Aug 31, 2023

The artists of "The Monkey King" share an early character concept from Netflix's latest hit.

Netflix's latest original animation feature, King of Monkeys, has been a hit for the platform and was its most watched movie last week.

Berlin-based character designer Uwe Heidschötter and Paris-based character designer Juliaon Roels were involved in the development of the film and began sharing some of the character's explorations on social media pages.

Heidschötter works for many major studios, including Netflix, Dreamworks, Nexus Studios, and Locksmith Animation. Upcoming films he contributed to include locksmith That Christmas and Leica's Wildwood.

Roels works on concepts and characters for Laika, Blue Sky Studios, Illumination Mac Guff, Sun Creature, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Netflix and Cartoon Network. He has contributed to such films as The Missing Link, the Secret Life of pets, and now the King of Monkeys.

Monkey King is a family-oriented retelling of one of China's most popular fantasy stories, 1. In the film, the charismatic monkey and his magical sensuous battle stick set off on a quest to defeat 100 demons, an eccentric dragon king, and eventually the monkey's own bulging ego. Along the way, a young village girl named Lin challenges the narcissistic attitude of a monkey and proves that even the smallest pebble can make a big impact on the world.

The artist shares sketches of all the major players that can be seen below. Both Heidschötter and Roels have more artwork and insights on their social media pages, so be sure to check them out.

Monkey:

A post shared by Uwe Heidscho.tter(@heidschoetter)

A post shared by Uwe Heidscho.tter(@heidschoetter)

Posts shared by Juliaon Roels (@juliaon_art)

Baby Monkey:

A post shared by Uwe Heidscho.tter(@heidschoetter)

Lin:

Posts shared by Juliaon Roels (@juliaon_art)

Posts shared by Juliaon Roels (@juliaon_art)

Posts shared by Uwe Heidscho.tter(@heidschoetter)

Dragon King:

A post shared by Uwe Heidscho.tter(@heidschoetter)

Juliaon Roels (@juliaon_art)

Red Boy, changed to Red Girl for the final version of the movie:

A post shared by Uwe Heidscho.tter(@heidschoetter)

A post shared by Juliaon Roels (@juliaon_art)

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