skunkandburningtires:James Baxter on Animating Rafiki“There were some things in Rafiki’s design that
skunkandburningtires:James Baxter on Animating Rafiki“There were some things in Rafiki’s design that were a little uncomfortable. […] Mandrills don’t have tails but the directors felt Rafiki looked nice with a tail, so now he’s a mutant mandrill. Even in real life, mandrills’ faces look a bit unreal, so it was a challenge to integrate that blue stripey part of Rafiki’s face into the design so it moves naturally when he speaks.“When Rafiki appears to Simba and Simba says, ‘Who are you anyway?’ Rafiki answers, ‘The question is, who are you?’ I thought, ‘What can I do to make this odd and quirky?’ I decided to turn Rafiki’s head upside down so as he says ‘you’, his head is horizontal. That’s a bit of acting that came out of me.”– Animator James Baxter, discussing his work on Rafiki for Disney’s The Lion King (1994) Via. -- source link