Little Mermaid Live Action Remake to Change Offensive Lyrics in Two Songs

In an interview with Variety, the film's composer, Alan Menken, revealed that a few lyrics in two songs from the animated movie have been changed after consideration that they may be deemed offensive in today's climate.

The words to the songs "Kiss the Girl" and "Poor Unfortunate Souls" will be updated upon the film’s release. Though specific lyric changes have yet to be revealed, Menken suggested that the original version of "Kiss the Girl" did not reflect today's understanding of consent.

"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]," the composer explained. "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 original animated "The Little Mermaid" film was released back in 1989 and was voiced by Jodi Benson. In the live action remake, Halle Bailey will step into the role of Ariel, the mermaid who strikes a deal with a sea witch to trade her voice for legs.

Speaking in a joint interview with Lin Manuel Miranda for Entertainment Weekly, Menken revealed that fans will hear three new songs in addition to the classic soundtrack.

"For the First Time" will be an additional song for Ariel. Miranda and Menken shared that the track will offer several callbacks to "Part of Your World" and will paint the picture of how the mermaid will adjust to life on land.

"All the clues for what that song could be are actually laid in 'Part of Your World,' which is one of the greatest 'I want' songs of all time that Alan wrote with Howard Ashman," Miranda explained. "She's wondering all these things about what life on land is. One of my favorite lyrics of all time: 'What's a fire and why does it... what's the word? Burn?' We thought [about] the opportunity to actually see her come face to face with the realities of life on land with (1) gravity, (2) fire, (3) clothes, (4) how people on land regard sea creatures, (5) meeting this man that she has had been in love with."

The original 1989 composer and the "Hamilton" creator also gave Prince Eric his very own power ballad with "Wild Uncharted Waters." The royal will be played by 27-year-old British actor Jonah Hauer-King.

"We took our cues from David's [screenwriter] script. What he's done with Eric is made him an explorer," Miranda continued. "So, in a lot of ways, he and Ariel have the same restless spirit, but they're just from two different biomes. He wants to see the other edge of that horizon line wherever it may lead him. He's endlessly drawn to the sea and [Ariel's] endlessly drawn to land. So where does that get us?"

Last but not least, fans can be excited to hear "Scuttlebutt," a song inspired by Scuttle the seagull who will be voiced by Awkwafina and will feature Daveed Diggs' Sebastian the crab.

Influenced by the scatterbrained speech patterns of the seagull, Miranda explained there are no real melodic patterns to the new track. Menken described "Scuttlebutt" as a piece of "accidental art," after the "In the Heights" star chopped up and mashed his favorite parts of the composer’s Caribbean style melody and wrote its lyrics.

"When we were in the studio with Awkwafina and Daveed, we were like, 'Well, we could do like a crazy double-time thing right here at the end because they can do that,'" Miranda recalled. "It would just be an extra little button, a little extra icing on the cake. So I was like, 'Let me think of some things that they could rap really fast.'"

"It's the most deliciously ADHD runaway train of thought," he noted. "There's tangents inside of tangents."

"The Little Mermaid" will premiere in theaters on May 26.