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Fans have a mixed reaction to live action ‘The Lion King’ character posters

Even Simba doesn't want to look (credit: Disney)
Even Simba doesn't want to look (credit: Disney)

Woah boy. What is it about Disney’s live-action remakes that make fans want to kick-off on social media? First they turned on Will Smith’s Genie in Aladdin after the first trailer, and now they’re recoiling from Pumbaa in The Lion King in a new series of character posters.

Though, to be fair, they do have a point.

Click the image below to see all the posters in full...

New character posters for The Lion King.
New character posters for The Lion King.

The character posters show off the stunning photoreal CGI work undertaken by UK-based visual effects company MPC, showing the beloved characters of the 1994 animation reimagined as living, breathing creatures in all all their hairy glory.

However, not everyone is a fan.

But Pumbaa’s horror movie vibes isn’t the only issue for fans, the character posters are also highlighting another issue, that this is a live-action remake without any live-action; all the characters are CGI, a situation that’s highlighted by the ads.

Oh, and then there’s the fact that these lions all look, well, like lions. That’s a tricky thing to get around when most of your cast is, you know, lions.

Oh well, at least the posters have created a strong reaction, even if it’s not the kind Disney might have been hoping for.

Still, with Aladdin going great guns at the UK box office despite the Twitter storm, Disney probably aren’t that fussed about this latest controversy. The Lion King will probably still break all known live action records next month, it’s easily the highest profile movie Disney’s given the remake treatment to.

Read more: Seth Rogen says The Lion King isn’t an identical remake

And if you’re worried that you’ll be basically be getting the same film as the original, don’t worry, Seth Rogen reassured Yahoo Movies UK that, “It’s not shot for shot, just the stuff they’ve released is like that. It’s different, and we improvised a lot.”

So that’s all right then. As long as that new stuff doesn’t include a sequence where Pumbaa goes on a murder rampage, we’ll be fine.

The Lion King will be in UK cinemas on 19 July.