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The Lion King is no stranger to controversy ever since the original was released in 1994. Now, animators from the original movie are telling us how they really feel about the 2019 remake.
Animators David Stephan, Alexander Williams and Dave Bossert spoke with HuffPost, and according to them, many of the animators from the original movie have mixed feelings. Bossert and Williams were mostly positive about the Donald Glover and Beyoncé-starring remake. However, Stephan wasn’t too kind:
“If you polled the crew of the original ‘Lion King,’ most of them would say, ‘Why? Did you really have to do that?’ It kind of hurts,” he said.
Stephan, who had a major part in the 1994 “Circle of Life” sequence, said he was disappointed that Disney greenlit a remake.
“It’s sort of sad that the stockholder is now in the room deciding what movies get made. … Disney’s now taken the cover off, and it’s now in your face: ‘Yeah, we just want to make money.’ That’s disappointing as an artist, from a studio that was founded on originality and art,” he said.
Eesh.
Hit the flip for more on what these animation veterans had to say about the new Lion King.
Bossert had a more positive opinion about the remake:
“I view it as what Walt [Disney] did when he was building the company. He constantly reused and recycled great stories. It’s very evident if you look at when he built Disneyland. He took properties like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella and he created immersive theme-park attractions, and all the merchandise and books and other things that came along with it. He kind of invented that stuff. … The fact is, they’re taking these great stories and they’re creating them in different entertainment arenas.”
When talking about the voice actors for the 2019 Lion King, Stephan said:
“I thought the performances were weak. I mean, they were so wooden. [The filmmakers] put themselves into a corner when you do that realistically. You’re really stuck to what the real physics are in real life, or people aren’t going to buy it. But there were a few scenes where there were a couple of expressions and suddenly it was a little more alive.”
Williams and Bossert were more positive about the performances. Williams said:
“They were very, very good. I think they did a really nice job….These movies are not really made by the actors. They’re probably never on set. They’re taping in recording booths for a few hours, and that’s it. That’s their entire contribution. Obviously it’s a very important contribution, but their actual role in the movie is relatively small compared to the artists who might toil for a few years.”
On the character designs, Stephan said:
“It would jar me out of the film, literally. Especially with little Simba walking around. It was too real. And then when he would talk, it reminded me of those old nature films where they would dub the voices over and the lips would move. I thought, ‘Oh, this is really cheap.’ I think it was just too soon for this one. … I just came away going, ‘Wow, that was a great story that I worked on back in ’93.’ … How come the apes in ‘Planet of the Apes’ look so much more alive than the animals in ‘Lion King’? This one just said, ‘You know what, let’s cut the expressions out completely. Let’s just keep it real as possible.’ And I think it just diminished the film.”
Bossert had more critique on the characters’ eyes:
“I wish they had a little bit more emotion in the characters’ eyes. If you’ve got animals talking, you can take more liberties with facial expressions. … Really with the eyes more than anything else. When a character is talking, the eyes could open a little more, or an eyebrow could raise a little bit. You’re walking a fine line where you don’t want it to be too cartoony, but I think they could have pushed it a little bit more.”
And once again, Williams was more positive:
“Certain parts of the animation are breathtaking. These are still hand-crafted films. I mean, forget about the tech. You’ve still got a room full of artists trying to make every pixel look beautiful. It’s not easy to get that right. So I say the tech is part of the message now because it’s so impressive now what can be done. …. It feels like you’re in a David Attenborough world: documentary footage, and yet the animals were talking and emoting.”
For the full interview, you can check it out here!
