Cecil the lion: Former Disney artist pens The Lion King tribute to slain animal

This beautiful tribute picture was penned for Cecil the lion

A FITTING tribute to Cecil the lion has been penned in the style of The Lion King.

 

The Lion King is a movie that touched thousands of children's hearts around the world over two decades. 

And now a talented Photoshop artist has created a fitting tribute to Cecil the fallen lion on his computer, in the style of the movie. 

Cecil was killed by US dentist Walter Palmer and millions have united in shock and horror at the atrocity. 

The lion was allegedly lured out of Hwange National Park before he was wounded with a bow and arrow then tracked down for 40 hours, shot and skinned.

In the wake of millions of enraged Cecil fans calling on Zimbabwean authorities to stop issuing permits for trophy hunting, this artwork has been created. 

 

The video shows the picture being drawn from scratch by Aaron Blaise. Writing on the post, he said: "As you may be able to tell I am a HUGE animal lover and it drives me crazy when I see these beautiful creatures destroyed for no good reason. 

"In fact, I’ve decided to get personally involved and hopefully our efforts can help educate people and prevent these horrible things from happening in the future."

He added: "It’s not much, but hopefully it will make people think."

Aaron worked for Disney for 21 years, and penned drawings for Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas - as well as working on Aladdin. 

The drawing comes as The White House said it would review another public petition calling for the extradition of Palmer from Minnesota after more than 100,000 people signed it.

Zimbabwe's Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri said: "We are appealing for his extradition to Zimbabwe so that he can be held accountable for his illegal action.

"It was too late to apprehend the foreign poacher because he had already absconded to his country of origin."