This is how the worlds of ‘The Little Mermaid’ were built, which will be released in Ecuador on Thursday, May 25

Set in the 1830s on a fictional Caribbean island, The little MermaidDisney’s new live-action movie, has a visual imprint characterized by a palette of earth tones (brown, gold and gray) for natural environments and ranges of white, blue and gold for their architectural constructions.

On land, the story of Ariel (Halle Bailey) takes place in spaces as diverse as a 19th-century castle, a colorful bazaar, and a majestic ship. all built especially for the film at Pinewood Studios outside London.

During his recordings, the production, headed by producer Rob Marshall, also moved to the island of Sardinia, off the coast of Italy, where the outdoor scenes were filmed for several weeks.

For The little Mermaid also gathered many of the key filmmakers and department heads who took part in the successful 2002 film Chicagodirected by Marshall, which won six Oscars, including the statuettes for best production design and best costume design.

“It was one of the first times I had the whole crew together since we were filming. ChicagoMarshall noted. “I knew we were going to need the best team for this movie, so it was exciting to have them all back.”. However, they could not escape the delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The setting for a fairy tale

the castle of Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) it is colonial-inspired and has a faded appearance, as if eroded by the oceanic climate. Inside it is light and airy, with numerous patios and terraces, and plants outside and inside the rooms. His library, meanwhile, has a nod to Ariel’s cave, with the same meandering shapes and presence of objects the Prince collected on his travels.

Another space Eric operates in is his ship with a crew of thirty sailors. “We had to build the ship as a physical set and it was a great theatrical set, something you rarely see on film,” says executive producer Jeffrey Silver.

The ship is built in one set from Pinewood exteriors into a giant tank. Made to life size, with beautiful sails, a wooden hull, ropes, masts and more designed as if it were from the 19th century.

a blue screen, a gigantic hydraulic platform to simulate movements at sea and platforms to house the cameras were also part of this impressive set of filming. In addition, the ship was surrounded by a series of wind machines, water cannons and tanks containing thousands of liters of water that were used to throw water over the deck. during storm scenes.

From day one, Marshall emphasized the importance of realism on land and fantasy at sea.

The director of Memoirs of a Geisha he wanted to make sure everything on the ground was realistic and looked as realistic and authentic as possible to show the contrast between the two worlds.

“In our history there are two different worlds: the world above, which is the real world, and the underwater world, which is a magical world where mermaids exist, crabs sing and diving birds, such as Scuttle (Awkwafina), talk,” explains Marshall.

“The underwater world is completely digital and in the land world everything is real and built in the way historical films are made. And because we were also doing a musical, in many ways it felt like we were doing three different movies at the same time.”