DVDizzy Forum

Redadoodles wrote:I was not talking about Halle at all. I was strictly focusing on the character of Ariel in general.

Disney's Divinity wrote:

Redadoodles wrote:I was not talking about Halle at all. I was strictly focusing on the character of Ariel in general.

My answer was in response to your question, although I can understand how it was misunderstood. To me, putting it as voice v. hair is a false choice because even though they did pick an actress who can sing well, she most likely won't be directed correctly and will end up oversinging the main song the same way as happened in the Live! show. So while the voice is more important technically, there's no real way to "win" when it comes to the re-make. With someone better in charge, I wouldn't doubt Bailey could have pulled it off.

Q: What's it like to be a part of something like The Little Mermaid, which you grew up with and now you’re not only a part of it, but you get to hear new songs before other people do?

Daveed Diggs: It’s pretty cool. Working in the animation space is always pretty cool. I love that stuff. But something as big as Disney’s The Little Mermaid – and I felt this on Soul too, just because of Pixar, particularly for us from the Bay Area because it’s right there and it has this element of mystery about it – just to even get to be behind the scenes on those things is pretty wild. You get to hear a new song before it comes out and it’s amazing, and then you hear the performance of it by an actor you might not expect to be able to do that and that’s also amazing. There are so many cool surprises that I know and I’m just sitting on.

Q: How cool is it get to bring your own thing to Sebastian?

Daveed Diggs: I worked harder on Sebastian probably, than I have for any role in my life. It’s tricky. I wasn’t sure, and this is also true of Layton. I tend to say yes to things when I feel like I can do it, but I’m actually not sure I’m the smart choice or the person naturally who should be doing it. That’s true of Sebastian, for a lot of ways that are uncomfortable. I’m not of Caribbean descent, doing that kind of work and trying to immerse myself. I’ve spent a lot of time in Trinidad and I went to Jamaica to research, and I did a lot of voice work with Chris Walker and with the late Tony Hall, to try to get the voice right. But more than the voice, the thing about a dialect is that everybody’s voice is actually very different, so consistency is really more important than accuracy. Your speech pattern is based on culture, and that was the thing I didn’t wanna let down.

I want somebody who is from Trinidad or from Jamaica, depending on where we landed with the role, to be able to see themselves in this, in some way. Even though maybe my voice doesn’t sound exactly right, I wanted to feel like somebody connected to it. I had so many friends growing up for whom Sebastian was the first time they had seen themselves represented in mainstream American culture. As flawed as that is, that’s still important. So, that role stressed me out quite a bit, but also is incredibly fun. Like I said, I did more research for that role, than I have for any part, ever, and I’m literally a crab. It seems crazy maybe, in hindsight. And the amount of lifting I’m doing in that is nothing compared to Halle [Bailey], or any of the like incredible performers who are really carrying that. I just sing a couple of cool songs and call it a day.

The decision to play Sebastian the Crab in Disney's live remake of The Little Mermaid felt considerably more fraught. But after agonizing over it, Diggs signed on, joining a star-studded cast that includes Halle Bailey (as Ariel), Melissa McCarthy (Ursula) and Javier Bardem (King Triton). Miranda's on board, too, writing new lyrics for the film, which Disney has every intention of making a gargantuan hit. But even now, having "worked harder on this voice gig for an animated crab than almost any other role," immersing himself in research trips and dialect lessons, Diggs is still uneasy with his involvement.

"I was never gunning to be in these Disney remakes and, if I'm being honest, Sebastian comes with a lot of responsibility. For a lot of folks my age who are from the Caribbean, Sebastian was the first time they'd really seen themselves in American film, and I'm not Caribbean, so …" he pauses there, acknowledging that his team will probably scream at him for even talking about this, and then continues: "We'll see if people crucify me for it."

Diggs has never been blasé about the power of representation. He got to yes on The Little Mermaid in large part because of the bold casting of Bailey, a young Black star, as Ariel. He worked with Disney's Pixar, too, as one of its "cultural consultants" on Soul, the studio's first film with a Black protagonist, to make sure it was reflective.

nomad2010 wrote:

Disney's Divinity wrote: My answer was in response to your question, although I can understand how it was misunderstood. To me, putting it as voice v. hair is a false choice because even though they did pick an actress who can sing well, she most likely won't be directed correctly and will end up oversinging the main song the same way as happened in the Live! show. So while the voice is more important technically, there's no real way to "win" when it comes to the re-make. With someone better in charge, I wouldn't doubt Bailey could have pulled it off.

I wouldn’t worry too much about her overdoing the song. The Broadway version is just that... Broadway. Theatre is big, and it’s not for subtlety unlike film is. Plus, we know the director is a purist when it comes to these things, sometimes to a fault. If anything I’m more worried about this whole endeavor ending up a total bore and losing the emotional resonance of the original. Rob Marshall just does not direct the most compelling movies in my opinion.

"There is some rapping in it and I really can't take much credit for the rap aspect of it. Yeah, there's some rapping in it, there's some very Menken songs, there's some very Miranda songs. But it's all the blend of Menken-Miranda.

"I love him, I love working with him. I'm glad we had the opportunity to do that and he's also a producer on the movie but Lin juggles a lot of things, as I do, so we will have occasional contact. Right now it's in the hands of the amazing Rob Marshall and as we speak they are in London right now filming."

Menken had a lot of love for Halle Bailey, who will be taking on the lead role of Ariel: "Oh my gosh, she is adorable and so talented. I met Halle at the recording sessions… I did have to be educated in terms of what she and her sister do together, which is incredible. She is an amazing talent, a beautiful girl, and I got to meet her family."

D82 wrote:"There is some rapping in it and I really can't take much credit for the rap aspect of it. Yeah, there's some rapping in it, there's some very Menken songs, there's some very Miranda songs. But it's all the blend of Menken-Miranda."

disneyprincess11 wrote:It was annoying enough to see Flounder beat-boxing (?????) in the third TLM