Minor SPOILERS ahead for The Little Mermaid, now playing in theaters.
Due to the circumstances of The Little Mermaid, in which Ariel gives up her voice to become human, the pair’s romance in the original 1989 movie left something to be desired. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how the live-action remake handled Ariel and Eric’s storyline. It was so much more palpable that the pair would find solace and love in one another, and my favorite scene in the movie was not only actually between them, but shot very early in the production of the film.
When CinemaBlend spoke to Halle Bailey about the making of The Little Mermaid, which just crushed at the box office in its debut weekend, we talked about the sweet moment where Eric learns of Ariel’s name. It’s a moment right before “Kiss The Girl,” where the pair are looking to the stars and the prince is telling her about all the constellations. When he finds Aries up in the sky, the mermaid-turned-human touches his lips to make the sound “L” at the end of Aries so he could know her name. Halle Bailey shared how the scene came about.
That was such a good moment for us, I think, what it was, Rob [Marshall] or John [DeLuca]’s idea, the lip thing, which was so cool and clever. I don't know how they thought of that, honestly. But, we enjoyed doing that whole sequence. Kiss The Girl was actually one of the first things that we had filmed together. Like that was our first day on set. We were in the boat and so we were like all these nervous new feelings of, ‘Wow, this is the first day on set, gotta get it right.’ And it ended up just turning out magical. So, we were really happy about it.
As Bailey said, between the movie’s director and producer, the sequence was crafted. What’s pretty crazy is the idea that The Little Mermaid leads filmed their most charming scene (in my opinion) at the very start of production. However, perhaps what made it work the best were those “nervous new feelings” that Ariel and Eric were feeling on that boat as they became closer in the film?
In the original movie, it’s Sebastian who cues Eric off to Ariel’s name ahead of “Kiss The Girl,” but I like the fact that she gets to engage more with him, even without her words, which really brings her personality to the surface. It makes it much more believable that the couple would fall in love. Another element of that is the additional revisions to the character of Prince Eric, such as making him a fish-out-of-water in his own life, and Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda giving him an “I want” song of his own with “Wild Uncharted Waters.”
Additionally, despite Halle Bailey having so many scenes without dialogue, it was also a welcome addition for the talent to get additional songs to belt out, especially with “For The First Time,” which gives us more of an insight into her thoughts as she becomes a human. Of course, it’ll be up to every Disney fan to decide what they loved and what nitpicky problem or two they have with the live-action remake. Stay tuned for more coverage surrounding upcoming Disney movies here on CinemaBlend.
