Under the Sea: The Movie: The Blog

 

Written by: No One

Since it's looking more and more likely that I will never be asked to record a directors commentary, partly because I have never directed anything, I have decided to write a compendium book to my most recent/ only film, Under the Sea.

If you haven't seen it yet, you can view the film in question here.

When I watch a movie that starts to creep under my skin and worms its way deep down into my soul where I'm soft like a woman, I often try to detach myself from it emotionally before it squeezes my insides so hard that salt water oozes from my eyes.  One of the tools of emotional detachment I use is to try and imagine the physical realities of production that went into the filming of that moment.

This kind of meta-viewing may come in handy when you're in your Methuselah years, like me, but it doesn't seem to help my 5 year old.  I've tried to explain to him what an 'actor' is, and how a 'camera' comes into the process, but the lesson wasn't sticking.

So in classic Mickey Rooney fashion, we decided to make our own movie!  We took the shortest, cutest book we could find and tried to talk Isaac into starring in an adaptation.  While his verbal agreement was non-binding, we still moved forward with the production.

Both my wife and I have a camp counselor butterfly gestating just beneath our old person chrysalis, and this project brought the beast out.  We hung a sheet on the wall and worked with out oldest boy to set up a production line to crank out decorative bubbles.  We scoured our home for useful props and decorations.  The only hiccup was that talks with our star broke down and we were forced to improvise.  Thankfully, Isaac agreed to narrate and we were able to re-cast with stuffed animals.

Our star was easy to cast, and while it didn't have the color scheme outlined in the source material, it had a certain... I don't know what.  I'm sure the French would have a better term for it.

I was particularly pleased with the casting of the Crab, who has a major role in the first and third acts of the piece, but who serves as mainly a MacGuffin through the second act.  Something about the crabs general demeanor and chiefly around his eyes communicated to me that, yes, indeed, this was a crab I would seek.

The other players were discovered by our casting director, me, who really did an outstanding job of locating talent from the strewn piles of playful detritus that litter every corner of our home.  A quick note on the turtle that plays The Turtle.  I had felt, from an aesthetic point of view, that even though the turtle had no discernible mouth, our audience would be sophisticated enough to presume that it was speaking.  Other stakeholders in the film felt very strongly that The Turtle needed the visual cue of a mouth.  Since fim making is a collaborative process, we affixed a mouth to the turtle, though I maintain to this day it looks more like a mustache, since it sits away from the face.

The octopus needs no introduction.  Anyone familiar with the classic Disney film 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea may recognize him, though it has been a few years and he was dressed like a squid.  Also, all of the horrible behind the scenes stories you've heard about him are true.  He is a drunken, hedonistic wreak.  If you ever get the opportunity to see an octopus strung out on cocaine pleasuring 5 women, 2 men and a manatee  simultaneously, I strongly recommend NOT doing it.  But you can't argue with the on-screen results.  He's a genius.

For those with a keen sense of hearing, you may have noticed that the voice of the crab changes with his final line, "SURPRISE!". This is due to the popularity of the line with the crew.  Everyone wanted to read that line, but the intensity of passion shown by Isaac was more than we could fight.  So the crabs first line, "Sure!" is read by Barbara and his second line, "SURPRISE!" is read by Isaac.  I think the strong narrative 'voice' of the crab in a dramaturgical sense still comes through, despite the late casting change.

One final note - we tried to credit the author and/or the illustrator of the original book, but there is actually no name credited with this work.