The Lion King has surpassed most expectations that experts had for the remake coming into this summer. One sticking point filmgoers have pointed toward after seeing the film is the jarring nature of the photo-realistic animals contrasted against the more stylized characters in the 1994 version. Two artists have struck out to unite the two styles with the help of an AI-assisted program.
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Instagram user @jonty-pressinger shared a video of the new hybrid-visuals in action. The impressive results are achieved by mixing the existing animation with some breathtaking fan art by Nikolay Mochkin. Mixing the two styles considerably restores some of the emotion that the remake seemed to miss out on by opting for a more realistic palette. You can check out the results for yourself below.
“Attempted to fix the new Lion King by doing an AI style-transfer using @ellejart amazing fan art,” @jonty_pressinger explained. Mochkin’s handle, @ellejart, also shared looks at the process and product on their handle. The profile also contains other show-stopping art projects that fans will get a kick out of.
The video features Simba, Nala, Scar, and Pumbaa with the throwback graphics package applied to their new slick computer-generated look. The background elements have also been polished to match the sort of whimsical nature that the remake discarded in its translation of the 1994 classic. Rob Legato’s work on the visual effects for this film definitely took the pros and cons of this type of computer-generated art into consideration for The Lion King.
Legato explained, “If you suspend this belief enough, you’ll just watch the story and enjoy the backgrounds and the journey, the epic journey of going to Africa and tell it in a way that seems authentic. And maybe more authentic than we could ever have achieved in any kind of a [live-action] form. So that was the challenge of doing that. And automatically the [source] material is working. It’s tried and true. You can make a good movie out of this.”
Authenticity may have been an aesthetic choice but the filmmakers were still careful not to tip over into straight-up nature documentary aesthetics. The film’s status as a remake complicates matters further because the 1994 original is so widely known. The source material is always kept close through the use of some familiar songs and audiences already being familiar with the film’s thematic structure.
It doesn’t seem like the new art style has hampered The Lion King‘s performance at the box office. 2019 might be an otherwise down year, but the House of Mouse has already seen multiple films cross the billion-dollar mark. The Lion King joined Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, and fellow remake Aladdin just to name a few.
The Lion King is directed by Jon Favreau and stars the voices of Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, John Oliver, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, and James Earl Jones.
