Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Album/Disney
Topics: Disney, Film and TV, Music
Katherine Sidnell
With only one month until The Little Mermaid hits cinemas, many are looking forward to see what the live-action version adds to the Disney classic.
Alan Menken, who composed the original score, is returning to helm the remake's music, along with Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is the brains behind the popular Broadway musical Hamilton.
However, many viewers might be in for a shock as the new remake will feature alternative versions of two classic songs.
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The upcoming Disney film has received a lot of criticism for casting actor Halle Bailey as the first black Ariel, with the 23-year-old becoming the target of racist trolls online.
The trailer was also unfortunately subjected to ‘review bombing’, with the comments being flooded with negative reviews, when it was released last year.
Although she’s been enduring unrelenting hate, Bailey insists it’s been worth it to play the character.
She said: "Seeing all the babies’ reactions, all the brown and Black young girls, [it] really tore me up emotionally."
However, Menken says that the songs have been reworked due to certain implications and explained the reasoning behind the decision.
He said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair that the classic track, 'Kiss the Girl', had some people concerned as it implies that Prince Eric would ‘force himself’ upon Ariel.
Menken said: “There are some lyric changes in ‘Kiss the Girl’ because people have gotten very sensitive about the idea that he would, in any way, force himself on Ariel.”
So the remake will feature amended lyrics - which will be sung by Jonah Hauer-King, who plays Prince Eric in the fairy-tale film.
And Menken says that 'Poor Unfortunate Souls', which is sung by Ursula, has also undergone a revision.
The line from the original film implied it was better for little girls to remain silent, saying: ‘The men up there don’t like a lot of blabber, they think a girl who gossips is a bore.…on land, it’s much preferred for ladies not to say a word."
“We have some revisions in ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’ regarding lines that might make young girls somehow feel that they shouldn’t speak out of turn, even though Ursula is clearly manipulating Ariel to give up her voice,” Menken added.
However, he also hinted that they had also wrote some original tracks for the movie - with Prince Eric looking to get his own time to shine.
"One was the Prince Eric song, called ‘Wild Unchartered Waters,” he said. “Then, there was the song for Ariel when she has her legs (doesn’t have a voice), and she’s singing her thoughts about all the firsts she is noticing for the first time.
"Then, there was a number called “Scuttlebutt” for Scuttle and Sebastian. It’s this harebrained [song for them] trying to figure out what’s going on because they hear rumours that the prince has decided to marry.
"They think it must be Ariel but of course it’s Ursula in the form of Vanessa. It’s all this delicious imagination. Lin’s lyrics are to die for.”
And you'll be able to hear these new tracks for yourself once The Little Mermaid is released in cinemas on May 26.
UNILAD has reached out to Disney for comment.