Woulda, coulda, shoulda?

Hey everyone! Since I haven't been on the forum for literally years I'm not sure if anyone has posted these pictures yet of an artist giving his own rendition of a TLK remake (since it's so fun to bash the current remake). The big question is, what do we think of this??

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(he has more screenshots with his own renditions on his IG page https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ThqQHo..._web_copy_link )

Personally I would've liked to see the move done this way. Having everything but the animals in the hyperrealistic way that the movie is now (because I just can't deny that it looks gorgeous) and make the animals look kinda like this artist did. It would've been a nice balance of credit to the original animators and on the other hand the awesome work of 3D animation.

I'm eager to read what you guys think!:psst:

I would have to disagree that this would of been a good approach for the movie as it was going for realistic feel. Using models like these would be interesting if they intended to make a 3D adaptaion of the original movie which I also don't see the point for. These character models look more like what you would expect if the cartoon characters would ecxist in the real world. This would of deffinetly gotten rid of the problem of lack of expressions and probably convey the emotions better, but it would of shattered the realism.

I personally don't think they could have done much better job as far as setting the story in the real life goes. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy seeing all kinds of new things that Disney had given us, but I feel that by altering character design we would have gained some and lost something else. The characters are definitely hard to tell apart like cub Simba and Nala or any of the adult lionesses really, but again that is how we often see animals in the wild anyways. Heck it has been proven that people have harder time making lasting impressions and identifying people outside their own race, so though this might not be the most satisfying way as far as emotional aspect of the story goes, it was the only sensible approach to even remake the movie.

I don't like this stylized/ cartoony style very much. Maybe for a video game it would be appropriate or a complete transformation of TLK in cartoony 3D...but it feels like something is missing from this style. It's struggling too much to be like the original AND realistic and yet it's neither. Looks a bit soulless to me, if that makes any sense.

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Originally Posted by Sadiki

The characters are definitely hard to tell apart like cub Simba and Nala or any of the adult lionesses really, but again that is how we often see animals in the wild anyways.

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On this, I don't get it why they didn't give some more prominent features on the lions and lionesses. Like different eye colours, or pelt colours. Even in the wild, it's not like every lion is the same as all others! The fur hues can variate, there can be scars or markings...Even the eyes, or mane. There's plenty of diversity in wild animals too, it's like they hardly did any research.:blah:

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Originally Posted by Kossu

On this, I don't get it why they didn't give some more prominent features on the lions and lionesses. Like different eye colours, or pelt colours. Even in the wild, it's not like every lion is the same as all others! The fur hues can variate, there can be scars or markings...Even the eyes, or mane. There's plenty of diversity in wild animals too, it's like they hardly did any research.:blah:

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By what I meant was that if you go in the wild, take an hour or two looking at a pride of lions and return the next day, the chances are that you can't tell them apart with such short time. With given enough time, you can deffinetly start to see the subtle differences on animals even in the wild.

I saw these online and tbh they look exactly like the TLK topiary at Epcot during the Garden festival when I was there this spring :lol: the resemblance is uncanny!

I don't know if this quite is what should've been done either. I think if they really wanted to make body language speak (even though they say they did, pffff.) That probably would've helped more than anything.

A Lion King topiary? That sounds amazing! Wonder what it looks like...:o

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Originally Posted by Sadiki

By what I meant was that if you go in the wild, take an hour or two looking at a pride of lions and return the next day, the chances are that you can't tell them apart with such short time. With given enough time, you can deffinetly start to see the subtle differences on animals even in the wild.

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Yeah, what you say definitely makes sense.:) Just expressing some frustration about how they handled the character designs in general.:lol:

haha, everyone keeps showing this video to me too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1HGgICqZ3c

Honestly, it's too uncanny valley for me. I agree with STM. The realistic lions they made are stunning, just push the emotions! or even just show more cat/lion behaviors! Was there even a true lion snarl or growl? Animate the ears back when the cats are upset or nervous.

I find them a little too uncanny valley as well :timonhehe:

This piece of concept art though, oh my gosh! https://www.deviantart.com/michaelku...sign-806315805
I think this has everything - the absolute photo realism, but also the expressiveness and the soul! It's subtle, but it's definitely there. I will never understand why they didn't go with this direction...