A few weeks ago, The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey riled up the internet when she revealed that her version of Ariel would have bigger aspirations than “wanting to leave the ocean for a boy.” Now, we have another update about the upcoming live-action Disney film that has fans of the original movie, once again, scratching their heads.
In case you were worried the remake would feature some non-consensual kissing, composer Alan Menken, who wrote music for the original film, has updated the lyrics to the song “Kiss The Girl” to respect Ariel’s boundaries.
“There are some lyric changes in ‘Kiss the Girl’ because people have gotten very sensitive about the idea that [Prince Eric] would, in any way, force himself on [Ariel],” Menken recently told Vanity Fair.
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The quote has confused much of the internet. However, in 2018, an all-male Princeton a cappella group, called the Tigertones, were forced to scrap “Kiss The Girl” from their setlist after critics described the performance as “misogynistic” and “non-consensual.” When the group sang the tune, they would pick a man and woman from the audience and encourage them to kiss.
However, the context of “Kiss The Girl” within the 1989 animated film is very different. Singing crab Sebastian performs the tune while Ariel and Prince Eric are on a romantic boat ride where Ursula’s eel minions, Flotsam and Jetsam, ultimately prevent the two from kissing.
While Sebastian is instructing Eric to “kiss the girl,” it’s Ariel who primarily desires the kiss. Under Ursula’s contract, she must receive her “true love’s kiss” in three days to remain human, or else she’ll become the property of Ursula under the sea. In the scene, Eric is also very timid and hardly “forcing himself” onto Ariel.
Like most of the news about this film, this lyrical change has already caused a stir online, with many Twitter users referencing the plot of the original film. Others think the changes are simply unnecessary, given the not-exactly-progressive themes in the film.
In another poorly received update, Menken also revealed that he had changed the lyrics to another iconic song “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” which is sung by the movie’s sea witch, Ursula.
“We have some revisions in ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’ regarding lines that might make young girls somehow feel that they shouldn’t speak out of turn, even though Ursula is clearly manipulating Ariel to give up her voice,” the composer said. Twitter seemed equally confused about watering down a blatantly villainous song.
Conservatives, who are already riled up about The Little Mermaid for problematic reasons, have also joined in on the conversation. On Thursday, the film’s “woke lyrics” debate made it to Fox News, where one anchor cringingly joked, “The Little Mermaid used to sing ‘up where they walk, up whether they run,’ now she might sing ‘up where they woke!’”
Overall, it seems like any more details about the new Little Mermaid, which arrives in theaters on May 26, are better left under wraps.
