Does the underwater world look as convincing as in James Cameron’s blockbuster “Avatar 2: The Way Of Water”? We probably won’t be able to say that until when “Arielle the mermaid“ will be in cinemas from May 25, 2023 – but the first full-length trailer to Disney’s fantasy fairytale at least gives us a glimpse of the adventures that await eponymous princess Arielle (Halle Bailey) underwater and on land.
And they should be more or less based on how Disney loosely adapted Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” into the animated classic “The Little Mermaid”: Ariel, daughter of sea king Triton (Javier Bardem), is fascinated by the human world. When she saves Prince Erik (Jonah Hauer-King) from drowning, she falls in love with him – and makes a deal with sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) to be with him.
She gets legs, but has to give up her voice. Ariel has three days for Erik to kiss her or her soul belongs to Ursula. But it’s Arielle’s voice of all things that Erik remembers about his mysterious savior and who he’s fallen in love with – and so he doesn’t recognize who he’s dealing with…
Arielle sings her hits – and new songs!
It’s also Arielle’s voice that gave audiences goosebumps in the 1989 animated hit, when Jodi Benson spoke and the Disney princess sang. In the German version, Ute Lemper and Naomi van Dooren contributed the singing voice of the Disney princess in the various dubbings. This time, Halle Bailey takes on the role in the original – and can also be seen in the role, as in the new live-action adaptation, real actors meet photorealistic animated animals and computer underwater worlds.
Of course also popular songs like “Unter dem Meer” and “Ein Mensch zu sein” or “In your world” should not be missing in the remake. New songs will also be composed for Rob Marshall’s “Arielle” remake by Hamilton composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken, who wrote the music for the animated original.
Speaking of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the musician and filmmaker is also on board as an actor – he plays chef Louis, who is constantly trying to get his hands on Crab Sebastian (voice: Daveed Diggs). Besides Sebastian you can of course also go the animal fan favorites Fabius (Jacob Tremblay) and Scuttle (Awkwafina) To be happy.