{"id":113,"date":"2019-07-26T05:54:15","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T12:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/?p=113"},"modified":"2019-07-31T09:08:30","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T16:08:30","slug":"what-do-the-original-lion-king-animators-think-of-the-remake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/what-do-the-original-lion-king-animators-think-of-the-remake\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do The Original \u2018Lion King\u2019 Animators Think Of The Remake?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As if it\u2019s 1994 all over again, \u201cThe Lion King\u201d is monopolizing pop culture. For two consecutive weeks, Disney\u2019s pseudo-live-action remake has conquered the box office, already accumulating $1 billion<\/a> in global grosses. This time around, no one can claim they\u2019re surprised<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audiences may be satisfied with Jon Favreau\u2019s photorealistic take on Simba and the gang, but what about the animators responsible for the original? After all, much of the new film mimics their imagery shot for shot, which is either a welcome dose of technologically sophisticated nostalgia or a creatively inert exercise in uncanny redundancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

That more or less sums up the dividing line: love it or hate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I reached out to 13 artists who contributed to the first \u201cLion King.\u201d Of the animators who responded to my emails, three had seen the current adaptation and agreed to talk on the record. Three others said they were not planning to see it at all, a stance that can be interpreted as an act of protest. \u201cI will only get myself in trouble if I comment on the \u2018other\u2019 version,\u201d one animator now employed at a rival studio said. Another responded, \u201cThere is a huge resentment against these 3D remakes from the original 2D crews. Maybe if we got any kind of royalties it would be different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Stephan, who in the early \u201890s contributed to the opening \u201cCircle of Life\u201d sequence and the hyenas\u2019 design, summed up the \u201chate it\u201d camp succinctly, saying, \u201cIf you polled the crew of the original \u2018Lion King,\u2019 most of them would say, \u2018Why? Did you really have to do that?\u2019 It kind of hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we\u2019ll never know if such a poll would actually confirm Stephan\u2019s hypothesis. Alexander Williams, who worked on the initial Scar, and Dave Bossert, who did visual effects throughout the movie, are far more \u201chakuna matata\u201d about the whole thing. Both adore Favreau\u2019s edition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOverall, I thought the film stands on its own,\u201d Bossert said. \u201cIt not only showcases a great story again, but it\u2019s an homage to the original film.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In separate interviews, Williams, Stephan and Bossert offered assorted thoughts on the mega-blockbuster redux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Merits Of A Live-Action-Seeming \u2018Lion King\u2019 Remake<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Williams:<\/strong> \u201cI think some of my colleagues forget that when you work on a Disney movie, you don\u2019t own it. They own it. You get paid to work there, which is a great privilege. It\u2019s an amazing company. You get to work on this great stuff. But when you walk away, it\u2019s their movie and they can do what they want with it. So as far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s kind of none of my business whether they want to remake it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephan:<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s sort of sad that the stockholder is now in the room deciding what movies get made. \u2026 Disney\u2019s now taken the cover off, and it\u2019s now in your face: \u2018Yeah, we just want to make money.\u2019 That\u2019s disappointing as an artist, from a studio that was founded on originality and art.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bossert:<\/strong> \u201cI view it as what Walt [Disney] did when he was building the company. He constantly reused and recycled great stories. It\u2019s very evident if you look at when he built Disneyland. He took properties like \u2018Peter Pan,\u2019 \u2018Alice in Wonderland\u2019 and \u2018Cinderella\u2019 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. \u2026 The fact is, they\u2019re taking these great stories and they\u2019re creating them in different entertainment arenas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Realistic Aesthetics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Williams:<\/strong> \u201cDon\u2019t forget, at the time of \u2018The Lion King,\u2019 there was groundbreaking digital animation going on. The wildebeests, for example, were all computer-generated, and that was considered very radical and advanced for its time. So I don\u2019t think you can mourn the old days too much because everyone\u2019s always itching to do it better.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephan:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of fine art, and you can see the Impressionists move through the early 19th century and then the Jackson Pollocks into the \u201940s and \u201950s. And then there was a period in the \u201960s where they went really hyperrealism, almost like photographs. That was an evolution. And now it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, look, let\u2019s take this great Monet and let\u2019s paint it like it really should look like.\u2019 And that\u2019s like, \u2018Well, why? What\u2019s different other than it\u2019s real?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bossert:<\/strong> \u201cVisually, it\u2019s stunning \u2026 In some instances, it\u2019s a shot-by-shot version of the original animated film, and that didn\u2019t bother me at all because I think the filmmakers were staying faithful to the original property. The faithfulness to the original animated film certainly endears it to the audience, without question.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Voice Performances<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Williams:<\/strong> \u201cThey were very, very good. I think they did a really nice job. \u2026 These movies are not really made by the actors. They\u2019re probably never on set. They\u2019re taping in recording booths for a few hours, and that\u2019s it. That\u2019s their entire contribution. Obviously it\u2019s 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephan:<\/strong> \u201cI thought the performances were weak. I mean, they were so wooden. [The filmmakers] put themselves into a corner when you do that realistically. You\u2019re really stuck to what the real physics are in real life, or people aren\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bossert:<\/strong> \u201cI love the fact that they kept James Earl Jones from the original as Mufasa. That was terrific. It\u2019s a sort of homage to the original film. I thought the voice characterizations were terrific across the board. There wasn\u2019t anything that struck me as being odd at all. I particularly liked John Oliver as Zazu and Seth Rogen as Pumbaa.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Character Design<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Williams:<\/strong> \u201cCertain parts of the animation are breathtaking. These are still hand-crafted films. I mean, forget about the tech. You\u2019ve still got a room full of artists trying to make every pixel look beautiful. It\u2019s not easy to get that right. So I say the tech is part of the message now because it\u2019s so impressive now what can be done. \u2026. It feels like you\u2019re in a David Attenborough world: documentary footage, and yet the animals were talking and emoting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephan:<\/strong> \u201cIt 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, \u2018Oh, this is really cheap.\u2019 I think it was just too soon for this one. \u2026 I just came away going, \u2018Wow, that was a great story that I worked on back in \u201993.\u2019 \u2026 How come the apes in \u2018Planet of the Apes\u2019 look so much more alive than the animals in \u2018Lion King\u2019? This one just said, \u2018You know what, let\u2019s cut the expressions out completely. Let\u2019s just keep it real as possible.\u2019 And I think it just diminished the film.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bossert:<\/strong> \u201cI wish they had a little bit more emotion in the characters\u2019 eyes. If you\u2019ve got animals talking, you can take more liberties with facial expressions. \u2026 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\u2019re walking a fine line where you don\u2019t want it to be too cartoony, but I think they could have pushed it a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What This Technology Means For The Future Of Filmmaking<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Williams:<\/strong> \u201cThat is a game-changing level of technical skill in my view, in the same way that I think \u2018Life of Pi\u2019 [was] a few years ago. That raised the bar for everyone. So now they\u2019ve taken that bar and they\u2019ve raised it still further.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephan:<\/strong> \u201cThe live-action world\u2019s going to get a wake-up call. Somebody \u2015 probably like [James] Cameron \u2015 will do a whole live-action film where it\u2019s all computerized. They\u2019re going to start to create actors in the digital world. \u2026 if you look at \u2018The Polar Express,\u2019 that was really stiff also, the Tom Hanks character. The technology wasn\u2019t there yet because of the dead eyes. But it is now. Think how far we\u2019ve come in the last 10 to 15 years, technology-wise. I mean, Marvel? I\u2019m not sure if you can call those live-action anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bossert:<\/strong> \u201cTen or 20 years from now, we may be seeing a holographic, immersive experience of \u2018Lion King\u2019 because, whatever the new technology will be 10 or 20 or 30 years from now, they\u2019ll be able to recreate this story in that new medium and tell the story from a new vantage point. \u2026 A lot of people are talking about the new \u2018Lion King\u2019 movie and Disney doing all these remakes and \u2018Oh my gosh, what\u2019s going on here?\u2019 When I walked away from that theater, what I thought about is that the photorealism is becoming so good that it\u2019s only a matter of time before they\u2019re creating really convincing human characters. They\u2019re not there yet, but they\u2019re getting closer. It\u2019s a far cry from the soulless characters that were in \u2018The Polar Express\u2019 a number of years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As if it\u2019s 1994 all over again, \u201cThe Lion King\u201d is monopolizing pop culture. For two consecutive weeks, Disney\u2019s pseudo-live-action remake has conquered the box office, already accumulating $1 billion in global grosses. This time around, no one can claim they\u2019re surprised.  Audiences may be satisfied with Jon Favreau\u2019s photorealistic take on Simba and the gang, but what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,24],"tags":[83,81],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-news","tag-animation","tag-movies-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awplife.com\/demo\/newsstreet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}