Alan Menken, who created the music for ‘The Little Mermaid’, has revealed that he made some changes to his songs for the live-action film.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the songwriter Alan Menkenresponsible for the music for the animation of ‘The Little Mermaid’ and who is also in the production of the live-action, revealed that the remake of Ariel’s story will have some small changes in the lyrics of two songs from the original production.
The tracks in question are “Poor Unfortunate Souls” (in Portuguese, “Corações Infelizes”), sung by the villain Úrsula, and “Kiss the Girl” (in Portuguese, “Beije a Moça”) sung by Sebastião, the crab advisor to the King Triton.
We have some revisions in ‘Poor Ufortunate Souls’, in verses that might imply that girls shouldn’t voice their opinion — even though, in the song, Ursula is clearly manipulating Ariel into giving up her voice. At the same time, in ‘Kiss the Girl,’ people became very sensitive to the idea that Prince Eric maybe forced his will on Ariel in some way,” Menken said.
The musician also commented that the new Disney film will have three new songs, composed by him, along with Lin-Manuel Miranda. The tracks already have names and performers: “Scuttlebutt” will be sung by Sebastião (Daveed Diggs) and Wisdom (Awkwafina), “Impossible Child” will be performed by King Triton (Javier Bardem), and “Wild Uncharted Water” was commissioned by the film’s director, Rob Marshall.
Menken also revealed that he preferred to use the song “Her Voice” (in free translation, A Voz Dela), created for the musical version of the story on Broadway, instead of making the music requested by Marshall. However, the director rejected the suggestion.
Live-action movies are directors’ medium. They want to go back to what they saw in animation, but also make something new out of it. Also, clearly everyone wants a new song so we can compete for the awards.”
The live-action “The Little Mermaid” hits theaters on May 26 and features Halle Bailey giving life to the protagonist. The cast includes other names such as Jonah Hauer-King, Melissa McCarthy, Javier Barden, Jacob Tremblay It is Daveed Diggs. Watch the trailer!
Source: Recreio
