The Little Mermaid: Where and When is the Disney Movie Filmed?

The live-action version of the Disney classic The Little Mermaid comes to our darkrooms this Wednesday, May 24th. Rob Marshall’s film takes us from colorful underwater depths to luminous landscapes alongside its hero, played on screen by singer Halle Bailey.

In the feature film, Ariel, the youngest daughter of King Triton (Javier Bardem), is a mermaid with an adventurous temperament. A rebel at heart, she is constantly drawn to the world that exists beyond the waves. During her escape to the surface, she falls under the spell of Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King).

Even though mermaids are forbidden from interacting with humans, Ariel still feels that she must follow her heart. He then makes a deal with Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), a terrifying sea witch who grants him the power to live on dry land, but without suspecting that the deal puts his life and his father’s crown at risk.

Where was the movie filmed?

While the underwater scenes were shot on blue screen at Pinewood Studios in London, the outdoor scenes were filmed in Sardinia. In May 2021, the production actually traveled to an Italian island for a few weeks of filming.

Rob Marshall explains: “IIt was important to find a site that could provide the epic setting that the story required. Sardinia ticked all the boxes. Crystal clear blue waters, dramatic coastline, steep cliffs, castles, vast beaches and country roads.”

The 1989 film was adapted from the fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, published in 1835. However, in Ron Clements and John Musker’s animated film, we don’t know where Prince Eric’s castle is located, which part of the ocean. Ariel lives and when the feature film unfolds. So many elements that the production of a new version of The Little Mermaid had to imagine.

Where and when does the film take place?

So the screenwriters chose to set the feature film in 1830, the date Hans Christian Andersen wrote the fairy tale, on a fictional Caribbean island.

The director chose this geographic area in part because of the accent of Sebastian, Ariel’s crab friend (voiced by David Diggs in the original version). In addition, the Caribbean was heavily colonized by the British during the Napoleonic Wars, which allowed the team to include characters of various nationalities in the cast.

So Rob Marshall envisioned a multicultural port island with its own government and the leadership of Queen Selina (Noma Dumezweni). Production designer John Myhr explains in the film’s press kit that he had carte blanche to design Eric’s Castle because that style of building did not exist in the Caribbean in the 1830s.

“We had the pleasure of being able to create a castle in the Caribbean. One of the first things we thought about was the circulation of air in the building. So, except for Eric’s library, there are almost no windows in the entire space, and the existing openings are reminiscent of water forms, such as waves. We started from these castles in the south of France and on the coast of Italy, it seems that we were trying to create a castle soaked in the sea, but colonial, with a touch of the Caribbean. .“

The production designer drew on drawings and illustrations by Rob Marshall from the 1800s before designing a castle on a rocky promontory overlooking the sea, with a light and airy interior, lots of patios and terraces, but also greenery. Images of Portuguese castles influenced some of the interior design, including hand-painted blue and white tile murals.

Because unlike the original film, She wore a mermaid 2023 reveals in more detail the world of Prince Eric: the sailors, his castle, his office, the island and its inhabitants. So many details that had to be imagined and that gave the camera crew the freedom to imagine.

The Little Mermaid hits theaters this Wednesday, May 24th.