THE LITTLE MERMAID Is Given An R-Rated Makeover In First Trailer For MSR's Adaptation

THE LITTLE MERMAID Is Given An R-Rated Makeover In First Trailer For MSR's Adaptation

Disney must be ruing the day these characters entered the public domain! MSR Media has released the first trailer for its horror parody(?) of The Little Mermaid and it's... quite something.

News
By MarkCassidy - Apr 25, 2024 11:04 AM EST
Filed Under: Disney
Source: Via Toonado.com

Something tells us this particular take on The Little Mermaid won't be belting out "Part of Your World" and cavorting with Sebastian "Under the Sea."

Continuing the recent trend of re-adapting Disney favorites such as Winnie-The-Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Bambi (yes, Bambi) for the horror genre, a new adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's classic tale is on the way from MSR Media International and Grindstone Entertainment, and the first trailer has now been released.

While Anderson's original story was significantly darker than the Disney animated version and the more recent live-action remake, turning Ariel (here named Aurora) into a flesh-eating monster is taking things to a whole other level!

The official synopsis reads:

“Dr. Eric Prince, an archaeologist, makes a dramatic discovery on a small Caribbean island—proof of an ancient, advanced prehistoric society. While his dig is in progress, he meets the mysterious and beautiful Aurora Bey and falls in love. Her arrival coincides with several mermaid sightings and strange disappearances.

When Eric’s friend and mentor, Dr. Ashley, arrives on the island, Ashley uncovers the true identity of Aurora and the dangers of the hidden evil inside Eric’s dig site. Will Eric heed his friend’s advice, or will he be blinded by love and the power of the siren, allowing the world to fall to the forces of evil?”

Directed by Leigh Scott, the movie stars Lydia Helen, Mike Markoff and Jeff Denton, and has been given an R-rating for “Language, some violence and brief nudity.”

The trailer can be viewed over on MSR Media's website or at the link below.

The movie looks... pretty much how you'd expect, but we can see a lot of people giving it a go out of morbid curiosity alone.

Have a look at the rather terrifying poster below, and let us know if you plan on seeing this new take on The Little Mermaid in the comments section.

The recent live-action Disney film stars Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy, Javier Bardem, Jacob Tremblay, Daveed Diggs, and Awkwafina, and is obviously a much more family-friendly affair altogether!

"The Little Mermaid is the beloved story of Ariel, a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure. The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea, and while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. While mermaids are forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel must follow her heart. She makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land, but ultimately places her life – and her father’s crown – in jeopardy."

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SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 4/25/2024, 11:30 AM
I'm interested in the investment firms who approve loans for this garbage.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 4/25/2024, 11:37 AM
@SonOfAGif - same with those 1 or 2 star b-movies. Really don't understand how those movies get made
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 4/25/2024, 11:43 AM
@SonOfAGif - Used to be this sort of stuff was just folk doing amateur horror flicks out their own pocket, maybe with some help from grants for up and coming talent to get a foothold in the industry but yeh, if talking getting a half decent budget from investment firms then serious questions on that.
Itwasme
Itwasme - 4/25/2024, 11:44 AM
@SonOfAGif - these films are quite profitable actually. Between distribution, BO, streaming, VOD... there's enough levers for a film that duper low budget ones can actually do well. I wouldn't be surprised if a production company puts up $10mm and it returns $15mm. That's a 50% ROI and hard to beat. In a lot of ways the larger BO movies are a much higher risk.
Itwasme
Itwasme - 4/25/2024, 11:45 AM
@Itwasme - *super
PC04
PC04 - 4/25/2024, 11:31 AM
oh shiiiiit
Lisa89
Lisa89 - 4/25/2024, 11:31 AM
She's white, so the average dickhead on this site will be fine with it.
Origame
Origame - 4/25/2024, 11:37 AM
@Lisa89 - honestly, the fact they actually tried making the little mermaid look like the little mermaid makes this significantly more respectful to the original to me. And I think it's a terrible idea conceptually.
HermanM
HermanM - 4/25/2024, 11:41 AM
@Lisa89 - better casting than the antiwhite remake
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 4/25/2024, 12:10 PM
@HermanM - Do you idiots ever get tired of having this much clown energy?
TheyDont
TheyDont - 4/25/2024, 12:14 PM
@RitoRevolto - Should be directed to Lisa89
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 4/25/2024, 12:22 PM
@TheyDont - I directed it to the correct person. Move around.
HermanM
HermanM - 4/25/2024, 1:02 PM
@RitoRevolto - do you idiots ever get tired of only applying your standard to white people, who are less than 9% of the world population?

Why don't you ever vocalize how cool it would be to race replace characters who aren't white? Why only white people?
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 4/25/2024, 1:48 PM
@HermanM - Because that 9% star in 99% of movies. Seems obvious
marvel72
marvel72 - 4/25/2024, 2:48 PM
@Lisa89 - Yeah she is like the animated version.
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 4/25/2024, 3:26 PM
@HermanM - So, here's a better question: did all you clowns cry this much over Exodus, Prince of Persia, Wanted (race-swapped Fox portrayed by Angelina Jolie), Gods of Egypt, The Ancient One in Doctor Strange, Argo, Emma Stone in Aloha, Lone Ranger, 30 Days of Night and the plethora of other films where whitewashing took place? Probably not because it's okay so long as it's majority or entirely white folk in the cast, right?

Exactly. Shut the fvck up.
HermanM
HermanM - 4/25/2024, 4:58 PM
@RitoRevolto - A white person is any of the original peoples of Europe, Middle East, and North Africa, so the cast of Exodus, Prince of Persia, Gods of Egypt, and Aloha are accurate.

The Ancient One was race replaced because the character was considered a racist portrayal of an Asian, so they were not being pro white, they were being PC.

Would you like the list of all of the white characters who have been race replaced?

It dwarfs anything you gave there, even though more than half of your examples are wrong.
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 4/25/2024, 5:16 PM
@HermanM - You lost your argument the moment you started moving goal posts, as your type always does.
HermanM
HermanM - 4/25/2024, 5:17 PM
@RitoRevolto - what goal posts were moved?

You want the list?
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 4/25/2024, 5:51 PM
@HermanM - Making exuses as what's an acceptable race-swap and what isn't. So with that in mind, why even bother posting your list? You just complained on another article that characters should be played by actors of the same race, yet, it's okay for the Ancient One to be played by a white woman? How, sway?

Also, Aloha is absolutely not accurate as Emma Stone isn't part-Chinese or part-Hawaiian and certainly doesn't look it.
HermanM
HermanM - 4/25/2024, 6:31 PM
@RitoRevolto - I never said the ancient one should be race replaced, I wish he was an Asian man.

The Aloha character is one quarter Asian, so a white actress is fine to play her, since she's 75% white.

Keep in mind, there's nonwhite versions of every major white superhero, while there's no white versions of any major nonwhite superhero.

Do you really want the list of white characters who have been race changed? It is about 20 times the size of yours, even if yours were all accurate.
Origame
Origame - 4/25/2024, 11:35 AM
Ok, this actually points out the problem with the race swap. Here, it's a horror movie where the satirical joke is that a beloved childhood character is now a violent horror movie monster. But for that to work, it needs to recognizably be the little mermaid. And this version of the mermaid is.

Meanwhile with the live action remake, she just doesn't look like Ariel. So it's a matter of what even is the point of making a remake if the visuals aren't gonna be replicated (and this does extend to other characters and the set design for the most part as well)? You could've easily just wrote new songs and made it a new, "progressive" mermaid story where this mermaid is black and no one would care.

But then again, we know why they didn't do that. They wanted the brand recognition. Also, they knew they'd have to actually create something new. And we got a taste of what that would've been like.

?si=VKFm3y7J6qkxWqmp
Slotherin
Slotherin - 4/25/2024, 12:54 PM
@Origame - to be fair, the original story doesn't dive into a lot of detail about the mermaid's appearance
Itwasme
Itwasme - 4/25/2024, 1:29 PM
@Slotherin - it's also set off the coast of Italy, so debatable that she was white to begin with.

The original animation may have been set in the Carribean because of Sebastian and the flamingos and stuff.

Hans Christian Anderson was inspired after a trip to Italy though.

But it doesn't really matter. People will be mad regardless.
Chaos200
Chaos200 - 4/25/2024, 1:58 PM
@Itwasme - It's not based on the original story though, it's based on this iconic version.User Comment Image
Itwasme
Itwasme - 4/25/2024, 2:02 PM
@Chaos200 - yep... so question though. Why is no one complaining about all the liberties Disney took in their original depiction, but complain about liberties they take now?
Slotherin
Slotherin - 4/25/2024, 2:08 PM
@Itwasme - honestly I get the complaints while not agreeing with them..
The live action remakes sell off of basically being "what if the cartoon you saw as a kid was made with real people who look like the cartoon?"
Itwasme
Itwasme - 4/25/2024, 2:37 PM
@Slotherin - I get the fear of change. It's a common reaction, albeit not always the most productive.
Origame
Origame - 4/25/2024, 2:51 PM
@Slotherin - except they were specifically making a remake of the one that gave her an appearance, one that has since become iconic.
Slotherin
Slotherin - 4/25/2024, 4:45 PM
@Origame - they're still of liberty to make changes but if you scroll down you'll actually see me express understanding for those who wanted it to be more like that version.
Origame
Origame - 4/25/2024, 5:00 PM
@Slotherin - ...who said anything about them not being allowed to? The point isn't that they can't. They obviously can, as they did so. Just like they can make a star wars movie and state lightsabers are made of unicorn pee.

But just because they can doesn't mean they should. It causes the objective flaw that now the character doesn't resemble what people associate with the character, meaning they don't buy her as the character. And if they don't buy her as the character it having the brand doesn't do anything for people. Hence why the movie lost money.

Is it not worth pointing out the casting choice ruined their goal of reminding people of the original?
Slotherin
Slotherin - 4/25/2024, 5:50 PM
@Origame - I guess you're still glossing over the comment where I stated an understanding of this but okay
Origame
Origame - 4/25/2024, 6:09 PM
@Slotherin - ...then why even argue in its favor to begin with?
Slotherin
Slotherin - 4/25/2024, 6:45 PM
@Origame - I'm pretty neutral about it honestly.
As per usual, you just care a lot more and need to engage in argument
Origame
Origame - 4/25/2024, 7:22 PM
@Slotherin - ...I "need to engage in an argument"? Dude, you're the one commenting in opposition.
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 4/25/2024, 11:37 AM
not gonna watch it but it looks great
User Comment Image
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 4/25/2024, 11:37 AM
Well, I guess it's in line with how sirens are
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 4/25/2024, 11:51 AM
@bkmeijer1 - Sirens, harpies and mermaids were three seperate things and original mermaids were not evil manhunters in any way but, yeh, the mythologies got mashed (along with others) together in varying ways over the years in Europe so not uncommon for mermaids to be more siren like in tales. However the greek myth sirens were bird women, not fish women until those mashups started (just the sang from a rocky island to lure sailors hence the nautical link)
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 4/25/2024, 2:21 PM
@Apophis71 - had no idea. I kinda thought they were the same. Did know about the singing though
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 4/25/2024, 2:50 PM
@bkmeijer1 - Most the original mermaid myths upto and including greko-roman ones (and there were many all around the globe) mermaids were always incredibly shy avoiding even being seen by humans but oft would help sailors in a lot of those myths (assisting stearing ships during storms of saving sailors who fell overboard). In the stories from those ancient myths where they did result in human deaths they tended to be ambiguous on motive (ie could be percieved they thought the humans were mermen, not realising they couldn't breathe under water) but non of the flesh eating stuff.

However over time there was a lot of cross polination with the growth of literature, in particular bringing in the siren aspects (luring sailors to the rocks with their singing) into mermaid stories and the sharp teeth bit you sometimes get is from another group of ancient mythological creatures entirely, but oft more associated with Harpies (who again, like Sirens were originaly bird women not fish like).
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