This Instagram Artist Gave Live-Action 'The Lion King' The Expressions We Deserved

Sure, it's done well in the box office. Sure, everyone you talk to has seen it or is going to see it.

However, there's one thing that everyone can agree on...

Sure, it's because it's "live-action" now, but they took all the cuteness and soul from the characters, to replace them with realistic depictions of animals.

One Instagram artist, named Nikolay Mochkin has stepped up to the challenge of recreating the Lion King characters into new, live-action models.

This, Disney, is what they should have looked like.

And honestly, I think I prefer the cartoon eyes to the dead, black eyes of the lions that we got.

They may be a bit on the Uncanny Valley, however, they're more expressive.

You can see side by side comparisons if you keep scrolling through, and tell me this artist's version doesn't look better.

And would you look at that!

Once again, he looks better than the one we got and heck, that metal version of "Be Prepared" even sounds better than the new one!

You can tell the poor little guy is heartbroken, and it kind of makes your heart melt.

While I admit Timon looks a little too cartoony in this picture, personally I think that Pumbaa looks perfect, exactly how he should've.

Instead of... grey and gross looking.

You can even see Ed's crazy eyes in the background.

Like, straight out of the womb Simba looks so much more adorable than his live-action counterpart.

No sense of the uncanny valley here, folks, just straight-up "awws" all around!

There's no Christmas scene in the actual movie, but if they ever start to make the Disney sequels into live-action remakes then they could totally use this pic as a frame of reference!

But he actually looks quite endearing in this version!

Maybe this is how he should have looked.

And honestly, if one person could do it, why wouldn't a whole studio?

Just imagine James Earl Jone's voice booming through the thunder and the lightning: "you must take your place in the circle of life, Simba".

Chills.

This scene looks much more glorious with the way that Nikolay Mochkin paints it.

It's just absolutely breathtaking. Watch the video, it's mesmerizing.

In the background, you can see who I can only assume is Scar skulking around in his usual way.

And what it would've looked like if they had used the Instagram artist's expressions instead of the ones they used in the movie.

Looks much more expressive, do you not agree?

While not technically a scene from The Lion King, it is them in a real-life situation.

Smokey would be proud.

Just take a look at the differences between each of the pictures.

Which one would you rather see?

Sigh... well, maybe we'll get a live-action remake of the live-action remake in the future.

Thank you to Nikolay Mochkin for providing the art for this article.

The Instagram artist, Nikolay Mochkin, does a lot of cool pop culture related art on his page.

So if you liked this stuff, consider following him for much more greatness!