The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[D82]

I've just watched the Menken and Miranda interview. They sing a brief snippet of each new song in it. Here are links to these moments. The music of Ariel's song is indeed based on "Tour of the Kingdom", as we suspected.

For the first time
Scuttlebutt
Wild Unchartered Waters

[PatchofBlue]

I really like that lyric that Lin mentions specifically from "Wild Uncharted Waters," "time may change the shoreline, but time will not change me". It has that quality that feels impossibly grand and epic while also being the simplest, most honest way to say something. It bodes very well for these new songs. (I even enjoyed that clip from "Scuttlebutt," which right now is the wild card.)

[UmbrellaFish]

I really like that lyric that Lin mentions specifically from "Wild Uncharted Waters," "time may change the shoreline, but time will not change me". It has that quality that feels impossibly grand and epic while also being the simplest, most honest way to say something. It bodes very well for these new songs. (I even enjoyed that clip from "Scuttlebutt," which right now is the wild card.)

I agree. I was a bit concerned about the Scuttle song based on its title, but the lyrics and music sound pretty good! I’m a bit concerned about its placement… it sounds like it’s at a point in the movie where it could really slow down the action. But otherwise, I’m very excited to hear it all!

[Sotiris]

Honestly, the arrogance of this guy. Imagine having the gall to give Alan Menken notes on what a song, which is based on a previous melody he wrote no less, should sound like. Not to mention, he's supposed to be just the lyricist here and not interfere with the music. I guess he can't help himself. Menken's instinct to go with a waltz was right; LMM's "suggestions" made it worse. From that snippet alone, the tune sounds obnoxious now. There's no way "For the First Time" could get nominated for an Oscar. And why does LMM seem incapable of shutting up? He comes across as a hyper-active man-child. I felt exhausted by his shtick. Menken was hardly able to get a word in.

I have no words on how awful "Scuttlebutt" sounds and how out of place it feels. Talk about cringe central. It's really just a vanity song for LMM. That's all there's to it. At least, "Wild Uncharted Waters" sounds decent. I'd have to hear more, but it's the only song with potential. If they are submitting only one song from the movie, this should be it.

Another thing, why has Eric been turned into Moana? He's described as "endlessly drawn to the sea" and "wanting to see the other edge of that horizon line". Will he be singing "How Far I'll Go" too? And with Ariel loving the land and Eric loving the sea, how on earth is this romance supposed to work exactly? What, they'll get married and Ariel will stay behind having fun on land while Eric continues with his voyages on his ship? What a clusterf--!

[Lele]

Another thing, why has Eric been turned into Moana? He's described as "endlessly drawn to the sea" and "wanting to see the other edge of that horizon line". Will he be singing "How Far I'll Go" too? And with Ariel loving the land and Eric loving the sea, how on earth is this romance supposed to work exactly? What, they'll get married and Ariel will stay behind having fun on land while Eric continues with his voyages on his ship? What a clusterf--!

Maybe the new happy ending will be Ariel becoming human and Eric becoming a merman so that way everyone is happy, why not give him what he wants since Ariel gets what she wants

[carolinakid]

I’ve always thought LMM was overrated and obnoxious. Glad I’m not the only one who feels that way...

[Marce82]

I am not a fan of LMM... I don't like 95% of his music and I think he is a mediocre actor/singer. I haven't been a fan of his since I first saw him do three episodes of the show House MD... and guess what his character trait was: A BAD RAPPER. I am 100% serious (this was in season 6... he was constantly rapping, but couldn't think of good rhymes).

That said, I am not faulting him for giving notes to Menken. They are collaborating, and that is the nature of that process. They are both composers, they are both lyricists, but in this project they are choosing to stick to different lanes, but it is still two elements that need to work together. I am sure Menken gives notes on the lyrics as well.

That said, the song bits sounded pretty awful. And I agree, the first one got uglier after LMM intervened...

[D82]

Daveed Diggs and Awkwafina talk about the film in new interviews:

Obviously, like everyone, I've actually heard some good things about The Little Mermaid movie through my little rumor mill of Disney. What does it mean for you to be part of that project?

DIGGS: I mean, I'm sort of stunned. I was stunned that they wanted me to be part of it and then every moment of working on it was like, “Whoa, this is what I get to do right now?” I am also eagerly anticipating the release of it, but what I can tell you is that Halle [Bailey] is unbelievable. I know that because I was next to her a lot of the time while she was learning that role, and yeah, she's… It's really phenomenal.

Source: https://collider.com/daveed-diggs-extra ... interview/

Speaking of stepping into the shoes of big franchises, you also have The Little Mermaid coming up this May. Scuttle is a pretty eccentric and beloved character, how did you approach the voice to make the seagull your own?

AWKWAFINA: Aw, man. Buddy Hackett’s performance in the original is so good and so memorable, and I think you can’t duplicate that performance. The Scuttle that we’ve grown up with is Scuttle, but what I definitely did want to incorporate was that Scuttle is a nosybody, she’s a meddler and she’s also very neurotic, so I feel like those came easy. It was so fun to play Scuttle.

Were you able to improvise any of her made-up words for forks or whatnot?

AWKWAFINA: Yes! I was able to improvise. I was like, “Thank you for letting me do this. This is like a dream!” I don’t know if any of them will make the cut, but hopefully.

Source: https://screenrant.com/renfield-movie-a ... interview/

[D82]

Two things that were confirmed in the EW articles are that Ursula and Triton are siblings in this version and that both Ariel and Eric come from single-parent households. I didn't know Melissa McCarthy started her career performing as a drag queen in Manhattan clubs either or that she emulated Divine for an EW cover in 2011. I wonder if that helped her get the part.

I really like that lyric that Lin mentions specifically from "Wild Uncharted Waters," "time may change the shoreline, but time will not change me". It has that quality that feels impossibly grand and epic while also being the simplest, most honest way to say something. It bodes very well for these new songs. (I even enjoyed that clip from "Scuttlebutt," which right now is the wild card.)

Yeah, that lyric was quite good. "Scuttlebutt" sounds a bit better than I expected too, although those snippets were very short; I need to hear more to judge the songs. By the way, Lin-Manuel said Ariel's new song is based on "Tour of the Kingdom", but doesn't it sound more like the piece of score "Beyond My Wildest Dreams" is adapted from, or is it just me?

That said, I am not faulting him for giving notes to Menken. They are collaborating, and that is the nature of that process. They are both composers, they are both lyricists, but in this project they are choosing to stick to different lanes, but it is still two elements that need to work together. I am sure Menken gives notes on the lyrics as well.

I remember in an interview Menken did for Disenchanted he said that since Stephen Schwartz and him are both lyricists and composers they gave notes to each other there too, so I guess it's not uncommon in this type of collaboration. Anyway, Miranda can make suggestions, but Menken has the final say in regards to the music. If he didn't like his ideas for the music, he could just reject them.

[Disney Duster]

Wow, thanks Farerb, those photos are great! Ariel's blue dress is so beautiful and Eric's costume looks good.

But how can Melissa McCarthy be a Drag Queen if she is a woman? Shouldn't she be playing men and be a Drag King?

[D82]

Apparently, some tie-in books are already available in Thailand and some images have leaked. Here's our first look at Jessica Alexander as Vanessa:



And here's our first official look at Grimsby. According to the book, he's the prime minister.



More images on this Twitter thread (spoilers). They're from the book "Adventures on Land".

[UmbrellaFish]

But how can Melissa McCarthy be a Drag Queen if she is a woman? Shouldn't she be playing men and be a Drag King?

Well, most women are nothing like drag queens in real life, so there are some women, trans- and cisgendered alike, who perform in drag. Probably the most famous cisgendered female drag queen is a performer named Victoria Scone who has competed on multiple seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She’s really talented and entertaining to watch. So it’s really not all that weird that Melissa McCarthy performed in drag at some point!

Side note, we’ve only seen a little bit of her in the trailer, but has anyone else got a Mae West vibe from McCarthy’s Ursula? Unexpected but I think it will work for her.

More images on this Twitter thread (spoilers). They're from the book "Adventures on Land".

Some of those pics give me 1997 Cinderella vibes, which makes sense because Rob Marshall choreographed that production.

[D82]

EW has released more articles. The first one is pretty much a written version of the video interview with Menken and Miranda, but they add a bit of info about the placement of Eric's song in the movie. The second is totally new, and in the third one there's some new info about McCarthy's audition and her take on the character.

The Little Mermaid's new songs first listen: Hear snippets of Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda's music
https://ew.com/movies/the-little-mermai ... l-miranda/

The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey shares advice Beyoncé gave her when cast as Ariel
https://ew.com/movies/the-little-mermai ... l-casting/

The Little Mermaid's Melissa McCarthy channels drag queens and drinking alone to play Ursula
https://ew.com/movies/the-little-mermai ... ate-souls/


Here are also two book illustrations and a couple of storyboards:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqqS048pgIe/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqqv9dOOSOK/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CqrCWMUgJjk/

Ariel's blue dress is so beautiful and Eric's costume looks good.

I agree. Now that we finally got a good look at the dress, I think it's really good. It reminds me a bit of Alice's blue dress in the remake, which was also designed by Colleen Atwood, but I think I like this one even more.

Also, now that we have more info about Ariel and Eric's relationship thanks to the book leaks, I think making him an explorer in this version might not be a bad idea after all. I was wondering how they would make them know each other more here, since that's one of the things they tend to "improve on" in the remakes, when they still have just three days to do so and Ariel doesn't speak here either. But making them connect thanks to things like the fact that both like to collect stuff doesn't sound bad to me. Though, we'll see how it's executed. I don't have much faith in Rob Marshall and I already know there'll be many things in the film I'll have a problem with.

[Disney Duster]

Oh, ok, didn't know that UmbrellaFish!

I'm glad we agree D82, on the costumes and Eric and Ariel's commonality.

Looks like I'm gonna love Vanessa! Open back dress!

[Disney's Divinity]

Eric being a collector is dumb, but the plot of him possibly being cursed by a witch or whatever sounded much worse. I'd rather he was simply an explorer rather than a collector--that would fit with him being a sailor and being in love with the ocean. (And Ariel's collecting and interest in human world is about exploring ultimately, whereas I don't know what Eric would be "collecting" since he's not following some unknown world with "artifacts" to look at like a mermaid.)

I haven't listened to the song snippets yet, I'll load those and the Menken video later when I have the time. I presume the outfits were in those videos or something? All these articles and videos, I sort of scroll past them most of the time since it's not worth the effort to load all of that for what amount to fluff blurbs with nothing of note said. Anyway, once we finally had details of where "Scuttlebutt" would be in the story and what it was (the three sidekicks wondering if the marriage gossip is about Ariel), it sounded interesting on paper. I initially thought a Scuttle song would be him alone (not with Flounder and Sebastian), and would be some rap song early in the film. I know I would've hated that.

[MaQu]

She’s probably the most perfectly cast actor in any of the live action remakes thus far. Unlike the stunt castings of Emma Watson, Will Smith and Beyoncé. There’s no distracting star power. Just pure talent and charisma.

I agree with that so much, when I see her in the trailer, pictures etc. I just see Ariel.

The picture of Ariel and Eric on the beach is beautiful.

I really love all the artwork made for t-shirts, books, other merch. I want to buy so many things, this movie will make me go bankrupt.

Interesting that they actually made Ursula and Triton siblings. Can't wait to see how it will play out.

[Disney's Divinity]

Just sorted through all the new images. I thought people had been talking about some newly revealed dress. It's just that same ugly one from the "Kiss the Girl" scenes we've already seen.

I like Vanessa's actress, but she doesn't look even vaguely like Ariel's actor, which also makes her a miscast. She would be right if Ariel here looked like Ariel in the original.

[Disney Duster]

Eric being a collector of sea things is smart! He loves the sea! And Ariel is of the sea! They can share so much with each other.

[D82]

New illustrations from the book "The Little Mermaid: Make A Splash" have been leaked. I've put all of them on this Imgur post so you don't have to click on every image to see them, as they were posted individually on this Twitter account. Most of them recreate scenes from the original in a quite faithful way, so I don't think they're too spoilery. However, there's one more I haven't included in it that is: this one (spoilers). That illustration reveals how Ursula is going to convince Ariel to come to her lair since Flotsam and Jetsam apparently don't talk in this version.

[UmbrellaFish]

New illustrations from the book "The Little Mermaid: Make A Splash" have been leaked. I've put all of them on this Imgur post so you don't have to click on every image to see them, as they were posted individually on this Twitter account. Most of them recreate scenes from the original in a quite faithful way, so I don't think they're too spoilery. However, there's one more I haven't included in it that is: this one (spoilers). That illustration reveals how Ursula is going to convince Ariel to come to her lair since Flotsam and Jetsam apparently don't talk in this version.

So the story does look very faithful to the original, at least it seems to follow all the same major beats. What is it with these remakes and making the talking villain sidekicks speechless?

Does anyone else think the spikes on Ursula’s costume are a reference to some of the original 1989 concept art?