The Little Mermaid Footage Reaction: Poor Unfortunate Souls [CinemaCon 2023]
Disney's never-ending line of live-action remakes continues in May — there's actually another one later this week, in "Peter Pan & Wendy" — with "The Little Mermaid." Featuring new songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda ("Hamilton"), who's also among the producers alongside director Rob Marshall ("Chicago"), the underwater tale of Ariel the Mermaid is unfurling on the big screen next month. Halle Bailey ("Grown-ish") plays Ariel, with Jonah Hauer-King ("A Dog's Way Home") as Eric, the human prince she falls in love with.
Awkwafina ("The Farewell"), Daveed Diggs ("Hamilton"), and Jacob Tremblay ("Room") lend their voices to King Triton's trusted crab servant Sebastian, Ariel's dimwitted seabird friend Scuttle, and Ariel's tropical fish best friend Flounder, respectively. Javier Bardem is playing Ariel's father, King Triton, with Noma Dumezweni ("The Watcher") as Eric's mother Queen Selina, an original character. Lastly, Melissa McCarthy plays the conniving sea witch Ursula, who has ambitions to take over Triton's kingdom.
Behind the scenes, Disney is trusting the "Mary Poppins Returns" duo of Marshall and writer David Magee — that film got four Oscar nominations and made nearly $350 million at the global box office. Marshall has described "The Little Mermaid" as the "most challenging" film he's ever worked on:
"I don't think anybody's ever done an underwater musical before [...] [E]very single moment of the film had to be choreographed in advance. [...] It's crazy the apparatuses we worked with from wires to things called tuning forks to teeter-totters."
We've already had two trailers for the film — a teaser last September, and a full-length one in March — but Disney saw fit to give us another peek at "The Little Mermaid" during its CinemaCon 2023 panel on Wednesday in Las Vegas. /Film's Ben Pearson was on hand to witness; here's what we got.
Enter Ursula
The footage shown to CinemaCon attendees primarily consisted of Melissa McCarthy's Ursula, particularly her performance of the classic song "Poor Unfortunate Souls." It opens with Halle Bailey's Ariel arriving in Ursula's cave, which is illuminated by the villainess's neon tentacles. McCarthy looks and sounds perfect for the character. The same can be said about Bailey's Ariel, as the underwater physics of her hair and body look surprisingly well-made.
The beginning of the "Poor Unfortunate Souls" scene looks similar to that of the original film's number, but it does introduce one key difference. During the song, Ariel appears to second-guess Ursula's offer, saying, "No, this is wrong, I can't do this." However, as she's swimming out of the cave, Ursula makes a jab at Ariel's father, hinting that the relationship between Ariel and King Triton will have a bigger focal point in this film. That could lead to some interesting character dynamics, especially since Ursula already knows about her seemingly complicated relationship.
Unfortunately, the film's visuals are looking like a bit of a mixed bag at the moment. The actual transformation scene that involves Ariel losing her voice and tail was described by Ben as "CGI nonsense," amounting to bright colors flashing on the screen. Sebastian and Flounder are also realistically rendered, but maybe a tad too realistic. Overall, there's both things to love about this new footage and things to not love as much, but that's for you to decide when "The Little Mermaid" arrives in theaters on May 26, 2023.