The Little Mermaid (Live-Action)

[Farerb]

In the original soundtrack of Beauty and the Beast, they placed The Mob Song before Beauty and the Beast.

[D82]

In the original soundtrack of Beauty and the Beast, they placed The Mob Song before Beauty and the Beast.

You're right! Maybe that's what I remembered. Thanks for pointing it out!

[Disney Duster]

Good observation, Disney Duster! I think you're right, because she doesn't seem to be wearing her "bra" here but some other piece of clothing. It's an interesting poster. Actually, all the new posters were better than the previous ones, in my opinion, with the exception of the RealD 3D one.

Thanks! I didn't realize the bra thing, so I don't know about that. I just noticed her butt didn't have ths fishy parts on it, lol.

[Disney's Divinity]

Why is every change they made for the worse? Sigh.

Honestly, I think they do it on purpose at this point to stir up online noise. Remember how the logo to begin with was one of the few things people liked and then they made sure to change that, too, to make it uglier? I think they're in this phase with the past couple of remakes where they've turned to a place of deliberately making them as poor as possible to stir outrage and discussion on Twitter and so on because making noise is all they're interested in these days, since whoever runs the live-action department aren't capable of making even a vaguely decent movie 2020-onwards.

Yes, controversy is free publicity. It not always works

It didn't work for Mulan a couple of years ago. Even by streaming measures, it was a clear failure to launch despite it having the advantage of being one of the '90s films most parents right now--the key demo--grew up with. That was another film mired by controversy after controversy. The hopes by Disney is clearly that TLM would make a billion like the other Fab Four. I remain skeptical it's going to do that after all this. It might reach Cinderella levels, it might even reach Maleficent levels, but I'd be surprised if it does as well as B&tB, TLK, and Aladdin after how they've trashed it.

[The_Iceflash]

Jesus it’s like they made the white sisters look bad on purpose. Was it hard to keep the one with the pink hair only having two main colors like the other sisters? What’s with that ridiculous hairstyle for the blue haired one? Also why are they the only ones witn those dumb hair colors while the rest have natural color with at some highlights?

The designers seem to forget that these are in fact sisters. Triton definitely has a lot of baby mamas. They should have cast Nick Cannon as Triton.

[Sotiris]

The hopes by Disney is clearly that TLM would make a billion like the other Fab Four. I remain skeptical it's going to do that after all this. It might reach Cinderella levels, it might even reach Maleficent levels, but I'd be surprised if it does as well as B&tB, TLK, and Aladdin after how they've trashed it.

Personally, I hope it does cross the billion dollar mark at the box office, regardless of the quality of the finished product. Given The Little Mermaid was the only of the Fab4 that failed on Broadway, I fear that if its live-action remake performs below expectations too, Disney will sour on The Little Mermaid as a brand resulting in less promotion, merchandise, tie-ins or other derivative projects in the future. The Little Mermaid and Aladdin were the two of the Fab4 that got neither an IMAX re-release nor a 3-D re-release in theaters. Aladdin proved its popularity with the success of its remake and Broadway show, so that leaves The Little Mermaid the weakest of the group. Another reason I'm rooting for it is because the fate of the shelved Beauty and the Beast TV series lies with this remake's success, for some bewildering reason. Not to mention, if this remake becomes a blockbuster, Disney will be more confident to move forward with other remakes of animated musicals such as Hercules, Hunchback, and Tangled, keep them musicals and have Menken involved.

[Disney's Divinity]

Eh, I'm less worried the same thing that happened to Mulan (as far sales for the original character being diminished to a degree) will happen here. Merchandise of TLM's original film's characters has always been incredibly strong and will speak for itself--Ariel's always been up there with Cinderella and Elsa in sales. I don't know anything definite about the Villains in comparison since they don't have a consistent merchandise line like the princesses do, but Ursula has always seemed to have more merchandise than any other villain aside from Maleficent to me? At least going by Funko releases alone, Maleficent has the most hands down, then Ursula, then the Evil Queen and Cruella somewhere behind. You know, it's funny they refuse to make more diva villainesses considering they are almost always merchandise hits for them just like princesses are. That would've been great for the 100th anniversary. At least the villain we have looks like it could be a Jafar or Hades potentially--we'll see how that goes though.

As far as Menken, Hercules has already been announced to have music with Menken involved? And they are pursuing a possible Broadway show with it (fingers crossed). I personally think Hunchback will happen, too, since Josh Gad is involved, although Disney+ only, of course. On another note, I still think Aladdin 2 will happen since I believe Will Smith has had a new film do well recently? I think it may be simply delayed because Guy Ritchie is working on Hercules first. Question mark whether it would be a musical, and if it would simply be Pasek & Paul solo or Pasek & Paul w/ Menken again on the sequel since it would be all new songs.

Others talking about the projection figures yesterday made me look them up for myself. They may have been posted here and I bypassed them somehow. Honestly, the high-end domestic projection (305 million) is sad. Aladdin did around 350 million domestically, and that's 50 million more than they're expecting in the best case scenario for TLM apparently. TLK and B&TB both made around 500 million domestically. Somehow I feel like TLM needed to do better domestically than Aladdin since I imagine it has less appeal abroad than that film did. Who knows though. I wonder what Aladdin's and TLK's early projections had been (and if they surprised and surpassed them)?

[carolinakid]

Slightly off topic, but I have a 2023 Villains calendar and Ursula, Maleficent and Cruella are most prominently featured. Unless I’m forgetting someone, there hasn’t been a popular villainess since 1989. And I’m certain the gay community has done much to keep them in vogue. We do love our divas!

Evil Queen
Lady Tremaine
Queen of Hearts
Maleficent
Cruella
Madam Mim
Madam Medusa
Ursula

Disney should definitely realize the coin to be made in highlighting and creating diva villainesses.

[Disney's Divinity]

Yzma seems more popular than Mim to me, but I think both are much more popular than Medusa and Gothel.

[carolinakid]

You got me Div!

I totally forgot about Yzma voiced by that diva of divas, Miss Eartha Kitt!
And since I’ve never seen Tangled, I certainly know about Gothel, but I haven’t seen much of her in action.

I certainly would add them to the list!

But do you agree we need more diva villainesses?

[Disney's Divinity]

Yes. I had hoped Elsa would get a villainess to fight in Frozen II, perhaps it might happen in III instead.

[Sotiris]

Others talking about the projection figures yesterday made me look them up for myself. They may have been posted here and I bypassed them somehow. Honestly, the high-end domestic projection (305 million) is sad. Aladdin did around 350 million domestically, and that's 50 million more than they're expecting in the best case scenario for TLM apparently. TLK and B&TB both made around 500 million domestically. Somehow I feel like TLM needed to do better domestically than Aladdin since I imagine it has less appeal abroad than that film did. Who knows though. I wonder what Aladdin's and TLK's early projections had been (and if they surprised and surpassed them)?

I posted the early projections on the previous page. According to Box Office Pro, the domestic long-range forecast for Aladdin was $235 million. It made $355 million. For The Lion King it was $650 million. It made $543 million. For Beauty and the Beast it was $470 million. It made $504 million.

[Disney's Divinity]

So they ended up all over the place as far as passing and/or falling short of expectations. Oh, well.

I saw one of the new trailers on TV tonight. I like McCarthy's "innit?" line reading. She vaguely reminded me of the new version of It, the clown, which sort of suits the character since she's always had a bit of an evil clown vibe to her design at times. I don't think the shoulder coverings look bad, it's just the collar I don't care for. The necklace turned out perfect though--referring to the shot where she's saying (I think she's speaking there? I'm unsure if the lips were moving along with the dialogue) "You belong...to me"--that shot looks a great deal like Ursula's iconic shot from the intro when she clasps her hands and coils her tentacles around herself in a conniving pose is all. I suppose they could've spliced that shot with that other dialogue. Or it could be that that scene may not be here and so this shot replaces it during PUS instead.

I don't like the trident's design, but I will admit it looks nice when it's in use at least. They made it look like molten lava in those moments. I love the shot of Ursula advancing on Ariel (pretty sure it's the moment Ariel jumps on her and then Ursula throws her off like she's a gnat ). So far those moments make me believe McCarthy didn't play it too comically, that she's striking just the right note as I hoped she would, but we'll see.

[rodis]

Box Office Pro is projecting an opening weekend for the remake at $70-$90 million.

Social sentiment and trailer footprints haven’t been quite as encouraging as 2019’s Aladdin to date, and the absence of a major star name (like Will Smith in Aladdin‘s case, or Emma Watson and the ensemble of Beauty and the Beast) to headline the film may further limit general audience expansion.

Source: https://www.boxofficepro.com/long-range ... e-mermaid/

Wait, what? That's... not very good. I was expecting a US opening around the $100m mark. Not LK or BATB numbers but still a better figure than 70-90. Damn, I hope they're (way) off in their projection.

[Farerb]

Saw another TV spot with Scuttle and Awkwafina is very annoying in it. She talks as if the movie takes place in 2023, they probably let her improvise again

[DisneyFan09]

Personally, I hope it does cross the billion dollar mark at the box office, regardless of the quality of the finished product. Given The Little Mermaid was the only of the Fab4 that failed on Broadway, I fear that if its live-action remake performs below expectations too, Disney will sour on The Little Mermaid as a brand resulting in less promotion, merchandise, tie-ins or other derivative projects in the future. The Little Mermaid and Aladdin were the two of the Fab4 that got neither an IMAX re-release nor a 3-D re-release in theaters. Aladdin proved its popularity with the success of its remake and Broadway show, so that leaves The Little Mermaid the weakest of the group. Another reason I'm rooting for it is because the fate of the shelved Beauty and the Beast TV series lies with this remake's success, for some bewildering reason. Not to mention, if this remake becomes a blockbuster, Disney will be more confident to move forward with other remakes of animated musicals such as Hercules, Hunchback, and Tangled, keep them musicals and have Menken involved.

Personally I hope it will cross the Billion Dollar mark, too. Just of sheer curiosity. Due to how Mermaid is labeled for being such a well-known and iconic property and praised for it invigorating the elements of the Renaissance, I`m curious to see how much money the remake will actually make compared to it`s Renaissance followers. But it`s a pity that we`re not getting a remake of Tarzan soon. After all, it was the last of the Renaissance features to actually be a huge hit and therefore would`ve been more likely to be remade.

[lord-of-sith]

Saw another TV spot with Scuttle and Awkwafina is very annoying in it. She talks as if the movie takes place in 2023, they probably let her improvise again

Buddy Hackett would have sounded very "modern" to audiences in the late 80s (as Ariel was like prototypical 80s heroine/engienue). It may come across stranger as the world looks more realistic, but it's the same basic casting premise as the original.

Some box office predictors are assuming TLM will gross less than the other Fab Four remakes because the original did, but I think it's pretty clear that TLM has more lasting cultural impact than Aladdin. The characters of Ariel and Ursula alone are at LEAST in the top 20 most popular Disney characters of all time, if I had to guess. I think this will clear $100 million opening weekend easily.

[Vlad]

I went to the theater today to see "10 jours encore sans maman" (which was great, I highly recommend it, by the way), and they showed the trailer for The Little Mermaid. It was awesome seeing it on a big screen, it looks amazing.

[Disney's Divinity]

I agree that Hackett in the original wasn't any less modern. Scuttle is the least interesting character for sure, but I wouldn't cut him simply because he's the plot justification for Ariel having all these nonsense terms for everything. I don't hate Hackett, and I know he was unexpectedly passionate about his role in TLM, but I think Awkwafina will be funnier than him.

I'm sort of confused about the details of the changes though--how deep can Scuttle swim? Will she be in all the scenes or only the ones when she's nearer to the surface? I don't know, it seems weird to me if Scuttle is down at the bottom of the scene where Ursula's lair is and "Under the Sea" takes place, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if that's why Atlantica was moved to a coral reef so it's closer to the surface and Scuttle can be there more. The side effect is it sort of makes Triton absurd trying to keep his subjects from going to the surface when they're literally a stone's throw from it now, it made more sense when they were miles underwater in the dark deeps.

[Vlad]

I listened to the official "Part of your world" version that Disney released a couple of days ago. Did anyone else notice that the orchestration sounds different than in the footage shown at the D23 expo last year?