Trivia / The Little Mermaid (2023)

• Ability over Appearance: Ariel was drawn as white in the original Disney movie. In this movie, she's played by the black Halle Bailey. However, Bailey's acting and singing chops were much more important than having the same skin tone as the animated Ariel, and they were so impressive that she got the part. According to the director, Bailey was the first audition they saw, and she set the bar so high that no one else was able to surpass it. They auditioned women of all races and backgrounds, and Bailey rose to the top (they did, however, keep her as a redhead, much to the relief of many fans who considered Ariel's fiery hair color iconic). Director Rob Marshall made it clear that finding an actress with the ability to capture Ariel's personality was the priority:
  Director Marshall: We saw everybody, but it was hers. It had nothing to do with anything exterior. It had everything to do with the interior — what she brings to it, the beauty, the passion, the fierceness, the vulnerability, the joy, the heart.
• Approval of God:
  • Jodi Benson gave her seal of approval for Halle Bailey to play the role of Ariel, as well as for Rob Marshall directing the film.
  • Bailey's casting was also given the seal of approval by Sierra Boggess, the first actress to play Ariel in the Disney on Broadway production of The Little Mermaid, as well as Daryl Hannah, the Disney mermaid predecessor to Ariel from the movie Splash whose blonde locks led to Ariel having red hair.
• Ascended Fanon: In the original The Little Mermaid (1989), some people theorized Ursula was King Triton's sister. In this adaptation, it's made true.
• California Doubling: Set somewhere in the Caribbean, filmed in Sardinia and in London's Pinewood Studios.
• Casting Gag: In the Italian dub, Ursula is voiced by Simona Patitucci, who was Ariel's voice actress in the original The Little Mermaid (1989).
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • In the Japanese dub, actress Erika Toyohara will voice Ariel.
  • Danielle of NewJeans fame voices the role in Korean.
  • Ditto in the Latin American Spanish dub, as Ariel is voiced by singer Yatzil Aguirre.
  • In the Italian dub, Mahmood voices Sebastian.
• Cut Song:
  • "Daughters of Triton", "Les Poissons", and the finale reprise of "Part of Your World" have been omitted from this adaptation, as have the lyrics from the reprise of "Poor Unfortunate Souls."
  • The film also featured a brand new, original song for King Triton called "Impossible Child" however it was also cut from the film.
• Dear Negative Reader: Halle Bailey has been vocal about the criticism aimed at her and the remake since the trailer was first released, mainly to address racist comments.
• Dueling Works: With Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. Both movies feature Mermaids in prominent roles, both released in the 2023 summer blockbuster season, one features a Race Lift of the protagonist Ariel while the other features a Corrupted Character Copy of Ariel as the antagonist. The Disney mermaid would easily sink Ruby at the global box office when the Dreamworks film became a Box Office Bomb.
• Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's released a set of eight roll-along figures in their Happy Meals; Sebastian, Ariel, King Triton, Flounder, Prince Eric, Max, Scuttle, and Ursula.
• Meaningful Release Date: The movie's release date of May 26 coincides with the month of May being coined as "Mermay" by mermaid afficionados, where every May many people draw mermaid versions of many creatures and characters and post them on social media.
• Novelization First: The novelization of the film came out on April 11, 2023, over a month before the film's release.
• Promoted Fanboy: Lin-Manuel Miranda was honored to help write new songs with Alan Menken, as he was heavily influenced in his childhood by the works of Menken and his creative partner, the late Howard Ashman, especially their work on the 1989 version of The Little Mermaid. He even admitted "The Little Mermaid was the movie that made me fall in love with musicals" and that he couldn't write any new songs for Sebastian, as he felt what the two did was perfect enough for the crab.
• Spoiled by the Merchandise: The film's novelization spoiled the change to the original film of having Ariel defeat Ursula by captaining the shipwreck instead of Eric.
• Troubled Production: Like most productions at the time, the COVID-19 Pandemic affected the filming schedule quite a bit, to the point that the planned start date of April 2020 was pushed back to April 2021.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Lindsay Lohan and Chris Evans expressed an interest in appearing in the movie.
  • Harry Styles was considered for the role of Prince Eric, but he dropped out due to having a tour planned out (though that tour wound up being cancelled by the COVID-19 outbreak). Cameron Cuffe (Seg-El from Krypton) was also considered, and even screen-tested, before Jonah Hauer-King received the part.
  • Prior to the casting of Javier Bardem, Terry Crews campaigned for the role of King Triton.
  • Kacey Musgraves was offered the role of Ursula's human alter-ego Vanessa, but she declined.
  • Lizzo auditioned for the role of Ursula, going so far as to even dress as the character in a social media post, but ultimately didn't get the part.
  • King Triton was originally going to have a song titled "Impossible Child" where he sings about his fervent, rageful desire to find Ariel after she goes missing. Much of the dialogue leading into the song remained intact for the final film, and the song still gets expressed by the reduced scene of Triton bemoaning what he's done.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel from the animated 1989 film, makes a brief cameo playing a market vendor who runs into Ariel. Cony Madera (Ariel's voice in Mexican Spanish) also voices her.
  • Humberto Vélez, the recurring voice of Sebastian, voices the fisherman Joshua who rescued Ariel.

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