The Little Mermaid is swimming into theaters tonight, making it the latest live-action Disney remake to be released. The movie has gotten a more positive response than many of the previous Disney remakes. In fact, the movie is currently up on Rotten Tomatoes with a 72% critics score after 167 reviews. ComicBook.com‘s Jenna Anderson gave the new movie a 4 out of 5 and called it “Disney’s most radiant and romantic live-action retelling in years.” These days, it’s fairly common for movies to have post-credit scenes, even if they’re not part of a franchise. Despite being made by the same company as Marvel movies, The Little Mermaid does not have a post-credit scene. However, we still recommend hanging out just to listen to some of the film’s best bops again.
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The Little Mermaid follows Ariel (Halle Bailey), the youngest daughter of the kingdom Atlantica’s ruler King Triton (Javier Bardem), who is fascinated with the human world, but mermaids are forbidden to explore it. After saving Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) from a shipwreck and falling in love with him, Ariel becomes determined to be with him in the world above water. These actions lead to a confrontation with her father and an encounter with the conniving sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), making a deal with her to trade her beautiful voice for human legs so she can discover the world above water and impress Eric. However, this ultimately places her life (and her father’s crown) in jeopardy.
The Little Mermaid Director on Working With Halle Bailey:
“Well, you know, she was like a sponge,” director Rob Marshall shared in an interview with ComicBook.com. “I mean, you know, she’d never done this before. And she shared with me later, which I wasn’t aware of, that she was so scared every day. But I never felt that from her. She seemed as cool as a cucumber, but she was soaking everything in and everything that I would say or [producer[ John DeLuca would say. She absorbed so quickly and would just do it, but she did it with taste.”
He continued, “You know, that was that’s what’s interesting. She understood camera and film immediately, and I thought that was sort of natural. You could see she’s natural on camera, truthful. But there’s something, you know, they say the camera loves you or, you know… the camera loves Halle. They it’s just there’s something about her. And so I was so excited to actually watch her grow into a film star as we were working. It was really exciting.”
Are you excited about The Little Mermaid? Tell us in the comments.