The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[Disney Duster]

Thank you, Divinity.

Patricier21, nothing you said is a satisfying solutuon to the problems I presented. Especially when I only count the original film, not TV shows.

[Farerb]

Ariel's sisters are irrelevant. This is not their story and they are not the main characters, any time spent on them is just padding for padding's sake, I'd much rather they cut them and made a tighter film, such a waste of time.

[D82]

Alan Menken reveals in a new interview that another of the new songs has been cut from the film. I wonder which one it could be.

There's four... Well, I think now there's three in the film. There's one that I think we may have lost. But hopefully it'll be on some special DVD.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HUNpn-oMBE&t=1495s

[Sotiris]

So far, they've cut two new songs and I bet none of them is Scuttle's rap. Menken also said some of the old songs have been reworked and edited. Let's hope those edits are not too noticeable or bothersome. By the way, did we ever find out if the Diane Warren song is for the film's end credits or for something else?

[D82]

So far, they've cut two new songs and I bet none of them is Scuttle's rap.

Yeah, most likely that one's still in the movie. I don't think Ariel's song has been cut either. I guess the latest cut song is either Eric's or Triton's solo, since they probably take place later in the movie where it's more difficult to have songs without having pace issues.

Menken also said some of the old songs have been reworked and edited. Let's hope those edits are not too noticeable or bothersome.

He said people don't let him rework the songs too much because they're very attached to them. It sounded like he would like to be more creative with the new versions. I wish they let them try new things more. It's not that the songs need changes, but we already have the originals. I personally find it more interesting when they use the opportunity to do something a bit different.

Speaking of that, I found a new link to the leaked "Part of Your World" footage. I think the beginning wasn't featured in the ones I previously posted. One difference there is that the very first words, "Look at this stuff", are now spoken instead of sung.

By the way, did we ever find out if the Diane Warren song is for the film's end credits or for something else?

Halle hinted that it was for The Little Mermaid, but we don't know for sure if it's an end credits song. Perhaps, it could be for an album with songs inspired by the movie, which would be much preferable. Though, I think it's unlikely this film would get an album like that.

By the way, looking for potential new info on that I found out Diane Warren has a previous connexion to the Disney film, as she co-wrote a song for The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea titled "Give A Little Love". I didn't know that before.

[Disney's Divinity]

I hope it's Triton's song that's cut. I mean, it would be better to me if *both* Triton's song and the rap song are cut, but if it's a choice between them, I can bear the latter more since it'll be a comic moment for Awkwafina (and that's the only reason). Eric's song at worst may be a bit dull; "Her Voice" is a bit that way, but I'd prefer a song from the love interest. And who knows, there's a chance a new one for Eric could be as good as "Evermore" was for Beast and "Speechless" was for Jasmine (I thought both of those were better than "If I Can't Love Her" and "These Palace Walls" from their respective musicals, for example). Even though there's a lot of dramatic heft to Trtion which on paper seems rife for a song, I personally just don't suit think it suits that character. He's not a "thinker" type of character, really the only time we see him express much introspection is when Ariel is missing and at the end when he decides to let Ariel go. So a song like the one he sings just before "Finale Ultimo" is probably the best you could come up with for the character, imo, but otherwise, every other moment he sings in the musical was just plain painful to me, I'm sorry.

Personally, I prefer when the songs are mostly the same. I'm dreading a key change to POYW (Reprise); that said, I think if they make PUS into one full song like the TLM LIve! show from a year or two back, that might be the best choice here (although I wouldn't want the original to be different at all--but they had Pat Carroll there and more interest from the directors in everything being good than the people here do....). I'd love if they made a TLM-themed album for this (the way The Gift worked for TLK)! Halle Bailey would be perfect for something like that! That said, I'm not sure it would happen. TLK is sort of uniquely huge and plus that little concept album probably came about because of Beyonce and no other reason.

[D82]

And who knows, there's a chance a new one for Eric could be as good as "Evermore" was for Beast and "Speechless" was for Jasmine (I thought both of those were better than "If I Can't Love Her" and "These Palace Walls" from their respective musicals, for example).

I also prefer "Evermore" and "Speechless" to their respective Broadway counterparts. The person who supposedly attended the test screening said Eric's solo was their favorite new song after Ariel's, which made me more curious about it.

I'd love if they made a TLM-themed album for this (the way The Gift worked for TLK)! Halle Bailey would be perfect for something like that! That said, I'm not sure it would happen. TLK is sort of uniquely huge and plus that little concept album probably came about because of Beyonce and no other reason.

They also made one of these albums for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, but it's not something too common. By the way, I forgot to say that I checked again the photo of Diane Warren's song Halle posted and, though it's not easy to make out the words, it seems it says "music & lyrics by Diane Warren and Halle Bailey" in the top right corner, so perhaps the actress co-wrote it.

[Disney's Divinity]

Oh, wow, that's the first I'd heard of an album for Alice in Wonderland! I imagine in this case, many of the tracks would be by Chloe x Halle. I like their voices--I loved their "Warrior" theme for A Wrinkle in Time (I guess because I always associated a lot of religious significance to A Wrinkle in Time (the book) for some reason, the song lyrics also worked for me as well as the vocals did. Reminds me of that whole "Onward, Christian Soldier" idea.)--so I hope that ends up happening somehow.

[Disney Duster]

Thanks for the link D82! Interesting Halle says the first words of the song before singing the rest. I liked her acting, and she actually sounds a good deal like Jodi Benson in her acting! It's amazing!

Divinity, about the songs, you so speak the truth lol. Except I won't mind a key change for POYW reprise. Some changes are just cool changes for a different take on the material. This is not supposed to be the exact same thing as the original.

[D82]

Oh, wow, that's the first I'd heard of an album for Alice in Wonderland! I imagine in this case, many of the tracks would be by Chloe x Halle.

The title of that Alice in Wonderland album is "Almost Alice". Here's more info about it, in case you're interested. Yes, if they make one for The Little Mermaid, most likely Chloe x Halle will be featured on it.

Humans not only knowing about the existence of merfolk, but actively hating them is probably the stupidest change they made for the remake.

Yeah, it sounds like a bad idea. By the way, the person who claimed to have attended the test screening mentioned the "feud" between the merfolk and humans, so that may be an indication that they weren't lying about seeing the movie.

Speaking of that, I hadn't realized the pink and white dress we saw in the set photos is the one described by that person as "honeymoon dress". This video by Youtuber Skye Roberts about Ariel's costumes made me realize that.

In the same set of images where Halle appears in that outfit, there are some of Queen Selina and Grimsby, along with people from the kingdom and merfolk, standing next to the sea in what appears to be a scene from the ending of them waving Ariel and Eric goodbye. I thought the images of the couple were perhaps for a different scene shot on the same day, but looking again at them I found one that seems to prove it's all for the same scene. That could mean this is indeed her honeymoon dress. Also, the boat Ariel and Eric were spotted on (which at first made us think they were filming "Kiss the Girl") is decorated with flowers, which would make sense if this was after their wedding.

[Disney Duster]

Good sleuthing and figuring stuff out, D82!

[D82]

^Thanks, Disney Duster!

Rob Marshall talks about the film in a new interview:

Next up is The Little Mermaid, which, like Chicago, has such history and a devoted fan base. Already from the trailer, we’ve seen a range of reactions, not to mention trolls. Did Chicago help you with approaching the new film?

Yes. For me, it’s really important to understand why the source material works, why it’s loved, why people embrace it — and make sure that you honor that. At the same time, you have to reimagine it for a live-action film. You have to hold on to those special things, but at the same time, know that it’s a different form. You’re now in a live-action form, so you have to do things differently than you would in an animated film. The animated film will always live there, but that was 1989. This needs to seen through the lens of 2023. It’s a real balancing act, but it’s very important to me to respect the original material.

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235287463/


Here's also a description of the new songs and some other details from the test screening, but I don't know if the source is reliable or not.

- King Triton's song is sort of like 'Mother knows best' but more demanding, telling Ariel to never go near the surface again.

-Ariel's new song is sung while she is exploring on land. It is played over it so we dont see her singing it. The song is about how much she loves the human world and wants to stay there!

- Prince Eric's new song is sort of his ballad. I heard that Jonah can SING. The message is about him longing for someone to relate to, Ariel.

Source: https://twitter.com/Movie_News_Plus/sta ... T-ks4sAAAA

[Farerb]

Rob Marshall: "it’s really important to understand why the source material works, why it’s loved, why people embrace it — and make sure that you honor that."

Also Rob Marshall: "The animated film will always live there, but that was 1989. This needs to seen through the lens of 2023."

In other words, they think the animated film is outdated, despite the fact that it's actually considered timeless. They don't even pretend to care about subtext and nuisance or metaphors, like there's a whole queer reading for The Little Mermaid - yes it's presented as heteronormative, but we're talking about a character who doesn't feel like she fits in the (human) world, and goes through a body transformation. But I'm sure making the film through the lens of 2023 will not outdate it whatsoever - modern storytelling where everything needs to be explicit, especially at Disney.

-Ariel's new song is sung while she is exploring on land. It is played over it so we dont see her singing it. The song is about how much she loves the human world and wants to stay there!

One of the things I love about the original film is how we see Ariel's reaction to the human world - her curiosity, her happiness, and all of that is done without saying a single word. That's visual storytelling and it's beautiful. Now they're basically going to explain to us how she feels through a song, but perhaps Halle is not a strong enough actress to convey her emotions through facial expressions alone

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, I doubt Halle Bailey will be an A+ actress since her past roles have been very background bits, but even an A+ actress would have trouble conveying the kind of emotion a (great) drawing does. I mean, in animation, they were able to design the character so her eyes were bigger than humanly possible--Bambi eyes--to make her more sympathetic and vulnerable. So I won't mind a song over her exploring the world if it's the same vibe as "Beyond My Wildest Dreams," I always loved that one. I guess I loved both it and "One Step Closer" because they used one of the better pieces of score as their basis. Anyway, it's sort of the same way I felt about her octave jump at the end of "POYW." On paper, it's not something I would like, but I think that stress might actually work to translate more emotion since live-action is at a disadvantage compared to animation in that regard--at least, imo. That said, I still didn't like the ending "BE-heee-EEE" or whatever. I wasn't surprised to hear they changed the way she sang the beginning of the song ("I've got whosits and whatsits galore," etc.), because I thought that was the worst part from the audio that leaked earlier.

The description of the Triton song--I really hope that if he is given a song like that one, it's at the part following Ursula's Intro when he's yelling at her about missing the concert. That said, having a horrible song there just before POYW will sort of bloat things. But having him sing when he's destroying the grotto would be awful, that part is supposed to be traumatic and plopping a horrid song there just sucks out all the tension, imo.

[Sotiris]

From Total Film magazine.

[Disney Duster]

I wasn't surprised to hear they changed the way she sang the beginning of the song ("I've got whosits and whatsits galore," etc.), because I thought that was the worst part from the audio that leaked earlier.

Wait...did you think they changed the beginning if the live-action version of POYW after the audio leak of it? The new video has the same beginning as an older video that came out around the same time as the audio leak.

[Vlad]

I wonder if Entertainment Weekly will do an article on the movie, with publicity stills.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

Disney's The Little Mermaid officially rated PG almost 5 months out from release: https://www.filmratings.com/Content/Dow ... lletin.pdf.

[Vlad]

There's a fan account on Instagram claiming that a new trailer for the movie will be released this month. Is this true? Do you guys know anything about it?

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

There's a fan account on Instagram claiming that a new trailer for the movie will be released this month. Is this true? Do you guys know anything about it?

I’m thinking we get it during the Grammys.