First 'The Little Mermaid' Reactions from Critics Revealed After L.A. World Premiere, Plus See Red Carpet Photos!

Stephanie Mills is opening up about her experience playing Dorothy in the Broadway musical The Wiz and all the “hate mail” she received for playing a character that a white woman played before. Mills compares the negativity that Halle Bailey is now experiencing as the star of the live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid.

Melissa McCarthy and Javier Bardem are well aware of how iconic and beloved their roles in Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid” film are — and they were more than prepared to do them justice.

McKinley Franklin editor “The Little Mermaid” makeup designer Peter Smith King has responded to criticisms of the revamped Ursula look that Melissa McCarthy brings to life in the new live-action remake, specifically contending against a belief that a queer artist should have landed the job. Rob Minkoff, the character animator of the original 1989 film, pulled reference from the late drag performer Divine for Ursula. When speaking with Time, Minkoff said “Divine seemed like such a great, larger-than-life character, and it just seemed like a funny and quirky idea to take [Ursula] and treat her more like a drag queen.” Since the first footage of McCarthy’s Ursula was revealed, King’s iteration of the aquatic villain has been met with criticism from some drag performers. “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 14 contestant Kerri Colby responded to a video on Twitter, stating that “[this is] absolutely why we should hire up and coming queer artists with a pulse on the present and a vision for the future more often.”

Refresh for latest…: Disney’s live-action take on The Little Mermaid is doing swimmingly at the domestic box office, with a three-day opening of $95.5M and a four-day projection of $117.5M. Factoring in the international box office bow of $68.3M, that makes for an estimated $163.8M global debut through Sunday. The offshore launch is lower than hoped for coming into the frame. But it bears noting there was something fishy going on in overseas markets with so-called review-bombing in such areas as France, Korea, Germany and beyond.

Peter King, the makeup artist behind Ursula’s look in The Little Mermaid, is pushing back on the backlash he has gotten.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.It is expected to enjoy a $104 million three-day weekend, according to Deadline.The Post called the flick, produced in part by Lin-Manuel Miranda, “more lifeless than far better two-dimensional painted drawings.”“Fast X,” which was in the No. 1 spot last Friday, slowed down to second, with $6.3 million in sales.The 11-title “Fast and Furious” franchise already sped past $7 billion in the global box office.

Two songs from the original The Little Mermaid were cut from the live-action remake – Just Jared Jr Jamie Bell now has primary custody of the son he shares with Evan Rachel Wood – Celebitchy Kim Zolciak is reportedly begging for her RHOA job back – DListed New couple alert?! – Just Jared Jr

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor To bring Disney’s iconic mermaid princess Ariel to life in “The Little Mermaid,” costume designer Colleen Atwood constructed a life-sized tail that went from star Halle Bailey’s chest all the way down past her legs. “We made it to scale and 3D silk-screened the tail and painted onto that so you could get the nuance of the colors,” Atwood says. “We used different layers of sheer material, which gave the tail and scales an iridescent effect.” Her biggest challenge was blending the tail’s scales into Bailey’s skin. “I solved that by putting little fins made of fabric so there was a delineation between where the fish ended and the skin began,” she says.

The Little Mermaid” is making quite the splash at the domestic box office this weekend, with an opening day total of $38 million. The fantasy, which is opening in 4,320 theaters, is expected to gross between $120 million and $130 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend. The musical remake, starring Halle Bailey as the mermaid princess Ariel, took in $10.3 million in previews on Thursday, ranking as the seventh-highest haul for a movie rated G or PG. That puts the film on track to gross well over $100 million over the holiday weekend. With a $250 million production budget, “The Little Mermaid” must bait box office success in order to make a reasonable return.

Halle Bailey is displaying some PDA! As  hits theaters, the film's 23-year-old star took to TikTok to share a video of her jumping into her boyfriend, rapper DDG's, arms and giving him a kiss.Bailey set the video, which she posted in celebration of the end of her press tour, to a remixed clip of Beyoncé singing, «I am going to see my husband / I'm happy, I'm happy, to see my husband.»«On my last day of press like...» Bailey wrote alongside the clip, adding laughing and winking emojis.on my last day of press like…

“The Little Mermaid” is poised to swim upstream at the box office.

 gives audiences a mix of their favorite classics with modern tweaks, including three new songs and several updates to the soundtrack's iconic tunes.The music reflects the film's refreshed story, which director Rob Marshall, producer John DeLuca, and screenwriter David Magee have explained they tweaked to implement specific changes showcasing a more modern Disney princess, addressing criticism that the original film featured a young woman who was too wrapped up in a man, and giving Ariel more agency.The soundtrack features the vocal talents of the film's new cast, including GRAMMY-nominated singer Halle Bailey as the titular mermaid, Princess Ariel, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as King Triton, with Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian the crab, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Awkwafina as Scuttle.Lin-Manuel Miranda, who teamed up with legendary composer-songwriter Alan Menken to write the film's new songs, previously told ET that «getting to write music for these characters that are probably the reason I started writing musicals in the first place, was actually easier than I thought.»«But the hardest part was my own intimidation working with Alan Menken, and that was entirely self-imposed,» acknowledged Miranda, who also serves as a producer on the film, alongside Marc Platt. «But when it came to how these characters speak and what they say, I've known that all my life.

is giving viewers the classic fairytale with several modern-day tweaks. The Rob Marshall-directed musical stars Halle Bailey as the titular, headstrong princess, a drastic departure from her previous depiction that initially garnered racist backlash.But Bailey's casting is only one of the changes made to the new live-action adaptation, which also stars Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as King Triton, with Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian the crab, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Awkwafina as Scuttle.Here are 15 ways the remake differs from the original.

There’s a new Disney villain in town. Jessica Alexander stars as Vanessa, the human alter ego of Melissa McCarthy’s Ursula, in The Little Mermaid.

Jonah Hauer-King is the latest actor to become a Disney Prince, but he faced stiff competition for the part!

The live-action version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, starring Halle Bailey as Ariel and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, is now in theaters.

All fans of The Little Mermaid know that Ariel has six sisters in the original animated movie – and the live action is no different.

 when she was five, . “When I saw her, [I was] like, ‘She’s so beautiful; I want to be a mermaid too.’ She didn’t look like me, but I was okay with that because it was what I was used to at the time.” The next generation doesn't have to see things that way, though, and videos of with whom they identified have flooded the internet since Bailey was cast. “When I saw those [videos] for the first time, I just cried,” Bailey says.

Daveed Diggs queued up outside Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre, his hometown multiplex, to see “The Little Mermaid” with his father, Dountes. “It must’ve been opening weekend. The line wrapped around the block,” Diggs recalls. “I remember loving Scuttle, thinking he was just the funniest thing I’d seen up to that point, and loving the songs.” Thirty years later, Diggs is a Tony- and Grammy-winning actor, rapper and filmmaker, best known for “Blindspotting” (both the 2018 film and the Starz series) and “Hamilton,” where he delighted Broadway audiences by putting his unique imprint on Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette. After playing those historical figures night after night, one might imagine he’d have no qualms about taking on another well-known character — the calypso-singing crab Sebastian in Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” which opens on May 26.