Little Mermaid director explains Prince Eric changes
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The Little Mermaid director Rob Marshall has explained why he decided to give Prince Eric some updates in his live-action remake.
In Marshall's retelling of the classic Disney tale, the human Prince (played by Jonah Hauer-King) is far more fleshed out than he is the animated original. He has his own journey, aspirations, and even his own song.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy about these changes, Marshall explained how he watched the 1989 film "from a different lens" and felt as though Eric wasn't a "fully dimensional" character.
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He continued: "I thought this is an opportunity to bring that story to life. I like to understand why Ariel is interested in him. Does he have substance? Is there something that can connect them?
"The great thing is we were able to find these two kindred spirits that have similar journeys. They both feel displaced, they both feel they want something more and they’re not afraid of someone who’s different from them, or a culture that’s different from them.
"They build that bridge between the two worlds. It’s like Romeo and Juliet, actually. It was exciting to deliver that and explore that whole part of it."
Related: Little Mermaid's Javier Bardem teases Triton's cut song
Marshall also opened up about bringing 'Under the Sea' to life on the big screen, which he said was a challenge since there is only one live actor in the entire sequence.
"I took a page out of Walt Disney’s playbook. He had worked on the movie Fantasia and he created that nutcracker sweet sequence, but he had used the Ballet Russes as a template for his artists to work from and their form and their dance," he explained.
Marshall revealed that he brought the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation to London and used their bodies to emulate the movements of the different creatures included in the number, so the artists "could actually work and create this photo-real world around them".
The Little Mermaid live-action movie opens on May 26 in the UK and the US. The animated movie is streaming on Disney+.
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