In September 2021, it was first revealed that songwriter Alan Menken was creating four new songs for the upcoming live-action adaptation of the beloved animation classic, The little Mermaid, starring Halle Bailey as Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as Triton. The film features fan favorite songs from the original plus four new songs written by Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who have never worked together before.
At D23 Expo, Walt Disney Studios presented the first teaser trailer for the highly anticipated live-action remake of The little Mermaidwhich will swim to the big screen in May 2023. Attendees were also treated to a preview of the movie Part of Your World, presented by director Rob Marshall (Chicago, In the woods), who took a break from post-production to share the clip with D23 guests and announce new details about the films.
Because the live-action film wants to honor the original beauty of the animated classic while giving more depth to the characters, The little Mermaid will have four new songs that “open the movie in a very different way,” Marshall said.
Rob Marshall Says Directing The Little Mermaid Is Fate
Rob Marshall, a longtime Disney employee, also shared with D23 Expo attendees why he signed up to see the live-action remake of The little Mermaid. He recalled that in 1989, when he saw the original film, there was a lot of “excitement to hear a musical again” because musicals “were kind of dead at the time”, adding that he could “hear people singing” in the theater while watching the animated film.
Inspired by the memory during his career, the Tony Award-winning director added that he wanted to recreate the audience’s experience when Marshall began directing on Broadway:
Years later, when I did Chicago, I felt the same kind of excitement that live-action musicals were coming back. So when Disney asked me to do this, it felt like an incredible moment because of this connection. It just felt like fate, so here we are.
Bailey later joined Marshall on stage, adding that portraying the iconic mermaid is a lifelong goal. 1989’s The little Mermaid occupies a very special place in Disney history as it kicked off the famous Walt Disney Feature Animation Renaissance when the studio produced a significant number of critically and commercially successful animated films and television series.