‘The View’ Cohost Jokes About New ‘Little Mermaid’ Consent Lyrics

On May 26, Disney will release its newest live-action film, The Little Mermaid. The film will be based on the 1989 animated classic, which starred Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, and Pat Carroll. The original film tells the story of a mermaid, Ariel, who dreams of being a part of the human world. Especially after she falls in love with the handsome Prince Eric. Ariel trades her voice to the sea witch Ursula for a pair of legs. In order to remain human, Ariel must get Eric to fall in love with her. Despite Ursula trying to sabotage everything, Ariel and Eric fall in love and live happily ever after — the perfect Disney ending.

While The Little Mermaid is one of Disney’s most beloved animated classics, it is not without its problems. In the decades since its release, many people have had an issue with a teenage girl — Ariel was 16 years old — giving up everything, so she can get a man to fall in love with her. A man she didn’t know.

Disney’s new live-action remake will see songwriter extraordinaire Alan Menken return, along with Hamilton creator Lin Manuel Miranda. While the movie will still have the classic songs that fans know and love, Menken admitted that they will be changed. Menken said that the lyrics to both “Kiss the Girl” and “Poor Unfortunate Souls” have been altered to emphasize 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],” he said. “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 choice to change the lyrics to fit with the times has many people talking, including the women of the popular ABC show, The View. Hosts Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar joked about how the film could be changed to give consent, considering Ariel doesn’t have a voice. The back-and-forth was shared by Entertainment Weekly.

“With ‘Kiss the Girl,’ she gave her voice away so she could have legs, so I don’t know how she could talk,” Hostin said, referencing the ability of Ariel — who is 16 years old in the story — to consent to a kiss from her love interest, Prince Eric.

“Wait a minute, when this consent thing happened, she had legs? Because I was thinking, as a mermaid, how far could he go? He could go to second base, that’s it,” Joy Behar quipped as the audience laughed. She added, “She has legs — now we’re talking!”

Cohost Whoopi Goldberg, on the other hand, was happy to hear that Menken had changed the lyrics. She acknowledged that Menken — an eight-time Academy Award winner — came in and changed what he thought he should. Goldberg thought that it was good that it was Menken making the changes, not Disney bringing in someone else to change Menken’s work.

The Little Mermaid will premiere in theaters on May 26. The new live-action remake will star Halle Bailey as Ariel and Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric. Melissa McCarthy will play Ursula and Javier Bardem will be King Triton. Daveed Diggs will voice Sebastian, Awkwafina is Scuttle, and Jacob Tremblay is Flounder.