Thumbnail Image by Ellejart →
If you left the theater feeling a little disappointed by the Lion King remake, one fan artist has just the remedy for your blues. Digital artist and Photoshop wizard Nikolay Mochkin, who goes by the username ellejart on Instagram, has reimagined the Lion King characters as they’re seen in the new film and drawn them in a style more closely aligned with the original movie.
Originally voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas, young Simba is played by JD McCrary in director Jon Favreau’s remake. And he doesn’t just sound different, either. Gone are the exaggerated eye movements, head tilts, winces, and smiles that Simba expressed in the ’90s movie, replaced instead by a lion who looks real enough to reach out and touch… but isn’t really as emotive as before. Mochkin brought back Simba’s signature sass in his re-working of the character’s design, adding in downturned brows when the young lion cub knows he’s in trouble, and giving him wider eyes as he looks out at the vast expanse of the Pridelands.
Adult Simba also got a retouch from Mochkin, who gave the remake’s version of the lion his orange-tinged mane, bright eyes, and expressive face from the original film. And though she’s voiced by multi-Grammy-Award-winning artist and chart-topping singer-songwriter Beyoncé this time around, Simba’s childhood friend-turned-queen Nala still wasn’t perfect by Mochkin’s estimations. He made her eyes brighter and bluer, her muzzle squarer, and her ears larger and lower than before.
To some, the biggest mistake the Lion King remake made was dampening the menacing presence of Simba’s villainous uncle Scar. Voice actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, known for his work in films like 12 Years a Slave and Doctor Strange, did a pretty bang-up job making Scar sound as vicious as Jeremy Irons did in the original Lion King, but most people felt that Disney’s animators failed to depict the mangy lion in all his sinister wickedness. Keep watching the video to see how this fan awesomely reimagined the Lion King characters!
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