Nfamous Fan Art: Disneypocalypse

Being honest with you all, I am a huge Disney fan. As most of us here in the States, I was raised watching Disney classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty, Fantasia and many more. As I grew into my teenage years I was a fan of the Disney Afternoon block of animation that included Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck and Tale Spin. I also became fans of the later Disney animated movies The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan, The Princess and the Frog and so on. In fact my first real job was working at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. I was even excited to learn that Disney was acquiring Marvel a couple of years ago. Plain and simple, I love Disney. So as I was scanning through the new deviations on deviantArt.com this past week and came across this piece by deviantArtist MattRhodes, you know I had to just share it with you all. And it is a beauty…

I mean, just look at that! The name says it all: Disneypocalypse. It isn’t that often that you see the heroes of these iconic films turn and run from a fight. But when you got the powerful trio beings Jafar, Ursula and Maleficent all vying for power in their most powerful forms, what choice do the heroes really have? MattRhodes brings this piece to life and I am just one of the many people on the site to appreciate this piece. So far it has been viewed more than 14,400 times, downloaded 622 times and has been added as a favorite by just over 2,900 people. I was curious as to what led him to create it in the first place, so I got a few words from him in this brief conversation.

Arcee: Just to get this one out of the way, are you a Disney fan yourself?

MattRhodes: I am a big fan of these movies. To say that Disney movies have been formative for me would be a huge understatement. They are woven into my psyche and have left a permanent impression.

Arcee: I see. So what was your inspiration for creating this piece?

MattRhodes: My wife and I were watching through our old favorites again and I got to thinking about villains. These three in particular reach some final, desperate and gigantic form and are destroyed seconds later. I started to imagine them all reaching this state at the same time, and how they would be able to cause incredible devastation. So much so that the heroes would be forced to limp away to lick their wounds. It became one of those images that won't leave your head until you draw it out. 

Arcee: The contrast between the villains fighting in the background and the heroes fleeing... it's quite moving. Why did you chose to create it that way?

MattRhodes: There was no way around this being a somewhat complicated image. With six characters there's a lot to convey and I’m not really a fan of complexity. The clearer I can make an image the better I feel. So, once everything was drawn and I had my flat base colors I spent a lot of time working out the main colors and values for everything. By grouping the villains and the heroes together it makes this a lot simpler to read. When this was at the line work stage it was nearly impossibly to tell what was happening.

Arcee: All in all, how much total time did it take you to finish the entire piece?

MattRhodes: This image took a total of six hours all together.

Arcee:  This may be subjective on purpose, but as per you, the artist, what are the villains fighting over?

MattRhodes: The villains are fighting for power, for the sake of their egos, and the knowledge that not one of them will share control of the world.

Arcee: And finally, do you have a favorite as to who would win this fight?

MattRhodes: I'm not exactly sure what Triton's wand does except shoot electricity and move water around. When she's a dragon, Maleficent doesn't seem to be able to use her magic, so it's just green flames for her. Jafar, as powerful as he is, is limited to the holder of his lamp. Honestly, I think they're all pretty evenly matched. Knowing them they'll eliminate each other simultaneously, cancel each other out.

I want to thank MattRhodes so much for taking time to converse with me. It is always great insight to just listen and take in what these artist do and what inspires them. If you would like to see the full-sized version of this picture for yourself and to browse through all of his other pics, you can follow him on his official deviantArt page. If you want a quick gander as to other works he has produced, just look at the samples below.