Who is the queen Selina in The New Little Mermaid?
Selina is an original character written for the film, and she is played by Noma Dumezweni. She is a human queen and the adoptive mother of Prince Eric.
Who is the voice of Scuttle in The Little Mermaid 2023?
Now they're co-starring in the director Rob Marshall's ambitious live-action reimagining, currently in theaters: Diggs, 41, as the sympathetic crab Sebastian, and Awkwafina, 34, as the birdbrained gull Scuttle.
Queen Athena was the wife of King Triton, and the mother of Ariel and her six older sisters. She was the Queen of Atlantica, and beloved by her family and subjects. She was noted for her singing talent and her love of music. She and Triton had been the best of friends ever since their childhood.
Patricia Ann Carroll (May 5, 1927 – July 30, 2022) was an American actress and comedian. She voiced Ursula in The Little Mermaid and appeared in CBS's The Danny Thomas Show, ABC's Laverne & Shirley, and NBC's ER.
One theory is that each of Ariel's sisters represents different oceans that are home to various cultures and ethnicities. It's pretty problematic to have mermaids who all look the same representing such an expansive underwater world.
Scuttle is not only changed from male to female but is also now a diving bird instead of a seagull. "This was done specifically so that Ariel would only meet Scuttle underwater, because, at the start of our story, Ariel has never dared go above the surface," director Rob Marshall said in production notes.
In case you're wondering why Scuttle (voiced by Awkwafina) is swimming, the bird is now a female northern gannet diving bird instead of a male seagull — but she kept the fork (or dinglehopper, as it's called).
In the animated film, Ursula was a villain who enjoyed messing with people and getting what she wanted. In The Little Mermaid live-action, however, Ursula's backstory gets an adjustment — she is upgraded to Triton's sister and Ariel's aunt, making her revenge and motivations all the more sinister.
While Ariel is 16 years old in Disney animated The Little Mermaid film, her love interest is not the same age. The character's voice actor, Christopher Daniel Barnes, was just 16 years old at the time of recording the film, leading to the assumption that the character was intended to be the same age.
While it is known that her mother perished, there is no story attached to the event. However, much later, in 2008, an animated The Little Mermaid prequel revealed that Ariel's mother was crushed by a pirate ship during an altercation between humans and merpeople.
Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina, Eric's adoptive mother and the ruler of a Caribbean island kingdom. She is a new character for the film. Dumezweni was announced to have been cast on January 5, 2021.
He says they were looking for the best actor for the role of any ethnicity who could not only sing but convey traits such as strength, passion, beauty, joy and intelligence, which they found in Bailey.
Changing the gender of the character as well as the species may seem strange, but the creators wanted to feature a bird who could be in underwater scenes. While a seagull is an iconic beach bird, for practical reasons, it makes much more sense for Scuttle to be a seabird.
The names of Ariel's sisters in the live-action version of The Little Mermaid were changed, along with their role in the underwater world's royalty, thus expanding their roles even if slightly. Princess Mala (Karolina Conchet) represents Princess Attina from the animated movie, Triton's firstborn daughter.
The movie is loosely based on the fairy tale, so Disney has the freedom to give Ariel any skin color they want. In the 1989 movie, Ariel was born in the fictional underwater kingdom of Atlantica, which technically makes her Atlantican, not Danish.
“There's so much you can do with tentacles. They give a creepy feeling,” supervising animator Ruben Aquino told Premiere magazine in 1989, adding the team ultimately decided to make her look like an octopus.
There was no statement by Disney as to why they made the change or where the design of this new dress came from, but it could've been a choice made to better represent her character, since the pink gown was just one that Eric's family had around the palace.
The video goes on to talk about how this original concept for Ariel was too close to the Splash mermaid and the designers wanted to differentiate Ariel, so her red hair was born. We can't imagine Ariel without her red hair, but not everyone felt the same way back in the 80s.
