The Little Mermaid Composer Confirms the Music for Live-Action Movie Has Been Recorded

Principal photography on Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid might be delayed, but that’s not stopping composer Alan Menken from getting his work done. On a recent live stream with Rosie O’Donnell, Menken revealed he and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) had completed recording the songs for the upcoming remake. That includes four entirely new songs original to the production, Menken says.

“It’s been a great time for writing, yeah,” Menken says. “Production stopped on The Little Mermaid movie. We recorded all the songs and I did four new songs with Lin-Manuel Miranda.” The composer then reveals he’s been tapped to score Disenchanted, the long-awaited sequel for Disney’s Enchanted.

It’s unclear when exactly production on the flick will pick back up or, for that matter, when the movie will hit theaters. A certain section of the internet initially had a problem with Disney race-bending the new Ariel though Julie Benson — the voice actor behind the original actor — quickly came to Halle Bailey’s defense.

“The most important thing is to tell the story. And we have, as a family, we have raised our children, and for ourselves, that we don’t see anything that’s different on the outside,” Benson said at Florida Supercon convention last year.

“I think that the spirit of a character is what really matters. What you bring to the table in a character as far as their heart, and their spirit, is what really counts. And the outside package — cause let’s face it, I’m really, really old — and so when I’m singing ‘Part of Your World,’ if you were to judge me on the way that I look on the outside, it might change the way that you interpret the song. But if you close your eyes, you can still hear the spirit of Ariel.”

The Little Mermaid live-action reboot has yet to set a release date.