'The Little Mermaid' Remake Comes Ashore To Disney+
From the big oceans to the stream...
Man this place was young the last time I talked about this film. The latest in Disney’s live action remakes of their animated films, The Little Mermaid has a Disney+ premiere date. The company announced it will happen in just 30 days, on Wednesday, September 6.
The remake of the 1989 Disney animated classic starring Jodi Benson as Ariel, Kenneth Mars as Triton and Christopher Daniel Barnes as Prince Eric makes a splash with Grown-ish’s Halle Bailey, as well as Javier Bardem and Jonah Hauer-King in the respective roles. The film tells the beloved story of Ariel, a beautiful and motivated young mermaid with a strong desire for adventure. Defiant, Ariel yearns to learn of the surface world beyond the sea. During a daring visit as mermaids are forbidden from interacting with humans, she falls for Prince Eric. Ariel follows her heart, making a deal with her aunt, Ursula the evil sea witch, allowing a chance to live on land, while jeopardizing it and her father’s crown.
The Little Mermaid swims along with Hamilton’s Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’s Awkwafina as the voice of Scuttle; Jacob Tremblay as the voice of Flounder; The Watcher’s Noma Dumezweni as The Queen; Art Malik as Sir Grimsby and Thor: Love and Thunder and Nine Perfect Strangers’s Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. This version is directed by Chicago’s Oscar-nominated director Rob Marshall from a screenplay written David Magee. Alan Menken’s music returns as he composes the score here. He also collaborates with Lin-Manuel Miranda on the film’s new songs. Three made the film, but one, “Impossible Child” as performed by Triton, will be one of the special features available on arrival day, as well as featurettes “Passing the Dinglehopper”, presumably about connecting the new and old casts, with probable emphasis on Benson’s cameo where her vendor character gave Ariel a dinglehopper, and “Under the Sea – Song Breakdown” which seems self explanatory.
Released in theaters on May 26, it has made $564.3 million at the global box office, a $297.1 million domestic and $267.2 million international split. It debuted with $95.6 million in the traditional three-day weekend, and $118.8 million over the entire Memorial Day frame. Despite debuting three weeks after Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 theatrically, it will debut on Disney+ five weeks after, as the former landed on the platform on August 2. It makes for 103 days between theatrical release and Disney+ arrival. It will arrive on the same day as the second season of I Am Groot, which was announced yesterday. Otherwise, it is still very early in this month to know what else will arrive there on the day, let alone the rest of the month.
