The Little Mermaidis swimming into movie theaters soon.
StarsHalle Bailey(Ariel) andMelissa McCarthy(Ursula) introduced the first, full-length trailer for Disney’s live-action reimagining during Sunday’sOscars2023. Teasing the film, McCarthy, 52, said that “1,735 remarkable film artists, technicians and craftspeople came together to tell this new story.”
“And I may be biased, but I have enjoyed making this film and it has been a complete joy,” she continued.
“I absolutely agree,” added Bailey, 22. “And it has been such an honor stepping into the iconic role of Ariel. It’s been an extraordinary experience, a dream come true for me.”
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Even though her father urges her to “stop” her “obsession with humans,” Ariel says she simply wants to “know more about them.”
Ariel soon meets evil sea witch Ursula, who insists she can help her “become a human.” Ursula demonstrates her magic — and her evil cackle — to turn Ariel’s once shiny mermaid tail into human legs and she soon swims to the shore to find Prince Eric.
The magical trailer then teases further glimpses of the film, including callbacks to moments from the original animated feature.
Disney’s newLittle Mermaidadaptation features music fromLin-Manuel Mirandaand renowned composer Alan Menken, who wrote music for the originalLittle Mermaidfilm alongside the late Howard Ashman.
“We wrote three or four original tunes, replacing none of the ones you like. All of those are in,” Miranda toldVarietyin 2022 of the classic songs, including “Under the Sea” and “Part of Your World.”
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“There’sno biggerLittle Mermaidfan than me,” he added. “… But we found a couple of opportunities for some other music that I can’t wait to see.”
Of the new songs, Miranda said that Bailey’s Ariel will sing a track in the second half of the film when she loses her voice and becomes a human.
“[Director] Rob [Marshall] found a creative way to hear from Ariel, even though she is sans voice for a little while. We wrote some music [for] her time on land. She experiences a lot of firsts, as someone with legs for the first time, so we got to lean into all of that musically,” Miranda explained.
The first teaser trailer for the upcoming film have givena first lookat Bailey as the mermaid princess and a tease of her performing “Part of Your World.” A second, 30-second teaser released in February alsoteased McCarthy’s Ursula.
The Little Mermaidalso stars Jacob Tremblay as Ariel’s fish BFF Flounder, Daveed Diggs as the crab Sebastian, and Awkwafina as the seagull Scuttle.
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The Little Mermaidis in theaters May 26.The Oscarsare airing live on ABC.
source: people.com
