Original ‘Lion King’ animator criticises remake, calls it 'disappointing'

Jon Favreau’s photo realistic remake of the 1994 Lion King has received a fair share of criticism and praises. And David Stephan, one of the original animators of 1994's "The Lion King" is one such who was not taken aback by the remake of the classic Disney film. Sitting down with Huffpost, Stephan who in the early ‘90s contributed to the opening “Circle of Life” sequence and the hyenas’ design, said the remake ‘’kind of hurts" as he believes it was driven by their commercial motivations.

"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.

"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," the animator said.

Stephan also adding on the voice performances of the stars added, “I thought the performances were weak. I mean, they were so wooden’’. He further lamented the new character designs, which he said felt "too real"."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," Stephan added."

The Lion King released worldwide on July 19 and so far earned over $1 billion worldwide.