The Little Mermaid live-action remake has been undergoing some plot changes to make sure we see fully fleshed-out characters and to not have Ariel’s journey be just about “a boy.” One of the biggest outdated scenes from the animated movie was the “Kiss the Girl” scene, when our favorite red crab Sebastian is encouraging Prince Eric to kiss Ariel without asking her. During an episode of The View, the show’s hosts went back and forth about if Ariel would have been in a position to give consent during the “Kiss the Girl” scene.
When Ariel and Prince Eric are on a little boat date, Sebastian encourages the dashing prince through song to “kiss the girl,” which these days could translate as giving permission to kiss a girl without checking if it’s okay with her. On the latest episode of The View, lawyer and host Sunny Hostin wondered if Ariel would have been able to give consent in this scene realistically.
With ‘Kiss the Girl,’ she gave her voice away so she could have legs, so I don’t know how she could talk.
That's very true. At the same time, though, that would make it even worse for Prince Eric to kiss Ariel if she was literally in a position where she couldn’t speak up if she didn’t want to be kissed. Not that Prince Eric knew about her voice being robbed, but that still would have been an uncomfortable situation to see today. After Hostin said her piece, this led comedian and long-time host Joy Behar to come up with her own revelation to spark this discussion.
Wait a minute, when this consent thing happened, she had legs? Because I was thinking, as a mermaid, how far could he go? He could go to second base, that’s it. She has legs — now we’re talking!
Let the record show that Ariel did not have a tail during the boat scene with Prince Eric. Also with this being a family movie, parents taking their children do not have to worry about any bases being crossed or hearing any controversial song lyrics. This upcoming Disney movie had returning composer Alan Menken change the lyrics of his two beloved songs, including “Kiss the Girl.” Menkin explained that he didn’t want any outdated messages from these decades-long lyrics to give young girls the wrong impression about consent or using your voice. Actress and host Whoopi Goldberg thought it was an amazing touch to have the eight-time Academy Award winner be the one to fix the songs he originally wrote, as this can help us trust he knows what he’s doing.
Another interesting point of controversy revolves around the song “Poor Unfortunate Souls” which will also get the rewriting treatment. This song was sung in the original movie by the main character’s villain, Ursula, who is manipulating Ariel to give up her voice in exchange for new legs, singing “It's she who holds her tongue who gets a man.” Political strategist and host Alyssa Farah Griffin brought out a great point that we’re actually supposed to disagree with Ursula considering everything she does is with evil intent. Either she madly does feel men like women who don’t speak up, or she's lying to Ariel just so she can have her voice. Either way, a song lyric like this would still have to be rewritten to avoid any mixed messaging from coming into play. You can continue watching The View hosts discussing The Little Mermaid down below:
The Little Mermaid may plunge audiences deeper under the sea, but it appears the messages will go just as deeply about the themes of consent and young women speaking their minds. Whether Ariel was able to give consent or not in the original Little Mermaid, the point is to always ask, no matter what position the girl is in. You can swim in the deep blue sea in the 2023 movie release of The Little Mermaid in theaters on May 26th. Also, be sure to catch new episodes of The View on weekdays at 11 a.m. on ABC as part of your 2023 TV schedule.
