‘The Little Mermaid’ director explains how he decided which iconic moments would make the cut

We all know how iconic the original late ’80s animation of The Little Mermaid was. After all, the film won the 62nd Oscars and 47th Golden Globes Awards for its music alone. So when it came to adapting the upcoming live-action film from its animated origins, the film’s director Rob Marshall spoke about his method when it came to selecting which ones make it onto the screen.

During an interview with Collider, Marshal shared his love for the original film and that he felt like every line of dialogue was important. But he knows that a live-action adaptation is different and that this format allowed him to expand on what the original has given. This means that he’s able to give these characters more emotions, to open up more, and work with real people to improve on the original.

“Well, you know, there are certain iconic moments – Listen, we’re a fan of the original film, too, just like all the fans that love it, and so there are things that are sacred, I feel, just as important as a lyric or even a line of dialogue. There are things you hold on to, images that you hold on to, and we knew we needed to hold on to those. But at the same time, this is a completely different genre. You’re in a live-action form, there’s so much more opportunity to expand, to deepen, to actually infuse with true emotion, you have real people there and so that was exciting.”

But it’s not the late ’80s film that he took inspiration from. Marshal also revealed that he also looked back at the original tale, written by Danish author Hans Christan Andersen for inspiration. This could explain why some elements of the film’s plot, such as Ariel’s motives, don’t sound like the ones we saw in the original animated film. Marshal wanted to focus on Ariel’s journey of self-discovery and how she wanted to “break down barriers” between both the mermaid and the human world.

“As we started to work on it, we thought… Listen, an animated film from 1989, which is obviously beloved there, that’s the bones of what you’re working from, but we went directly back to the Hans Christian Andersen tale, first thing, and we found a very emotional and modern story. So it was written almost 200 years ago, and it’s so contemporary and timely about a young girl who feels displaced, wants something different in her life, and she goes on this epic journey of self-discovery to break down the barriers between herself and people that are different than her, the human world.”

It’s no secret that the 2023 live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid will be changing a few things. People involved in the film have commented on how this movie will be “adding more details” and how it’s going to be told through a modern lens. Fans were also warned that two of the songs will have their lyrics changed so they could focus more on consent.

Despite these changes, based on the early reactions from the world premiere, the film didn’t disappoint and supposedly captured more than capture nostalgia. So if you’re keen to watch this modern take of The Little Mermaid, the film will be out in theaters on May 26, 2023.