Mermaids from Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides

I have updated the mermaids blog piece with more and some better images. Sorry about this as I only discovered more later on. 

OK, so I'm a little late on this ... actually I just saw this movie and it wasn't exactly as good as it was with the last 3 movies. Its still good since I was left entertained, and of course the highlight in that movie to me were ... yes, those mermaids. This is not scale modeling per se, but it is an interesting topic for one.

I have always been fascinated with mermaids since I was very young, and it took Disney's version of "The Little Mermaid" to make me appreciate mermaids again. Of course that one was only a cartoon, so I it didn't really do much except that it rekindled some interest. I had always hoped that one days a movie would come along using state of the art effects to bring these creatures to life - really life like, I just didn't expect it done by Disney.

Its by far the best mermaid representation I've seen yet, and beautifully brought to life. And it helps when they got beautiful truly ladies for the roles. Here they are some of the Mermaids posing on the set.

And here they are again after growing legs so they can blend in and sneak into all those bars and pubs without their other sisters knowledge. 

More beautiful profile shots of Gemma Ward, Jorgelina Airaldi and Breanne Berret .

Here's the concept art for the mermaids which I'm glad they weren't followed through. I rather have them as seen in the movie.

The Director had wanted them to look natural and beautiful since they are suppose to attract sailors with their singing to lure them to their doom. The models selected for the mermaid role (besides being beautiful) had to also have one very important criteria - no breast implants. Everything must be natural. Wonder how they check that. Hence another design which is much closer to what we see on screen.

More images after the jump

Here are some stills from the show for those of you who are fascinated with mermaids like I am. I really liked how they portrayed the mermaid's movements in the movie. My apologies for the unclear video clip. Its the best one I could find at YouTube.

The beautiful mermaid "Tamara"

The mermaid Syrene was the only unique one out as she professes her love for the "clergyman".

  

And then of course they had to go spoil all of it by making the mermaids into some kind of terrifying demons from your darkest nightmare, out to prey on unsuspecting sailors and ships. Its sad, its sick ... really, all those beautiful ladies with so much potentials to make a good part to the story here, but alas .. Hollywood decrees otherwise.

Interesting enough if you get to see a deleted scene, the Mermaid Marina (below) is seen slapping Jack Sparrow after Jack calls her by name. Yup, our swashbuckling hero had a relationship with her before dumping her.

A couple of dead mermaid scenes from the movie. Check out the fish bones on the first picture

And of course the battle scene when the pirates tries to capture a live mermaid. The scenes went by so fast it was hard trying to make out who, what and where. But then again, I didn't see this in the cinema and in 3D.

And seeing them take down an entire ship was a little far fetched, but then again, that's Hollywood. Didn't see the Black Pearl in this one too ... damn.  Also my bad .. some images I had posted for the "Behind the Scenes" apparently were not for Pirates 4, but rather for another Mermaid TV movie called "H2O - Just Add Water". So I have removed them and decided to show you the CGI talent for the mermaids.

And here's how they prep the models for the role of the mermaids, concept designs and how some of the scene were filmed.

And with Computer Effects, the mermaid legions are ready to be seen on screen. 

Now ... I wonder if there are any good scaled kit of a mermaid made, especially one out from this movie. I bet someone out there had already though of this but I still haven't found a good one yet.. sigh. Perhaps when I have more time, I could scratch build my own, work on the tail section and modify one of those resin figures of mine for the joining ... one day perhaps.