How The Little Mermaid brilliantly decentres male approval

The Little Mermaid has been praised for decentring male approval, as seen in a newly released clip from the hotly-anticipated live-action Disney remake.

In the new clip, Ariel, who is played by Halle Bailey, looks delighted as she swims up to tell Sebastian the crab, gushing: “If you had just seen it up there, the ship rolled on the wind, and they filled the sky with fire.” Sebastian then launches into the iconic, catchy song, Under the Sea, as he preaches to her that the “human world is a mess”.

In contrast, the original scene from the 1989 classic sees Ariel absolutely infatuated after meeting Prince Eric and pulls off petals one by one while saying: “He loves me, he loves me not.” When the last falls on, “he loves me”, she gleefully proclaims, “I knew it!”. It is then Sebastian comes up and starts singing Under the Sea to her.

The change was picked up on social media, as one account @photonsmight tweeted: “They changed “he loves me, he loves me not” with her being fascinated by the ship and fireworks, it works so much better to show her fascination with the human world.”

When one person replied to her stating: “It took me a couple rewatches to notice thats how naturally its incorporated,” @photonsmight responded: “EXACTLY. It shows her character but doesn’t feels forced or anything, just like it should be.”

This is just the latest change that we know of regarding the movie, which is slated for a 26 May release date. Last month it was revealed that some of the lyrics were changed to include consent.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, the film’s composer Alan Menken revealed that there would be tweaks to the lyrics of some of our favourite songs, including Kiss the Girl and Poor Unfortunate Souls.