Thread by @jazuren

Ok I'm sorry I cant help it I have to. I'm sorry.

Thesis: the "live action" lion king visually is lacking when it comes to telling a story through color. Come along with me on this journey all 4 people who read my stuff, let's go~

/thread

I want to start off by stating that the people who worked on this film are very talented. They made a very beautiful looking film, its spot on and on a very general level its top notch stuff. If I didnt know better, I would say this was the best Disney can do. But.

Disney CAN do better. We have proof. The original.

Now, I dont like to be the jerk who compares remakes to originals, but they're honestly not making it easy on me to separate them. They're using the exact same shots.

However, one big problem with these remake shots. And its haaard to ignore. They're completely lacking a unique color key between shots. And that's an issue, especially since color key is important to story telling a tone to an animated film, or film in general.

The beginning of the Lion King is meaningful, its starts off showing the rising sun, symbolizing the rising of a new life. It's supposed to convey the feeling of early morning through visuals. You can tell between these shots that this morning is wet, and bright, and warm..

It hurts, I'm sorry. Look at these two shots. Which one is visually more striking? I'm going to be honest, I can tell the original film's artists actually went to Africa and painted these scenes. Even if they didnt, it's more convincing.

We're so caught up in capturing realism, hyper realistic depictions of the world now that we have this technology and it ironically sucks the life out of the film. What makes something convincing in animation? What's the first thing you learned as an animator? Exaggeration.

Exaggeration, not just in the physics of animation, but in color, in composition. All these things help trick the human brain into believing that a character or an environment is something that could be percieved as real.

I dont believe these animals are breathing. And it's supposed to be the jobs of the animator to trick me into thinking that.

I'm sorry, I'd let it go if the original didnt exist. But I can't. This film, compared to the original, is boring looking. Every shot is the same color, like they just put an instagram filter over each shot and called it a day.

These shots aren't in the trailer but I bet theyll be in the film. They're all different color keys to convey the passage of time and location. These animals are traveling all from different areas to meet in one place. Yet I bet when this movie comes out, everything will be brown

I want to go back to the scene with kilimanjaro. Look at these colors they chose to show the warmth and humidity of the early morning. Look at the decision to highlight the birds against the dark mountain for visibility. Look at how the animals are shrouded in mist. Compare.

Disney, you can do better than this. I have proof.

And you, dear nostalgic viewer, you deserve a better looking movie than this.

/PSA So I just wanna say guys it's ok if you like the new Lion King. I keep getting dms...and you dont have to dm me anymore saying you like the Lion King, it's cool. I just dont think its living up artistically to its potential and that's sad.

Please be nice to each other!