Thanks to Entertainment Weekly (via Toonado.com), we have new details about Disney's upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.
It's no secret that the movie will feature a combination of new and classic songs, with Alen Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda teaming up to bring those to the big screen. One of those new tracks will be titled "For the First Time" which it's said will be sung by Ariel while she's exploring the surface world alongside Prince Eric.
This is obviously a major deviation from the cartoon as part of Ariel's bargain with Ursula sees the mermaid lose her voice while on land. While she may be mute for at least some of this story, this suggests we're getting a noteworthy deviation from the 1989 version.
Another big change is that Ursula is going to be the estranged sister of King Triton, making the sea monster Ariel's aunt!
"She's the villain, but there's such an edge to her," Melissa McCarthy explains. "She's been put in this lair. It's like she's had too many martinis alone. Her friends are eels. That is a woman who has seen it, been in it, dug her way back out. All my references are terrible, but I kept thinking, 'Many a Pall Mall has this woman had.'"
"She brings all of the delicious camp from the original, but then also is just scary," Miranda adds. "If ['Poor Unfortunate Souls' is] your favorite song, you're going to be happy."
The Little Mermaid also stars singer and actress Halle Bailey as Ariel, Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian, Jacob Tremblay as the voice of Flounder, Awkwafina as the voice of Scuttle, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Art Malik as Sir Grimsby, Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina, and Javier Bardem as King Triton.
Helmed by visionary filmmaker Rob Marshall, The Little Mermaid opens in theaters on May 26, 2023.
Check out a new look at McCarthy's Ursula below.