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HuffPo reached out to 13 original "Lion King" animators to get their thoughts on Jon Favreau's photorealistic remake, many of whom declined to comment. One animator speaking on anonymity said, "I will only get myself in trouble if I comment on the 'other' version." Another animator added, "There 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." Only three animators were willing to be interviewed by the Huffington Post. David Stephan, an animator who worked on the original film's hyena designs and the iconic "Circle of Life" opening sequence, went on record sharing his critical thoughts of the 2019 "Lion King." Summarizing the thoughts of many of his colleagues, Stephan told HuffPo, "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." Stephan said that the photorealistic VFX used on the 2019 "Lion King" negated what made the animated 1994 film so special and imaginative. The animators believe the effects were so realistic that it made the film's other prominent elements, such as singing and talking animals, feel widely out of place. "It would jar me out of the film, literally," Stephen said. "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, 'Oh, this is really cheap.' I think it was just too soon for this one." "I just came away going, 'Wow, that was a great story that I worked on back in '93.' How come the apes in 'Planet of the Apes' look so much more alive than the animals in 'Lion King'?" Stephan continued. "This one just said, 'You know what, let's cut the expressions out completely. Let's just keep it real as possible.' And I think it just diminished the film." Stephan went on to criticize the voice performances as well, calling them "so wooden." "[The filmmakers] put themselves into a corner when you do that realistically," Stephan said. "You're really stuck to what the real physics are in real life, or people aren't 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." HuffPo's other two respondents are both fans of director Jon Favreau's new take. "Overall, I thought the film stands on its own," says Dave Bossert, who worked on a variety of the first film's visual effects. Scar-animator Alexander Williams says his former co-workers have forgotten working for Disney is a "great privilege," and the backlash is really just misdirected nostalgia. "So I don't think you can mourn the old days too much," Williams says, "because everyone's always itching to do it better." He even went so far as to call specific portions of the new movie's animation "breathtaking," saying the "game-changing" technical skill behind it raises the industry bar. Bossert was also supportive, calling the new movie visually "stunning" and "faithful" to Walt Disney's original storytelling dream. Still, he found some design elements lacking. "I wish they had a little bit more emotion in the characters' eyes," he tells the outlet.

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