When The Little Mermaid director Rob Marshall first heard actor and singer Halle Bailey performing the 1989 film's song Part of Your World, he was moved to tears.
"The thing is, she had set the bar so high, because Ariel needs to be so many things," he says.
"She needs an exquisite sort of angelic voice because it's part of the story, but also she needs to be passionate and strong.
"But also vulnerable and kind of wide eyed — somewhat ethereal."
Marshall says Bailey fit the bill and scored the part after auditioning against hundreds of other girls of different ethnicities.
"When I chose Halle for the role, it was literally because she was the best person for the role," Marshall says.
"It's about who claims a role, who brings a role to life in a way you could never have imagined."
True to life
The Little Mermaid is the latest live-action Disney remake, which also stars Melissa McCarthy, Awkwafina, and Jonah Hauer-King.
The film follows the story of a mermaid who falls in love with a human prince, making a deal with the sea witch to give up her voice to become human.
"I think my own identity represents this young woman who is not quite sure of herself [and] not there yet," Bailey says.
Bailey says she and her sisters would always pretend to be mermaids in the swimming pool, and that Ariel was the reason they all wanted to swim.
"I feel like Ariel has helped me find myself and I feel like in terms of bringing myself to the character was really easy," she says.
"They let me keep the essence of who I am like my locks and everything else."
The filmmakers noted they wanted to include aspects of Bailey's identity in Ariel, including her natural hair.
"She's had them since she was a child, so it was really important for her to hold on to those. But I love that idea anyway because I thought 'how beautiful'," Marshall says.
"So we took her locks and wrapped them in red, added some loose sort of pieces to it so that it had a more ethereal look to it.
"That took days to do ... but she was game for it. She was excited about that idea."
For the underwater scenes, filmmakers used a combination of a blue screen and visual effects, along with harnesses, rigs and fans to help the actors simulate swimming in the deep.
McCarthy, who starred in the comedy Bridesmaids, plays the villainous sea witch Ursula.
She used to perform as a drag queen and says drag was an inspiration for her character.
"I've always been a huge fan of drag since I was in my teens and I just think it's such an incredible art form," she said.
"It's like at the same time you can do an homage to somebody and you can also kind of poke fun at it.
"And there's such wit and there's also sometimes self-deprecation and it's all wound up — and I think it's such an intrinsic part."
Adapting the fairytale
The animation's original songs are present in the live-action but there are also new ones, including a solo by Prince Eric and a rap from Scuttle and Sebastian, written by Alan Menken and Hamilton's Lin Manuel Miranda.
Minor tweaks were made to the song Kiss the Girl, according to the film's production notes, because the filmmakers wanted to respect that cultural sensitivities have changed since the release of the original film.
The Little Mermaid is set to be released in Australia on May 25.
Meanwhile, the Ariel mermaid doll made in Bailey's likeness is already a bestseller on Amazon.
"I remember when I was little and I used to love Barbie dolls," Bailey says.
"And so now it's just very validating to the little girl within me. I'm grateful that this generation of children are able to see themselves in a doll — and a mermaid at that."
