Elton John didn’t feel “Hakuna Matata” while working on the “Lion King” … ’cause one of the movie’s stars says he had serious gripes about some of the flick’s original choices.

Nathan Lane — the Broadway star and voice of Timon in the hit 1994 flick — spoke with Entertainment Weekly for an interview published Friday … where he revealed the Academy Award-winning song “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” was originally supposed to be sung entirely by his character and Ernie Sabella‘s Pumbaa.

The way Lane explains it … when Elton found out he voiced his displeasure, saying he wrote the song because he wanted to have an epic Disney love ballad under his belt — and “didn’t want it to be sung by the rat and the pig.”

Clearly, Elton’s vision prevailed … ’cause producers cut down Lane and Sabella’s parts to just opening and closing the track — but, not before the duo recorded the entire song.

Looking back on it … NL says Elton had it totally right — ’cause he and Ernie were performing cartoony voices, making it real hard to sound romantic.

“Can You Feel The Love Tonight” became a massive hit of course … winning Best Original Song at the ’95 Oscars while also earning John a Grammy Award and a Golden Globe.

BTW … Lane’s been doing a lot of press recently in the run-up to his appearance at the Hollywood Bowl’s “The Lion King” live concert event — where Kim Kardashian and Kanye West‘s daughter North just made her singing debut.

Anyhoo … seems like Elton’s choice proved perfect for the film — which may have died a lot sooner in the circle of life if they hadn’t changed the song!!!