Animated and live-action family films are some of Hollywood’s biggest moneymakers. They’re also prime candidates for song opportunities. Several 2016 films (including ones yet to be released) are taking full advantage:
Shakira voices pop singer Gazelle and sings the original song “Try Everything” in Disney’s “Zootopia”. It’s upbeat and very catchy, and the lyrics hold a lot of meaning.
On the promotional tour for “The Jungle Book”, Bill Murray (the voice of Baloo) and young Neel Sethi (who plays Mowgli) performed “The Bare Necessities” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”. “I Wanna Be Like You”, from Christopher Walken’s King Louie, and “Trust in Me”, sung by Scarlett Johansson, are also featured in the film.
In “The Angry Birds Movie”, Blake Shelton voices Earl, the green pig with the cowboy hat, and he performs the sweet closing credits tune, “Friends”.
As part of 20th Century FOX’s “Ice Age: Collision Course” presentation at CinemaCon last month, Vanilla Ice appeared on the Vegas stage and tweaked his iconic song with “Ice Age Baby”.
“Hamilton” mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda is the music producer behind Disney’s upcoming “Moana”. Recently on “Rachael Ray”, Miranda complemented star Dwayne Johnson’s singing skills (his “What a Wonderful World” rendition from “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” was much better than expected).
But the most buzz-worthy movie music of the year so far comes from superstar Justin Timberlake. He voices Branch in DreamWorks Animation’s “Trolls”. The film doesn’t open until November, but more than 20 minutes was just debuted in front of audiences at the Cannes Film Festival. And Timberlake decided to unveil one of the movie’s main songs six months out. He’s released “Can’t Stop the Feeling” as a single. The entire “Trolls” voice ensemble (including “Into the Woods” stars Anna Kendrick and James Corden) will sing along to it in the movie. Talk of it being the Song of the Summer and an Oscar contender has already begun.