Disney’s Little Mermaid remake runs an hour longer than original—but why?

Disney’s new live-action The Little Mermaid, which hits theaters in May, runs two hours and 15 minutes long — almost an hour longer than the original. Some Disney remakes simply recreate the animations shot for shot, while others use them as inspiration and take creative liberties. It’s a sliding scale of The Lion KingThe 2019 version was faithful to the original, except for one 20-minute scene in which a dung bug pushes a ball of waste. Mulan (2020) which only really kept the main character’s name and little else.

The trailers are mainly for The Little MermaidThe closer the distance seems to be, The Lion King end of the spectrum, with shots highlighting the original movie’s most iconic moments. There is also the extra hour. What could this extra hour be?

As Polygon’s resident Disney expert (and direct-to-home video connoisseur), I am here to theorize about what could possibly fill this time.

Ariel’s sisters look for her — and do more in general

Image: Disney

The Little MermaidThe original barely had any female characters with relationships established with each other. Giving them something to do — as well as turning them into decent and concerned sisters — would be the most obvious way to fill the time. They all have a small moment in the Hans Christian Andersen original story where all the mermaids are given one opportunity to go up and leave their home. The direct-to home video prequel is also available. Ariel’s BeginningThe sisters were given more personality, and their dynamic was fleshed out a bit more.

Note, Ariel’s sisters in this new movie are not exact one-to-one versions of the animated counterparts. The animated sisters’ names are Attina Alana Adella Arista Aquata Andrina but in the movie, Ariel has new sisters named Perla Lorena Andrea Karina Kajsa Sorrell Caspia Mala Karolina Konchet Tamika Sienna Ashley Indira

More about Ariel’s dead mom

You can also find out more about the following: Ariel’s Beginning, we see the tragic moment where Ariel’s mother Athena dies in a pirate ship run-in. Integrating this scene into the beginning of the movie is a very live-action Disney movie thing to do (see Cruella’s mom being murdered by dalmatians). Of course, if the answer to “does Daddy Triton have a sprawling family of multiracial daughters because he has had a lot of different mer-baby mommas?” is yes, then we could have a whole montage of dead Disney moms.

Ursula and Triton’s fraught backstory

We don’t get much of sea witch Ursula’s story in the original, other than that she just loves to screw people over for the lolz. She does, however, mention that she lived in Atlantica once and was acquainted with Triton. In the Broadway musical, she is actually King Triton’s sister who was bequeathed equal shares of the kingdom with him when their father died. Triton, however, banished her for being greedy. This could be canon in the new movie, or we could see more of Ursula’s time in court and how she turned to the dark side.

You could even see Morgana, her sister on direct to home video! What will happen?

The Footloose plot of Ariel’s Beginning

Image: Disney

What is the plot of direct-to video? Little Mermaid Prequel: Daddy Triton bans all music in the underwater kingdom, because he’s sad about his wife dying. Ariel’s rebellious sister sneaks into clubs and plays music. It’s a lot to fit into a movie, and it makes even less sense when you consider how many songs everyone in Atlantica sang. But hey! It’s just a little over an hour long in direct-to-home-video form so the remake team could have easily squished it in the new movie.

Flounder’s badass past

In the prequel, Flounder was a rebel who partied all night and had no regard for the law — something that really undermines his cowardly personality in the actual movie! But Flounder contains multitudes and we could really dive into the psyche of Ariel’s best fishy friend.

The New Songs!

This is basically confirmed — you don’t invite Lin-Manuel Miranda to do your music if you don’t want new music! Alan Menken spoke to Vanity Fair already about the new songs. These include an Eric song and solo, as well as a new Ariel track. You can also read about how to get in touch with us. Scuttle was the song everyone wanted. Why not write a seagull song? For Daddy Triton lovers out there, it’s a shame that his song failed. You can also check out our other blog posts.It’s unlikely that you will make it to the Disney Plus bonus scenes, but one day they may feature in them.

Sebastian’s tragic backstory, told in the form of a rap

Daveed Diggs plays the character, after all. HamiltonCastmate will be in charge of new music. This might not be a new song entirely, but I would not put it past them to include a rap part in “Under the Sea” for Sebastian to dig in about the time he was almost a crab cake.

Eric is given a personality

Image: Disney

The boy needs one. What does the boy want? The dog is cute and he likes it, but what more do you think he wants? What is his dream? What will they do? Will they turn him into a wounded sole survivor from a shipwreck, or embrace that Golden Retriever energy? This is the perfect canvas for the film to finally create on.

More details about Eric’s kingdom

Eric’s mom is an actual character in the new live-action version. Her name is Queen Selina and she’s played by Noma Dumezweni. Where’s his father? What is the kingdom? We may find out or not.

Ariel’s Designated Disney Live-Action STEM Hobby

She is an aspiring Anthropologist who is interested in culture. But is this cool enough to be a Disney Live-Action Heroine? Belle, the bookish heroine of her Disney live-action film, had to become an inventor! Disney has decided, as have many schools and universities, that funding the humanities is not worthwhile. Ariel may be passionate about sustainable energy and ecological welfare through whosits and Whatsits. We’ll find out.

Eric’s butler briefly mentions his husband

This guy will not actually appear until the end credit sequence, where he hugs Grimsby in an easily-edited-out-for-the-international-release split second. His name will also be very gender neutral, so when Grimsby does talk about him, a certain subsect of parents don’t have to explain anything to their children.

A 20-minute undersea tour that won’t be a fraction as cool as Avatar: The Way of Water

This isn’t so much a dig at how dark and grubby The Little Mermaid’The coolness of the underwater scene is a testament to how amazing it will look. Avatar : The Way of Water.

Les Poissons’ chef, who is also a mermaid-hunter in secret, is the real B-villain.

After a while, Ursula partners up with him and says she’ll make Ariel king if Ariel is killed. Eric gets into a fight with Les Poissons’ chef while Ariel is fighting Ursula.

Exploring the double standard about why it’s OK that Scuttle eats fish but the shark is a bad guy for just wanting some lunch

Please answer my questions.