NPR

'The Lion King' Had The Perfect Villain Song. This Time, 'Be Prepared' For Less

We know it sounds sordid, but there's something missing in the 2019 version of Scar's bad-guy anthem — and it's the very thing that made the mustache-twirling original so iconic.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and his onscreen counterpart in 2019's <em>The Lion King</em>, the power-hungry villain Scar.

I have seen the new The Lion King. Pop Culture Happy Hour is devoting a whole show to it this week, so I won't get into a full review here, but just know that, when it comes to one specific aspect of the new film — the one aspect about which I cared most keenly, most deeply, most intensely — the news is not senSAAYtional. It's anything but, in fact.

I refer here to "Be Prepared," the very

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