This article contains spoilers for the live-action version of “The Little Mermaid.”
Ariel, poor girl, already had no voice – and that was before the sea witch added selective amnesia to the mix.
It’s one of more than a dozen changes to the classic 1989 Disney animated film for the new live-action adaptation, which is almost an hour longer. Among them: new songs; lyric updates for “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 locs.
Halle Bailey, whose casting as Ariel led to a racist backlash, and the crew knew that flat-ironing to recreate Ariel’s flowing mane of red hair was not the way to go. Instead, Bailey sported her natural locs, which were wrapped in streaks of red hair.
“As black women, our crowns are so special to us,” Bailey, who’s been wearing locs since she was 5, told The New York Times. “Our hair is important to us in every way, so I was really grateful to have been allowed to keep that essence of me.”
2. The flounder looks like… a fish.
When audiences got their first glimpse of live-action Flounder in the trailer, there was one consensus: too real. “Before and after ozempic”, Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic tweeted with shots of Ariel’s anxious sidekick who looked plump and colorful then and flat and scaly now.
3. Prince Eric is a benefit, not the prize.
For Bailey’s Ariel, it’s the human world that piques her curiosity, not just the handsome prince (played by Jonah Hauer-King). Instead of giving it all up for him, Bailey told The Face, “it’s more about Ariel finding her freedom because of this world she’s obsessed with.”
4. The prince is more than a pretty face.
Now it also has a back story. “In the animated movie – I’m sure the original creators would agree with that – he’s a classic wooden prince character with little going on,” Marshall told Entertainment Weekly. Now Eric’s trajectory is similar to Ariel’s. “He doesn’t feel like that’s where he fits in, his world,” Marshall said.
5. Meet Prince Eric’s mother.
Queen Selina (Noma Dumezweni) doesn’t like the underwater world and doesn’t understand her son’s obsession with ocean exploration. The remake uses the extra 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, focusing on why he hates humans so much. (His wife, Ariel’s mother, was killed by humans, a story that fans of the prequel and the TV series may be familiar with but not in the original.)
7. Ariel and Eric share real interests.
Although their courtship always happens in the blink of an eye and you miss it three days, the extra runtime means they can do more than just stare at each other, like poring over artifacts in its study and visit a market.
8. Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re watching “Hamilton.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda — the “Hamilton” creator who is also a big fan of “Little Mermaid” — has collaborated with the animated film’s composer, Alan Menken, on three new songs. (The original lyricist, Howard Ashman, died in 1991.)
The new tracks are: “The Scuttlebutt,” a very Miranda-esque rap performed by Scuttle (Awkwafina) and Sebastian (Daveed Diggs) as they try to figure out who Prince Eric will marry; a typically Menken ballad for Prince Eric, “Wild Uncharted Waters”; and a Latin-soaked number for Ariel, “For the first time,” when she has her legs.
9. Two beloved tunes sport updated lyrics.
While “Kiss the Girl” initially suggested Eric do just that without asking Ariel first (“It doesn’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 him. Menken told Vanity Fair that they wanted to avoid suggesting that the prince would “force himself, in any way,” on Ariel.
And in “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, while Ursula originally informs Ariel that “on earth it’s best/for women not to say a word” and that “she’s the one who shuts up who gets a man,” the new version, sung by Melissa McCarthy, drops that verse entirely. (Because, Menken told Vanity Fair, some of the lines “could make young girls feel like they shouldn’t speak up, even though Ursula is clearly manipulating Ariel.”)
10. “The Pisces” is The Poi-gone.
So does Chef Louis, the cook with a French accent who is there to serve Sebastian.
11. Ariel has selective amnesia regarding a certain kiss.
Because just losing his voice would have been too easy. Ursula’s spell now makes Ariel forget that she has to convince 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.
It’s true: in 2023, women are impaling their own monsters.
