Look at this stuff. Isn't it neat?
After a lengthy wait, Disney finally dropped the first-ever look at the its highly anticipated live-action version of The Little Mermaid. The 83-second video, which debuted during the D23 Expo on Sept. 9, showed leading star Halle Bailey as Ariel—complete with the iconic character's purple seashell bra, green mermaid tail and signature red hair—belting out a few lines from one of the movie's most beloved tunes, "Part of Your World."
"Out of the sea, wish I could be," Halle sings, as the camera pans out to show her sitting inside a cavern filled with gadgets and gizmos a-plenty, "part of that world."
Elsewhere in the teaser, viewers were treated to sights of Ariel's undersea pals, including a blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse of her fish friend Flounder, voiced by Room actor Jacob Tremblay.
Directed by Rob Marshall, The Little Mermaid also stars Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, Awkwafina as Scuttle and Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric. The movie hits theaters on May 26, 2023.
Halle was first cast as the film's titular character in 2019. When production on the movie wrapped two years later, the actress-singer described the role of Ariel as "the toughest experience being away from everything and everyone I've ever known."
"I feel so grateful to have experienced this film in all of its glory," Halle wrote in an Instagram post, sharing that while she felt "self doubt" and "loneliness" at times, there were also feelings of "freedom and perseverance" toward the end.
She continued, "This experience has made me so much stronger than I ever thought I could be."
Thanking her "lovely and talented" co-stars, Halle added, "I cannot wait for time to speed up so you all can watch this film because it was made with so much love (plus blood sweat and tears)."