Ever since revealing the first glimpse at Halle Bailey in the sneak peek at The Little Mermaid at D23, fans have been eagerly awaiting their chance to take a trip "under the sea" and rediscover the world and characters first introduced in Disney's 1989 film. Now, according to the film's listing on AMC's website, it looks like we're in for a prolonged stay in Ariel and Eric's (Jonah Hauer-King) kingdoms, as it's reported the film will be 2 hours and 15 minutes long.
A Record-Breaking Runtime
With the animated film coming in at a tight 84 minutes, it's obvious the Rob Marshall-directed live-action remake will be expanding on the world and story audiences first experiences over three decades ago, with the 135-minute runtime breaking records for the length of Disney live-action remakes. This is hardly a new concept for audiences either, as the live-action remakes have tended to increase their runtimes over those of their animated counterparts, often bringing with them extended action sequences and expanded backstories for their leading characters.
The closest comparisons we can make at this stage are to fellow Disney Renaissance films Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, which saw their respective 84 and 90-minute runtimes expanded out to 2 hours and 9 minutes and 2 hours and 8 minutes respectively. The only other Disney live-action remake that currently sits above the 2-hour mark is Cruella, though that is less of an indication of what fans can expect, as that film was an entirely new backstory centered around Cruella De Ville (Emma Stone), and not a remake of an existing story as Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin are. With that in mind, it's best to look to those two films specifically for an idea of what might have been changed or added to Ariel's story.
Some of the additional runtime could be attributed to the new songs that will appear in the film. While The Little Mermaid will still include the classic Howard Ashman-Alan Menken tunes like "Under the Sea," "Kiss the Girl," and "Poor Unfortunate Souls," prolific songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also wrote music for Disney's animated film Moana, has been brought on board to write additional songs alongside original composer Menken.
In addition to Bailey and Hauer-King, the film will star Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, Awkwafina as Scuttle, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and will also feature Noma Dumezweni, Art Malik, and Bridgerton's Simone Ashley.
The Little Mermaid hits theaters on May 26. Check out the trailer for the film below: