The Little Mermaid Stars Explain How Puppets Were Used On Set (Exclusive)

By Jamie Jirak

Disney's live-action remake of The Little Mermaid is being released this month, and the first reactions to the film have been highly positive. When the trailer for the movie dropped, some fans were quick to criticize the look of the film's animals, especially Flounder, the fish voiced by Jacob Tremblay. However, a lot of the first reactions have praised some of the voice acting done for the CGI creatures, which also includes Daveed Diggs as Sebastian and Awkwafina as Scuttle. In honor of the new movie, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with the trio of voice actors and asked about their time making the film. While Tremblay, Diggs, and Awkwafina did not do motion capture for their roles, they were on set. 

"We were on set, but no mocap. They filmed our faces," Diggs explained. "No, I don't think so," Tremblay added when asked if voicing realistic-looking animals differs from voicing cartoons. "They pretty much filmed our faces and they implemented that. It was pretty cool, though, because when we were filming, we were rehearsing and they had puppets. Like, for example, there was a Flounder that was connected by hinges, and so they could kind of imitate swimming." He added, "It's pretty cool to kind of see that, and then think about that when you're doing your performance."

ComicBook.com also spoke with Javier Barden (King Triton) about sharing his scenes with Sebastian and what it was like filming those moments on set. 

"What made it happen very easily, Daveed was on set. He was saying the lines with me, and they had different puppets and different puppeteers. And they would depend on what's the size of the take, of the shot. And they would put different Sebastians on my shoulder. Sometimes it would be just two eyes and I go like, 'Oh my God!' But it's also, it's the magic of working on a movie like this. Like just enjoy it for what it is. But I will have an interaction with Sebastian because Daveed was there. We will play the dialog as if we were shooting."

How Were Underwater Scenes Created in The Little Mermaid? 

ComicBook.com spoke with director Rob Marshall about the challenges of the underwater scenes. 

"It was definitely daunting and a challenge. I mean, as I started, I thought, 'What have I gotten myself into?' But I have to say, if I hadn't done all my movies prior to this, I wouldn't have been really ready for this one because it was so complicated. I mean, everything had to be choreographed in advance so that we could actually take all of that information and give it to our stunt team." He added, "All of the underwater work was literally done on rigs, you know, apparatuses, wires. And sometimes in one scene, you know, many times in one scene, they'd say two lines. I'd say 'cut,' and we'd put on another apparatus for a couple more lines. It was all done in little pieces, like a mosaic for even just one scene."

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Marshall continued, "So you have water being added, you have the backgrounds and fish and all the vegetable ocean being added. But then you also have hair, like every strand of hair being added ... And also, of course, their tails and their costumes. So a lot of the costumes were all designed, everything was designed and set, but it had to be digitally added."

The Little Mermaid swims into theaters on May 26th

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