The new live-action Little Mermaid created turmoil in the Disney-loving community before its theatrical release this past Memorial Day weekend, attracting the hateful attention of racist trolls and dividing Disney fans who welcomed Halle Bailey to the role of Ariel but found a new hatred for the Awkwafina rap in the new movie.
The box office performance of The Little Mermaid has made it clear that Disney fans are fairly happy with the new film, but that they are also tired of Disney’s live-action remakes as a whole (as we already suspected here at Disney Fanatic).
HeiHei Disney, No More Remakes
This does not bode well for the upcoming live-action reimagining of Moana, the hit 2016 movie about a Polynesian Disney princess who travels on a quest with a demigod named Maui and a chicken named HeiHei to restore the heart of the goddess Te Fiti.
The fact that the original Moana is not returning to her role also seems like bad news for this upcoming film — but according to Screenrant, the new Moana might actually surpass the new Little Mermaid due to one major factor!
Will the New Moana Be Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Ace in the Hole?
“In the case of The Little Mermaid, most of the original songs were brought to the 2023 version, and a few extras were added to fill time and add more context to the story. The same is likely to happen for Moana, but these additional songs are less likely to face the same criticisms as that of Ariel’s story,” Screenrant reasoned.
Even though many Disney fans will feel the need to automatically reject any new live-action films from Disney (Lilo & Stitch, anyone?), apparently “this is likely to be a better fit.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda created some new songs for The Little Mermaid, but theoretically, the “stylistic differences” that proved to be a challenge for Miranda’s efforts with that film would not cause issues for Moana since he did in fact write the songs for the original Moana — and since shoehorning brand-new songs into the soundtrack of the 1989 Little Mermaid was a significant obstacle.
“Any numbers he composes for the [Moana] remake should blend in effortlessly and leave much less room for criticism,” Screenrant declared.
How Far Will Disney Go With the New Moana?
In addition, “since Miranda wrote popular Moana songs like “How Far I’ll Go” and “You’re Welcome,” he can take any number of creative liberties with them in the remake without worrying about infringing on another musician’s legacy.”
Are you excited about the new Moana movie? Did you see The Litle Mermaid yet, and are you a fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s original music?
