Coming to theaters last Thursday, the 26th, the live-action ‘The Little Mermaid’ brings the flesh-and-blood version of the classic tale of Hans Christian Andersenwhich was transformed into an animation of Mickey’s House in 1989 and which is now updated through the direction of the filmmaker Rob Marshall. Remember the trailer!
In the plot, which addresses the journey of self-discovery of the red-haired princess, it is possible to check out the realistic versions not only of the characters, but also of the places they frequent, such as King Triton’s palace (Javier Bardem), Ariel’s cave (Halle Bailey) and Ursula’s lair (Melissa McCarthy).
All magical and fantasy environments located below the surface were created through the commands of the production designer John Myhre — but did you know that a special method was used so that the underwater world of the princess was portrayed on the big screen?
As reported by Disney, Marshallrequested that a technique called photorealism be used, a process that includes a series of visual arts, such as paintings, drawings, sculptures and graphic arts whose objective is to reproduce reality in a way that really looks like a film or photograph.
Despite it being a magical world that we created, our goal was to make it not feel like animation,” said Marshall in an interview with Disney. “We wanted to reimagine the underwater space in a photorealistic style so that it could come to life appropriately for a live-action film. That was very important to us.”
But it wasn’t just the submerged scenes that received special attention from the production. That’s because the sequences on dry land had exclusive constructions for the plot, such as the 19th century castle and the colorful bazaar, for example.
In addition to them, it is also possible to mention the rock on which Ariel recreates the classic scene from the animation, which in the live-action was custom-made and transported to the location, as well as Prince Éric’s Ship, which was designed and prepared especially for the film:
We had to build the ship as a physical set and it was an amazing theatrical set, something you rarely see in a movie.”
Furthermore, in order for the setting to match the plot and convey the idea that Ariel lived in the 1830s, on a fictional island in the Caribbean, it was necessary to find “a place that conveyed the epic drama that the story demands”, as he explains. Marshal.
For this, the island of Sardinia, in Italy, was chosen, since the place had everything the team needed: “crystalline waters, stunning coasts, cliffs, fortresses, vast beaches and rural roads”, as the director observed.
Still, just one spot on the island wasn’t enough, the team chose three locations on the island:
- Cala Moresca: Located on the northeast coast, the beach was used to set the scenes of the fishing village and the castle pier
- reindeer majore: The beach was chosen to help portray the scene where Ariel comes out of the water and climbs onto her rock
- Rena di Matteu: The waterfront was walked by Ariel and Eric in some scenes
Source: Recreio
