'The Little Mermaid' Director And Alan Menken Talks About The Animated Prince Eric Very Much Needing Revising For The Live-action Version

Interview with Director Rob Marshall and Alan Menken of Disney Pixar's The Little Mermaid

Transcript

00:00 Eric had nothing. It was such a simple sort of wooden character from the original.

00:04 And anybody, I mean even Alan Macon would agree to that. I mean they all would say,

00:08 "Yeah, that wasn't developed." And so finding his journey, finding his story,

00:12 creating his mother, the character of the Queen, understanding that he doesn't feel like he fits

00:18 in either. There's these similarities between the two worlds. His parent isn't understanding

00:25 what he wants in the world, limiting him to not being able to do what he wants to do.

00:31 He sees something, a vision past his small world, so does Ariel. And then we realized,

00:39 of course, he needs a song. Like what's his "I Want?" What's his journey? So all these things,

00:45 really, that felt like that whole portion of the story was that we were able to bring to life in a

00:53 much fuller way. I love it. It starts in a really roiling, you know, intimate place and then it

01:06 builds and builds and builds. So it's really the build of it, you know. All I ever wanted.

01:20 And by the end you're at the "World Uncharted" and he's just full tilt and it really introduces

01:28 you to a whole other color of Prince Eric. I mean that's, he's so three-dimensional now.

01:34 And in the original, he's a little bit of a, you know, he serves his function

01:40 and it's lovely, but this is, you know, really three-dimensional.