of seduction'". Modenessi (2009): p. 195

Reception and impact

"The Madness of King Scar" received primarily positive reviews from

. Ben Hewis of WhatsOnStage.com included the song in his list of his top five favourite

show tune A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context. ...

s, writing that it "shin da humanising light on the thought process of Scar is brilliantly effective storytelling". Hewis found the track to be an interesting exploration of Scar, and felt its removal from current productions of the musical was disappointing. Featuring it as an example of why Scar was one of the "15 most terrifying musical theater villains", ''Backstage'''s KC Wright described it as a "snarling

signature song A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a Handwriting, handwritten (and often Stylization, stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and ...

". Megan Green of Australian Stage wrote that "The Madness of King Scar" was an example of one of the "new, and equally memorable, songs" created for the musicals. James MacKillop of ''The Syracuse New Times'' described "The Madness of King Scar" and "Be Prepared" as the show's standouts. Some commentators had more mixed to negative responses to the song. Brandon Jones of The Global Dispatch criticised "The Madness of King Scar" and "Chow Down" as "a bit too tedious", and felt that the beginning of the second act was too long. Heather Violanti was critical of the song's content, writing that its "disgusting jokes about intestinal worms may drive you mad yourself", and negatively compared it to the

Lebo M. Lebohang Morake (born 11 July 1964), known as Lebo M, is a South African producer and composer, known for his songwriting and vocal work on the soundtracks to films such as ''The Lion King, The Power of One'' and ''Outbreak'' and numerous stage ...

-written " One by One".

Fan-made animation

In 2014, animator Eduardo Quintana released an original sequence using a portion of Vickery's version of "The Madness of King Scar". Created as a "tribute" to the musical and the 20th anniversary of the animated film, Quintana had spent roughly two years completing the animation for the video. Focused on the dialogue between Scar and Nala, the scene begins with Scar chewing on a bone before progressing to his sexual propositions to Nala. Released on Quintana's official YouTube account, the video reached over two and a half million views as of 23 November 2016. Critical response to the video has been positive. Mikey McCollor praised the animation, writing that he had initially believed it was done by

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...

animators. Van der Will wrote that Quintana's animation was "seriously out of this world!" Christophe Foltzer of the website Ecranlarge.com also praised Quintana, emphasising the amount of animation that he did as the video's sole animator. Foltzer wrote that he wanted to see further work from Quintana.

References

Citations

Book sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Madness of King Scar Songs about mental health Songs about kings Songs about fictional male characters Songs about mammals 1997 songs Songs from The Lion King (franchise) Songs with music by Elton John Songs with lyrics by Tim Rice