This article contains spoilers about the live-action version
of “The Little Mermaid.”
اضافة اعلان
Ariel, poor girl, already had no voice — and that was before
the sea-witch added selective amnesia to the mix.
It is one of more than a dozen changes to the classic 1989
Disney animated film made for the new live-action adaptation, which is almost
an hour longer. Among them: new songs; updated lyrics to “Kiss the Girl” and
“Poor Unfortunate Souls”; and a personality for Prince Eric.
Here are 13 ways the remake, directed by Rob Marshall,
differs from the original.
1. Ariel has locsHalle Bailey, whose casting as Ariel led to a racist
backlash, and the crew knew that death-by-flat-iron to re-create Ariel’s
flowing mane of straight red hair was not the way to go. Instead, Bailey
sported her natural locs, which were wrapped with strands of red hair.
“As Black women our crowns are so special to us,” Bailey,
who has worn locs since she was 5, told The New York Times. “Our hair is
important to us in every single way, so I was really grateful that I was
allowed to keep that essence of me.”
2. Flounder looks like … a fishWhen audiences got their first look at live-action Flounder
in the trailer, there was a consensus: too real. “Before and after ozempic,”
The Atlantic’s Sophie Gilbert tweeted with shots of Ariel’s anxious sidekick
looking plump and colorful then and flat and scaly now.
3. Prince Eric is a perk, not the prize
For Bailey’s Ariel, it is the human world that piques her
curiosity, not just the handsome prince (played by Jonah Hauer-King). Instead
of giving up everything for him, Bailey told The Face, “it’s more about Ariel
finding freedom for herself because of this world that she’s obsessed with.”
4. The prince is more than just a pretty faceNow he has a backstory, too. “In the animated film — I’m
sure the original creators would agree with this — it is a wooden, classic
prince character with not a lot going on,” Marshall told Entertainment Weekly.
Now Eric’s trajectory is similar to Ariel’s. “He doesn’t feel like it’s where
he fits in, his world,” Marshall said.
5. Meet Prince Eric’s mother
Queen Selina (Noma Dumezweni) is not fond of the underwater
realm and does not understand her son’s obsession with oceanic exploration. The
remake uses the added time to explore the divide between mermaids and humans.
6. You might sympathize with King Triton
The overprotective ruler of the seas (Javier Bardem) also
gets a more nuanced narrative, focused on why he hates humans so much. (His
wife, Ariel’s mother, was killed by humans, a backstory that fans of the
prequel and TV series may know but that is not in the original.)
7. Ariel and Eric share actual interests
Though their courtship still takes place in a
blink-and-you-miss-it three days, the extra run time means they can do things
other than make goo-goo eyes at each other, like poring over artifacts in his
study and visiting a market.
8. At times, you’ll feel like you’re watching ‘Hamilton’
Lin-Manuel Miranda — the “Hamilton” creator who’s also a big
“Little Mermaid” fan — collaborated with the animated film’s composer, Alan
Menken, on three new songs. (The original lyricist, Howard Ashman, died in
1991.)
The new tunes are: “The Scuttlebutt,” a very Miranda-esque
rap performed by Scuttle (Awkwafina) and Sebastian (Daveed Diggs) when they are
trying to figure out whom Prince Eric will marry; a quintessentially Menken
ballad for Prince Eric, “Wild Uncharted Waters”; and a Latin-infused number for
Ariel, “For the First Time,” when she gets her legs.
9. Two beloved tunes sport updated lyrics
While “Kiss the Girl” originally suggested Eric do just that
without asking Ariel first (“It don’t take a word, not a single word/Go on and
kiss the girl”), Sebastian now advises him to “use your words, boy, and ask her.”
Menken told Vanity Fair they wanted to avoid suggesting the prince “would, in
any way, force himself” on Ariel.
And in “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” while Ursula originally
informs Ariel that “on land it’s much preferred/for ladies not to say a word”
and that “it’s she who holds her tongue who gets a man,” the new version, sung
by Melissa McCarthy, drops that verse entirely. (Because, Menken told Vanity
Fair, some lines “might make young girls somehow feel that they shouldn’t speak
out of turn, even though Ursula is clearly manipulating Ariel.”)
10. “Les Poissons” is Les Poi-gone
As is Chef Louis, the French-accented cook who is out to
serve up Sebastian.
11. Ariel has selective amnesia regarding a certain kiss
Because simply losing her voice would have been too easy.
Ursula’s spell now makes Ariel forget she must get Eric to kiss her.
12. Get ready to be Team Grimsby
You might have forgotten he was even in the original, but
Art Malik’s performance as the prince’s confidant will have you waving the
Grimsby flag. He does everything he can to help Ariel and Eric get together.
13. Ariel, not Eric, kills the sea-witch
That is right: In 2023, women impale their own monsters.
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