the little Mermaid The director of the remake weighed in on changing some of the lyrics for the new movie. Composer Alan Menken recently revealed that two of the songs from the original animated film had some of their lyrics changed to make them “less offensive” to today’s audiences. Menken named “Kiss the Girl” and “Poor Unfortunate Souls” the songs he influenced.
There are some lyrical changes in “Kiss the Girl” because people have become very sensitive about that idea [Prince Eric] He will impose himself in any way [Ariel],” Mencken said, via Vanity Fair. We have some revisions in “Poor Unfortunate Souls” regarding lines that might somehow make young girls feel like they shouldn’t talk away, though Ursula clearly manipulates Ariel into giving up her voice.”
Rob Marshall, the director of the film, shared his thoughts on the matter as well. In a press release for the film (according to TheDirect), he backed up what Menken said by noting how making these changes was necessary, and felt it was “necessary” to respect how sensitivities have changed since the 1980s.
“We asked Lin-Manuel to make some slight adjustments to the original lyrics for Kiss the Girl, because it’s important to remember that culture and sensibilities have changed over the past 34 years, and it’s imperative that we respect those changes,” Marshall said.
Kissing girl: Is this a problem for 2023?
The original version of these songs will always be present in the animated movie, so they won’t go away. While it remains to be seen what the new words will be, we can assume which ones were taken out for paraphrasing. With “Kiss the Girl,” there’s a moment when Sebastian the crab encourages Prince Eric to kiss Ariel in a way that might suggest he doesn’t need to get approval first.
As Sebastian sings, “Yeah, you want her. Look at her, you know you do. It’s possible she wants you too. There’s only one way to ask her. It doesn’t take a word. Not a word. Go ahead and kiss the girl.”
As for “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, the new version of the song likely downplays Ursula telling Ariel that her “pretty face” matters more to men than conversation, because he would “much rather the ladies not say a word”. We can assume that the new song will get rid of this and other lines like, “She’s the one who sticks her tongue out who gets a guy.”
There will be new original music made especially for the remake as well that was not in the animated version of the movie. Jonah Hauer King’s Prince Eric actor recently revealed that one of the new songs will be called “Wild Uncharted Waters,” which sees his character giving a “appeal” to the ocean, similar to Ariel’s plea to the human world.
He said via Empire: “It’s a calling for the girl who saved him. They’re both looking for adventure, to other worlds.”
the little Mermaid It will be released in cinemas on May 26, 2023.
