The Little Mermaid Cut A Javier Bardem Song — Here's Why [Exclusive]
This post contains spoilers for "The Little Mermaid."
The live-action version of Disney's "The Little Mermaid" hits theaters tomorrow. In addition to some of the songs we know and love from the 1989 animated version of Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale, we're getting some new ones from composers Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) has one now, and Scuttle (voice of Awkwafina) even raps.
I attended the recent press conference for the film, where director/producer Rob Marshall and producer John DeLuca spoke about a song that didn't make the cut. When I got to talk to them one-on-one during the movie's press day, I asked them about it. The song was for Javier Bardem, who plays King Triton — Ariel's (Halle Bailey) Mer-Papa. The two shared their perspectives on Bardem's prowess as a singer and the reason why the song was cut. But fear not, fishy friends — if you're aching to hear the tune, they seemed optimistic about the track making its way to the public as a special feature at some point in the future.
Bardem's portrayal of King Triton is one of the film's highlights and is more serious than the animated version, voiced by Kenneth Mars. I was actually a little disappointed that we didn't get to hear Bardem sing once I heard that there had been a Triton song, but Marshall and DeLuca had a good reason for the cut.
'It was a very powerful song about Ariel herself and the frustration'
Rob Marshall explained to me why they cut Javier Bardem's song:
"Well, he's a spectacular singer, and he does it with such passion. It was a very powerful song about Ariel herself and the frustration. But what was interesting, it wasn't really for time that we cut it. It was mostly because it robbed from the ending. When you're creating new material, you don't know. The film tells you as you work on it.
"We had so many new pieces, so many new songs and sequences that we were bringing to this to make it a fully live-action piece [...] You have to keep that friction to the very moment when he actually embraces her and hears her, maybe for the first time. So that's what really what led it. It was story."
John DeLuca added that the song "cut some of the air from his character and the conflict that he and Eric had." Triton wants to protect his daughter from haveing the same fate as her mother; being killed by someone — like Eric — who lives on land. What we see through the film is Triton trying to control his youngest daughter. A reveal that early in the story, that he treated Ariel the way he did because he loved her deeply and just wanted to keep her safe would have robbed the film of a lot of its tension.
"The Little Mermaid" premieres in theaters on May 26, 2023.