

This film also gives Eric a storyline-and a new song-that makes him a more complete character. The 23-year-old hits all the notes like a Broadway star, adding in moments of modern pop flare, but never veering far enough off course to irk the loyalists. But from the opening notes of “Part of Your World,” it’s obvious why Bailey was not only cast but always the frontrunner for this role. Is she the ideal model for women’s empowerment? Certainly not. Bailey’s Ariel has more agency in Marshall’s remake, her fascination with the human world being almost as strong as her feelings for Eric. But some plot details and character traits have been retooled. If you’re looking for a different story, you’ve come to the wrong theater. As the song goes, she longs to be part of his world, but her dad isn’t having it, so an evil witch (who knew Melissa McCarthy was born to play Ursula?!) gets involved, spells are cast, voices are taken, and drama ensues. It hews close, if not nearly identically, to the animated plot: Ariel, the youngest daughter of King Triton (hello, serious actor Javier Bardem), is obsessed with land and falls for Eric ( Jonah Hauer-King), a human prince obsessed with the sea. (Bailey is, in fact, the perfect Ariel, equal parts free-spirited, strongheaded, and enchanted by the human world.) Filming was meant to begin in early 2020, but COVID, of course, delayed production, allowing tension and anticipation for the film to bloom like algae.įinally hitting theaters this week, Marshall’s Little Mermaid, however, achieves everything you want from your basic fairy tale. Bailey made headlines: A Black Ariel had been cast, which caused a wave of racist trolls and troglodytes to storm the internet with their outrage over the race of a made-up creature who’s part fish. That summer, it was announced that R&B singer Halle Bailey would play the titular Little Mermaid. Most of the cast signed on to the project in 2019, which might explain the underutilization of Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley. Rob Marshall’s live-action version has been in the works since 2016.

So when the waves broke against the screen alongside a quote from Hans Christian Andersen’s original tragic tale-“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more”-I was nervous: What if I love this? What if I hate it? (I’m sorry, Mom and Dad.) Like Knightley and thousands of other millennials, I’m torn. The defiant Ariel has always been my favorite Disney character, and there was a year of my life where I watched the animated version on repeat. Maybe I should have opened this with a different disclaimer: I’ve loved The Little Mermaid since it was released on my fifth birthday. The answer, it turns out, is complicated. So how much can a live-action remake change? That’s the question that’s been rooting around in my brain since Disney announced a Little Mermaid remake. Hello.” And, try as it might over the past decade or two, Disney has never really modeled women’s empowerment their princesses are typically White, Barbie-thin, and incredibly feminine, and there’s a straight love story at the core of almost every story. Famously, actor Keira Knightley said in 2018 about the film: “I mean, the songs are great, but do not give your voice up for a man.
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In the years since the animated film’s 1989 release, critics have been vocal about the message the movie sent to young girls-one of silence, obedience, and willingness to do anything, including bargain with a sea witch, to get married. The Little Mermaid is one of Disney’s most loaded fairy tales, notably for celebrating a 16-year-old girl who gives up her voice to win a prince. And that became, if you look here at the score, it's all through the score that thematic material from that song.Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. But also he had this longing for the sea, a passion for the sea, and this 'uncharted waters' where he's going with his life. One was for Prince Eric, and this is one where he's longing to find this girl who saved his life. And then when I was finally brought in to see all that, we had meetings and Lin came in and we looked at where the existing songs were going to be, and then simply plotted out the other songs. "We all got together and there was originally a treatment that David Magee had worked on with Rob and John. In honor of the new film, had the chance to chat with Menken, who broke down three of the movie's musical additions. Menken returned for the live-action remake to create some new songs alongside Hamilton scribe Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Little Mermaid is being released in theaters next week, and it features most of the beloved songs from the 1989 animated classic that were written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.
