Disney’s Mouse King is Memphis dancer Lil Buck
Transporting a role he performed many times on the stages of Memphis to the movie sound stages of London, dancer Charles “Lil Buck” Riley III receives the largest platform for his talents to date with the role of the Mouse King in the $130 million 3D Disney holiday fantasy-adventure, “The Nutcracker and the Secret of the Four Realms,” which opens this weekend.
But even those familiar with the gliding-on-water, anatomy-defying, human-noodle-in-the-wind style of Lil Buck may not recognize the internationally acknowledged master of the homegrown Memphis street-dance style known as “jookin” when they see the movie.
Riley does not appear onscreen per se. Instead, the computer-animated Mouse King character — a fearsome being created, in the plot of the film, by tens of thousands of small mice working together to form one towering mouselike figure — was inspired by Riley’s dance movements.
These were filmed with multiple cameras on set in London, with Riley wearing what he calls a “crazy” motioncapture bodysuit. Later, special effects technicians substituted an animated figure for the actual Lil Buck. That’s why Riley’s credit in the film reads “Mouse King movements inspired by Charles ‘Lil Buck’ Riley.”
“The Mouse King is so dynamic — he almost glides, rather than taking long strides,” visual effects supervisor Max Wood says in the “Nutcracker” press kit. “He’s never the same shape twice and constantly morphs over time.”
“It’s a blessing to be chosen to do something as amazing as this,” adds Riley, 30, in the press kit, in which he also gives a primer on his “signature” dance style:
“It’s called Memphis jookin — you say jook like book. It originated in Memphis about 30 years ago and used to be called the gangster walk. It was really simple, but it has evolved into complex movement with intricate footwork. It’s like Michael Jackson times 10: There are slides and glides and fun toe spins, ticking and pushing of the feet and the shoulder bounce. It’s all about the bounce.”
Riley already had portrayed variations on the the Mouse King and other “Nutcracker” roles many times in his hometown of Memphis in New Ballet Ensemble’s annual “Nut ReMix“production, a hip-hop-inflected re-imagining of Tchaikovsky’s famous Christmas ballet, “The Nutcracker” ballet, which itself derives from an 1816 short story by E.T.A. Hoffmann that elevates Lil Buck’s screen character to title status, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.”
“It’s incredible how it all came full circle,” said Riley, who returns to perform the role of the “Memphis Angel” in this year’s 16th edition of “Nut ReMix,” which runs Dec. 14-16 at the Cannon Center. (Tickets are now on sale, at Ticketmaster.com and the Cannon Center box office.)
Born in Chicago, Riley and his family moved to South Memphis when he was 5. He soon began studying dance at New Ballet Ensemble, finally leaving Memphis at 19 to find success as a professional dancer on stage, on film and in music videos. (A career milestone: He performed during Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl halftime show.) Even so, Riley — described as “a tremendous virtuoso” by The New Yorker and “Baryshnikov in sneakers” by the Miami Herald — has returned most years to perform in New Ballet’s Nut ReMix.
Directed by Joe Johnson (”Captain America: The First Avenger”) and Lass Halström (”My Life as a Dog”), with a cast that includes Mackenzie Foy, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and ballerina Misty Copeland, “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” opens Friday at 13 Memphis-area theaters, and in hundreds of cinemas nationwide. Those who want to see Lil Buck in a film in which he is recognizable might want to check out the jookin documentary “Memphis Majic,” at 1:40 p.m. Sunday at TheatreWorks, 2085 Monroe at Overton Square, which screens as part of the Indie Memphis Film Festival.