By Danielle La Pierre
Directors Chris Bouchard and Blake Harris are teaming up with Conglomerate Media and Kingsway Productions and entering the trend of live action remakes of classic
children’s movies with “The Little Mermaid.”
Disney was the latest studio to do something similar, most recently with “Beauty and the Beast.”
According to the trailer, which was released on March 9, this remake of “The Little Mermaid” is set to have a darker twist that stays true to the original fairy tale created by Hans Christian Anderson.
Some Sacred Heart University students are concerned with how this dark twist will conflict with their happier memories of the animated Disney version.
“The Disney version tells a story of confidence and love, rather than evil. I think the evilness will ruin the story of ‘The Little Mermaid’ and will not be as popular with
children,” said junior Lauren Pelster.
Bustle.com, a pop culture and entertainment news site, reports that the new movie revolves around a young reporter named Cam Harrison, played by William Moseley, who travels to Mississippi in order to see a real mermaid who is captured and used as a sideshow act in a circus.
Similar to Ursula from the animated film, a magician is holding the mermaid against her will to try and steal her soul, which brings another major change into the movie.
“I don’t think it’ll be bad but it seems like the story was changed a lot and I don’t think people will be happy about that,” said senior Taylor Gries. “It seems confusing more than anything.”
According to the trailer, it shows that the directors of this new version stray away from the idea that the hero of the story is a prince but instead make the main male character a journalist.
The mermaid, Elizabeth, is also missing Ariel’s red hair and friends like Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle, are not listed on the film’s official International Movie Database (IMDB) page.
“I really think it will be interesting in the sense that it changes the whole plot and what we have come to expect from a story like this. There is a different villain and it changes our perspective of who ‘The Little Mermaid’ really is, as well as her story,” said junior Devan Kane. “I am all for Disney movies, but I don’t think it will ruin it for me because it is a completely different story and movie.”
Over the past few years, many live action remakes have been released such as “Alice in Wonderland,” “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “The Jungle Book,” “Cinderella” and “Beauty in the Beast.”
More are going to be released such as “Mulan,” which plans to come out in 2018
according to IMDB. With a line-up this long, some are tired of the constant new projects.
“The new live action movies are a lot darker than the originals, which take away from the stories we grew up with. The animated versions have the lessons and fairytales that make you feel good after watching them,” said Pelster.
The official IMDB page for “The Little Mermaid” indicates that the film is still in post-production, with no official release date other than at some point in 2017.
