The Little Mermaid (2023 film)

The Little Mermaid is a 2023 American live-action musical film which is distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a remake of the 1989 Disney animated feature film of the same name, and based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Marc Platt produces the film. In addition to supervising the story, Miranda teams up with composer Alan Menken to re-work songs from the original and the two composed new songs for the film. It was released on May 26, 2023.
==Synopsis==
The Little Mermaid is the beloved story of Ariel, a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure. The youngest of King Triton's daughters (Attina now renamed Mala, Alana now renamed Indira, Adela now renamed Caspia, Aquata now renamed Tamika, Arista now renamed Karina, and Andrina now renamed Perla) and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea and, while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. While mermaids are forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel must follow her heart. She makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land but ultimately places her life – and her father’s crown – in jeopardy.
==Plot==
Ariel is a teenage mermaid princess with an insatiable curiosity for human culture and the surface world, despite the fact she has never seen it, as her father King Triton, ruler of the ocean kingdom of Atlantica, has forbidden merpeople from visiting the surface world after Ariel's mother Athena was killed by a human. Ariel finds solace in human objects she finds, with support from her friends, Flounder, a sergeant major and Scuttle (voiced by Awkwafina), the gannet.
After having learned that Ariel was missing the Coral Moon meeting, which she was supposed to attend with her sisters (Mala, Indira, Caspia, Tamika, Karina, and Perla), Triton scolds Ariel. Later that night, Ariel sees fireworks on the surface and decides to investigate. The fireworks come from a ship belonging to Eric, the prince of an island kingdom in the Caribbean. Ariel eavesdrops on a conversation between Eric and Prime Minister Grimsby about the former's desire to travel the world and help the people of his kingdom. A storm strikes and the crew head for the lifeboats. Eric is tossed overboard and almost drowns underwater. Ariel saves Eric from drowning, bringing him to the surface, waking him with her singing voice. As Eric regains consciousness, Ariel flees. After Eric comes to, his adoptive mother Selina (Noma Dumezweni) forbids him from sailing again.
Ariel's absent-minded behavior is commented on by her sisters, and Triton learns from his advisor, Sebastian, the crab, that Ariel visited the surface and saved a human from drowning. Triton confronts Ariel in her grotto, and their argument resumes when Ariel confronts Triton about when she was saving Eric. After commenting, Triton does not want Ariel to see and visit the surface world. When she refuses to stop visiting the surface world, he destroys her collection of treasures in anger. As Ariel tries to stop him, Triton destroys the statue. After Triton leaves, Ariel breaks down and begins sobbing in the shattered hand part, and two eels with electric powers arrive and show Ariel a vision of the sea witch Ursula, her estranged aunt (Triton's younger sister), who offers her help.
Ariel travels to Ursula's cave, where the sea witch strikes a bargain with her; she will transform Ariel into a human for three days, in which time she must receive true love's kiss from Eric; if she succeeds, she will remain human forever. If she fails, she turns back into a mermaid, and will belong to Ursula. The deal, however, comes with a price; Ariel must sacrifice her abilities to breathe underwater, her tail, and her voice, which Ursula traps inside a nautilus. Ariel accepts the deal, and her tail is transformed into legs. Flounder and Sebastian take Ariel to the surface, where a fisherman saves her, and takes her back to Eric's castle. Eric, who has been searching for the woman who saved him, rushes to meet Ariel when he hears of her arrival. Ariel is excited, but her lack of voice turns the prince away. That evening, Ariel explores the castle, and discovers Eric's collection of items from his travels, and she and the prince pore over the collection.
The next day, Ariel and Eric explore the kingdom and she meets a market vendor. Sebastian has stowed away and discovers that Ursula has rigged the deal to make Ariel forget she has to kiss Eric. Sebastian, Scuttle and Flounder take it upon themselves to get the pair to kiss; they are almost successful, but Ursula sends Flotsam and Jetsam to thwart them. Enraged by the close call, Ursula transforms herself into a beautiful young woman called Vanessa, using Ariel's voice to hypnotize Eric.
The next morning, Ariel and her friends discover that Eric will be announcing his engagement to Ursula as Vanessa. Scuttle discovers Ursula's true identity and informs Ariel. Suddenly, Ariel rushes to the engagement party, breaking the nautilus shell, restoring her voice and breaking Eric's enchantment. Eric finds that Ariel is the right woman for him. Ursula warns Eric to leave Ariel alone. Before the two can kiss, the sun sets, and Ariel transforms back into a mermaid. While reverting to her original true form, pushing Eric out of the way, Ursula grabs Ariel with her back into the sea.
Triton confronts Ursula and orders her to release Ariel, but Ursula informs her older brother that the deal Ariel made is unbreakable. As Ariel apologizes to Triton for disobeying him, Ursula surrounds Triton. Ariel almost escapes but Flotsam and Jetsam grab her under the witch's orders. Ursula sabotages Triton and makes him trade himself for his daughter. Triton saves Ariel and takes her place, handing his trident to Ursula. Ursula steals Triton's trident, while Flotsam and Jetsam release Ariel and kill Triton by reducing him to ashes with Ursula's spell, leaving Ariel horrified. Ursula steals Triton’s crown and declares herself the new ruler. Furiously witnessing the incident, Ariel confronts Ursula and attempts to attack her. Ursula whacks Ariel with one of her tentacles and threatens her. Ursula attempts to destroy Ariel, but after arriving, Eric saves Ariel and hits Ursula with a harpoon. Furiously, Ursula orders her eels to capture Eric. In the skirmish, Ursula attempts to destroy Eric, but while not in a good side, Ariel intervenes and intentionally attacks Ursula who unintentionally kills Flotsam and Jetsam, reducing them to ashes. Ursula mourns their loss before vengefully turning to the ones responsible. As Ariel hurries to join Eric, the enraged Ursula begins to enlarge herself into a giant sea monster. 
Ariel attempts to tell Eric to save himself, but he refuses to abandon her, just as Ursula's gigantic form about the size of a kraken emerges, leaving Eric and Ariel helpless to her power. Ariel wants Eric to look out due to the rampage from gigantic Ursula. During her rampage, Ursula creates a whirlpool, raising shipwrecks from the ocean floor. While Eric distracts Ursula, Ariel pulls herself into the ship with a splintered bowsprit as a shipwreck is brought to the surface. At the midst, Ursula attempts use the trident to kill Eric, but fails. Just as Ursula prepares to destroy Eric with the trident's blasts, Ariel kills Ursula by ramming a splintered bowsprit towards the evil witch's abdomen. When Ariel saves Eric the third time, Ursula dies and her remains sink to the ocean floor, and her curse is lifted and the trident she leaves behind sinks into the ocean. The trident that Ariel goes after now hits the sea floor, reviving Triton back to life. Ariel picks up Triton’s trident and hands it back to Triton, who now reclaims it. Triton is happy with Ariel for saving Eric three times and killing Ursula. Triton and Ariel recognize the other's sacrifice for them. Eric returns home, where Selina acknowledges his love for Ariel was real.
Triton eventually accepts that although Ariel is home, she will not be happy without Eric. At Sebastian's request, he then transforms her once more into a human - this time permanently. Triton sends Ariel to Eric to be together again. Eric asks Ariel to marry him, to which she agrees, they finally kiss, and the two are immediately wed shortly after. At the ceremony, after Eric and Ariel marry on the beach, the two decide to travel the world together, with the support of their respective families and the people of the human and mer-world. Ariel meets Selina and bids her friends and family and Scuttle, Flounder, and Sebastian farewell. Triton arrives, meeting with Eric and Ariel. Ariel hugs Triton goodbye. While the humans and merpeople become friends and family permanently, Triton sends Eric and Ariel off on a honeymoon.
==Cast==
*Halle Bailey as Ariel
*Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric
*Daveed Diggs as Sebastian
*Awkwafina as Scuttle
*Jacob Tremblay as Flounder
*Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina
*Art Malik as Grimsby
*Javier Bardem as King Triton
*Melissa McCarthy as Ursula
**Jessica Alexander as Vanessa
*Martina Laird as Lashana
*John Dagelish as Mulligan
*Christopher Fairbank as Hawkins
*Jude Akuwudike as Joshua
*Emily Coates as Rosa
*Karolina Conchet as Mala
*Kajsa Mohammar as Karina
*Simone Ashley as Indira
*Lorena Andrea as Perla
*Sienna King as Tamika
*Nathalie Sorrell as Caspia
*Jodi Benson as Market Vendor
*Russell Balogh as Triton Guard #1
*Adrian Christopher as Triton Guard #2
*Gary and Edna as Max
==Release==
The Little Mermaid held its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on May 8, 2023, followed by the London premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on May 15. It was released theatrically on May 26, 2023, in the United States by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
===Marketing===
On September 9, 2022, Rob Marshall and Halle Bailey appeared at the 2022 D23 Expo to introduce an exclusive presentation of the film's "Part of Your World" sequence, which received a positive response from the attendees, who praised Bailey's vocal performance. The film's teaser trailer was released to the public the same day. On October 13, 2022, the first poster was released to the public, which Bailey synchronously captioned on Twitter: "Words can't describe how immensely honored I feel to play the mermaid of my dreams."
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Marshall says that this new take on Ariel spotlights a "modern woman". He says that the character goes back to Hans Christian Andersen from another century, but at the same time in 1989, it felt in some ways like a very modern woman, someone who sees Ariel's life differently than anyone around her and goes to find that dream. On January 21, 2023, Disney Live Entertainment announced a casting call for character look-alike actresses to portray Bailey's version of Ariel as a character meet-and-greet at Disneyland in Anaheim, California near the "It's a Small World" attraction, Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and the Walt Disney Studios park at Disneyland Paris in Paris, France, as part of the film's promotional campaign. It was later confirmed by Disney Parks that these meet-and-greets would run for a limited engagement throughout the summer, with the original, classic Ariel being reinstated afterward.
On March 12, 2023, the official trailer was shown during the 95th Academy Awards, introduced on stage by Bailey and McCarthy, and then released online alongside a new poster.
Disney spent an estimated $140 million promoting The Little Mermaid. The film had the biggest global promotional campaign for a Disney branded live-action title at $80 million in value, with partner deals with the likes of McDonald's, Booking.com, and Kellogg's.
===Home media===
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released The Little Mermaid for digital download on July 25, 2023, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on September 19, 2023.
==Music==
In May 2016, Disney announced that a live-action remake of The Little Mermaid was in development, with Menken and Miranda attached to write new songs for the film. Menken stated that he and Miranda would "expand on the material that's there" and "create something that feels like it was part of the whole fabric of what we did originally". In July 2019, Menken confirmed that he had completed recording the score and songs for the film with Miranda. He said that the music was "very faithful" to the original film, but also "expanded and reimagined". He added that Miranda was "a joy to work with" and "a great collaborator".
==Reception==
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of 346 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "With Halle Bailey making a major splash in the title role, Disney's live-action Little Mermaid ranks among the studio's most enjoyable reimaginings." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 54 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
==Differences from the 1989 film==
*In the original film, Ariel calls King Triton "Daddy", but in the remake, she refers to him as "Father".
*Ariel has vibrant red hair and fair white skin in the 1989 film, while she has more natural red hair that is in locks and brown skin in this film.
*The general setting was changed to the Caribbean, rather than what appeared to be a North Sea-setting in the original.
*Ursula is King Triton's sister in this film, making her Ariel's paternal aunt. In the original, Ursula was not related to Triton in any way.
**The plotline of King Triton and Ursula being siblings is a deleted concept from the animated film. It was first used in the musical adaptation.
*Scuttle is a female (a type of diving bird), instead of a male seagull. Scuttle is also able to breathe underwater.
*Flotsam and Jetsam are now electric eels instead of moray eels. In addition, they do not have any speaking dialogue unlike in the original animated film.
*Queen Selina is a new character, who appears in the remake and is Eric's adoptive mother.
*Chef Louis and The Seahorse Herald are not featured in the remake.
*Carlotta is now named Lashana.
*Snarfblatt references are not used in the remake due to Disney enforcing a ban on smoking and drugs in 2007.
*Flounder is a teenage yellow and blue fish instead of a young male .
*In the original, Ariel's age is stated that she's 16 years old. In this film, Ariel's age is stated to be 18 years old, (which is the age when one becomes an adult), but she is still a teenager, as confirmed by Sebastian.
*In the original film, Eric is 18 years old. In this film, he is 21 years old.
**Eric was also 21 years old in the musical adaptation.
*Three new songs are introduced in the remake.
**"For the First Time" by Ariel.
**"Wild Uncharted Waters" by Prince Eric.
**"The Scuttlebutt" by Scuttle and Sebastian.
**Additionally, another song called "Impossible Child" was written for the film, but it did not make the final cut.
**The song "Daughters of Triton" from the animated film is not featured in the remake.
**Furthermore, the song "Les Poissons" from the animated film also is not featured in the remake.
**There are no songs that originated from the musical adaptation of the film in the remake, not even the deleted song "Silence is Golden", which was cut from the original film.
*Ariel's sisters have different names in this film: Mala, Karina, Indira, Caspia, Perla, and Tamika, instead of Attina, Arista, Alana, Adella, Andrina, and Aquata.
**Instead of their names all starting and ending with A, all of their names just end with A, except for Ariel.
**In the original film, the sisters all live in Atlantica. In the remake, all the sisters aside from Ariel live in separate kingdoms, but they all get together during the "Coral Moon Festival".
*Ursula has 8 tentacles (same as her sister from 2000 sequel), similar to common cephalopods, rather than six.
*Ursula's eyeshadow is blue in the original animated film, however, in the remake, her eyeshadow is green.
*King Triton wears body armor in the remake, rather than having his bare chest being shown completely.
*The song "Fathoms Below" plays during Eric's birthday rather than being sung at the beginning of the film.
*The beginning of the film includes a quote said by Hans Christian Andersen (author of the original Little Mermaid) which reads, "But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more." There is no scene with a quote by said author in the original film.
*Ariel in this version is more loyal to the rules against going up to the surface than the one in the original, but she still maintains her curiosity.
*Sebastian's concert from the original is replaced with a Coral Moon meeting for the remake.
*During the chase scene at the sunken ship, Flounder gets stuck on the sea floor, unable to move while Glut continues chasing Ariel who drops a barrel on him, unlike in the original film.
**In that same scene, Glut crashes into a mirror where he gets trapped instead of being trapped into an anchor. Additionally, the part where Flounder taunts him is omitted.
*The part where Ariel encounters for the first time Scuttle (originally a male seagull) has been modified, due to Scuttle being a female gannet in this remake. In the remake, Ariel and Flounder encounter Scuttle who dives underwater talking with Ariel about the objects she collected at the sunken ship area, consisting of a "Dinglehopper" and another object Ariel tried to show her just before Sebastian tells Ariel to return to her home, replacing the Snarfblatt mention. The original film had Ariel encountering Scuttle on the surface showing the seagull a Dinglehopper and a "Snarfblatt" respectively just before Scuttle thinks the "Snarfblatt" is the one that makes music, reminding Ariel to return to her home.
*In the original film, Sebastian follows Ariel and Flounder to the Grotto, but in the remake, he did not follow them.
*During the first reprise of "Part of Your World", a group of guards from Prince Eric's castle rushes towards the beach to find Eric to make sure he is safe, and Ariel retreats from the guards. This did not occur in the original film, where only Grimsby and Max find Eric.
*The storm scene has a couple of differences:
**When Eric hears thunder and lightning, he warns the crew himself while in the original film, a sailor on the crew's nest does that instead.
**Lightning doesn't strike the ship. A falling torch sets the ship ablaze instead.
**When Eric went back to get Max, he was still on the ship.
**The helm spun more slowly in the remake and Eric had little to no trouble keeping it steady.
**Ariel does not get blown off the ship, she instead jumps off.
**The crew wasn't knocked overboard when the ship hits the rocks.
**Eric was knocked off the ship when it tilted instead of being blown off by the exploding gunpowder.
*Sebastian tells Scuttle to keep Ariel's first encounter and being in love with Eric a secret, whereas, in the original film, he says this to Flounder.
*A lot of changes during the "Under the Sea" sequence:
**Ariel does not sing along in the original film, but in the remake, she does. This also occurred in the 2019 television special.
**Unlike in the original film, Flounder does not appear during the sequence.
**During the first verse, Sebastian leaps onto a rock to reveal a school of fish for them to swim around Ariel. In the original film, there was a school of fish swimming around Ariel from a distance.
**A group of seahorses swims around Ariel during the first verse in this film. In the original film, seahorses do not appear until during the second verse when they swim around her.
**Ariel and Sebastian sing the parts that were originally sung by other sea creatures from the original film. Additionally, Sebastian sings the second verse all by himself instead of with other sea creatures as he does in the original film.
**During the second verse, Ariel swims with a pod of dolphins, rides on an octopus across the reef, and later dismounts out of it when she arrives at a forest of pink jellyfish. She later encounters sea turtles crawling on the sand, followed by manatees, brittle stars, and a pufferfish inflating itself. In the original film, the scenes from said verse include Sebastian encountering a lobster playing with clams he uses as steel drums, a dolphin swimming by, a large fish placed on a flat coral during the verse about fish feeling uncomfortable on land, followed by seahorses swimming around Ariel, Sebastian placing fishing hooks inside a clam's mouth which suddenly spits them out, and various other creatures singing and playing musical instruments.
**During the instrumental part, various sea creatures (such as sea lilies, flying gurnards, limpets, Spanish dancers, mimic octopuses, ribbon eels, and more species of jellyfish) take part in dancing with Ariel and later during the final verse, unlike in the original film where Ariel escapes with help from Flounder.
**The sea creatures do not use instruments during the musical number in this film, unlike in the original film.
**In the original film, Ariel leaves before the final chorus. In this film, she disappears a few seconds before the song ends.
*When Triton destroys the statue of Eric in Ariel's grotto and then Ariel cries over the destruction her father did and during the part where Ariel cries, she is seen holding one of the hands from the destroyed statue of Eric, unlike in the original film where she holds the face of the destroyed statue.
*In this remake, when King Triton destroys Ariel's collection, he only destroys some of it. But in the original film, he destroys all of it. In addition, when King Triton sees the statue, Sebastian is next to it in the remake. But in the original film, he is not next to it.
*In the original film, Triton followed Ariel at the grotto. In this film, Triton was already inside the grotto when Ariel came back.
*In the original film, she was lured into Ursula's lair by talking about it with Flotsam and Jetsam, but in the remake, Flotsam and Jetsam go into Ariel's grotto and shows her the face of Ursula where she communicates with her and decides to meet her to become human.
*When Ariel becomes human for the first time, Sebastian and Flounder get her aboard a fisherman's boat, and the fisherman gets her dressed and takes her to the castle. In the original movie, Ariel is taken to the beach and dressed in a sail by Scuttle before being found by Eric and Max, and taken back to the castle by Eric personally.
**Also during this scene, Ariel's private parts aren't shown, just her bare legs.
*The songs "Kiss the Girl" and "Poor Unfortunate Souls" have their lyrics modified in the remake to include consent and female empowerment.
*Ariel initially turns down Ursula's deal stating that it wasn't right in the remake while Ariel is concerned and reluctant to make the deal due to the fact she'd never see her father or sisters again in the original.
*In the original, Ariel signs the contract by writing her signature on glowing paper. In the remake, one of her mermaid scales was removed as a part of making a deal with Ursula, and one of Ariel's scales was still missing (as evidenced by her bleeding tail wound) when transforming back.
*Unlike in the original animated film, Sebastian's arms and claws are not the same size, with his right arm being bigger and the left being smaller.
*In the song of "Poor Unfortunate Souls", Ursula's iconic dialogue "You'll have your looks! Your pretty face! And don't underestimate the importance of body language! Ha!" was cut in the remake.
*Ursula's spell incantation still takes place in her cauldron but the "Larynxes glossitis ad Max Laryngitis" is replaced by "Amnesia, glossitis et max laryngitis".
*During the part where Scuttle (as a male seagull) prepares for a "vocal romantic stimulation", he lands on a branch where four bluebirds sit, and vocalizes in a falsetto romantic fashion, which makes Eric think he is a poor animal and should be put out of misery. In the remake, Scuttle (as a female gannet) hums and then scat sings instead; additionally, there were no swallows on the branch where Scuttle lands on in the remake.
*There were a lot of changes in the "Kiss the Girl" sequence:
**Flounder and Scuttle take part in the singing in this film; in the original film, Scuttle only vocalized while trying to join in with the flamingos (which were absent in the original film), only to be silenced seconds later, and Flounder did not have any lines in said version.
***Many of the lagoon animals from the original film such as ducks, turtles, frogs (including tadpoles), flamingos, pelicans, cranes, swallows, and crickets do not appear in the remake. Thus, there are no other talking animals in this sequence participating as backup singers aside from Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle. The fireflies and lagoon fish are the only ones from the original film to return in the remake. The lacewings replace the crickets from the original film while a flock of pink ibises replace the flamingos.
**Eric wears a hat in the remake, which he does not in the original film.
**The role where the frogs sing while being lifted on one of the paddles was given to Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle respectively.
**During Eric's conversation with Ariel, he tells her about constellations such as Orion the Hunter and Aries the Ram. When Eric tells Ariel about Aries, Ariel gestures to replace the "S" with an "L" so that Eric can remember her name due to Ariel being unable to talk after she gave her voice to Ursula. Eric does not mention any constellations in the original film, as he just asks what Ariel's name is just before Sebastian whispers to Eric's ear.
**During the end of the song, Scuttle and Flounder urge Eric to kiss Ariel in the remake. The original film had various animals urging Eric to kiss Ariel.
*In the original film, Ariel wears a pink gown for dinner. In this film, she wears a white gown with hints of pink at the end of the film, before sailing off with Eric.
*Eric and Vanessa don't wear their black cloaks in this film.
*Vanessa doesn't wear her signature wedding gown in this film.
*Scuttle discovers Ursula disguised as Vanessa in her bedroom in this film. In the original movie, Scuttle discovers Ursula's disguise as Vanessa in a dressing room on the ship during the wedding ceremony.
*Flounder does not take Ariel to where she needs to stop Vanessa from using Eric to get what she wants. He is instead given Sebastian's role in the original film where he goes to tell King Triton everything that happens while Scuttle and Sebastian try to stall Vanessa's plans.
**Additionally, Ariel hurries to where Vanessa and Eric are by swimming and running there all on her own. 
*Vanessa does not trick Eric into marrying her before the end of the third day. She instead tries to make Eric propose to her at an engagement party before the sun sets that day.
*Ariel and Vanessa catfight in this film.
*In the original film, Scuttle rallied some nearby ocean and lagoon creatures to attack Vanessa and crash the wedding. But in this film, only Scuttle attacks Vanessa, and Grimsby kicks the engagement ring.
*Ariel was the one who grabbed and broke Ursula's seashell necklace instead of Scuttle.
*In the original animated film, Max the Dog bites Vanessa's bottom. However, Max doesn't bite Vanessa at all in the remake. He only placed his paws and barked at her.
*The moments where Ariel gets her voice back, Eric realizes it was her all along, and the sun setting on the third day all take place at an engagement party on the terrace of Eric's castle instead of at a wedding ceremony on a ship. Ursula takes Ariel back to the ocean by diving off the terrace.
*In the original film, Ariel says "I've never seen a human this close before.", just like Cubbi Gummi saying "I've never seen a human close up before." in "A New Beginning" of "Adventures of the Gummi Bears", but in the remake, Ursula quotes Rat Capone's line "Shut up!" from "The S.S. Drainpipe" of "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers".
*In the remake, Ursula knocks Eric out of her way, just like Rat Capone hitting Gadget in "The S.S. Drainpipe" of "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers", unlike in the original film.
*King Triton's line while confronting Ursula, "Ursula Stop!" was changed into "Ursula, let her go!".
*Instead of replacing Ariel's name on the contract with his, Triton hands her his trident. 
*In the original film, Eric stirs the helm of the boat to kill Ursula, but in the remake, Ariel uses it to deliver the final blow to Ursula, causing Ariel to kill Ursula instead of Eric in this film.
**This plotline was originally used in the musical adaptation of the animated film (Ariel kills Ursula by destroying Ursula's magic shell).
*Ursula kills King Triton in the film instead of turning him into a polyp, although he is brought back to life after her death.
*Ursula kills those who made a deal with her in this film.
*During the final battle, Flotsam and Jetsam drag and attempt to drown Eric, however in the original animated film, Sebastian pinches Flotsam and Flounder slaps Jetsam, but Sebastian and Flounder do not attack the two in the remake.
*In the original film, Ursula refers to Flotsam and Jetsam as her "babies, [her] poor little poopsies" when they were killed, but in the remake, just refers to them as her "babies".
*In this film, the merpeople that were turned into polyps in Ursula's garden have one eye, unlike in the original film where they are depicted as having two eyes.
**After Ursula was killed, they are returned to normal. This was omitted in the remake.
*In addition, when the polyps grabbed Ariel, in this film, they grabbed her hands, and even her neck. But in the original film, they only grabbed her by the hand.
**Additionally, a skeleton of a mermaid/merman appears during the part where Ariel follows Flotsam and Jetsam into Ursula's lair, which does not appear in the original film.
*Triton despises humans due to one killing the Queen which was used in the prequel.
**Also, in the original film, it's ambiguous as to what Ariel's sisters think of humans; in this film, they share Triton's prejudiced attitudes towards the human race.
*Ursula's final words before her death, "So much for true love!", were included in the film, but unlike the original film, they were not her last words.
*After Ariel is reunited with Eric after turning back into a human, it does not immediately cut to their wedding unlike the original. It extends by showing Eric proposing to her and going off to travel abroad following their marriage.
*In the original film, Ursula doesn't directly mention Ariel's name. In this film, she does.
*In the finale, Ariel doesn't wear a wedding veil while marrying Prince Eric.
**In the same scene, an instrumental version of "Part of Your World" plays instead of being sung by an offscreen choir.
*Sebastian is not a composer and songwriter in this film, instead, he is Triton's majordomo and advisor.
*The mermaids do not wear seashell bras like in the animated film, but they wear different tops that look like fish skin instead in this film.
*Ursula still becomes a giant in the remake, but her appearance has changed slightly. She has three gills on each of her cheeks and she has large deadened eyes. Whereas in the original, her appearance did not change.
*During the movie's ending, Ariel's mermaid tail turns back into human legs off-screen. After King Triton makes her human again, Ariel is also wearing the cerulean dress that she wore when she first met Eric instead of a new dress with sparkles like in the animated film.
==Videos==
The Little Mermaid - Official Teaser Trailer
The Little Mermaid - Wish
The Little Mermaid - Official Trailer
The Little Mermaid - Trailer Reaction
The Little Mermaid - A World Reimagined
File:The Little Mermaid - Choices
The Little Mermaid - Part Of Your World
The Little Mermaid - The Cast Goes Under The Sea
The Little Mermaid - Under The Sea
The Little Mermaid - Halle's Ariel
Halle Bailey - Performs “Part of Your World” at Disneyland
The Little Mermaid - Unfortunate
The Little Mermaid - Poor Unfortunate Souls
The Music of The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid - You Listen to Me Bird
The Little Mermaid - The Scuttlebutt
The Little Mermaid - "The Scuttlebutt" In 20 Languages
The Little Mermaid - Choreographing Under The Sea
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*The film was originally supposed to be released in 2020, but was delayed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
*This film’s running time is far much longer than the original 1989 animated film.
*This is the second Disney live-action remake to be released in 2023, after Peter Pan & Wendy.
**Coincidentally, both films have mermaids and ships in it.
*This is the fourth collaboration between Rob Marshall and Disney after Marshall previously directed Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Into the Woods, and Mary Poppins Returns.
*This is the fifth Disney Princess remake, after Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Mulan.
**This is also the fifth movie from the Disney Renaissance to be remade.
***This is also the second Disney Princess remake to be released in the 2020s, after Mulan in 2020.
*This is the third live-action Disney remake to use the normal version of the Disney logo, after Dumbo and Peter Pan & Wendy. It is also the second in this case to use the 2022 Disney logo, after the latter, and the second to use the normal version of the Disney logo including its regular fanfare, as Dumbo featured a musical score specific for the film despite used the normal variant of the 2011 logo.
*This is the first live-action Disney film to have the closing theme of the film play during the short version of the closing Disney logo since Million Dollar Arm.
*This is Melissa McCarthy's first role for a Disney film since she played the Sky King waitress in The Kid.
*This is Noma Dumezweni's second role for a Disney film and her second collaboration with Rob Marshall.
**She portrayed Penny Farthing in Mary Poppins Returns.
*This is the third Disney film that Lin-Manuel Miranda has written songs for after Moana and Encanto.
**This is the second Disney Princess film that Lin-Manuel Miranda has written songs for.
**He also co-starred in Mary Poppins Returns, which also makes this his second collaboration with Rob Marshall on a Disney film.
*Due to Pinocchio and Peter Pan & Wendy being switched to Disney+ releases, this is the first exclusive theatrically-released live-action film based off of a Disney Animated Canon movie since Cruella.
**It's also the first theatrically-released live-action Disney Princess film since Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
*This is the first The Little Mermaid movie to be produced in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The other two were produced in 1.85:1.
*This is the first ever Disney theatrical live-action remake to use the new 2022 on-screen logo, as Peter Pan & Wendy is a Disney+ Original.
*Due to Artemis Fowl being switched to a Disney+ exclusive release (following the COVID-19 pandemic), this is the first exclusive theatrically-released Disney live-action film to receive a PG rating from the MPA since Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
*Jodi Benson (Ariel's original voice actress) has a cameo in the tour of kingdom scene as a market vendor. Thus, this is the first time Benson has collaborated in a production related to The Little Mermaid without playing the titular character, after The Wonderful World of Disney: The Little Mermaid Live!
**This is also the third live-action Disney film of the 2020s to feature a cameo from someone who portrayed a character in the original film or medium preceding it, after Mulan, in which Ming-Na Wen (who voiced the title character in the animated film) made a cameo as an esteemed guest, and Disenchanted, in which Rachel Convoy (who portrayed Morgan Philip in the film's predecessor, Enchanted) made a cameo as a villager in Monroelasia.
*This is Awkwafina's second voice role for a Disney film after voicing Sisu in Raya and the Last Dragon.
**It is also her second role for a Disney Princess film.
**In addition, Scuttle is voiced by Kim Ok-gyeong in the Korean version of this film, who also voiced Sisu.
*This is the second Disney Princess film to feature a catfight after Raya and the Last Dragon, with Raya and Namaari. This time, it features Ariel fighting Vanessa.
*This is Jacob Tremblay's second voice role for a Disney film after voicing Luca Paguro in Pixar's Luca.
*Ursula states that she has been banished from Triton's kingdom for 15 years. This is a likely in-joke to the 15 year gap between the remake and the original film's prequel The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning.
*This is the same date Disney+ removed Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, Stargirl, Artemis Fowl, Better Nate Than Ever, Hollywood Stargirl, Magic Camp and some more original films.
==Possible Sequel==
After the release of the film, both Halle Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King expressed their hopes for a sequel. Bailey expressed her likeness of Ariel and Eric having a daughter like the original sequel and Hauer-King mentioned he would enjoy it if Eric became a merman.
==References==
==External links==
*
da:Den Lille Havfruen
fr:La Petite Sirène (film, 2023)
pt-br:A Pequena Sereia (filme de 2023)
ro:Mica Sirenă (2023)
ru:Русалочка (фильм)
Category:Remakes
Category:Live-action films
Category:The Little Mermaid
Category:Disney Princess films
Category:Disney films
Category:2023 films
Category:Hybrid films
Category:PG-rated films
Category:3-D films
Category:4DX films
Category:Films based on books
Category:Birthday productions