<p class="title">David Stephan, one of the original animators of 1994’s "The Lion King", has blasted the remake of the classic Disney film, calling it "cheap".</p>.<p class="bodytext">The live-action remake, directed by "Jungle Book" helmer Jon Favreau, has so far earned over USD 1 billion in the worldwide gross. However, it has not been able to charm the critics, who found the film quite unnecessary.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Stephan, in an interview with HuffPost, said the studio's decision to go for a reboot "kind of hurts" as he believes it was driven by their commercial motivations.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Stephan also said that he found the performances of Hollywood stars like Donald Glover and Beyonce "weak" and "wooden".</p>.<p class="bodytext">He further lamented the new character designs, which he said felt "too real".</p>.<p class="bodytext">"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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The Lion King" released worldwide on July 19. </p>
<p class="title">David Stephan, one of the original animators of 1994’s "The Lion King", has blasted the remake of the classic Disney film, calling it "cheap".</p>.<p class="bodytext">The live-action remake, directed by "Jungle Book" helmer Jon Favreau, has so far earned over USD 1 billion in the worldwide gross. However, it has not been able to charm the critics, who found the film quite unnecessary.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Stephan, in an interview with HuffPost, said the studio's decision to go for a reboot "kind of hurts" as he believes it was driven by their commercial motivations.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Stephan also said that he found the performances of Hollywood stars like Donald Glover and Beyonce "weak" and "wooden".</p>.<p class="bodytext">He further lamented the new character designs, which he said felt "too real".</p>.<p class="bodytext">"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.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The Lion King" released worldwide on July 19. </p>