The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[UmbrellaFish]

Kate Middleton is Catherine, Princess of Wales.

It’s the scene when Eric is trying to guess Ariel’s name at the start of “Kiss the Girl.” He guesses “Diana” back in 1989, and apparently he will also guess “Catherine” in this remake. It’s a non-controversy for clicks.

[D82]

Disney China has released a medley of some of the songs performed by the Chinese voice actors, which includes some new footage of "Poor Unfortunate Souls," "Under the Sea" and "Wild Uncharted Waters."

[Disney's Divinity]

I guess it's in line with the rest of the media circus Disney's generated around this movie. Much like the headlines about removing Howard almost the same day as this film is supposed to be released, it's very hard to believe most of this isn't calculated and deliberate on their part at this point.

[Disney Duster]

That Scuttle line reference to the original fairy tale is indeed funny.

They are removing Howard from Disney+?

[Farerb]

A Black Mermaid Would Have Changed Her Life, Says ‘Little Mermaid’ Star Halle Bailey
https://deadline.com/2023/05/the-little ... 235374037/

[Disney's Divinity]

I like bits and pieces of McCarthy's "Poor Unfortunate Souls." I mostly loved the beginning until you get around "Yes, indeed"--from there it reminds me of how the musical wanted Ursula to be like some kind of old film actress re-living her glory days with all the weird impressions and accents from line to line (acting as if she's performing some slapstick comedy out of an old black-and-white film at one moment, a Southern preacher on another line, a drunk at other times, etc). The "go home to dad-dy" legit made me think of Bette Davis singing in Baby Jane. I never understood that direction for the character, it always came across absurd and makes her much less threatening. Bailey's version of the vocalizing also sounds a bit odd.

Overall, I'd say I like her performance better than Sherie Scott even if the second half is beyond repair, imo. And for all the posturing for laughs they inserted all over the place, the "body language" line in the original is easily a much bigger punch than anything they managed to generate. Either way, it's a helluva lot better than it had a right to be all of that considered, and that's entirely owed to McCarthy. She's a gem.

“POYW (Reprise II)" is probably the best thing Bailey’s featured in for me. Maybe because it’s a “sad” song, she put more emotion into it than the others and since it doesn’t have any big moments, she doesn’t go overboard. I love melisma, just not on a Broadway-type song.

“Scuttlebutt” is indeed awful. Although pieces of it make me laugh involuntarily the way Awkwafina makes me laugh. Cringe is sort of her comedy style. I know Buddy Hackett is somewhere cursing his luck that he couldn’t get a song in the original like he wanted, and yet Scuttle has songs in both the musical and remake. I guess the difference was that Ashman had enough presence of mind to know nobody wants to hear a Scuttle song.

[carolinakid]

A Black Mermaid Would Have Changed Her Life, Says ‘Little Mermaid’ Star Halle Bailey
https://deadline.com/2023/05/the-little ... 235374037/

Dramatic much???


As someone said in the article comment section,

She seems like she turned out okay with a white mermaid ...

[Atlantis]

A Black Mermaid Would Have Changed Her Life, Says ‘Little Mermaid’ Star Halle Bailey
https://deadline.com/2023/05/the-little ... 235374037/

While I somewhat agree with her, sure it would've been nice if ANY animated company out there did a black mermaid for a dtv...the show did feature a black mermaid. But she's only 23 so the original and show was long developed and over with by the time she was even born.

[D82]

• The cover of the Little Golden Book has been revealed:


Source: https://www.amazon.com/Lois-Evans/dp/07 ... ref=sr_1_3


• A 10-minute preview of the film is now playing at Disney's Hollywood Studios and there are movie props on display at the park. Here's something similar to a trailer which is part of the preview.


• More details about Triton's cut song "Impossible Child" by Javier Bardem and Rob Marshall, respectively:

"It's a song called Impossible Child and it's a very beautiful rock or rock opera song," Javier Bardem previewed. "It talks about how he [King Triton] sees himself in a moment when he rises to the surface. It's a moment of desperation and also in a moment of rage, of understanding that he may be the cause of Ariel leaving," he describes.

"It's very emotional and very beautiful. I think it was well sung and beautifully shot, but it didn't make the cut. And I understood why. Because King Triton's emotional journey would have taken place much earlier in the film if the song had been placed where he should have been. So, in order to end the way this film ends, with the embrace of father and daughter and with that emotional moment, the song didn't fit," reveals Bardem.

However, Bardem also wanted to advance that his musical sequence will not stay locked in a drawer. In fact, he revealed that "it will be part of the extra content when the film is released on the platform," the actor confirmed.

Source: https://www.elespanol.com/series/disney ... 897_0.html

There was a song for him, and we actually filmed it. People will see it at some point. It's very exciting. It's called ‘Impossible Child’. And what was interesting was, because we're in a way creating a new piece, we added all these numbers, all these songs, and what happened was we realized, and this happens with every musical and every film musical, the piece tells you, and what happened is it robbed from the ending. Because, that friction between the two of them and how that will be resolved if you, if you go into his internal thoughts in the song and you understand what he's feeling, we thought it would enhance the story actually. It was the opposite.

It took away from the story because you have to wait to the end for that moment of connection and understanding what he's feeling and how he's feeling. So it was fantastic to write for him. I mean, he sings so beautifully. People will see it eventually. It's exciting to show. We'll definitely show it to people. But, that's what movies are. Movies are these living, breathing things and you have to listen and you have to let the movie tell you what belongs and what doesn't.

Source: https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/ ... le-mermaid


• And if anyone's interested in listening to the songs in other languages, here are some Youtube playlists. I've only listened to a couple of the songs, but I quite liked the Chinese version of "Wild Uncharted Waters".

Chinese soundtrack
Thai soundtrack
French soundtrack
Italian soundtrack
German soundtrack
Spanish soundtrack (Latin America)
Spanish soundtrack (Spain)
Polish soundtrack
Finnish soundtrack
Norwegian soundtrack
Swedish soundtrack

- We knew Fathoms Below had been relocated. Clearly, it now takes place when Ariel sees Eric's birthday celebration on the ship.

You're right. We can hear the "Fireworks" score at the beginning of the new version. I guess this means "Fathoms Below" will replace the music the sailors play in that scene in the original.

- Under the Sea sounded good to me. Better than the OG? No. But it was fine. I found Ariel's sung moments a little odd, storywise.

I guess in this version Ariel will make Sebastian believe his plan is working, but will sneak out too, only later when the song is about to end.

By the way, I didn't realize it at first, but I guess the score track titled "Eric's Decision" is from the moment in the film where Eric decides to stop searching for the girl who saved him and then hears Vanessa sing and is hypnotized by her, right?

They are removing Howard from Disney+?

At first it was announced it was among the titles Disney plans to remove from the service in order to save money via tax write-offs (if I understood it correctly), but thanks to the backlash the news generated fortunately it seems Howard is no longer being removed from it.

[Disney Duster]

I am so glad Howard will stay!

[Kyle]

I'm shocked they would remove anything, didn't they say early on they would never remove titles from their service?

[Disney's Divinity]

I know the first thing I think of when I think of TLM is "rock opera."

[PatrickvD]

I'm shocked they would remove anything, didn't they say early on they would never remove titles from their service?

A lot of titles cost Disney money to have on their service. Something like Howard would require a fee for the production company or the director/producer who might own the license. The more content like this on the service the harder it is to make the platform profitable.

[Farerb]

• The cover of the Little Golden Book has been revealed:


Source: https://www.amazon.com/Lois-Evans/dp/07 ... ref=sr_1_3

Did any of the other remakes get something like this?

[Sotiris]

Did any of the other remakes get something like this?

A Little Golden Book? No. Also, Disney included the remake's King Triton to the video game Mirroverse instead of his animated counterpart. Clearly, Disney is investing in more merch and tie-ins for this remake than previous ones.

[Sotiris]

How Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides influenced The Little Mermaid
https://ew.com/movies/the-little-mermai ... influence/

[Farerb]

A Little Golden Book? No. Also, Disney included the remake's King Triton to the video game Mirroverse instead of his animated counterpart. Clearly, Disney is investing in more merch and tie-ins for this remake than previous ones.

It does seem unusual. Almost as if it's one of their animated films, but I've noticed that in recent years Disney seems to care about their live action properties (like MCU and Star Wars) more than their animated films.

[PatchofBlue]

I'm actually far more interested in Triton's song now than I was before.

Anyways, as I'm going over the soundtrack more now, I'm becoming more and more disappointed that there's not more score included. I remember both of Menken's other remakes had much more substantive offerings beyond just the sung numbers. There are all sorts of scenes in the movie that set the stage for some great tracks (e.g. the storm), and it's a shame to not be able to sink into them here and now.

[D82]

New TV spots and other promos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amTSLEzMlHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbvkTjVNoKU
https://twitter.com/cottymps/status/1660185404006596610 (original source)
https://twitter.com/cottymps/status/1660232020692467714
https://twitter.com/numetro/status/1660261659644968961
https://twitter.com/DisneyStudiosIN/sta ... 2289425409

Upon finally listening to it, I think that in addition to just being baseless social pandering, dropping the middle bit from "Poor Unfortunate Souls" robs the song of some of its momentum. It's a little jarring hearing McCarthy just go for it toward the end without that extra build-up.

I think you're right. The song sounded incomplete to me and it might be because of that. Also, though I partly understand why they replaced those two lines in "Kiss the Girl" (even if I don't think there was anything wrong with the original lyrics), it doesn't make much sense they sing Eric has to "use his words" and ask Ariel for permission when he doesn't do that later when he tries to kiss her.

I'm actually far more interested in Triton's song now than I was before.

Me too! I wish it had been included on the soundtrack, but at least they've promised it'll be an extra on Disney+.

Anyways, as I'm going over the soundtrack more now, I'm becoming more and more disappointed that there's not more score included. I remember both of Menken's other remakes had much more substantive offerings beyond just the sung numbers. There are all sorts of scenes in the movie that set the stage for some great tracks (e.g. the storm), and it's a shame to not be able to sink into them here and now.

Yeah, it's a real shame no more score tracks were included. Of the few on the album, I especially like "Triton's Kingdom" and how Menken managed to make it sound fresh while still being inspired by the music from the original. That track makes me really curious to hear the rest of the score.

Speaking of that, I said a Deluxe Edition soundtrack would be released in Japan, but I've now noticed, it's not really an extended version; just a combo set of the English and Japanese regular versions of the soundtrack. I did translate the text on the website when I first found it to know what it said, but I guess I read it quickly and didn't pay much attention to it; otherwise I think I would've noticed what it really was. I'm sorry if I got people's hopes up.

Deluxe Edition: 2-CD version including both Japanese and English versions.

Source: https://www.universal-music.co.jp/p/uwcd-1117/


I also watched an interview with Halle the other day in which she said she has written a new song for the upcoming musical adaptation of The Color Purple, where she plays the role of young Nettie. I wonder if that's the Diane Warren song we thought was for The Little Mermaid, since Halle co-wrote it with her. What made people think it was for the Disney film is that Halle used a mermaid emoji in one of the two posts she sent from the recording studio that day and in both the same sheet of paper with the song lyrics appeared. But it's true that the post of her with Diane Warren wasn't accompanied by the mermaid emoji, so maybe she just recorded things for The Little Mermaid and The Color Purple on the same day in that recording studio. The title of the song, "Somewhere We All Belong", probably makes more sense for the other film as well. I guess she may have a higher chance of being nominated for the Oscar with that song than her original one in The Little Mermaid, especially if it was indeed co-written by Diane Warren.

[Disney's Divinity]

Yeah, I imagine The Color Purple should be leagues ahead of this film. Thankfully a studio would never dare butcher a property like TCP the way Disney has TLM. Personally, I see no real appeal in the score being included since they couldn't even let "Main Titles" be. I've been seeing this weird advertisement lately that uses TLM to advertise vacation spots or a booking site? I felt like that fit since the scenes they used of them on land look nothing like Eric's kingdom.

The Golden Book looks cute--even Flounder--other than the tail still being ugly. It's weird how the musical wanted Ursula to be part green and the remake wants Ariel to be part pink.