The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[Sotiris]

Ursula doesn't need a second song either but a reprise of Poor Unfortunate Souls would be nice.

[Disney's Divinity]

!

I expect Ursula to have less screentime than the original, not more.

Which, depending on who they officially cast and how they decide to portray the character, could be a good or bad thing. The fact that they were thinking of Gaga at one time tells me they were looking for someone like Sherie Rene Scott ( ) rather than someone like the character as she appears in the animated film / Pat Carroll, which already spells the worst, imo. They probably won’t even include Vanessa, instead choosing to de-bone Ursula and turn her into a more passive character.

If that's the direction they go, I'll be glad to have as little of that kind of Ursula as possible, personally.

I disagree it's STILL Ursula. So i want as MUCH of her as i can get !!!

Give like 30 minutes of just her !

For me, it’s like the difference between Tim Curry and Paris Hilton. That’s not Ursula. If they aren’t going to do it properly, why bother wasting screentime on the character. I’d honestly rather we got a version of the sea witch as a non-villain as in the fairytale than a half-assed Ursula.

[DisneyFan97]

Ursula doesn't need a second song either but a reprise of Poor Unfortunate Souls would be nice.

But you MUST remmber Melissa McCarthy is still not officially cast ! The could end up casting someone else may comparty different type of actress !

The role could still go to any big actress working in hollywood today !!

[Farerb]

Ursula doesn't need a second song either but a reprise of Poor Unfortunate Souls would be nice.

There's already a reprise of Poor Unfortunate Souls.

[Sotiris]

I meant aside from the one she sings as Vanessa. I think a good placement for another reprise would be after Ursula gets the trident. Expanding Vanessa's part would be nice too. I always found it way too short.

[DisneyFan97]

I have not seen the broayway versuion of litte Mermiad

A. Beacuse i donät even live on the sanme cotenrt as New York is on and B: I was tooo young when i t ran on BBroaadway.

but i have listen to the soundtrack several times and i REALLY like the new song they wrote for Ursula there "I Want the Good Times Back" it's åroabbly the best out of all the new songs in that show.

Also by the way Scuttle's added song Human Stuff is such an earworm !

I amstill really impatiently waitining for a full cast announcement ! for this movie inculding offical casting for Ursula and casting for Gribsy, Flotsam and Jetsam !

Would be nice if the Electric eels got a solo number !

I have anyway deciede i am defetiely watching this movie. I love the animatred orginal , Rob Marshell is a GREAT Director and Jane Goldman is an amazing screenwirter !

It can't be worse than Guy Richie's Aladdin !

[Disney Duster]

If you were writing a new song for Ariel, a solo not a duet, were would you place it? I’ve never liked “The World Above” and it’s placement before “Part of Your World” in the Broadway musical. It’s an “I want” song before the “I want” song and thus lessens the impact of “Part of Your World.” I think The Little Mermaid is paced pretty beautifully in the beginning and Ariel doesn’t need much more to sing than “Part of Your World” and its reprise.

Conversely, I’ve always loved “Beyond My Wildest Dreams” and its inclusion in the musical as an opportunity to hear Ariel’s perspective after she’s lost her voice and while Ariel and Eric are touring his kingdom. I think that type of song would work especially well in the film medium were it could be used in voice-over.

Finally, I think I could also picture Ariel getting her own “Speechless”-esque power ballad (but, uh, better and doesn’t stop the motion of the movie dead in its tracks) in the finale if the creative team decides to give Ariel a more active role in the finale, which I feel they should.

Wow, it's not often I am in pretty much complete agreement with what somebody says here. Yes, have her voice over a song when she's discovering the human world, and a song at the end where she helps out in battle would not be a bad idea either if done right. I mean, maybe a song for her in the end battle would be bad, but your idea for the song while she's discovering land is perfect.

Ursula doesn't need a second song either but a reprise of Poor Unfortunate Souls would be nice.

I meant aside from the one she sings as Vanessa. I think a good placement for another reprise would be after Ursula gets the trident. Expanding Vanessa's part would be nice too. I always found it way too short.

It's interesting you say these things. In earlier versions of the Broadway show's conceptions, Ursula sang a longer reprise of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" and cast a spell much like "Beluga, Sevruga, come winds of the Caspian sea, etc." but with words like "Mascara" and "mutata" I think, you know, like make-up and the word "mutation", changing appearence words. I loved it. Then, as Vanessa, she had like the best new song that never made it to the Broadway show, called "All Good Things Must End" sung to Ariel before she married Eric, about, well you can guess from the title but it was a freaking amazing song saying things like "all men get bald on top and soft below." LOL!!!

[Disney's Divinity]

Would be nice if the Electric eels got a solo number !

I liked "Sweet Child," but there's not room for a song for the eels or a second song for Ursula (especially if Ursula's actress will already be struggling to sing "PUS") or a song for Scuttle in a movie. JMO. But I quoted this more to say that F&J are moray eels with magic eyes and I hope they'll stay that way.

I will agree with you that "Human Stuff" is cute even if the world didn't need it to exist, and I do love "I Want the Good Times Back" (as well as some of Ursula's deleted songs) even if Scott is just... so... LOUD and lacking in any subtlety. That's all I got. Very little from the musical was good to me, so the less like it the better off this will be.

[DisneyFan97]

Still waiting for casting on Flotsam, Jetsam and Grimsby and for Ursula to be officially cast !

[rodrigo_ca]

Just a reminder that I Want the Good Times Back is no longer used on productions of the show, being replaced by Daddy's Little Angel and Human Stuff was just simply replaced by a short dialogue.

[Disney Duster]

Huh. You know, I just listened to "I Want the Good Times Back" and "Daddy's Little Angel" because I thought I would like "I Want the Good Times Back" more since I liked the backstory of that song more, I don't care for Ursula being born of seven girls and getting a magic shell as a weird gift instead of getting half the sea, but you know, I actually loved "Daddy's Little Angel" when I heard it in English. I prefer that one! What a great song!

[Sotiris]

Sean Bailey, the president of production at Disney Studios, talks about the remake.

With Halle Bailey, that’s just sort of a case of, for us, we looked for the very best Ariel. I remember specifically all of us sat in the room and heard her sing and saw her perform and we thought, that’s her. And we heard some criticism. And I heard things like, when the announcement went out, some friends of mine who were at the Essence event in Atlanta described it — they didn’t know why, a cheer went up through the hall. I heard all sides of it. And for us it was just as simple as I say, talent wins.

Source: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/princess/

The original Little Mermaid was also considered problematic on the gender front. Because Ariel, in order to get her man, has to give up her voice, her most magical and distinctive quality. You can see why this might fly in 19th-century Denmark, when Hans Christian Andersen wrote the Little Mermaid fairy tale. But in 21st-century, anywhere: the idea of a woman literally silencing herself in the pursuit of romance feels—well, pretty 19th-century. The new Little Mermaid is scheduled to come out next year, and we asked Sean Bailey about that.

"Well, I don’t want to say too much about it because they do involve some, sort of, plot changes. It’s something we’ve talked a lot about. And we are definitely working to still sort of deliver the beautiful foundations of that story while being cognizant of the times we find ourselves in.

I will say, on a more personal front, I have a daughter. I took this job around 10 years ago. She was around seven-years-old. And I watched, as I was preparing to take the job, a lot of the old animated pictures. And while they’re wonderful in many, many ways, I was watching them with my daughter and thought if—if we’re going to tell them now, there’s a lot of things we should probably do for little girls who are going to watch these versions. And for young men, by the way, as well. So what’s the world that we want to reflect, while respecting what is clearly timeless about the stories?"

Source: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/princess/

[JeanGreyForever]

Eww, I don't want to know what these plot changes are.

[Sotiris]

With Halle Bailey, that’s just sort of a case of, for us, we looked for the very best Ariel. And for us it was just as simple as I say, talent wins.

That's such a lie. We know they only considered Black actresses for the role from the start. So this was clearly not a case where they looked at actresses of every race and ethnicity and the best just happened to be Black.

[Disney's Divinity]

That's true.

You know though, if Ariel had brown or black hair in the original film, I probably wouldn't have cared. It's like if Rapunzel wasn't blonde (see OUAT).

[disneyprincess11]

Knew they would beat the feminist horse in this.

[D82]

That's such a lie. We know they only considered Black actresses for the role from the start. So this was clearly not a case where they looked at actresses of every race and ethnicity and the best just happened to be Black.

I don't understand why they have to lie in this case. They don't need to be ashamed of deciding to cast a black actress in the role from the beginning.

Just a reminder that I Want the Good Times Back is no longer used on productions of the show, being replaced by Daddy's Little Angel and Human Stuff was just simply replaced by a short dialogue.

I hadn't heard "Daddy's Little Angel" before. I much prefer "I Want the Good Times Back" to it, but that song isn't bad either. Are there more songs from Disney musicals that have been added later to the production like this one?

[Disney's Divinity]

I don't understand why they have to lie in this case. They don't need to be ashamed of deciding to cast a black actress in the role from the beginning.

Typical Disney--they want to have their cake and eat it, too.

As for any alterations, the only things the film would really need is for 1.) The deal she makes with Ursula to be made more explicitly about her desire to explore / learn about the human world and not only to be with Eric. It's something you can assume, but they don't mention her interest in the human world apart from Eric at all throughout the speaking portions of "Poor Unfortunate Souls." 2.) Have her play a larger role in Ursula's defeat instead of just holding onto a rock or being terror-struck the whole time. Maybe she helps Eric to climb aboard the ship he kills Ursula with since she can, you know, swim better than a human in turbulent waters.

[Disney Duster]

Ariel's desire to be with Eric overcomes her desire to know about the human world in her feelings. It's obvious she cares more about Eric when watching the film. And there's nothing wrong with it.

[nomad2010]

I just think it’s so silly that we can’t have flawed female protagonists anymore. The whole point of Ariel is she’s a headstrong teenager who thinks she’s so grown up but literally throws her life away for a boy. We’ve all done this at some point in our lives. There’s nothing wrong with little girls seeing a movie where someone makes a wrong decision as long as the character learns why it was wrong and faces the consequences/owns up to it in the end. And maybe that’s what they’ll do. They won’t have them get married right away. She’ll visit Eric and “date” for a period of time But in all honesty, I get so tired of every female protagonist having no flaws and being super strong. It’s becoming almost an inverted manic pixie dream girl/Mary Sue kind of thing. Characters need flaws. Characters need to mess up and be relatable. And Ariel is a shining example of that.