Artist Recreates Disney’s "The Lion King" Characters As Humanoid Creatures

"I imagined these characters existing in a modern society with 21st-century hobbies and occupations."

Damjan

Published in Disney
7 Jul 2021

Artist Recreates Disney’s "The Lion King" Characters As Humanoid Creatures

The Lion King has inspired plenty of fan art, but this version takes the characters in a much stranger direction. Instead of staying fully animal, Marco Bernard reimagines them as humanoid creatures with a style that feels part Disney, part fantasy, and part modern pop culture.

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The Los Angeles freelance illustrator began the project during lockdown, drawing from shows like TaleSpin and Beastars while building a series called Lion King: Pride Land Characters. The result gives familiar faces a completely different look, and the transformation is hard to ignore.

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Some of the redesigns feel playful, others feel surprisingly intense, and the whole series keeps getting more interesting as it goes on.

1. Shenzi

Mufasa as an anthropomorphic lion king character, standing proudly

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2. Mufasa

Shenzi as a humanoid hyena character, with Timon and Pumbaa nearby

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3. Timon And Pumbaa

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4. Rafiki

Scar reimagined as an anthropomorphic character, with dramatic pose and grin

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"I got the idea when the world was on lockdown back in March. I had spent time watching shows like Beastars on Netflix and TaleSpin on Disney+, and I thought it would be cool to imagine what Scar would look like as an anthropomorphic character," the artist says.

"After seeing the positive reactions to the piece I posted on Instagram, I decided to start a series and drew a new character every day. The series was called 'Pridelands.' I imagined these characters existing in a modern society with 21st-century hobbies and occupations. I also placed them in a dramatic setting, a world riddled with crime and deception."