The Little Mermaid Star Defends Live-Action Flounder Design

Disney recently premiered their latest live-action remake, The Little Mermaid, and reactions have been pretty solid so far. The Little Mermaid makes a lot of changes to the source material, and some fans haven’t been able to handle it, but now that the film is getting ready to be released, those fans will just have to deal with it to get their underwater fix. Halle Bailey is starring as the titular character, with Javier Bardem, Melissa McCArthy, Daveed Diggs, and Jacob Tremblay rounding out the rest of the cast. The latter of which will be playing a favorite from the animated version of the movie, Flounder. Flounder looks much different than his animated counterpart and actually looks like the fish he’s based on. Tremblay must have been hearing some hate about the character’s design, and he has finally responded to the backlash and defended his character. In a new interview with PEOPLE, Tremblay defended Flounder’s design in the live-action The Little Mermaid remake.

“I was shown the design when I went in for the audition and I saw the movie last night and, I have to say that I think it really, really worked,” Tremblay revealed “I think that they were geniuses and they knew exactly what they were doing. I think it works out perfectly. I think it matches everything. So if it was different, I don’t think it would really work.”

How The Little Mermaid Handles Underwater Singing

According to a recent interview with The Little Mermaid director Rob Marshall, the answer was actually pretty straightforward.

“How do you begin creating an underwater musical?” Marshall explained in a recent interview with Empire. “It’s never been done before. That fear ignited something in me.”

“We introduce the singing underwater,” Marshall continued. “It’s very delicate, how you introduce song. It’s in this surreal world. We open the film above water, and then we go into this other world, and you accept those things immediately. You have to create the rules of how it works.”

What is The Little Mermaid remake about?

The Little Mermaid will follow Ariel (Halle Bailey), the youngest daughter of the kingdom Atlantica’s ruler King Triton, who is fascinated with the human world but mermaids are forbidden to explore it. After saving Prince Eric from a shipwreck and falling in love with, she becomes determined to be with him in the world above water. These actions lead to a confrontation with her father and an encounter with the conniving sea witch Ursula, making a deal with her to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress Eric. However, this ultimately places her life (and her father’s crown) in jeopardy.

The film will be directed by Rob Marshall (Mary Poppins Returns), with a script from David Magee and Jane Goldman. The cast also includes Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, Awkwafina, Jonah Hauer-King, Javier Bardem, and Melissa McCarthy. The film is expected to feature original songs from the 1989 animated blockbuster, as well as new tracks composed by Alan Menken and Hamilton‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The Little Mermaid is set to be released in theaters on May 26th. 

What do you think about Flounder’s design? Do you agree with Jacob Tremblay’s comments? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!