Weekend Diversion: Disney’s Game of Thrones

Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all

If winter is coming, this epic artwork is the spring thaw.

“When I was a kid, my world was five streets long. I never got away, except in books. I lived a thousand lives through books.” –George R.R. Martin

It’s a rare thing indeed for a fantasy story — one set in an entirely different world from our own — to captivate the collective imagination of the adult world. Yet that’s precisely what George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Fire And Ice, and its television counterpart, Game of Thrones, have done. Have a listen to Josh Page, Sean Pannikar, and Hana Ryu, better known as the Forte Tenors, as they sing their operatic rendition of Ramin Djawadi’s title theme for the show,

while you consider that despite creating a world of terror, darkness, horrifying creatures, death, starvation and more, the same world also contains some of the most fascinating, compelling characters ever written.

What better way to immortalize them than… by creating Disney-style versions of them?

Image credit: Fernando Mendonça, of Jon Snow with his direwolf, Ghost.

This is exactly what Brazilian artists Fernando Mendonça, featured above, and Anderson Mahanski, featured below, have done.

Image credit: Anderson Mahanski, of Daenerys Targaryen with her largest dragon, Drogon.

They’ve joined forces to form the art studio Combo Estúdio, and by far (for me) their most original, spectacular project has been to “Disneyfy” various Game of Thrones characters in extraordinarily creative fashion.

Image credit: Anderson Mahanski, of Varys (the spider) with his “little birds.”

It’s brilliant and creative, done in a classic Disney-cartoon style, as an amalgamation of both delightful whimsy but with the extremely gravy undertones that underlie all of Game of Thrones.

Image credit: Fernando Mendonça, of Bran Stark with Hodor. What seems like a joyous picture belies the truth of Bran’s paralysis.

Image credit: Anderson Mahanski, of the Mountain (Gregor Clegane) and the Red Viper (Oberyn Martell). This game of “peek-a-boo” is… well, if you’ve either read the books or seen the show, you’ll know what horrors are imminent.

Image credit: Anderson Mahanski and Fernando Mendonça, of Arya Stark and the Hound (Sandor Clegane), complete with the Hounds disfigurement and eating chicken, which was the scene of their most intense battle together.

Image credit: Fernando Mendonça, of Tyrion Lannister, a drunken and scarred dwarf, as his unique character is never allowed to forget.

Image credit: Fernando Mendonça, of Tyrion’s sweet sister Cersei Lannister, with a “Tyrion wanted” poster. Oh, does she ever want him dead, simply for the murder of her son (which he didn’t commit) and her father (which he gleefully did).

Image credit: Fernando Mendonça, of a White Walker in the style of Queen Elsa from Frozen. This is *not* a friendly-but-misunderstood creature, however!

Check out their entire Game of Thrones collection as well as all their other creations over at either the main Combo Estúdio website or by liking their Facebook page. And if you’ve never seen Game of Thrones (or read a song of Fire and Ice), I hope this perhaps inspires you to get into what’s my favorite cultural phenomenon of the decade!

Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you back here soon for more wonders and joys of the Universe.

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Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all