The remake of Disney's classic The Little Mermaid is wisely bringing back the beloved songs from the original soundtrack while also including new ones from Lin-Manuel Miranda. Disney's original The Little Mermaid was released in 1989, and it’s based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. In The Little Mermaid, Ariel (Halle Bailey) is a mermaid and the youngest daughter of the king of the ocean, King Triton (Javier Bardem). She dreams of being able to walk on land and makes a pact with the undersea witch, Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), to live on dry land.
Famed composer and frequent Disney collaborator Alan Menken returns to score The Little Mermaid live-action remake. Menken has been nominated for 19 Academy Awards, winning eight, including one for "Under the Sea" in the original Little Mermaid animated film (he was also nominated against himself that year for "Kiss the Girl"). Many of The Little Mermaid's original classic songs will be on the remake soundtrack, with only two cuts. Menken also collaborated with iconic songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda to write four new songs for the movie. One, "Impossible Child", sung by King Triton (Javier Bardem) was cut (via Yahoo), but the others liven up The Little Mermaid's new soundtrack.
Here's every song in The Little Memaid live-action remake:
- "Part of Your World" (old)
- "Fathoms Below" (old)
- "Under the Sea" (old)
- "Wild Uncharted Waters" (new)
- "Poor Unfortunate Souls" (old with updated lyrics)
- "For the First Time" (new)
- "Kiss the Girl" (old with updated lyrics)
- "The Scuttlebutt" (new)
Songs from the original Little Mermaid not in the live-action remake:
- "Daughters of Triton"
- "Les Poissons"
Every Song On The Little Mermaid Soundtrack
"Part of Your World" (old) - is The Little Mermaid's most famous musical number and, like all songs from the original, was composed by Menken with lyrics by Howard Ashman. The encapsulation of the film's themes, this power ballad comes early in the original Little Mermaid when Ariel is in her secret grotto, and it expresses her wish to be a part of the world above. Like the original Little Mermaid, “Part of Your World” has two reprisals in the live-action remake. One comes after “Fathoms Below” where she meets Eric, and another comes at the end of the movie, and all are performed by Bailey.
"Fathoms Below" (old) - is a sea shanty sung by the crew of Prince Eric’s (Jonah Hauer-King) ship. Unlike in the animated movie, “Fathoms Below” does not kick off the live-action remake, and it instead comes after “Part of Your World”. The song gives the other side of the story in The Little Mermaid, how the humans on land think and feel about the undersea world just as Ariel wonders about the world above. With the recent surge in interest in sea shanties thanks to songs like the Nathan Evans version of “Wellerman” which saw an explosion of interest in the 2020s, “Fathoms Below” could become a sleeper hit.
"Under the Sea" (old) - sung by Sebastian the crab (or lobster depending on the source) in The Little Mermaid, the tune is a calypso/reggae-inspired song about all the wonderful things to do living under the sea. It comes after Ariel sees Prince Eric for the first time and rescues him from drowning. Sebastian (Daveed Diggs) sings to Ariel to convince her that the world below the depths is better than what she’s seen above. It’s a much more upbeat song than the ones that have come before and allows Diggs to put his musical talents to great use.
"Wild Uncharted Waters" (new) - is a new song from Miranda for The Little Mermaid. In Broadway World, Miranda explains that he made the song to replace “Her Voice”, the song Eric sings in the stage musical. "Wild Uncharted Waters" comes after Ariel rescues Eric, and he wakes up on the beach with only the faint memory of the mermaid. Eric has no songs in the animated movie, so it’s a welcome addition to add another voice to the live-action soundtrack. The song is about Eric’s feelings about the waves in front of him and how his near-death experience and rescue have changed his outlook.
"Poor Unfortunate Souls" (old with updated lyrics) - This Little Mermaid song comes when Ariel finally goes to meet Ursula and trades her voice for legs and the ability to live above the ocean. It’s a manipulative song Ursula uses to seduce Ariel into making the deal. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Menken explained that some of the lyrics of the song were changed in order to avoid making young girls believe it was wrong to speak out of turn.
"For the First Time" (new) - The second new song for The Little Mermaid live-action remake is sung by Ariel when she first gets on land after making her deal with Ursula. Since Ariel has no voice for this number, Miranda and director Rob Marshall found a creative way to allow Bailey to sing, which involves getting into Ariel’s mind and hearing her thoughts, via Variety. Since Ariel is silent for most of the second half of the movie, “For the First Time” is an important way to get some verbal sense of Ariel’s feelings.
"Kiss the Girl" (old with updated lyrics) - In his Vanity Fair interview, Menken mentions how some of the lyrics for this Little Mermaid song were adjusted to avoid the idea that Eric was forcing himself on Ariel. The song comes on when Eric and Ariel are floating together on a boat in a lagoon. Sebastian and a chorus of aquatic animals arrive, urgin the pair to kiss. Ariel needs “true love’s kiss” and her friends try their best to set the mood for Eric. It’s one of the most romantic songs in Disney’s filmography and goes a long way to showing how Eric and Ariel’s feelings have grown naturally.
"The Scuttlebutt" (new) - The third new song in The Little Mermaid live-action remake, the song's lyrics are by Miranda, and it’s sung by Sebastian and Scuttle (Awkwafina). Menken started the song off as a short melody that Miranda then laid a rap track over, via Broadway World. This song comes after Ursula transforms herself into a human to trick Eric into marriage. The news sends everyone underwater into a panic as they try to figure out exactly what is going on and what has happened to Ariel. It’s an additional upbeat song that makes for a more urgent ending.
The Little Mermaid Original Songs Not In the Live-Action Remake
Only two songs from the original animated movie were removed from the 2023 live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid, one of the few different aspects of the new movie. Neither of the songs is particularly important for the plot or even very long so losing them is not of major consequence. They both utilize characters not in the main cast as well, so they would have necessitated casting more singers for the roles.
"Daughters of Triton" - is Ariel's first introduction in the original Little Mermaid. It originally played very early in the movie and was a rehearsal for all King Triton’s daughters, a rehearsal Ariel fails to attend. The song's removal is one of the live-action Little Mermaid's biggest changes to the animated movie. Menken and the creators of The Little Mermaid decided that waiting until “Part of This World” as the first musical number would build anticipation, via Comicbook.
"Les Poissons" - is a short song in the animated The Little Mermaid sung by Chef Louie preparing a dinner for Eric and the human Ariel. The chef is enjoying preparing "poissons" (French for "fish") and other sea creatures for consumption, much to Sebastian’s horror. Director Rob Marshall has said that "Les Poissons" was removed from The Little Mermaid live-action remake because it would have played like a cartoon and "has nothing to do with the story". It would also be a more violent and gruesome experience to watch in live-action, and make take away from some of The Little Mermaid's magic.
Sources